Tokyo, Dec. 27.
Members of the Lower House of the Japanese Diet received their pay envelope, amounting to Yen 250, yesterday. of the loud-speaker, incessant debater, who is a feature of the Japanese House of Representatives. for this year was also pay-day, they accordingly lay in wait outside and politely presented their claims as the members strutted out, some with their brows lined with anxiety for the fate of the Government (which will mean another general election and the expenditure of at least Yen 25,000 per head on an average to secure another seat in the national debating assembly); others panting after the invective they had hurled at the heads of Premier Kato and the Coalition Ministry.
The scene presented in the precincts of the Upper House, when the lower branch of the Diet was adjourned after the morning session and pay-time had arrived, was Tudierous in the extreme. Still, it was in perfect keeping with the inkstand-hurling manners that have been a characteristic of the Lower House for years. No sooner had the President declared an adjournment than there was a rush towards the paying booth.
Pushing, jostling. elbowing one another; shouting, gathering up their hayama (skirts worn over the Kimono) and practically doing the Gaby Glide on their straw sandals the legislators of the realm rushed to the cashier and there got their Yen 250 each. They then made a bee-line for the door, only to be met by extremely polite creditors to whom they soon parted with the money they had been 30 anxious to clutch.
Pay-time in the Japanese House of Representatives is unique, and is more laughter-provoking ' than any of the antics of Charlie Chaplin or even those of the rhinoceros in the 200. It pays one to go to the Diet sometimes, even if he has to sit through tedious talks of which he can but faintly understand the drift.
And the creditors. Nemesis wa awaiting them too when they got back home. For seated right on their genkan (doorstep) were their creditors. The year-end is setth ment-time in Japan, and everyone is in a mad hurry for the wherewithal to meet bills that have been
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.