Premier Admiral Kato was the youngest son of a poor and multitudinous family of Hiroshima, a seaside town on the Inland Sea that has given Japan some of her best sailors. His parents died while he was still an infant, and when he was 12 years of age he entered the Navy, then in am infancy as marked as his own, and at the age of 94 became a midshipman. He was educated at the Kaigum: Heigakko, at Edajima, an institution that corresponds to the American' Annapolis or the British Chatham. In 1899 he was promoted to the rank of Captain, ang afterwards taught in the Naval Academy. His advancement through construction supervisor and sectional chief was followed in 1903 by his elevation to the post of Chief of Staff of a standing squadron. In naval experience, he has boxed the compass. In. diplomacy, he has been regarded by those who observed him at Washington and after he became Premier as making up through force of character, penetration, intellectual independence and freedom from entaglements of domestic politics what he lacked in not having a political following of his own. Through four successive administrations of different political complexions, prior to his own Ministry, he has continued as Minister of the Navy and retained that responsibility in, addition to his duties as Premier until a very short time ago. He has had, it is true, the backing of the Seiyukai (Ministerialist) party, but he did not lean too much on them for support.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.