Cinch

"In appointing our Ambassador to the United States at this important time," said General Sadao Araki last December before he retired as Japan's sword-rattling War Minister, "with the 1936 crisis ahead, such considerations as dignity, past career, equity and sentiment must be discarded and a man of ability chosen in the interests of the country."

The man chosen was 47-year-old Hiroshi Saito. In Washington his big job was to keep the U. S. at least as friendly toward Japan as toward Russia if and when a second Russo-Japanese War breaks. He, with his gracious wife and two young children, arrived in Manhattan last week on his way to present his credentials to President Roosevelt in Washington.

"It's a great responsibility but a cinch of a job," remarked Ambassador Saito to ship news reporters on the Berengaria. Unlimbering U. S. idioms he learned in 14 years service as consul general in New York and as attache and charge d'affaires in Washington, he asked if he might "swipe" one of the newshawks' cigarets. "My chief purpose in coming he " he announced, "is to drink whiskey with good Americans." So saying, he led the way to the ship's bar. As to the "crisis ahead," Ambassador Saito blandly informed his interviewers : "What has happened can easily be smoothed out. Russia is anxious to dispose of her interest in the Chinese Eastern Railway. It is simply a matter of price. . . . Most certainly we cannot go to war because of a railway. It is incredible! War with Russia would mean war with other countries and with the United States. We do not want to commit suicide!" What was the possibility of Japan's attacking the U. S.? "Poppycock!" laughed Ambassador Saito. Did Japan covet the Philippines? "I will say that most definitely Japan does not want the Philippines," he replied. "You already have found them expensive." To clear the air of weighty matters, Ambassador Saito ordered another round of highballs. When someone asked him if he were not the world's youngest Ambassador he replied: "I am not so young. Dino Grandi [Italian Ambassador to Great Britain] beard and all, is far younger than I. . . . I've been dissipating all my life: whiskies and sodas every afternoon -- all afternoon."

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