Whiskey & Secrets

By command of the Sublime Emperor Hirohito, bespectacled "Son of Heaven," a gift which gurgled was despatched to the home of onetime Prime Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki last week immediately after his return from London where he was Chief Delegate of Japan at the Naval Conference (TIME, Jan. 27, et seq.).

The Imperial Gift: A 20-gallon cask of Japanese sake.*

Significance: According to the Imperial Chamberlain, the Sun of Heaven thus signified "general approbation of the Chief Delegate's labors." Patriots recalled that Mr. Wakatsuki carried with him from Japan to England across the dry U. S. 20 jolly little kegs of sake, though at the Conference he often diplomatically drank Scotch and occasionally Irish.

Acclaimed by a madly cheering throng of 15,000 when he landed at Kobe last week, Mr. Wakatsuki remained imperturbable, poker-faced, told ship-news reporters crisply that he would take no part in the current Japanese political squabble over whether the Treaty should ever have been signed or, having been signed, should now be ratified (TIME, June 2). "I wish to emphasize that I had nothing to do with the Japanese Government's decision to sign the Treaty, nor shall I have anything to do with its final ratification by the Privy Council," were almost the Chief Delegate's first words, and he added positively: "My task was to help make the Treaty. I have finished. The Treaty is made."

In his report to the Cabinet at Tokyo (two days later) Mr. Wakatsuki revealed not a few secrets of how the Treaty was negotiated--secrets which the U. S. Senate has tried and failed to get. As quoted in part by an official Government release, Reporter Wakatsuki said:

"We had little to do with France and Italy at London. Great Britain and the United States had reached a previous understanding, and the only question remaining to be settled between them was whether the United States should have 23 or 18 large cruisers.

"Whatever negotiations the Japanese delegates had with the United States were immediately reported to the British delegation, and the American delegates often had the British state the American demands. This method of negotiation placed Japan in anything but an advantageous position."

Thus Japan's Chief Delegate confirmed rumors current at the time of the Conference that Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson leaned heavily on British diplomats and that all major feats of statecraft were performed by Messrs. Hoover and MacDonald before the Conference opened. From further remarks of Mr. Wakatsuki in Tokyo last week it appeared that Senator Reed of Pennsylvania was not the man who brought the Japanese-- to whom he was assigned--around. The Chief Delegate said that after his subordinate, Ambassador Matsudaira, and Senator Reed had become deadlocked he, Reijiro Wakatsuki, went over their heads to James Ramsay MacDonald and reached the final compromise.

*A yellowish-white liquid which, as Japanese scientists ingeniously say "stands midway between wine and beer." Usual alcoholic strength 12 to 15%. The 60,000,000 Japanese drink 150,000,000 gallons of sake yearly. Like gin, sake contains a dash of glycerin.

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