Lo Wen-kan (1888-16 October 1941), Oxfordtrained barrister who served the Peking government as minister of justice and chief justice of the Supreme Court and the National Government as minister of justice and minister of foreign affairs. He retired from public life in 1935. I Panyü, Kwangtung, was the birthplace of Lo Wen-kan. After receiving his primary and secondary education in his native province, he went to England and enrolled at Oxford in 1906. He was graduated from Oxford wdth an LL.M. degree in 1910, was called to the Inner Temple for final examination, and was admitted to the bar. In 1911 he returned to China and, in the final days of the Ch'ing period, became judicial commissioner in his native Kwangtung. He continued to hold that post until 1913, when he went to Peking to become metropolitan procurator general (shou-tu tsung-chiench'a-t'ing chien-ch'a chang). Although he resigned in the spring of 1916 as a protest against Yuan Shih-k'ai's monarchical attempt, he resumed office after Yuan died in June 1916 and Li Yuan-hung (q.v.) became president. When the Law Codification Commission (hsiu-ting fa-lü kuan fu-tsung-ts'ai) was established in 1916, Lo ^Ven-kan was named to membership on it, and in July 1918 he became its vice chairman, serving under Wang Ch'unghui (q.v.). In the course of preparing a second revision of the criminal code, the two men became close friends. During this period, Lo also served as a professor of law at Peking University and as a lecturer at the Fa-kuan hsün-lien-so chiang-shih [training institute for judicial officers].

In August 1920 W'ang Ch'ung-hui was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, with Lo Wen-kan as vice chief justice. When Liang Shih-i (q.v.) organized a cabinet in December 1921, he named Lo vice minister of justice. In April 1922 Lo became minister of justice, and on 15 June, after Li Yuan-hung resumed the presidency, he was appointed to the concurrent post of chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The appointment of Wang Ch'ung-hui as officiating premier on 20 September 1922 caused an abrupt change of course in Lo Wen-kan's career. Wang appointed Lo minister of finance in what became known as the "cabinet of able men" (hao-jen nei-ko), which also included V. K. AVellington Koo (Ku Wei-chün) and Hsü Ch'ien (qq.v.). Lo also became director of the salt administration and head of the currency bureau at this time. It was, of course, unusual for a chief justice to resign in order to fill a cabinet post, but Wang Ch'ung-hui prevailed upon Lo to do so because he believed that the minister of finance had to be a man of high ability and unimpeachable integrity. Because the chronic insolvency of the Peking government had brought it to the edge of disaster, Lo Wen-kan's post was of critical importance. The enormity of the task given him was indicated by the report he promptly prepared on the financial situation of China in 1922. The government's indebtedness in domestic and foreign loans totaled China SI, 726,400, 000, with payments due in the amount of China 5480,000,000. Unpaid military and urban expenses amounted to China $180,000,000, and current monthly expenses averaged China $9,200,000. To service its debts and meet expenses the government had an average monthly income of slightly over China $200,000.

At this time, the Chihli clique, which supported the Peking government, was torn by a power struggle between W'u P'ei-fu and Ts'ao K'un (qq.v.) which centered on the premiership. Moreover, members of the Fengtien clique of Chang Tso-lin (q.v.) opposed the "cabinet of able men" because they believed that Wang Ch'ung-hui belonged to the Chihli clique, and they urged Wu Ching-lien, the speaker of the National Assembly, and Chang Po-lieh, the deputy speaker, to find a way to defeat the cabinet. Thus, the appointees of Wang Ch'unghui, who was a supporter of Wu P'ei-fu became targets of hostile political maneuvers by both the Fengtien clique and the Ts'ao K'un faction. In mid-Xovember 1922 Wu Chinglien charged that Lo Wen-kan had accepted a bribe in connection with the adjustment of an Austrian loan contract that had been signed before the First World War. Li Yuan-hung had both Lo and his treasury chief arrested on 18 November, and the entire cabinet resigned in protest on 21 November. The following day, Li Yuan-hung had Lo released and sent Sun Pao-ch'i (q.v.) to welcome him to the presidential office. Lo refused this invitation. Three days later, he returned to jail, demanding a fair investigation to determine his innocence or guilt. He spent eight months in jail, and on 29 July 1923 he was found innocent of the bribery charges and was freed. When his opponents in the Parliament appealed the decision, the appellate court withheld action on the case, and Lo was jailed again. Although Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, the chancellor of Peking University, and Chiang Yung, the chairman of the Law Codification Commission, resigned from office to protest the illegal arrest of Lo Wen-kan, he remained in jail until the appeal was withdrawn in the spring of 1924. By this time, Lo had spent more than a year in jail on politically inspired and groundless charges.

