out the late Count (then Marquis) Okuma was Prime Minister and offered Kato the portfolio of Foreign Affairs when he returned from England. It was Kato who framed the much-discussed Twenty-One Demands to China, election scandal led to the fall of Okuma, and, as he was about to resign, he recommended Kato the "next Premier. 'The Elder Statesmen and the clan chieftains, however, preferred to have a military' man in the saddle and Marshal Terauchi was appointed Premier. It was under his regime! that Japan played that lone and il-starred role in Siberia which only resulted in the loss of hundreds of iNions of yen, several fine young men, the suspicion of the world and, until tHe recent Russo-Japanese treaty was signed, the hatred of the Russian people.
Kato again was relegated to' obscurity and lived a retired life for a period of ten years. He erged later and, at the last general election, won over Viscount Kiyoura, The Throne has conferred high posthumous honours on the late Premier. His peerage was advanced to that of a Count, amongst other signal favours, he was awarded the Sacred Treasure of the Rising Sun—an honour that is only held by only three other Japanese, and not one of these a Prince or Princess of the Blood,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.