ABSTRACT
NEVER was the lack of any constitutional machinery for advising the Emperor so keenly felt. Viscount Kiyoura, President of the Privy Council, tried to bridge over the difficulty. He visited the two aged invalids, Prince Matsukata and Prince Saionji, the last of the Genro, and was presumed to have discussed matters with them; under the eye of a crowd of watchful journalists he visited Count Makino, Minister of the Imperial Household, and Viscount Hirata, Keeper of the Privy Seal. But Kiyoura was hopelessly conservative; he dreaded men whose minds were not firmly rooted in mediævalism. In the end he advised the Emperor that he could find nobody but himself to make a Cabinet. Not that he aspired to office: he would greatly have preferred to be spared such responsibilities. Nor was his assumption of office popular, for though he enjoyed great prestige he commanded no confidence. He formed a Cabinet even more “transcendent” than Count Yamamoto’s, being composed entirely of members of the House of Peers. Dr. Midzuno came back as Home Minister, in spite of the Korean tragedy, and General Akaike as head of the Metropolitan Police. Akaike was a great believer in police rule, and in the previous June had arrested all the more prominent Socialists. They were kept safe in prison throughout the horrors of the earthquake, and were still there. Akaike confessed that the chief difficulty concerning them was that they would confess nothing and that the police knew nothing.
