Kwa-king Controversy
The Kwa-king Controversy (具刑之爭) was a Themiclesian political controversy in August 1947, which contributed to the collapse of the National Government that had governed the country since 1936. Unity in the national unity government reached a new low owing to recriminations arising out of the controversy, and within two months the National Government collapsed, with a general election in November 1947.
Summary
On February 4, 1947, on discussing the responsibility of Menghean and Dayashinese responsibility for starting the war, Tam MP (1888 – 1971) spoke according to the official Hansard that "the leaders and officials of the instigating states should be held responsible and fully punished for the suffering occasioned by their policies." It seems there was some confusion in the House of Commons after he made this statement, as to whether he meant to say "fully punished" (具其刑) or "kwa-king" (具刑). The latter referred to a long-disused form of execution where the prisoner had their eyes gouged out, nose and ears sliced off, feet chopped off, and then pounded to death in a mortar.
Following the speech, the various newspapers published what was said in the House according to their sources. The official transcript was, in this era, not published until at least a full week after the date on which the speech was made; thus, the versions published by the newspapers must have been supplied by other MPs or visitors who heard the speech. The papers hostile to the Liberals insisted that he made a speech in favour of restoring an grotesque punishment calculated to cause maximal pain, while the papers in favour of Tam largely focused on the "libellous mis-reporting" of the former, evidently hearing from spies at other newspapers divulging contents before press time.
The eventual publication of the official transcript did little to ease the controversy of the statement which was widely reproduced in the press. There were suggestions that the stenographer had misheard in one way or another or that he had come under pressure or bribery to edit the record. Even neutral writers plainly noted that the official record is not published with a guarantee against errors.
Analysis
As Tam was a Liberal MP, Conservative forces attacked him readily, showing the fatigue that the National Government (the general coalition between Liberals and Conservatives) had developed internally after eleven years together. As the war was effectively over, with Themiclesia now only possessing a residual role in occupying parts of Menghe, the need for a national unity government no longer existed. Instead, the issue with how to continue or terminate the occupation had come to the forefront.
Commentators note that the occupation of Menghe strongly reminiscs of the occupation of Dzhungestan, now fully 20 years ago, and it was on this question that the two major parties entered an unprecedentedly bitter and party-lined rivalry. Now in 1947, it is also on a similar question that the national unity government collapsed, with each party taking its solution to the Menghean occupation to the public soon after this press controversy. The Conservatives promised military withdrawl from Menghe within 18 months, while the Liberals wished to ensure that all supporters of the Imperial administration were uprooted and converted to a "democratic and parliamentary form of government". Conservatives deemed this an impossible task and demanded that the future of Menghe be left to its constituents instead.
Other influence
Akitaka Oomono thinks that the Kwah-king Controversy tested Themiclesia's earlier policy of not extending its prosecution of war criminals, thus making it a sanctuary for those subject to prosecution (whether justly or unjustly). As by the end of the controversy none had seriously suggested that the ancient punishment be revived, some refugees took it as a signal that they should travel to Themiclesia to avoid arrignment.