Up Saito!

Over the heads of 20 senior Japanese diplomats a bristling young nationalist was boosted last week from Minister at The Hague to Ambassador at Washington.

According to Rengo, Japanese news agency, Premier Viscount Makoto Saito broke the iron-clad seniority rule of Japan's Foreign Office when he was handed by War Minister Lieut.-General Sadao Araki this stiff memorandum: "In appointing our Ambassador to the United States at this important time, with the 1936 crisis ahead, such considerations as dignity, past career, equity and sentiment must be discarded and a man of ability chosen in the interests of the country. In the light of these considerations, we find Hiroshi Saito, present Minister to Holland, the right person for the post."

By "the 1936 crisis" Japan's militarists mean "the big war" (see p. 36). In Ambassador Saito they will have a spokesman who can laugh as meaningfully as President Roosevelt himself. In many of the world's capitals "Saito parties" are familiar to the diplomatic set. There is always plenty of rice wine and champagne, plenty of Scotch whiskey, plenty of noise. A great hostess, Mrs. Saito is a daughter of the Court Physician of Japan's greatest Emperor, the late Meiji.

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