Of the parties other than the Government Party, the Seiyukai the main Opposition party is out-and-out anti-Kato. The Seiya Honto, which was once part of the Seiyu kai, is sitting on the fence and both the Kenseikai and the main 0} position party are wooing members of this section openly. The Seiyu Honto, as a mutter of fact, holds the balance of power, is quite conscious of this, and, so far, has put on high airs and has talked a great deal of "principles" and that sort of stuff rather than come down to the grim actualities of the sitiration. Of the other parties, the Shinsei Club are about one-half pro-Government and the other half anti, The Dokokai is anti-govers ment, if for no other reason than because the Seiyn Honto (from which it seceded about a moth ago) is regarded as favouring fusion with the Government. The other two parties are about one-half for the Government and the other half against it, The Kato Cabinet, it has been bruited through the columns of th pro-Kenseikai press, is ready for di solution, and Kato is reported to have told his chief lieutenants that, if the Opposition try obstructive or filibustering tactics, he would apply and secure from the Throne an order commanding solution of the Diet. The Kenseikai claims that, in the event of a general election, it will be returned with flying colours, None the less, beneath all the loud talk can be discerned a nate of anxiety—a desire that some compromise may be reached, and dissolution of the Diet avoided, especially because, of the enormous election expenses that obtain in Japan, Government, the Seiyu Honto, howe ever, maintains that its educational and agricultural policies are far superior to those of the Kato fol lowing and- that, if its policies in these two branches of public affairs are rejected by the Kenseikai, it will oppose the Government even. at the risk of dissolution of the Diet,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.