Dictators and People Any evidence of the existence of a
vocal public opinion in a dictatorship country is so rare that there may be a danger of attaching exaggerated importance to it. A rather striking telegram from Tokyo in Wednesday's Daily Telegraph should be read with that in mind. The correspondent who sent it pointed to three "considerable victories" with which public opinion in Japan must be credited even in the midst of the prevalent war-fever. The extremists, it appears, would have made no reply at all to the British Note ; the moderates forced the compromise answer that has been despatched. The Cabinet was compelled by public demands to issue a statement, admittedly vague, about the possibility of a settlement with China, and for the same reason the operation of emergency economic legislation, which advocates of the totalitarian system would have liked to see made permanent, has been limited to one year after the end of hostilities. A day earlier The Times Berlin corre- spondent, writing of Signor Mussolini's impending visit to Germany, commented on the surprising lack of enthusiasm for the visit among the mass of the working classes, who seem to fear lest Italy may drag Germany into war. These are at the best no more than straws, and not very weighty straws at that, but such as they are they have their interest. But while in Japan there were till recently undoubted signs of an attempt by the Diet to put the brake on the military leaders, little or nothing can be expected to come of that while war continues.
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