JAPAN CLEARS DECKS FOR FASCISTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 7

JAPAN CLEARS DECKS FOR FASCISTS

THE NEW GOVERNMENT LEADER AN EXTREME NATIONALIST STRONG HAND WILL BE APPLIED. [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copy right t TOKIO, Jan. 4. Emperor Hirohito has asked 73-year-old Baron Hiranuma, President of the Privy Council, to form a Cabinet, following the Government’s r&signation given by the Prime Minister, Prince Konoye. Faced with the United States determination not to tolerate the impairment of her rights in China by arbitrary methods, Japan has cleared the decks for the installation of a Fascist regime. Baron Hiranuma is expected to announce the new Cabinet to-morrow. His appointment to the office of Prime Minister means that a strong hand will be applied to both home affairs and dealings with foreign Powers. Baron Hiranuma is an extreme nationalist who created several years ago a semi-Fascist organisation called the Society of the Foundations of the State, states an Independent Cable Service message, designed to unite all patriotic leagues. It was founded from various military groups. He is closely linked with the army and the navy, who favoured a system modelled on military and Fascist lines. Baron Kilchiro Hiranuma, vicepresident of the Privy Council, Councillor and member of the Legislative Deliberation Committee, was born in 1867 and is the son of a samurai. He graduated at the Law College of the Imperial University at Tokio in 1888 and then became a probationary councillor in the Judicial Office, after which he was appointed a Judge. He was Judge of the Tokio Court of Appeal, Director of the Civil and Criminal Affairs Bureau, and ultimately, in 1923, became Minister of Justice. In 1924 he became a Privy Councillor and in 1926 vice-president of that body. In the same year he was made a baron.