The New Japanese Government

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21727, 9 March 1936, Page 10

The New Japanese Government

To students of the international situation in the Far East the appointment of Mr Hirota to be Prime Minister of Japan will seem an event almost too good to be true. Since the invasion of Manchuria in 1930, the domination of Japanese national policy by a small group of military leaders has been the main obstacle to the establishment of more friendly relations between Japan and China and between Japan and those countries, of which Russia is the most important, with a vital interest in China’s future. In the last year or so, moreover, the influence of the military party in Japan has on the whole been strengthened. The commander of the Japanese army in for instance, is also Japanese Ambassador to Manchukuo; and in the recent crisis caused by the “ independence ’’ movement in North China, Japanese foreign policy as it affected China was enunciated, not by the Foreign Office, but by the War Office. Even in the more domestic problems of government the sphere of military influence has been widening, mainly because military expenditure is now so large that it conditions all other State expenditure. The discussion over the budget estimates developed into a battle 1 between Mr Takahashi and the Ministers for the Army and the Navy; and Mr Takahashi’s civil colleagues finally broke the deadlock by cutting their own already inadequate appropriations by 10,000,000 yen in order that the military appropriations might stand. Mr Takahashi, who has been assassinated, was the chief opponent of the military leaders in finance and domestic policy; Mr Hirota was their chief opponent in foreign policy generally and in their attitude towards China in particular. It was he who, early in 1935, made an impressive speech in the Diet pleading for more cordial relations with China and gave proof of his good intentions by raising the Japanese Legation in Nanking to the status of an Embassy, thus precipitating a fierce dispute with the War Office,’ which opposed any formal recognition of the Nanking Government. It was Mr Hirota, again, who arranged the visit to Tokyo of Dr. Wang, president of the Nanking Government, and inaugurated the Sino-Japanese rapprochement upon which the extremist press in Japan has never ceased to pour scorn. It is surprising that Mr Hirota is still alive; and even more surprising that he should be Prime Minister. In default of uncensored comment from foreign correspondents in Japan, the developments of the last few days can only be surmised. A reasonable supposition is that the popular uneasiness over the extravagance and recklessness of the military leaders, perceptible in the results of the recent general election, has been stirred to active disapproval by the assassinations. But it is too early to assume that extreme militarism has received a permanent setback. The real test is whether the new Government is strong enough to suppress political organisations within the army; unless it can do that, the duration of its term of office and of the lives of some of its members will be short.