Insurance for the labouring population of Japan, who form 95 per cent, of Japan's teeming mil-ions, is the goal that Mr. Iso0.Abé leader of the Social Democratic Party, is after. Mr. AbG has just returned from a trip to the United States, where he is extremely popular, largely because it was he who introduced baseball into Japan, Jand, in the course of an interview with your correspondent, he said that some form of insurance for workers is absolutely necessary. His plan is to have the Government Insure every worker for employment at about ¥. 2.a day per head. This would entail an expenditure of 700 milieu yen a year, which, Mr, AbE said, could be amply paid for through assessments for income and inheritance taxes, and the five per' Jeent. of the non-labouring class of the Japanese population, he insist-Jed, could well afford to subscribe tothe insurance for labourers.
'The Social Democratic party has louty eight seats," he said late working for' the materialization Jot the social state which alone can solve the grave economic problem lof Japan. Although the—Social Democrats of Japan have a name imilar to that borne by one of the German parties in the Reichstag, Jour principles are, nevertheless, ferent from those of the British Labour party. We, too, are working for the ideal of @ social. state in which the problems of the labouring class can be solved in the most sensible manner."
Mr. Abe is over 60 years of age, four is in good health. He has sympathy with the rough and erade radical minority leaders, and insists Jon law and order first, last, and always. '-Befére he embraced' politics, he was a professor in Waseda [University, where his frank and guileless ways and his great love jof sports made him very popular.
Early Trouble for the Premier Aug. 3.
'The quarrel between' the Cabinet] and Gen. Yamanashi, the Governor General of Korea, as a result ut the Governor-General -refusing to resign his post, has a direct bear-1g on the delicate situation in Manchuria to-day. It was the intention of the Premier to select a civilian as Governor-General of Korea, but this the fighting ser-Viees—the high Korean post is one of the perquisites of office of the Army and the Navy—strongly opposed. In addition to pointing out that this post has always been held by a military or naval man and that the regulations require that such be the case, high dignitaries_ of the War Office and the Navy Department also declared that at the present time it would be unwige to appoint a civilian, and that neither of these two Departments would acquiesce in such an appointment. Last week, the Premier asked the Minister of War to mediate in this quarrel. The latter said he would do so as a his capacity of Cabinet Minister. Office, the elder ele-it in their deter-ian should not be appointed, while similar views prevailed in the Navy Department.
Should the Premier insist, it might lead to a break-up of "the Cabinet, for the War and Navy Ministers are responsible for their cts only to the Throne direct.
The Arbitration Treaty Negotiations for the revision of the Japan-America Arbitration Treaty, which expired "on August] 23, 1028, will shortly be formally started between Mr. Débiuchi, Japanese envoy to the United States, and the American State Department. Delay in ratifying the Kel long Pact held up these negotiations for some time, and, as soon as ratification of the Kellogg Pact had been obtained, Baron Tanaka, Just before the collapse of Cabinet, cent. an inquiry to sth State Department regarding some Points in the former treaty which the Japanese "Government desire to be revised or clarified. The!
State Department, according to information just received here, 1s} now drafting the reply to be sent] to Tokyo, Considerable importance is attached to the new Arbitration Treaty, as it is believed here that! it will' be so drafted as to constitute a further guarantee of the: Anti-War Pact, thereby considerably strengthening the "Kellogg act.
The Japan-America Treaty ut Arbitration was concluded in. 1908.
When the treaty was about to ex. pire, Japan proposed its continu tion' for a further ten-year period, but this suggestion did not meet with the views of the United States, largely because the United States' desires certain specific reservations regarding questions that looks upon as internal affair the principal of them being the question of immigration,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.