TREND IN JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 12

TREND IN JAPAN

NOT TOWARDS ARMY

A CORRESPONDENT'S VIEW

Following the dissolution of the Diet, it was announced recently that the elections for the new House of Representatives would be held and that a special session would be convoked for early summer, wrote Hugh Byas from Tokio to the "New York Times." The prefectural chiefs of police have been summoned to Tokio to confer on measures designed to ensure that the "people's will shall be reflected in the new House." It is evident that the Cabinet intended from the start to dissolve the Diet, but masked its intention until the Budget was secure. ■. ■ The present situation is not novel in Japan. The action of Premier Senjuro Hayashi is not to be conceived as a move towards a military dictatorship, but as a step back towards basic "constitutional politics peculiar to Japan" that he is pledged to support and that, in fact, prevailed until the nineteen twenties. ■ Many military Premiers in the past who have governed with the support of the elected House used dissolutions as a method of obtaining that support. Latterly, the antagonism of young officers towards all parties has made this practice impossible, but apparently the army's more extreme totalitarian movement has been suppressed, or at least •driven into the orthodox Japanese channels that Premier Hayashi is following. CONFERENCE FORECAST. The Premier, whose governing principle appears to be that "the Emperor's Government must be carried on," may even be ready to co-operate with any majority after the elections have disclosed the people's will. ~ "The Government fooled everybody, says the newspaper "Yomiuri" in an article that fairly well sums up the attitude of the Press, which, as usual, looks on the affair as a gladiatorial show rather than an issue concerning the vital interests of its readers. The dissolution of the Diet is everywhere admitted to be unnecessary, but that is as far as the criticism goes. Apparently none of the political commentators sees any connection between the army's demand in January, at the outset of the Diet session, for dissolution, to punish the politicians and its materialisation immediately the Houses had obediently passed the Budget, which, despite their promises, the fighting services have not reduced one sen. Talk of the formation of a new party to co-operate with the army and support the present Cabinet is reviving. It is now suggested that such a party will make its appearance after the election. What this means is that, after securing their seats, a number of gifted politicians will form a Government group for the sake of the usual rewards. PARTY UNITY DEMANDED. Politicians who see no chance of being included in this group are demanding that the major parties unite in defence of Parliamentary Government. The whole situation is still so fluid, with guiding principles so few, that almost any development is possible. • ■■■••_, In a Press interview, Premier Hayashi repeated that he had decided to dissolve the Diet because the parties "seemed lacking in a sense of seriousness proper to the present times." There had even been rumours, he said, that the parties had hoped to strike a bargain with the Government in exchange for their assistance during the session. • Asked on what platform he would fight the election, Premier Hayashi said he was still studying it, but it would include re-armament, advancement of national power, and clarification of the national structure. He added that armament meant not merely replenishment of weapons, but stabilisation of the people's livelihood, advancement, and industry. This is read as meaning either that the Government will not allow armament expenditures to interfere with industry and trade or that trade and industry will be regulated in the interests of national defence.

The Government, added Premier Hayashi, hopes that a new party, or a statesman, really alive to the situation will appear.