Directory_and_Chronicle_1899 — Page 447

JAPAN

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control of the Naimu Sho, and have limited powers, being required to submit every matter, unless there is a precedent for it, to the Minister of the Interior. Nor have they any concern in judicial proceedings, which come under the cognizance of the forty-eight local Courts and the seven Supreme Courts at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Miyagi, and Hakodatê, over which the Daishin In presides at Tokyo.

Previous to the last change of Government, which restored the ancient Imperial régime, the administrative authority rested with the Shogun (Military Commander), whom foreigners were at first led to recognise as the temporal sovereign, and with whom they negotiated treaties of peace and commerce. The Shogunate was founded in 1184 by Yoritomo, a general of great valour and ability, and was continued through several dynasties until 1869, when the Tokugawa family were dispossessed of the usurped authority. Under the Shogun three hundred or more Daimios (feudal princes) shared the administrative power, being practically supreme in their respective domains, conditionally upon their loyalty to the Shogun; but their rank and power disappeared with the Shogunate. On the 7th July, 1884, however, His Majesty issued an Imperial Notification and Rescript rehabilitating the nobility, and admitting to its ranks the most distinguished civil and military officials who took part in the work of the Restoration. The old titles were abolished, and have been replaced by those of Prince (Ko), Marquis (Ko), Count (Haku), Viscount (Shi), and Baron (Dan).

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

In the Budget for 1897-98 including supplementary Budgets (but exclusive of the Formosa Budget) an expenditure of 222,978,290 yen is provided for, of which sum 121,462,938 yen is ordinary expenditure and 101,515,352 yen extraordinary expenditure. On the revenue side there are included under the head of “extraordinary the following items:-Domestic Loans 40,223,350 yen. Drafted from Indemnity $36,223,350 yen, and Miscellaneous 2,841,708 yen. Included in the extraordinary expenditure are votes amounting to 64,596,122 yen for military and naval expansion, under the Military and Naval extension schemes. These schemes are divided into two periods, the first period programme and the second period programme, beginning with 1st April, 1896, and terminating 31st March, 1906, and the intended ex- penditure,is as follows:-Army, first period, 43,329,400 yen; second period, 38,350,000 yen ; total 81,679,400 yen ; Navy, first period, 116,086, 400 yen; second period, 144,618,770 yen; total, 260,705,170 yen; making a grand total for Army and Navy of 342,384,570. The first period Army programme is divided into five healings, namely, construction of forts, building and equipment of barracks, manufacture of arms, development of arsenals, and extraordinary constructions; in the second period programme only the first three items appear. In the ordinary expenditure there is also a large increase in the Army and Navy votes to provide for the increase in the number of the officers and men.

The indebtedness of Japan on the 31st March, 18:08, amounted to 357,245,928 yen.

ARMY AND NAVY.

Until the war with China the Army consisted of six divisions and the Imperial Guards, with a peace footing strength of 70,000 in round numbers and a war footing of 268,000, exclusive of the Gendarmerie and the Ezo Militia; but on the conclusion of the war a large scheme of expansion was adopted, under which the number of divisions is to be raised to twelve, exclusive of the Guards, so that th peace footing will be 145,000, and the war footing 520,000, the expansion to be concluded in eight years from

1896.

At the conclusion of the war with China, Japan found herself in possession of a fighting fleet of forty-three serviceable vessels-independent of twenty-six torpedo- boats their aggregate displacement being 78,774 tons. Of these, ten, with an aggregate displacement of 15,955 tons, had been capture from Chin namely, an armour-clad turret-ship of 7,335 tons, two steel cruisers, six steel gunboats, and one wooden gunboat. (Prior to the capture of the Chen-yuen, now called the Chin-yen, Japan did not possess a line-of-battle ship. Her fleet consisted entirely of compara- tively small vessels). There were also on the stocks two steel cruisers and a steel despatch vessel. An expansion scheme, extending from 1st April, 1896, to 31st March, 1906, was then adopted and is now being carried out, vessels being in course of construction in Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany, as well as in the home yards. The building programme is as follows:- 4 first-class battle-ships of 15,240 toas each, 6 first-class cruisers of 9,200 tons each, 3 second-class cruisers of 4,850 tons each, 2 third-class cruisers of 3,200 tons each, 3 torpedo-gunboats of 1,200 tons