The results of the coup will not shape themselves immediately.
If, as seems improbable, the plot was hatched and executed by young officers in a single regiment, then civil government may continue under Mr. Goto, who became Acting Prime Minister on Wed- . . • — nesday only to resign in a few hours with the rest of the Cabinet, or sbincone else. The position of the Emperor is, of course, a factor in the situation. lk is unlikely to assert himself openly, but he still has wise advisers in Prince Saionji and Count Makino, and the army traditionally owes him blind allegiance. But it. is by no means certain that the army will acknowledge blind allegiance to anyone today. The tide of public opinion is running against it, us the recent elections show, and it is in such circumstances that the tempta- tion to resort to force is greatest. What is certain is that if the army should assume control, the economic situation of Japan, already gravely precarious, would become desperate. That there should be serious anxiety regarding military developments in China and on the frontiers of Mongolia is inevitable, for even with Cabinet control nominally established the Foreign Minister, Mr. Ilirota, could do little to give effect to the moderate policy which he and most of his Ministerial colleagues presumably approved. But here too no prediction is prudent till the dust has settled.
