POLITICS IN JAPAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1632, 2 November 1916, Page 4

POLITICS IN JAPAN.

The resignation by Count Okuma of the Premiership of .Japan was forecasted by the Tokio correspondent of Hie Morning Post early in September. He slated that never before had there been a louder or more persistent cry for Hu* resignation of the Government. The Cabinet had attempted to add to its life by entering into an alliance with Russia, but the jingoes regard that as but another chain on .Japan’s freedom of action in the Orient. The Premier, says the Japanese, should be “a man who can do tilings,” or who can see Hmt they aro done. Count Okuma has had plenty of time (o do things in China: but (it is said) lie lias not done them. Xow lie should give way to one who can do them, or at least who thinks he can. Nothing was done in Corea so long as Prince llu ruled there; nor iu the time of Ins successor, Viscount Bone, but when Hie man of the hour was appointed. Generai Count Terauchi, lie had hardly been Iwo months in the country when its annexation to Japan was announced, and became an accomplished fact without even a. battle. Xow, there is a man who can do things! Let Count Okuma give place to a man like Field-Mar-shall Count Terauchi, and Japan will have some chance of coming into her own. Japan is thus at present torn between two powerful elements, the Conservatives ami Progressives, Hie former desiring fo move carefully in harmony with Great; Britain, Russia, and Western sympathy generally, while Hie latter demand a free hand in China no matter who likes it or not.