1939-01-06 — Page 6

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPII, FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1939.

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PERFORMANCE,

THE

CRISIS IN TOKYO

J

tury.

APAN HAS had a written Constitution for nearly a half cen-

To a considerable degree, if we think in terms of in conditions prevailing 1889, the year of its promul- gation, the document was

Hongkong Hotel worthy to be called liberal.

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Phone 27778-9

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Hongkong Telegraph. Wyndham St., Hongkong

'Phone 26615 January 6, 1939

Man and the State

a

WHAT IS happening in Japan?

There is a Cabinet crisis. Nothing extraordinary, you Haу. Other nations have Cabinet crlacs,

Yes. But for a parallel for the present crials in Japan you may have to go back to Mussolini's Match on Rome, or Hinden- burg's summons to Hitler to take over the reins of Government. It may be as bad as that, The fall of Konoye is the result of the latest, and possibly not the last, expression of the feudal spirit which has outlived the feudal system.

If you read the following article by Harold 8. Quigley, Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, you may form some Iden of the significance of events in Tokyo.

policy in all fields but one. On matters of national defence the supreme command, which we may best envisage as the severni military and naval agencies in collaboration, is empowered to decide.

This power, however, is limit- ed by the Cabinet's right to frame the budget and to carry on foreign relations.

·

While the former right does not extend to deleting budget The general nature of

items previously set up, it does cover new items. government under it was

However, the views of the Stubbs Rd. parliamentary. There was

a Diet or Congress,

The Constitution of Japan is, the Diet but to the Emperor. Cabinet must pass the scrutiny Cabinet, and an independent like all constitutions, but in a They may or not be selected from of the Privy Council, of the geuro, and of the palace advisers. Judiciary. A bill of rights gteater degree than others, large- the membership of the Diet.

Three of the Ministers, those At any stage of their progress carried the familiar protec- ly unwritten.

Looking first at the written of Foreign Affairs, War, and the toward the imperial signature tions to individual subjects and their property, includ- portion, we find a Diet of two Navy, are never so chosen, and they may be held up for revision

freedom. Chambers a House of Repre- the Ministers of War and of the or rejected outright.

Thus the Cabinet is constantly religious ing

under fire and subject to √ Beyond question, the new sentatives and a House of Peers, Navy are required by law to be

The former is elected by male generals or admirals.

Not mentioned in the Con- perplexing variety of controls. regime was more liberal

voters, aged at least 25 years,

The embarrassing strength of than the old.

who today constitute an elector- stitution hut established by law,

and of constitutional import- these checks upon the Cabinet ate of 14,400,000 men.

The House of Peers is partly unce, are three high advisers at springs from the age of the res- PICTURE the old regime! At appointed, partly elected. The the imperial palace, and the training organs and their closer

forces in the country. Kyoto, secluded from all men appointed peers receive their several agencies of the military kinship with the dominant social

of office from the and naval command.

Moreover, Japanese political Of the palace statesmen, the PAYE R few courtiers, remote warrants IF YOU WANT to learn some-

from actual affairs, kowtowed to Emperor but are nominated by thing about what is hap- as a god-emperor, but comes the Premier. The elected peers most influential is the Lord tradition calls for divided respon- pening in Japan, read the article pondingly contemned as an ac- are chosen by the various classes Keeper of the Privy Seal. The sibility. The theory of Cabinet reposed the of the nobility, by high tax- Imperial Household Minister and government is not yet establish- "Crisis in Tokyo" on this page. tual sovereign,

payers, and by the Imperiul the Lord Chamberlain also are ed in Japan. It can develop titular Mikado.

intimate advisers of the Em- only by understandings over a You will understand, then,

Academy. At Yedo, later called Tokyo,

Thus the two bodies differ peror. The influential military lengthy period. what is meant when you are

This development is not ham-

told that Baron

another figure-head, the shogun, Hiranumo,

the chiefs of staff of the army pered by the imperial preroga- greatest of the feudal lords (the considerably in social background agencies outside the Cabinet are Japan's new Premier, is a mem-

daimyo), and commander of the and attitude,

The Dict has not yet attained and the navy, the Imperial Mili- tive, since the Emperor does not on policy. No ber of an old Samurai family.

imperial armed forces, appeared

Marshals and Admirala.

doubt development would be IIe is a bachelor, 72 years of to be the actual head of the state, to an appreciable influence over try Council and the Board of make decisions

The two chiefs of staff may more rapid if he did. but was in fact the puppet of a national policy, due to the great-

The absence of imperial deci- cutive and to popular in-advise the Emperor independent- small coteric of Tokugawa clan ly superior powers of the exe- leaders,

democratic idens, ly of the Cabinet und of the sion results in frequent dead- locks and delays, out of which The latter delegated local nd- difference to

All of these officials are ap- ultimately emerges whatever ministrative powers to the tivo- an indifference which has been Ministers of War and Navy.

pointed by the Emperor upon ad- line of policy is favoured by the sworded samurai, whose despotic carefully fostered by the edu

cational authorities.

agency that is dominant at the moment. sway was only restrained by cus- tom and the fear that the pea- sant would revolt if life became

are.

