Genro

An old, old man sat in his house on Tokyo's Surugadai last week while the affairs of Japan slipped through his gnarled fingers. He was Prince Kimmochi Saionji, 92, the last of the Genro (Elder States-men). He was commander-in-chief of an Imperial Army at the age of 19. Nine years later he saw the end of feudalism in Japan, the beginnings of constitutional government. He has been Minister to Austria and Berlin. At the age of 79 he served as Japan's delegate to the Versailles Peace Conference.

The council of Genro was founded in 1875 as an intermediary between the political government and the Emperor. One by one they have all died. White-polled old Saionji alone remains. Every Japanese statesman begs his opinions. When he dies there will be no more Genro. A younger Prince Saionji might be dictator of Japan, but old Prince Saionji respects his trust.

Last week Prince Saionji, out of sight of the Press, shuttled back and forth between the Emperor and the politicians, while Japan was making history in China. Foreign Minister Kenkichi Yoshizawa talked for two hours with him, told him of all the diplomatic stir caused by Japan's action at Shanghai. Then the ancient Genro hurried to report the conversation to his Emperor and receive his instructions. Never was the old man's ripe wisdom so urgently needed.

The U. S., Britain, France and Italy made a five-point proposal for ending hostilities at Shanghai. Japan, on the advice of Prince Saionji, rejected it. Immediately anti-Japanese sentiment abroad began to crystallize. The U. S. Press had been outspoken from the first. The British Press now joined in. In Athens a Greek crowd threw rocks at the Japanese Legation. The Belgian Labor Party filed an official plaint. The Archbishops of Canter bury and York denounced the bombing of Chapei. Members of the Japanese Cabinet, alarmed, began to give interviews to foreign correspondents, in which they in sisted that their "misunderstood," that country's Japan was purpose only ful was filling its international "duty" at Shanghai.

The rank and file of the Japanese people remained exuberant with war hysteria. The War Department, disregarding Euro pean protests, sent the 9th and 12th Divisions of the Japanese Army to Shanghai to bolster the none-too-successful blue jackets of Admirals Shiosawa and Nomura.

Meanwhile Japan's militarism was mak ing trouble for Japan's business. The very day that troops were marching on Harbin and naval guns were bombarding the Whangpoo forts, Japanese bonds dropped to new lows in New York, prices crashed on the Tokyo stock exchange. The Yoko hama silk exchange, centre of one of Japan's most important industries, was forced to close. The Osaka sugar mills shut down last week, strangled by the Chinese boycott. By advice of old Prince Saionji no figures on the cost of Japan's military operations were allowed to ap pear.

Japan's general elections come Feb. 20. The mere fact that onetime-Premier Wakatsuki called on Prince Saionji was enough to start rumors in Tokyo that the party of peace was making a strong bid for a return to power. Since October no Japanese paper has dared oppose Ja pan's militarists. Last week an article appeared in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi signed "A Member of the House of Peers." No one denied that it came from the brush of Baron Kijuro Shidehara, Foreign Minister in the Wakatsuki Cabinet, forced out by the militarists in December. Said this peer:

"The deplorable trouble at Shanghai comes at a time . . . when a mistake on the part of Japan will jeopardize her national existence. ... If Japan acts correctly at Shanghai, the powers will conclude that her actions in Manchuria are equally correct. If the powers find Japan is wrong in Shanghai they will conclude she must be wrong in other parts of China.

"I hear talk of saving Japan's face. If China were a real power, Japan might have a 'face,' but China has not yet attained the rank of a power."

Even three weeks ago such an article would not have been allowed to appear. With at least one point in the article Baron Shidehara's successor, Foreign Minister Yoshizawa, seemed in agreement last week: China was not a power to be considered in any way. After a long week- end conference the Foreign Office announced to the Western Powers its new plan for China: The five most important Chinese cities, Tientsin, Tsingtao. Shanghai, Canton, Hankow, were to be taken over by the Powers, who would establish around them neutral zones 15 to 20 miles wide from which all Chinese soldiers and police were to be barred. The Western Powers promptly rejected the plan as a gross violation of Chinese sovereignty.

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