Fox v. Archer

Elderly Japanese read the papers through their spectacles last week and realized that there are more ways of fighting a war than the winning of battles. Manchuria troops moved out of Mukden almost without opposition and occupied the village of Lanchihpu. Military conquest of the three Manchurian provinces-- Heilungkiang, Kirin, Fengtien--was almost complete. Behind a shield of Chinese puppet officials, Japanese authorities were rapidly turning the entire district into a Japanese colony.

Japanese directors have taken control of all important banks in Mukden.

Chinese cotton mills are operating under Japanese administration; so are the Fuchouwan coal mine (largest Chinese mine in South Manchuria), the Chinese Light & Power Co. and dozens of other important industries.

All Manchurian railways except the Soviet-controlled Chinese Eastern are either openly Japanese-operated or under Japanese control--BUT

The Government of that saki-drinking toxophilite Reijiro Wakatsuki fell Tokyo last week. Japan went off the gold standard; the Tokyo stock exchange closed.

The Japanese are a secretive people. Only last week were correspondents able to form a clear picture of what has been occurring in Manchuria and Japan. There exists in the Japanese army an ultranationalistic politico-religious society of younger officers, so secretive that foreign correspondents do not even know its name. Avidly have these officers yearned for the conquest of Manchuria. It is they who assembled the 300 Incidents, a list of Manchurian insults to Japan widely publicized in the Japanese press. Last summer a delegation of these younger officers called with their list on Premier Wakat-suki, Foreign Minister Baron Kijuro Shi-dehara, Finance Minister Junnosuke Inoue and begged for a war.

Patiently the statesmen explained that this was no time for a war with China. Japan's business and finances were in parlous state. Japan's second-biggest indus-try is clothing China and providing her with manufactured articles. Chinese troops cannot fight a modern army, but China has one terrible weapon, the boycott. An effective boycott of Japanese goods would be catastrophe. This reasoning impressed elderly Japanese generals, but not the younger officers. They waited for a 301st Incident. They got it with the execution of Captain Shintaro Nakamura by Manchurian troops (TIME, Sept. 28). Start officers kicked over the traces and took matters into their own hands.

Only one Japanese newspaper, the Tokyo Asahi, attempted to present the opposition viewpoint. The War Department held up its despatches until every other paper had scooped its Manchurian news. Circulation dropped by the tens of thousands. The Asahi capitulated.

Meanwhile just what Ministers Wakat-suki and Inoue had feared was occurring in China. The anti-Japan boycott was working as no boycott had ever worked before. Exports to China have shriveled. Last month they totaled only $5,212,500, compared to $16,243,000 year ago.

Foreign countries pounded the yen. It was only in January 1930 that Japan was able to lift the gold embargo that had been in force since 1917. By that time Finance Minister Inoue had been able by strict economies to assemble a gold reserve of about $550,000,000, providing 100% coverage for note circulation. By the end of last month Japan's gold holdings had been cut in half. Since October more than $152,000,000 in gold has been shipped to the U. S. Last week Premier Wakatsuki drove to the Imperial Palace and tendered his resignation to the Son of Heaven. According to immemorial custom, Emperor and Elder Statesman Prince Saionji conferred, then offered the Govment to the leader of the Seiyukwai Party, grey-bearded Ki Inukai.

In 48 hours he had assembled a cab leading off with his son-in-law:

Foreign Affairs--Kenkichi Yoshizawa Finance--Korekiyo Takahashi War--Lieut-General Sadao Araki Navy--Admiral Mineo Osumi Interior--Tokugoro Nakahashi Justice--Kisaburo Suzuki Education--Ichiro Hatoyama Commerce--Yonezo Maeda Agriculture--Teijiro Yamamoto Communications--Chuzo Mitsuchi Railways--Takejiro Tokonami

Old Fox. Premier Wakatsuki known as "The Archer," for toxophily was his hobby. His predecessor, Yuko Hamaguchi, was called "The Lion." Premier Inukai, 77, is known to every Japanese as "Old Fox." His first name intricate arrangement of 15 brush st which may be translated either a Takeshi, Tsuyoshi, or Kogashi. Reporters called his family last week, asked which name was the correct one. A son replied politely that all four were correct. Pressed to know which one the family use son murmured that no one in the family would dream of calling him anything but Otosan--Honorable Father. Honorable Father Inukai is famed as an art collector and formerly as a great hiker. He has attended every session of the Diet since its foundation in 1890 and until a few ago he spent every vacation scrambling over one another of the mountains of Japan.

His coming into power is another temporary victory for the young staff officers, for Old Fox Inukai and the entire Seiyukwai Party are disciples of the late Tanaka, last exponent of the Mail Fist for China. But his first duty, no the Manchurian conquest, was to restore, Japan's gold embargo and close the stock exchanges.

There were plenty of shrewd Japanese who made money by the move. The great banking houses of Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo had been buying dollars for weeks. When the embargo went in, the yen dropped from 49-c- to 40-c- The three banks were reported to have made a handsome profit of about $17,000,000.

Tokyo papers who dared not oppose the occupation of Manchuria could at least say what they thought of the change in government and Japan's outlook.

"Now the thing is done," said the Asahi "Japan must make the best of it is very questionable whether the hop on the abandonment of the gold standard will be realized."

Gloomed the Nichi Nichi: "The people as a whole will suffer from the abandonment of gold. Increase in prices will not be accompanied by an increase in purchasing power and much suffering caused to the poor."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.