Weary Count

No shirker is square-faced Count Yasuya Uchida, until last week Japan's Foreign Minister. Thrice Foreign Minister in his prime, he was 67 and getting deaf last year when his Emperor called him back to gloss over Japan's Manchurian grab. Then he resigned as president of the South Manchuria Railway, a post that carried leadership of all Japanese interests in Manchuria, to direct the cocky demonstration of Japan's "right to Manchuria." By last week the Manchurian job was done and Count Uchida resigned to give way to a younger Foreign Minister, Koki Hirota, onetime Ambassador to Moscow. Observers called it "simply the substitution of a vigorous and unspent man for one who was weary."

If Count Uchida was weary, one of the things that tired him was the incessant, reiterated sabre-rattling of War Minister Sadao Araki. Last fortnight Araki proclaimed, "The men of the sword are the wholesome elements in the nation, while the business men are experienced warriors in the sphere of economics. This is no time for indulging in partisan politics. . . . Big changes are in store for the nation within the next three months." And last week Araki sounded off again. He demanded a 1,000,000,000 yen ($267,000,000 at current exchange) domestic loan to squeeze a still bigger Army and Navy out of gasping Japanese taxpayers. At the same time he pointed to the U. S. Atlantic Fleet's continued presence in the Pacific and the letting of new naval contracts to build the U. S. Navy close to treaty limits (TIME, Aug. 14): "There is no telling what America will do when her navy is definitely superior to Japan's after 1935-" Count Uchida had heard enough. He decided on a "big change'' right away: a long rest somewhere far from sound of Sadao Araki's voice.

The "vigorous and unspent" substitute, merry-eyed little Foreign Minister Koki Hirota, 55, is well tuned to Araki's voice. He began his career as a protege of two famed patriots (reactionaries). Mitsuru Toyama and Ryohei Uchida (no kin to the Count), now president of the notorious Black Dragon Society. But last week the Foreign Office hastily assured foreign correspondents that the new Minister's "ideas are practical and moderate as befits a statesman who has served in Washington and Europe." And Hirota himself followed this up by calling "hopeful . . . the outlook for amity between Japan and her three great neighbors--the United States, Russia and China." He promised the world to work for an arbitration treaty with the U. S. He promised his countrymen to work for "reasonable revision" of the Washington and London naval treaties. The Navy Minister, Admiral Mineo Osumi, also sounded off last week: "We are dissatisfied with present limitations and will demand a change of ratios at the next conference."

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