CO129-451 - Public Offices - 1918 — Page 523

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than they ever dreamed of before, but the lower ranks of officialdou, especially the police, the postmen, railway men and the like. The police are in a particularly unhappy position and during the rice disturbances the sympathies ɗ any of then were with the rioters. One of the signs of the times is the policeman's loss of authority. As an obser- vant foreigner put it to me "The Japanese police now-a-days funk the mob."

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During a recent tour which I made in the Kobe district · I had an opportunity of discussing the labour question with Mr. Muto The Managing rector of the Kanegafuchi Cotton Spinning Company, who is without doubt one of the moạt far seeing and liberal winded men in the Japanese Indus- trial world. Hia view of the situation was that after the war there would probably be a great slump in Japan, and that large muabere of factories would close down, or would ! curtail their operations, with the result that workman would be dismiaged and wages reduced.. This he expected

would happen particularly in the ship-building industry, and as in this branch the hands emloyed are of a somewhat rough and truculent nature he anticipates great troubles. Hie line of argument is that the Japanese workmen, and in fact the Japanese people ne a whole are extraordinarily im- mulsive, and that whereas in other countries strikes cause a good deal of dunge but remain to a certain extent under the control of the strike leaders, as well as the authori-

of

ties, in Janan a moë gets out of hand, and becomes really dangerous in a very short time. The rice riote which were the worst that have ever been experienced in Japan afford an exumple of this, and in his opinion as well as in that of many other competent judges this is only a forentate of what may occur in the future.

A

I also had an interesting conversation with Er.Kaneko the langging Mrector of Busuki & Coɑrany, He rather

"pooh-poohed"

7004,

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