If Viscount Kiyoura and his official family decide to throw up the: sponge and step out of office, there are Opposition leaders, with experience in the conduct of State affairs, who are ready to step in. Viscount Kato, lender of the Kenseikai, the largest Opposition party now—in fact, the largest single party in the new Dict—is already being spoken about as the next Premier. He is a capable man, for universal manhood suffrage and in a re-orientation of Japan's foreign policy, especially with regard to Russia and China and other Asiatic nations. There is one drawback to Viscount Kato ax Premier, this being that, when Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Okuma Cabinet in 1915, he vigorously advocated the use of the big stick towards China and \was the author of the notorious Twenty-One Demands, the very mention of which rocks China with passion, Just at the present time, when there is much talk of capital: izing China's goodwill, "especially in view of the American immigration legislation" as one vernacular paper puts it, Viscount Kato is not being particularly lionized. But it is possible the Viscount Kato has changed considerably during the. past decade.
Dr, Takahashi, who dramatically: fung away his peerage and stepped down to the ranks of the commoners to fight against the "satanic attempt" of Viscount Ki to "throttle constitutionalism," was once Prime Minister succeeding the murdered Mr. Hara, His tenure of office was notable for nothing being done. As a matter of fact, astute caders of the Seiyukai (then the largest party in the Lower House) simply used unsuspecting Mr. Taka-hoshi to further their own ambitions. Mr. Takahashi, so far as indications show, is not anxious appear in an official east og:
Mr. Yukio Ozaki, at one time Minister of Justice' and easily the foremost Liberal in Japan, will very y be included in the next formed by the Opposition parties. If his services are enlisted, then the Cabinet will possess one of the most brilliant fand most refined intellects in the Empire and a man whose sincerity of purpose and integrity cannot be doubted. Mr. Ozaki is also a warm supporter of anything that tends to the reduction of armaments. His views on disarmament include not merely the scrapping of engines of destruction, but also the creating of fan atmosphere of understanding where suspicion lurks. This, he calls "mental disarmament," and insists that it is necessary asthe scrapping of warships or the reduction of armies, if the battle-flag must be kept furled. These are the main figures in the Opposition camp today and are likely Cabinet timber.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.