News of the Week
THE assassination .of the Japanese Prime Minister, -L M. Inukai, following so soon on the bomb outrage in Shanghai and the assassination of M. Inouye in Feb- ruary, means that any prominent politician in Japan goes in peril of his life to-day. On every ground the tragic fate that has fallen M. Inukai is profoundly to be deplored, for the Prime Minister was essentially a man of modera- tion, which is, no doubt, the reason why certain military oflieers: determined to dispose of him. It was never more difficult:than to-day to form an accurate estimate of what the political situation in Japan really is, or of how serious the militarist movement promises to be. There is no sign at present that it is anything but destructive or that ordinary civil Government is likely to be superseded. The soldiers, it is true, are dictating their terms. A national non-party Government must be constructed, for the array chiefs refuse to approve of a War Minister in any party administration. The new Prime Minister is likely, hoWeverfrto be M. Suzuki, who has been chosen to succeed M. Inukai as leader of the Seiyukai party. The so-called " blood brotherhood " involved in the murders of M. Inouye and Baron Takuma Dan appeals to be of only limited scope, but there is a temper abroad in Japan expressing itself through various organi- zations, Compared variously with the Fascist and Nazi movements in Europe, and the struggle between them and the forces working for the maintenance of normal civil Government may yet work up to a crisis. * * * *