He is one of Japan's most fer- vent apostles of nationalism, which means Fascism. Hiranu- ma once founded a nationalist society which attracted many leading figures in Japanese naval, military and financial circles. It differed from real Fascism in that it advocated totalitarianism by constitutional tau Significantly, ncans. rounder dissolved the order.

plied in Germany and Italy, come to Japan as a result of the change in Cabinet?

vice.

genro.

89

At one time that may be the intolerable. The people were THE EXECUTIVE, if we fol-

time the genro, since, even the low the written Constitution, FINALLY, and above all the Supreme command, at another

others, there is the bound to the soil, unconscious of

genre cannot always have the the This institution rests upon cus- deciding word. This means that their political potentiality, with is composed of the Emperor, out rights or the institutions of the Privy Council, and

tom alone, having no written

one or the other powerful group Cabinet. representation.

is likely to be resentful and It was, a long stride from that The Privy Council is a body legal foundation.

The word means "elder states- chosen for

to redress the balance cager Will totalitarianism, as apposition to membership, by elec- of 26 elderly men, from the man" and the holder of the posi- when a new issue arises.

tion of their neighbours, in na life by the Premier

the tion, Prince Saionji, now tional, provincial, and municipal ranks of the bureaucracy, assemblies, under the reorgani- military services, and the pro-years old, is the highest adviser

of the Emperor. The Cabinet is a group of earlier years have passed on, but

His half dozen colleagues of THE ROLE of the Diet in the zation laws of the late nineteenth fessions.

contest for power is a minor In old Japan the cult of Shinto dozen ministers

his remarkable influence was the dominant religious and heading a department, together vives, His approval is sought Impotent from the start, it social influence in the lives of with a premier.

by every executive agency for has had to rely upon the growth The Premier is appointed by every major proposal,

of popular political consciousness the people..

It inculcated loyalty to the the Emperor upon the advice of How do these several agencies to provide it with a leverage for

manage to function together? constitutional reform. gods from whom they were des- certain elder statesmen.

He and the other Cabinet The Cabinet is responsible for Unhappily, although there has cended; and especially to their tenno, the Emperor, himself a god and vicegerent of the gods.

on

century.

More than probably. Japan is already a semi-Fascist Easis. The power to completely subordinate the freedom of the community to the will of the State is provided by the Na- tional Mobilisation Act, which became law five months ago. That Act encountered consider able opposition in Japan's Diet. It was passed only after Prince Konoye promised that its provi- sions would not be enforced in toto unless an emergency | war. much graver than that provided by the conflict with China was forthcoming.

Konoye kept his promise and invoked only certain provisions

of the Act.

There is no shadow of doubt now but that the entire Act will be applied.

Sayonara?

APART FROM other consider

of state, each

members are responsible not to the formulation of

Loyalty to him meant, of course, obedience to the man GRIN AND BEAR IT dates of the officials, humility in times of depression, sacrifice in

How to preserve the attitude. while tolerating the growth of national discussion of govern- mental policies, was a problem for the men to whom the powers of government were transferred when feudalism fell.

FOR THOSE MEN were op-

posed to democracy. Natur- ally so, since they were samurai

of the feudal clans, chief among ations, Japan's financial them Choshu and Satsuma, rosition has become so desperate which had forced out the Toku- that mobilisation of all the na- tion's resources is imperative.

Even the totalitarian form of Communism may not Bave Japan. Remember, for the next 360 days she is committed to finding £1,000,000 a day. She has no overseas markets from which sho can borrow money or credit.

Has she a sufficient reserve of Internal resources to stave off bankruptcy, even with mobilisa Ition of all her private resources?

If not, it's Sayonara for Japan's hopes of victory in China,

kawa.

Their model for the Japanese Constitution was that of Prussia, an absolutist system with a very limited suffrage and a corres pondingly weak national legisla- turc.

Thoy purported to maintain! the oligarchy, substituting them- selves for the ousted men.

They would build up a power- ful bureaucracy, indebted to them for position rather than to the people and the Diet. They would let the people's delegatos: talk but not decide policy or con- trol administration.

Bur- one.

national been a considerable development along desired lines, it has not been fruitful because the House and the parties have steadily lost credit, due to their demonstrated lack of principles and willingness to lancrifice the cause of Liboralism for party success and individual enrichment.

By Lichty of Representatives

"lle's really a wonderful doctor-only this morning he said we look more like sisters than mother and daughter?”

THE REAL OPPOSITION to military extremism is sup- plied by the bureaucracy.

The permanent civil service, ramifying through the entire governmental structure, from the departments in Tokyo through the provincial adminis- trations, including the police, and highly centralised through the Ministry of Home Affaire, provides the warp and woof of government..

The strongest men in the poli- tical parties were formerly in tho civil service, while the Privy Council and the House of Pears take their tone from promoted bureaucrats. Even when the Cabinet la made up almost wholly of party members, the bureaucracy controls it.

The real contest for power in modern Japan has always bou one between two great bureau- cracies, the civil and tho.mill- tary.