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avoid, her whole policy having been to drive a wedge between the United States and ourselves, but she has achieved it in spite of herself, thanks to the intransi- gence of her soldiers in China and the incompetence of her statesmen at home.
6. Thus the American note of the 31st December was followed by a British one on similar lines delivered on the 14th January and by a French one on the 19th January.
7. The American note emphasised the sanctity of treaties (especially the sanctity of those concluded at Washington) and warned Japan of the serious view which America would take of any unilateral action against the Nine-Power Treaty. The British note emphasised the divergence between Japan's pledges in the official utterances of her leaders and Japan's practices up till now in China. 8. All were calling for an elucidation of Japan's plans and policies.
Anglo-Japanese Relations.
9. The Kokumin has suggested that it would be highly desirable if Mr. Chamberlain paid a visit to Japan to acquaint himself with the situation, but the suggestion has not been followed up.
10. Most of the bullons d'essai are flown in the Kokumin, a very reactionary paper, which some while back made a series of personal attacks on His Majesty's Ambassador.
Germany.
11. Hardly a day passes but the papers carry some story that bears witness to the amazing amount of propaganda that Germany is carrying out in Japan. The number of exchange students, for example, is being increased from two to twenty. Baldur von Schirach, the Reich Youth leader, is scheduled to be coming to Japan this spring Japanese poems are being translated into German.
12. Meanwhile, in the Diet members have been asking for the strengthening of the Anti-Comintern Pact. On the 28th January Ribbentrop, Ciano and the Japanese Ambassador to Berlin met for what were termed important negotia- tions that would become the corner-stone in the construction of a world order throughout Europe and Asia in accordance with the anti-Comintern spirit.' The Japanese Ambassadors in the larger European capitals have been meeting in Paris, apparently so that Shiratori, lately appointed Ambassador to Rome, might expound the latest political developments in the East.
13. It seems probable that the main subject of all these colloquies has been the question of transforming the Anti-Comintern Pact into an alliance.
Hungary.
14. A Far-Eastern repercussion of the Munich settlement was heard on the 10th January, when it was announced that Hungary had decided to recognise Manchukuo and join the Anti-Comintern Pact. A Hungarian Legation will be opened here this autumn. The total number of Hungarians in the whole of Japan does not exceed ten.
More Signatories to the Anti-Comintern Pact.
15. On the 16th January the Manchukuo Government announced their intention to adhere to the Anti-Comintern Pact.
16.
Invitations to join were recently sent to Yugoslavia and Albania through their honorary consuls in Osaka, both of whom are Japanese.
17. Czecho-Slovakia is also reported to be negotiating both membership of the pact and recognition of Manchukuo.
18. The gradual extension of German influence eastwards in Europe will have as its natural corollary an increase in Japan's friends and a diminution in her feeling of isolation.
Siam
19. The craze for goodwill flights is infecting Japan.
20. She herself has been the goal lately of two goodwill flights, although the Italian goodwill plane met disaster at Basra and the German Condor, after a magnificent flight out here, fell into the sea near the Philippines on its return journey.
21. Accordingly, on the 25th January, the Japan-to-Siam goodwill plane Nogi (a large four-engined Heinkel monoplane) left for Bangkok and arrived there the following day, after a short stop in Formosa. The return flight, which was made non-stop, finished uneventfully.
22. Japan carries out in Siam much of the nationalist propaganda with which she is herself in turn bombarded by her totalitarian friends. For example. Miss Siam is due to arrive in April, and she can be quite sure that a great fuss will be made of her. The Mayor of Bangkok and several other high officials of the Municipal Government are due here in March. His Royal Highness Prince Chalermbol, first cousin of the King of Siam, has just arrived here to study the methods of the Japanese police force.
23. Siam is often lauded in the press as one of the few countries showing a correct appreciation of the new order in East Asia.
U.S.S.R.
24. No settlement has been reached to the fisheries dispute. The lots will be auctioned in March. The Japanese have announced their resolve to fish on the grounds which they leased under the agreement of 1932 and, if necessary, to back their claims by force. The Russians have said that they will fire on any fishing vessels which they catch on the now prohibited grounds.
Singapore.
25. On the 25th January the Japanese Ambassador in London presented a formal note to the Secretary of State, in which a strong complaint was lodged over the treatment of Japanese nationals in Singapore.
Cabinet Changes.
HOME AFFAIRS.
26. Throughout the last few weeks of 1938 there had been much talk of the impending resignation of the Konoye Cabinet and much speculation as to the composition of its successor. Several names had been mentioned as Konoye's successor, but during December the odds had been shortening on the elderly president of the Privy Council, Baron Hiranuma. A distinguished lawyer, he had once been the hope of fascism in Japan, but a few years ago he severed his connexions with all reactionary organisations. Baron Hiranuma received the Imperial Command to form a Cabinet on the 4th January, and the new Cabinet Marquis came into being the following day. The changes, however, were few. Kido, who had been Konoye's right-hand man, and who is a statesman with a rising reputation, took over the Home Ministry from Admiral Suetsugu, whom his colleagues would appear to have found both tiresome and extremely ineffective. Mr. Seihin Ikeda was succeeded by the Vice-Minister for Finance, Mr. Gotaro Ishiwata, but no changes were made in the other more important posts. As in the Konoye Cabinet, a sop was thrown to the political parties by the appointment to the Ministry of Agriculture of a Minseito member, Mr. Yukio Sakurauchi, and to the Ministry of Railways of a Seiyukai member. Mr. Yonezo Maeda.
27. Prince Konoye, who took over the presidency of the Privy Council, remained in the Cabinet as Minister without portfolio.
28.
The personnel of the new Cabinet is neither stronger nor weaker than that of the old Cabinet. The Premier's erstwhile reactionary associations are no indication that Japan is anxious to accelerate her steady progress down the totalitarian slope. The change was, first and foremost. a device whereby an emergency Cabinet could slip gracefully out of office and a thoroughly stormy session in the Diet be avoided.
Diet Proceedings.
29. The new Government has solved the problem presented by the Diet session by shelving the whole of Prince Konoye's domestic reform programme, to which much opposition was expected, and the spokesmen of the political parties The issues before the session have, were compelled to rewrite their speeches.
and the voting therefore, been concentrated in the prosecution of the holy war
CC
of the necessary expenditures. Consequently, the debates during the opening days of the session amounted to little more than competition in panegyrics. Consider- able criticism was, however, directed against the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
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