Feb. 15.
Royaw na es still have their interest for ordinary folk and, even in this democratic age, are still capable of influencing a nation's destinies. And it would appear possible to see a special importance in yesterday's telegram from Tokio dealing with the betrothal of the Crown Prince Hirohito and Princess Nagako, daughter of Prince and Princess Kuniyoshi Kuni. It tells us that there lias been strong opposition to the match resulting, stated,.from the_ disappointment of some of the noble families of Kioto that the future Empress has not been selected from their numbers, as has been the traditional practice."" But the end of the story suggests deeper motives than these and the later telegrams do nothing to disturb: that view. The leader, or at any rate a prominent personage, in the opposition was Barom Nakamura, Minister of the Imperial Household, who did what he did with the approval"? of the aged statesman Marshal Prince Yamagata, President of the Privy Council. It is difficult not to imagine that Prince Yamagata's share in such an enterprise was something more than passive acquiescence.
Let us for a moment consider some of the chief personages in the story. It may be remembered that, when His Majesty Emperor Yoshihito came to the throne, he caused something like dismay among the older members of the Comt by his unceremonious behaviour. He liked to drive in public with an openness and informality that shocked the old-fashioned, and on divers eccas ions has shown a disposition to emphasize the popular, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.