New Cabinet

Rheumy-eyed Prince Saionji, the tottering Last of the Genro (Elder Statesmen) again had to rack his withered old brains last week. He and the Sublime Emperor faced another assault by Japan's big navy jingoes. Some 60 officers of the Imperial fleet, all potent sea dogs with the rank of captain or higher, had just laid reverently but firmly before the Throne a petition dangerous as dynamite. They asked the Son of Heaven to tear up in his infinite wisdom the chief naval treaties to which Japan is a party and to demand naval equality for her with the U. S. and Great Britain. Though addressed to His Majesty, the sea dogs' demands were really aimed at the Premier, a sea dog himself. Admiral Viscount Makoto Saito. He promptly invoked a convenient fiscal scandal (the Vice Minister of Finance had been in jail on charges of bribery since mid-May) and the entire Cabinet resigned, leaving everything in the lap of 85-year-old Prince Saionji.

Normally the leader of the Seiyukai Party, which has a huge majority in Japan's Parliament, should have been asked to form a cabinet last week, but Japanese politics have been decidedly abnormal ever since naval petty officers assassinated her last civilian premier, the Hon. Ki ("Old Fox") Inukai two years ago (TIME, May 23, 1932). This crime and other "purifying assassinations," all supposedly performed by patriots, are considered to have put corrupt politicians "on probation"--with no prospect of getting the Government out of the hands of the military for the present. Thus last week Premier Saionji had to advise the Emperor to choose another fighting service premier, another admiral or general. Courageously the Last of the Genro advised and the Son of Heaven appointed as Premier about the least quarrelsome sea dog to be found in the Imperial Navy, Admiral Keisuke Okada, retired.

As his first official act last week Admiral Okada ordered opened up in the Premier's Official Residence the room in which "Old Fox" Inukai was done to death. Furnished in Japanese style, this room is covered with mats on which statesmen may squat as their forefathers did. Since the assassination squatting has been taboo, with Premier Saito using chairs and tables in the new style rooms of the Official Residence. Last week Premier Okada went enthusiastically back to squatting. He called back to their portfolios the outstanding members of the Saito Cabinet except famed Finance Minister Korekiyo Takahashi in whose department the bribe scandal had occurred. By no means in disgrace, venerable Mr. Takahashi was able to slip in as the new Finance Minister his devoted henchman Mr. Sadanobu Fujii.

"Our new Premier is of an austerity almost fanatical," boasted one of his aides and this seemed to be amply proved by Admiral Okada's behavior after his first day on the mats as Premier. Countless friends were at his house, already pack-jammed with kegs of beer and red fish, conventional gifts to a new Premier who is supposed to dispense them lavishly. Sighing resignedly, austere Admiral Okada said to his chauffeur "Take me home," but on the way be changed his mind and commanded "Take me to the Mampei," a small and far from luxurious hotel. Startled guests were bowed out of the Premier's home and startled donors received back next day their beer, fish and other goodwill delicacies.

In Navy circles the new Premier was called a "strong navy" man but scarcely a "big navy" man. As spokesman for the jingoes Admiral Nobumasa Suetsugu, famed for his firebrand magazine attacks on the U. S. (TIME, Jan. 22 et seq.) roundly declared last week: "Too strong a Government is impossible in view of the 1935-36 Naval Crisis.* A Government is needed that will take an independent attitude at the coming Naval Conference where all Japan has to do is to assert her rights. It would be wrong to make sacrifices to make the conference successful. I think we need not worry even if the conference fails. Indeed if it succeeds, I am afraid there will be a repetition of incidents like those in Manchuria and at Shanghai."

This amounted to a jingo threat: unless the U. S. and Britain grant naval parity to Japan the outraged Japanese Navy will be in a mood to run hog wild

*Japanese jingoese for the expiration of the London Naval Treaty.

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