BREAKING BONDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 390, 26 November 1932, Page 3

BREAKING BONDS

CONFISCATION THREAT JAPANES AGITATION FOR RETURN OF SOCIALIST STATE. REYOLUTION SUGGESTED. London, Saturday. Japan is threatened with a revolution, disguised as "Restoration," which is comparable to both Fascism and; Communism. The real ideal, however, is a Socialist State, in which Japan will again be clothed in her ancient dress and the sacred person of the Emperor be restored to absolute power. So cables Sir Percival Phillips, the well-known special correspondent, from Kyoto, to the Daily Mail. Th'e Manchurian adventure, he says, was only one feature of a situation which is full of dangerous possibilities, as fostered by the militarists. They are deteruiined not to relinquish their hold on Manchuria, though it iq costing £2,500,000 a month and probably will necessitate a capital levy, thinly disguised as compulsory loans. A more dangerous movement is.the younger generation's plans to "rescue" Japan from Western infiuence and the elutches of capdtalism, and to revive the authority of the military caste. This movement aims at elimintating industrialists, capitalists, and professional politicians, the confiscation of fortunes, and the relegation of commerce to the humble position which it occu(pied before Japan emerged from feudalism. The roots of the movement lie in the peasants' intolerable distress, due to over-population. Assassination Fears. Forty-eight per cent. of the people depend on the land and the farms are usually one-sixth th'e size of French farms, while the family is twice as large as the average Frenchman's. Consequently, the farmers are hopelessly in debt. Young agitators, including Kosaburo Tachibana, who is awaiting trial for the murder of the ex-Premier (Mr. Inukai) have exploited these conditions, preaching confiscation and redistribution as the only means whereby to improve the position of th'e peasants. In this campaign they have founcj many recruits also- among the farmer-fed ranks of the army. This has resulted in the wealthy fearing both the loss of their fortunes and assassination, owing to the development of a murder cult, in which perpetrators of murder are regarded as exampl.es of courage and self-sac-rifice. It is certain that th'e population is bursting its bonds, and that there must be a radical ehange to relieve the depressed peasants.