THE BEST-HATED WOMAN IN JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 72, 19 December 1918, Page 2

THE BEST-HATED WOMAN IN JAPAN

Yone Suzuki, the Kobe woman million-' aire, the most successful business woman in Japan, is at the present moment .oiie of tho best-bated persons in the' conn--try, states the Tokio correspondent of the "Daily Mail." Hated not becauseof her unusual business capacity, but for the large speculations of her company in rice, the stall' of. life- in Japan, which bus so risen in price as to be prohibitive to the poor and middle classes. Tho war profits of the Sussuki : company aro estimated at JC10.000.000. Fifteen years ago Yone Suzuki was an unassuming widow with a shrewd business sense who sat all day, , Japanese fashion, on the mats, siiuatting before ii diminutive desk, industriously figuring her losses and gains on tho soroban, or abacus. To-day, the Suzuki Shoton commands all sorts of enterprises—steel works, eamphor-roh'ning, rice importing, shipbuilding. This unheard-of development by a woman was watched with sullen mutlerines by tho great mass of the people, who not only did mil -enjoy any of tliu blessings, of war profits but also continued to bear the burden caused by the soaring cost of the necessities of life. . Then the storm broke; excited men and women surrounded the 'palatini offices of the Suzuki Slioten in Kobe, dejiberately but very thoroughly burning it down. Yone Suzurki fled that night to Shizuoka, the great tea centre, but. here the rice rioters , wero also must active, and when her identity was discovered the incensed people threatened to rise against her. She telegraphed to. Tokio for rooms at an inn, but no hostelry would takt; her, fearing destruction.. In vain did she send ,£IOO,OOO to the Homo Minister • for the relief of, the poor. The poor took no heed, and smashed and burned her company's factories. . ■. .- ■■-'■: . Then, to escape with her life, she changed her name and in disguise sought refuge in a distant village, no one knowing whero she is hidden. In. Tokio a mob charging over a bridge, encountered a group of policemen armed, with their regulation, fcstivcrlookini: paper lanterns—spheres of cream and scarlet. The police were scattered like chaff before a wind, nnd Due guardian who. dared draw his sword was thrown ingloriously into the canal. Unchecked the mob- raj-., hurling stones at- plate-glass windows, and poured through a business section to a (jtiieter quarter where a lone policeman stood on the "middle of a bridge. This' was mi obstacle to nngry men, and on they came. But the policeman slood hie ground, and holding aloft his paper lantern, addressed the rioters-.— "Honourable (j<mtlemen,—l ha«e a wife and family, and suffer-like yourselves because of the High coat of rice. But it is my duty to let: no one pn*s over this bridge. Therefore, 1. request vou please to takr t-ome othor way." " A sudden calm cams over the hnstylempered, mercurial citizens or Tnkio.• for the policeman; as everyone knows, is the poorest paid public servant in the capital. ■ • .' Laughing and cheering, the crowtl turned about, leaving him in undisputed possession of the bridge.