Biggest War Budget

Almost to a man the docile little politicians of Japan's House of Representatives rose in their places last week to give Japan for 1934-35 a general's dream of what a budget ought to be. Of its 2,112,000,000 yen ($633,600,000), full 44% went to the Army and Navy, an alltime peacetime high. The Army got 450,000,000 yen ($135,000,000), the Navy 488,000,000 yen ($146,400,000). Hardly a murmur was raised against this gigantic bill for war weapons and men to use them. Indeed, Foreign Minister Korekiyo Takahashi was credited with a victory in preventing the budget from going up another 400,000,000 yen as the Army and Navy originally wanted.

Across this comparative calm the stain of scandal suddenly spread last week. Renegades of the majority Seiyukai party rose to link Minister of Education Ichiro Hatoyama and Railways Minister Chuzo Mitsuchi with the recent significant merger of all Japanese steel works. They charged that the steel companies had cash-bribed Ministers Hatoyama & Mitsuchi and 130 Representatives. Furious voices screamed back & forth in the Diet, named Hatoyama with menacing frequency. True or false, the scandal was of the kind that traditionally makes Cabinets reach for their hats. Premier Saito was ready to "release" Hatoyama, hoped against hope that that would be enough.

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