May 3.
Of an electorate of 13 million—19 per cent. of the population of Japan broper—71 per cent. have voted. This is described as apathy, but in the last General Election for Great Britain and Ireland, where 67 per cent. of the population is one franchised, a 76 per cent. poll was considered to be satisfactory, indeed! it compared favourably with the 6 er cent, in 1922, for example, At all events it seems that the we ce-operating, political parties, the Minseito and Seiyukai, have commanded what they will regard as gratifying support in their opposi-ion to the Government, whose supporters, in spite of an tinprecedent-4 effort on the part of Ministers and a considerable strengthening, of restrictions on the free expression of their opponents' opinions, have cut a sorry figure. It is suggested that General Senjuro Hayashi will defer the meeting of the Diet to the latest possible date in order to have clear path for defining his futai policy in the light of the formidal constitutional issues likely tw arise from the verdict atthe polls. The success of the two maj Parties receives special emphasis from the support given to the Social Masses Party which is expected 10 have forty seats instead of the twenty held in the last Diet, Apparently the charge of apathy against the electors is base 0 much on their voting as on the diminishment of the number of offences for violating, the election laws, only about half the figures for 1936 having been recorded. This may indicate the greater effectiveness of the more Stringent rules in restraining oratory calculated to promote disturbances.
As the poll has reached so high a percentage of the number of electors on the roll, the triumphant parties can argue that their success is representative. They may discover, too, that the elaborate deiinition which the police authorities
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.