From the spring of 1924 until the spring of 1926 Lo Wen-kan practiced law in Peking. After Tuan Ch'i-jui was forced from office by the resurgent power of Wu P'ei-fu, the minister of the navy, Tu Hsi-kuei, formed a so-called "regency cabinet" in June 1926, with Lo ^Venkan as minister of justice. Lo retained that portfolio for a year, despite several changes of cabinet. He also served as director general of the customs revenue administration, in which capacity he attended the 24 July 1926 meeting of Chinese and foreign delegates to the Special Customs Tariff Conference. In June 1927, when P'an Fu organized a new government at Peking to support Chang Tso-lin's claim to be Ta-yuan-shuai [generalissimo] of all China, Lo was made vice chairman of the treaty revision commission in the ministry of foreign affairs. Chinese Nationalist plans for the unification of China through the Northern Expedition and Japanese plans for the development of East Asia effectively undermined Chang Tso-lin's government in 1928. ^Vhen Chang left Peking on 3 June to return to his Manchurian realm, he ordered Lo and Shen Jui-lin, the minister of the interior, to assume charge of political affairs until the Northern Expedition arrived at Peking. ^Vith the death of Chang Tso-lin at the hands of the Japanese and the occupation of Peking by the Chinese Nationalists, Lo and Shen went to Mukden, where they became councillors in the headquarters of the Northeast Peace Preservation Forces under Chang Tsolin's son and successor, Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.).

In December 1931, after the Japanese had driven Chang Hsueh-liang from Manchuria, Lo Wen-kan, who had been acting as Chang's emissary to the southern Kuomintang leaders at Canton, joined Chang at Peiping and became a member of the North China Political Council. After Chiang Kai-shek retired from office and some of the southern leaders assumed control of the National Government at Nanking, Lo was appointed minister of justice on 1 January 1932. Sun Fo and Eugene Ch'en fqq.v.) were forced to resign from their respective posts as president of the Executive Yuan and minister of foreign affairs in late January, to be succeeded by Wang Ching-wei and Lo Wen-kan. On 1 February, Lo began his efforts to protect China from Japanese encroachment by informing Sir Eric Drummond, the Secretary General of the League of Nations, that reports of China's plans to declare war on Japan were false. Thereafter, Lo worked assiduously, if unsuccessfully, to obtain the intervention in China's favor of the League of Nations and of member countries.

Developments in Sinkiang pi'ovince in 1933 led the National Government to enlist Lo's talents in yet another field, the adjustment of domestic political tangles. Sheng Shih-ts'ai (q.v.) had seized power at Urumchi in April and had clashed with the Muslim forces of Ma Chung-ying (q.v.). Huang Mu-sung (q.v.) had gone to Sinkiang in June as special pacification commissioner but had been arrested and held by Sheng on charges of plotting to overthrow the Sinkiang government. The price Sheng exacted for Huang's release was confirmation of his authority as border defense commissioner and of Liu Wen-lung's as acting governor. Nanking reluctantly agreed, and Huang returned to the capital on 21 July 1933. In mid-August, ^Vang Ching-wei sent Lo Wen-kan to Urumchi on a three-fold mission: to arrange a settlement between Sheng Shih-ts'ai and Ma Chung-ying; to balance Sheng's power with that of other leaders so that he could be brought under National Government control; and to achieve the cancellation, if possible, of the economic agreement between Sinkiang and the Soviet Union that had been signed in 1931 by Sheng's predecessor. Chin Shu-jen.

Lo Wen-kan arrived in Urumchi on 2 September 1933. Five days later, he administered oaths of office to Sheng Shih-ts'ai and Liu Wen-lung before going to Turfan to meet with Ma Chung-ying. Ma proved willing to accept Lo's proposal that he assume the post of garrison commander for eastern Sinkiang, but he demanded, as evidence of Sheng Shih-ts'ai's good faith, guarantees from Sheng concerning troop support. After Lo returned to Urumchi and reported on Ma's position, Sheng decided to resume the war against Ma. Lo left Urumchi and went to Hi, where he met with Chang Lu Cheng-hsiang P'ei-yuan, another potential opponent of Sheng. After going to the Soviet Union to discuss the 1931 treaty with W. W. Yen (Yen Hui-ch'ing), Lo returned tp China, having recognized that Nanking's authority did not reach Sinkiang and that Moscow was in a good position to expand its authority in Sinkiang.

Lo reached Nanking on II November 1933. A few days later, on the eve of his departure for Nanchang to report to Chiang Kai-shek, he announced that he intended to resign from both of his cabinet offices. On 29 November, the Kuomintang Central Political Council accepted Lo's resignation as foreign minister. Lo continued to serve as minister of justice until 3 October 1934, when the Central Political Council decided to transfer the ministry of justice from the Executive Yuan to the Judicial Yuan. Lo immediately resigned. A month later, he accepted a sinecure appointment as adviser to the ministry of foreign affairs, but in 1935 he retired to Kwangtung and embarked upon a mining enterprise. In 1938, having joined the National Socialist party of Carsun Chang (Chang Chia-sen, q.v.), Lo became a member of the People's Political Council at Chungking. On 16 October 1941 he died of malaria in Loting, Kwangtung, at the age of 53.