THE NEW DIET

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 131, 4 June 1936, Page 6

THE NEW DIET

RADICALS IN JAPAN When the first session of the new Japanese Diet begins the Prime Minister (Mr. Koki Hirota) will be facing a National Government, says a Japan correspondent of the Melbourne "Age." Sectional interests and ambitions will be shelved during a stabilising period following the assassinations of February 26. This attempted coup d'etat is officially referred to as the "incident"; a somewhat colourless word to describe a calamity of the first magnitude, when three of Japan's most loyal and capable leaders were done to death.' The use of the word "incident" is probably a bureaucratic method of controlling emotional cross currents. In Tokio public sentiment was given expression when hundreds of thousands filed solemnly past the body of one of the greatest of the murdered men, but in the rural districts—whence came the insurgents—the attitude of the majority was probably that a noble attempt had been made to hasten better times for the agriculturists. As a result of the "incident" the Hirota Government is bound to be associated with vigorous measures, and to the extent that these measures lighten the burdens of the poor, the new Government will have yie support of the eighteen successful candidates (out of the thirty nominees) of the Shakai Taishuto (Socialist Mass Party).

ECONOMIC REFORMS. This party, under the leadership of Mr. Hisahi Aso, received its. record support of the electors by promising to concentrate on internal economic reforms, and pursuing a pacifist foreign policy. The party's aim is by constitutional means to further control capitalistic activities, and rid the nation of wasteful excesses of individualism and militarism.

While the leader favours constitutional rather than dictatorial action, it may be difficult for distant observers to understand how the vox populi has any chance of constitutionally effecting changes in Cabinet decisions. In the past Japanese Cabinets have anticipated stormy Diet sessions by asking the Emperor for a dissolution. And as key Cabinet posts are then occupied generally by men outside Parliament, and obstructive action is permitted to defence representatives, the outsider gains the impression that Japanese policy is dominated by a callous military clique, with nothing but personal and territorial ambitions. On the contrary, a large section of the defence personnel at present has a liberal domestic policy, aiming at the relief of the agrarian population, and a more equitable distribution of the nation's wealth. Thus there are many points where a proletarian jjarty can work hand in hand with military circles, and this situation gives the leader of the Socialist corner party, Mr. Aso, substantial grounds for hoping that in the near future the voice of the common people may be more effective in Japanese affairs.