Potent Premier

Reijiro Wakatsuki towers among men. He is Premier of Japan. He is six feet tall. His achievements as poet, statesman, athlete, financier are staggering (TIME, Apr. 5). At 60 he still holds the jiu-jitsu championship of Japan and twangs a deadly longbow. Last week he went a-fishing.

As his light sampan sailed over tiny crisping wavelets of Kamakura, a stalwart bodyguard of two policemen squatted respectively at bow and stern. The Premier's secretary, deft, obsequious, baited his hook.

Without warning the sampan struck a log, overturned in half a twinkling. The policemen, both unable to swim, sank. . . .

Premier Wakatsuki and his secretary swam. They swam down to the two policemen, swam up dragging them by the hair, kept swimming until another sampan rescued all.