NOBLESSE OBLIGE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 23 September 1911, Page 6

NOBLESSE OBLIGE.

MEANNESS OF THE PEERAGE IN JAPAN: , ‘ •!■!)■( :. . .' •Wi The Saiseikai, or Charity Association now being organised by Prince Katsura, is. one of the most remarkable undertakings of modern times. It is proposed to collect a fund of noless, than £2,500,000, the interest on which is to bo devoted entirely to the relief of extreme poverty or sickness among the poor. The Emperor headsthe fund with £IOO,OOO from his privy purse. Subjects like Mr K. Okura followed suit, and the money is coming in rapidly. It is noteworthy that, so far, the bulk of the subscriptions comes from commoners and that certan well-known names of the titled class are conspicuous by their absence. This fact was the text of a speech delivered by Mi Suenobu, a busincs man wejl known abroad. He is a man who is notorious for holding strong opinions and giving strong expression to them. ’- Mr Suenobu took for a theme the contrast between the Peers of the Realm and the Commoners, who had earned their money by hard labour. He made a vehement attack upon the men of title, who, for the past three centuries, have been in receipt of huge hereditary incomes bestowed on their forefathers after the battle of Sckigahara, simply because they had put lance in rest to support the cause (f the Tokugawa. L r, : Men like Admiral 'sl'ogo .and . iGone-: ; ral Nogi had received petty pensions, which would die with them, so that their total income could not exceed £2OOO to £3OOO, whereas nobles like Princes Mori and Shimazu had been in receipt of yearly incomes of sometiling like £IOO,OOO ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century. These were the men who called themselves the bulwark of the Throne, but it did not appear that they were greatly concerned to assist the Sovereign’s benevolent intentons.-—Reuter.