That the Satsuma clan is in a very strong political position at home can be seen by a number of facts. The new Premier, as has been already pointed out, is the' chief of the, Satsuma clan. The Minister of the Navy who will retain his portfolio in the New Cabinet is the son-in-law of Admiral Yamamoto and an out-and-out upholder of the supremacy of the Satsumas over all other clans in Japan. The Minister for the Imperial Household, Viscount Makino, is a Satsuma man while the only two living Genro (Elder Statesmen), Prince ''Saionji and Prince Matsukata, are favourably inclined towards the aspirations of the Satsumas. To all these musi be added an even bigger fact—namely, that the fiancee of the Prince Regent and the future First Lady of the Japanese Empire is a princess of Satsuma extraction. It is thus evident that the* once dim star of Satsuma is in the ascendancy and as it waxes more and more brilliant, that of Choshu is destined to wane.
'WOUNDED NEWSPAPER VANITY, The Japanese press generally received the news of Count Admiral Gombei Yamamoto being called to head the new Ministry. with undisguised disappointment. The alleged implication of the new Premier in the Navy scandal of over a decade ago is again being revived and_ several papers are demanding that Admiral Yamamoto give a public explana-_ tion of how he came to be associated in the affair—which one paper, the "Yomiuri" an influential Tokio daily with _liberalist tendencies, describes "the most sordid political scandal that has ever disgraced Japan." Reading" between the lines, however, it can be seen that the disappointment of the press is largely due -to wounded vanity. For some days past, and even when the late Premier Kato was in office, tthe press has been urging that the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.