the Japanese Diet on January 21 in his dual capacity of Premier and Minister of Finance, Marquis Katsura delivered a "policy speech," and on January 24 this was supplemented by a speech by Count Komara, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. There is a difference of opinion in regard to the value of speeches of this nature, especially in their relation to foreign affairs. Some maintain that references ions to relations mined by custom and inspired by expediency; that they shed light upon the obvious, but leave in the shadow the obscure. Others, less cynical, hold that such utterances should be taken at their face value: and accepted us authoritative. In this, as in most other circumstances, the middle orares. It the safest; a Minister may be accorded due hey speech made by a responsible
respect and credence while it is remembered that a statesman's duty to avoid the elucidation of questions in regard to which the interests of his country would seem to be served best by silence or dissimulation. With this qualification the references made by Marquis Katsura and Count Komara to the foreign relations of Japan may be taken into consi ion, and for the sake of convenience the speech of the latter, in which the t's were crossed and the i's dotted with more care, will supply the text. On one point, that of Japan's attitude vis. the agitation in Great Britain inst the now tariff, the views of the Minister for Foreign Affairs' are of particular interest, as it was Count Komura who made the sweeping declaration that Great Britain's free trade policy left "no room" for a special tariff arrangement.
The announcement by Count Komura that Japan's foreign policy was based on the maintenance and promotion of peace in the Far East, may, in the phraseology of the company chairman, be taken as read, Similar treatment may be accorded to the assertion that the relations of Japan with other Powers remained cordial. Of more importance was the specific statement
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.