By his appointment of Parliamentary' executive officials and. the expansion of the scope of their work and influence, Premier Konoye has therefore gone far toward adjusting this unequal balance and winning the necessary support of the political parties and, through them, of the Lower Chamber of the Imperial Diet. He distributed the 24 appointments fairly, giving ten each to the Min-Helto! and ihe Seiyukai and the remaining four to the minor fave for the non-ce-operating Shaka Talshuto, Up to the present the Prince-Premier has fully justified by his acts nation's confidence in his fairness belief in his "fundamental {iberatiem, albeit a liberalism adapted to peculiar Japanese conditions, psychology and political evolution. 4t differs in many respects from the Uberalism of England or America, and the very word "liberalism" is Acne too popular in many quarters of Japan to-day, but nevertheless through Prince Konoye it is living and functioning in a distinctly kimono-clad form. Some there may be who do not recognize it in this garb, but the political parties and the Tberals of Japan do, which is added explanation of their willingness to go along with rather than oppose the Present Ministry.
There is another reform which Prince Konoye is determined to effect and which he seems destined to do <the reform of the House of Peers. Probably no other man in the Empire could accomplish this, but Prince Konoye has been an" hereditary member of that House since his 25th year and stepped from its presidency Into the Premiership. Three other members of his official family moved from seats in the Upper Chamber into the Government. The consequ~ ence is that the Peers will heed and obey Prince Konoye in a way that would be impossible with a Prime Minister possessing different antecedents, connections and background.
Resteletion to be Removed The whole nation, including, the House of Peers itself, has long recognized the need of reform of the Upper House, but it has been taken out largely in talk save for one minor change some few years ago whereby the membership was slightly reduced. When the late, Prince drafted the constitution slightly more than a half-century ago, there is no doubt but that he intended the House of Peers to represent the old military aristocracy and samurai, and to act as a restraining influence and check on the Lower Chamber. Tt was specified that more than one-half of its membership must always be composed of the peerage, a restric tion which Prince Konoye intends to remove.
'This was specified because not all members of the House of Peers are jsiso members of Japan's modern' peerage by any means. Princes of {he Blood Imperial compose the frst the Ave separate classifications of, Lits membership. Because the Imperial Family in Japan is ever held to be superior to and above politics, these Princes of the Blood never take their seats.
'The second group is made up of all created Princes and Marquises or their heir-descendants, who take their seats at the age of 25 by virtue of birth, It is to this class that Premier Prince Konoye belongs by hereditary' ight. His father had been President the Upper Chamber many years ago. The third group of titled members of Japan's House of Peers comes (com the counts, viscounts and barons, These peers of the realm elect ¢rom among their own membership a speeifle number to serve in the Upper House for seven-year terms, They are "the second most active group, the princes and marquises (mostly the descendants of the Daimyo, or feudal lords, of pre-Meiji Jupan) paying but little attention to. affairs of State with the exception of 'a few such men as the present Premier. The counts, viscounts and barons belong in the, main to a "club" (political parties being taboo in the Upper House) called: the Kenkyulcal, and it is the Kenkyukai which is mast violently opposed to reform in the House of Peers, but it is unlikely to carry this opposition to the point of seeking to balk the Government, Life Membership Gro:
The fourth group, and the one which actually conducts most of the business of the Peers, consists of, jacu nominated by the Emperor for! ife membership because of distin guished service to the State. Among them will be found educators, high retired Army and Navy officers, jex-diplomats and former political leaders. During the days when party government dominated affairs in Japan each retiring party Premier velzed the opportunity of recommending for membership in the Upper House some of his fellow parly leaders, offseting to some extent the influence of the hereditary' nobility, although the nobility always: has a majority as originally stipula The Afth and last group of Upper: House members represent the wealthy classes of the nation. In each pre= fecture the fifteen highest tax-paying individuals elect one from among their own number to serve [seven-year term, This, then, is the composition of JJopan's Upper House as It stands at present, but it is to be drastically Joltered by Prince Konoye if he has hig way—and the odds are that he wil," He has not stated the definite planks in his reform policy, there being a commission now at work studying this problem, but he has tuted his guiding principles and more than hinted at certain of the specific steps he plans to take.
He holds that the Lower Chamber should represent the great mass of the people on a geographical basis, just as it now does or purports todo, jand that the Upper House should represent the best brains of the Empire, the ultra-experts in all phases jot lite. Naturally this would ex-Jclude many if not most of those sceupying seats by hereditary right, land Prince Konoye would joyfully do this save that the Princes of the Blood may still be left their courtesy Jmembership which they never exercise. He would cut the total memluership by about one-third.
Since his university days in Kyoto the present Premier has made a special study of reform of the Upper House, and the subject lies very close to his heart. Because of this flong study and because of his per-[sonal experience with the Peers, first Jas a member and then gs president Jof the Chamber, he is himself prob-Jably the outstanding expert in the Empire on this particular question. He sees his opportunity now to ac-Jcomplish a deeply cherished desire, jand he may be depended upon to eond ovey effort in that direction.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.