What was regarded on Saturday night as inevitable actually occurred yesterday morning, when General Nobuyuki Abe, after consultation with his colleagues, submitted the resignations of the Cabinet to the Throne, receiving the. Royal command to continue in office until his successor had formed a Government. It was not expected when General Abe accepted office at the end of August that his Government would be anything more than a makeshift. The new ministry was then regarded as "flat and lacking in vitality," despite the fact that General S. Hata's acceptance of the position of Minister for War added some strength to General Abe's Cabinet, which was later reinforced by the appointment of Admiral Nomura to the Foreign Ministry. During the four-and-a-half months in which he held office, General Abe sought to bring about an improvement in Japan's foreign relations, following the reverse which the Cabinet of his predecessor, Baron Hiranuma, had received when Germany betrayed the Anti-Komintern bloc by signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet. The appointment of Admiral Nomura to the Foreign Office was a definite step in the direction of improving relations between Japan and the United States, and the fact that up to the present no very great improvement has been effected, is by no means due to any fault of the Abe Cabinet, but rather to the legacy which preceding ministries had left him. In this connection it may be pointed out that General Abe's downfall is not to be attributed to any radical modification of Japan's foreign policy, for apart from endeavouring to create a better atmosphere in which to deal with neutral Powers interested in China, he pursued the same policy vis-à-vis of the China Incident as had been adopted as far back as Prince Konnoye's ministry. When it was divulged that a large number of Diet members called upon Genergl Abe to resign, threatening to propose ay vote of non-confidence in the Diet should he insist on remaining in office, it was at first thought that General Abe would be able to control the situation.
It was indeed hoped in some quarters that that would prove to be the case, but once he had been advised by his own War Minister that it would be advisable for him to relinquish office, it became clear that an important section of the Army was behind the recalcitrant members of the Diet, and the fate of General Abe's administration was sealed. Despite the difficulties which it was apparent were ahead of him, General Abe went straight to the task of endeavouring to solve as many of the outstanding problems with which Japan was confronted as quickly as possible. On September 12, the headquarters of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in China was announced. Three days later, following months of fighting on the Manchoukuo-Outer Mongolian border Soviet-Japanese hostilities were terminated by a truce. October saw the attention of the Japanese Government being drawn to the strained relations between itself and Washington, and though Admiral Nomura strove manfully to bring about a readjustment between the two countries, especially in face of the impending expiration of the American-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, including the announcement of the Japanese intention to reopen the Yangtze to international navigation up to Nanking, all efforts to bring about agreement concerning a new treaty, or at least a modus vivendi, have failed. There is now very little prospect of the latter now being reached before the date of the expiry of the Treaty, namely January 26. Nevertheless, it is not the failure of General Abe's foreign policy which has led to the present situation, thought it is reported that one of the criticisms levelled against him was his "fawning diplomacy" towards the United States. The real cause is more likely to be found in the internal problems which have arisen, and some doubt as to the ability of his Cabinet to solve them. Since his assumption of office difficulties, which his predecessors escaped, have arisen. The outbreak of the European war caused the Government to take drastic steps imposing control over stock market transactions, while storage charges, rents, salaries, wages, insurance rates and processing charges were frozen in order to prevent war boom inflation.
addition to these severe tests to which the country was being subjected, drought in Korea and Japan led to a poor rice crop, and shortage of water for industrial and power concerns, increasing the demand for coal, and reducing the amount of that fuel available for household use. Restriction of the use of rice for brewing purposes followed, and over and above all this the nation faced the prospect of another huge budget for the coming financial year. It is consequently understandable why so many feared that General Abe, who had no previous experience as Prime Minister, should come to be regarded as not quite the man to lead the nation through its present difficulties, The seriousness of the situation may best be observed in the very definite reluctance of the likely men to succeed to the tasks which General Abe has been obliged to relinquish. It is quite clear that whoever does succeed to the premiership will be faced with the heavy responsibility of having to make very grave decisions, and the next Prime Minister of Japan will have to be a strong man in himself, and command the widest possible support from all parties, civilian as well as the services. The developments of the next few days will be watched with anxiety as well as interest. It is to be assumed that whoever takes office will adhere to policies already decided upon with regard to China, but it will also be hoped that the policy which General Abe was following of endeavouring to improve relations between Japan and the third-party Powers with interests and rights in this country will be adhered to. It would indeed be a thousand pities if the good work which has been: done during recent months were undone by any reversal of policy in this particular respect. The formation of a strong Cabinet capable of solving the problems with which Japan is beset, is of paramount importance, and, if the next Premier succeeds in bringing about unanimous support for hiinself and his ministry, there appears to be no reason why the future should not bear as much promise of all-round-betterment, as General Abe's sought to effect.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.