THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
FAR EASTERN (JAPAN).
CONFIDENTIAL.
December 13, 1938.
SECTION 2.
282
[F 13251/68/23]
Copy No. 130
Sir R. Craigie to Viscount Halifax.-(Received December 13.)
(No. 923.) My Lord,
Tokyo, November 17, 1938.
I HAVE the honour to report that a series of manoeuvres in political circles have been in process of development during the past few weeks, all designed to discover a remedy for the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the House of Repre- sentatives described in my despatch No. 193 of the 2nd April last.
2. The following movements to bring about the creation of a new political party are worthy of mention :-
(a) A movement led by Mr. Teisuke Akiyama, an influential political wire- puller, and Mr. Kiyoshi Akita, a member of the Cabinet Advisory Council, to establish a Nationalist party of the Right by combining the minority groups in the House of Representatives and splitting each of the established parties in half. This movement is somewhat para- doxically supported by young "Fascist" leaders of the Social Mass party, such as Messrs. Asao and Kamei, who appear to do most of the executive work.
(b) An attempt of Mr. Fusanosuke Kuhara, the Seiyukai adventurer, supported by his lieutenant, Mr. Tsugumo, to create a National Council on the lines of the Manchurian Kyowakai or "Concordia Society."
(c) A plan to launch a political campaign based upon the existing network
of ex-service men's associations.
(d) A national movement, which is supported by Count Arima, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and by Mr. Kazami, chief secretary of the Cabinet, based upon the associations for agricultural reform. (e) A plan backed by Mr. Kawarada, former Minister of Home Affairs, to run a political campaign based on the Federation of Industrial Patriotic Unions.
Each of these movements depends to a greater or less degree upon the Prime Minister's willingness to come forward as its leader.
3. Prince Konoye has, as hitherto, displayed little interest in any of these manoeuvres. The fundamental defect in the Japanese political structure, which has become increasingly apparent in recent years, is that a series of authoritarian Governments have governed for the people with no solid basis of support in the country. It is the fighting services who have shaped national policy, and the bureaucracy which has put it into effect. Yet both these services and the bureaucracy feel the urgent need for a national party genuinely supported in the country. The political parties, as at present constituted, may to some extent act as a brake through criticism in the Diet during two months in the year, but they have lost all directing force; they exist, in fact, as mere groupings of politicians and are not political parties at all. However respected and popular he may be, Prince Konoye has no organised support in the country, and his position as leader of the nation is often compared unfavourably with that of Hitler or Mussolini. But he is by no means satisfied that an engineered regrouping or amalgamation of the existing parties would provide an effective remedy for this defect.
4. During the past seven years, and particularly since the incident of February 1936, there has been an urge towards drastic internal reconstruction in this country. But although political and social reform has been the main plank in the platform of successive Governments, nothing substantial has been achieved in this direction, and the system of government remains, on paper, precisely as laid down in 1885. Now, the war in China and the tremendous task of reconstruction there which Japan is called upon by the expansionists to shoulder, has added a fresh stimulus to this urge for renovation.' But the present
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