Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament, substantial economies were possible in the Budget for 1923-24 introduced in the Diet in January. The defence estimates showed a reduction of some 29,000,000l. for the naval and military services. On the other hand, an additional sum of 2,600,000l. was allocated to education, an increase of nearly 45 per cent. Steps were also taken to readjust and somewhat lighten the taxation of income and business. A sum of 55,000,000l., spread over seventeen years, was set aside for the purpose of modernising army equipment and fortifications. Early in March, a total of 7,000 men were discharged from the naval arsenals at Tokio, Kioto, and Kuré, and by August a reduction of 500 officers, 500 special service officers, and 11,000 non-commissioned officers and men had been effected in naval personnel. On September 20, nine warships which were destined to be scrapped in accordance with the Treaty were struck off the Navy List, and assembled for scrapping at the Yokosuka and Kuré Naval Yards. On February 10, a measure of far-reaching importance was brought forward by the Government in the House of Representatives for the introduction in Japan of the Jury System. The Bill was immediately referred to a Committee, and on March 21 passed the Upper House, its provisions to become effective in 1928. Subsequently the Government despatched a commission of judicial and legal experts from the Ministry of Justice to England where they were given the fullest opportunity of investigating the workings of the Jury system. Already in January, the health of the Prime Minister, Admiral Baron Tomosaburo Kato, had given rise to some anxiety, and on August 24 his death took place, Count Uchida, the Foreign Minister, being appointed Acting Premier, ad interim. On August 28, Admiral Count Yamamoto was summoned by the Prince Regent and invited to form a Cabinet. Count Yamamoto, whose last administration was in 1913, accepted the task of forming a Ministry and was still engaged upon it when the earthquake took place. On September 2 the chief posts in the Cabinet were filled, the remainder being completed a few days later. It is of interest to record that the first meeting of the Yamamoto Cabinet took place in the open air, amid the smoking ruins of the official quarter of Tokio. The composition of the Cabinet was as follows: Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Admiral Count Gombei Admiral Takeshi Taka- Viscount Shimpei Goto. Mr. Hiranuma. Mr. Okano. Mr. Ichiji Yamanouchi. At fifty-eight minutes and forty-seven seconds past eleven o'clock on the morning of Saturday, September 1, Japan experienced one of the greatest earthquake disasters in her history, the area affected measuring some 80 miles deep by 120 miles broad, and including the prefectures of Tokio, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Shidzuoka. More than 1,700 distinct shocks were recorded on the seismograph in the three following days, and shocks of varying intensity continued for two months. In Tokio the greatest damage was caused by the conflagration which broke out immediately after the first shock, eighty-three separate fires occurring within twenty-four hours. When these had been got under control on the morning of September 3, the only two wards of the city which had escaped were Ushigome and Azabu. The Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Education, Agriculture and Commerce, Communications and Railways, as well as the Metropolitan Police Headquarters and the Arsenal, were all burnt down, and almost all the other Government offices, including the Foreign Office, suffered damage. In addition, earthquake or fire destroyed the Ministry of the Imperial Household, the famous Niju-bashi (the bridge entrance to the Imperial Palace), the French and Italian Embassies and the Chinese and Dutch Legations. The Imperial University, including the Library, and other University Buildings, the Uyeno Railway Station, many schools, hospitals, newspaper offices, and the big departmental stores, with the greater part of the business quarter of Tokio, were reduced to ruins. Over 300,000 houses were consumed, rendering 1,356,000 people homeless in Tokio alone. The loss of life in Tokio was very great, the dead numbering 67,106, and the missing 34,536, whilst 41,296 were injured. Yokohama was practically blotted out, great destruction having been caused by fire and by a tidal wave, in addition to the earthquake. The casualties were 23,440 dead, 3,183 missing, and 24,053 injured, and some 70,000 houses were destroyed. The Government, which, as stated above, was actually in process of formation at the time of the earthquake, took immediate steps to meet the situation. Martial Law was promulgated throughout the devastated area, and, in view of the destruction of railway communications and general transport, the Navy was utilised to the fullest extent to bring supplies for the relief of the sufferers from other parts of Japan to convenient points on the coast of the affected districts. Troops were employed in repairing telegraph and telephone lines and bridges, clearing up débris, burying the dead and erecting temporary shelters for the living. A large contingent of Red Cross workers was despatched to the scene, the whole of the staffs throughout the country having been mobilised. By September 12 some 12,000 cases had been dealt with in Tokio alone, and mobile relief columns were at work on measures of sanitation and disinfection. The Emperor contributed 10,000,000 yen for relief purposes and help in money and in supplies began to pour in from almost every quarter of the globe. The Prince Regent, who had refused to leave Tokio, took an active part in relief work and the Empress, who had been in residence with the Emperor at the Imperial Villa at Nikko, returned to Tokio when communications were restored, and visited daily the refugees in the city, many of whom were sheltered in the parks of the Imperial Palace, which had been thrown open to them immediately after the disaster. The marriage of the Prince Regent to Princess Nagako Kuni was postponed at the Prince's desire, in view of the calamity. The Government's energetic steps resulted in restoring in a temporary measure the electric, gas, and water supplies in Tokio, as well as a section of the tramway lines, within a week, and railway communication with Kobé was resumed on October 28. The first consignment of raw silk since the earthquake from the Port of Yokohama was effected, by the combined efforts of State, municipal, and private enterprise, on September 17. The Diet met in special session on December 11, when the help and sympathy received by Japan from foreign nations were recognised in the speech from the Throne and in resolutions passed in the House of Peers and House of Representatives respectively. On December 13 the Prime Minister reviewed the situation in a speech in the Diet, and outlined the schemes for the restoration of Tokio and Yokohama, which were under consideration by the Capital Restoration Council and the Restoration Board established by an Imperial Edict issued on September 16. The supplementary estimates introduced in the Diet, and approved for the preliminary work of restoration for the period 1923-29, amounted to 468,438,849 yen. This sum included a State expenditure of 342,192,800 yen, and advances of 15,325,402 yen to the Prefectures of Tokio and Kanagawa, as well as subsidies of 89,225,917 yen to the above Prefectures and the cities of Tokio and Yokohama. A Bill in relation to the organisation and procedure for the execution of town planning in Tokio and Yokohama also was passed, pending the complete working out of the details. NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES. Up to the present the "Volksraad" (People's Council) of the Netherlands East Indies, which had been instituted in 1916 as a first instalment of popular representation, has consisted of 49 members, of whom the President is appointed by the Crown, and 24 members, viz., 8 Natives and 16 Europeans and Foreign Orientals, by the Governor-General, the remaining 24 members, viz., 12 Natives and 12 Europeans and Foreign Orientals, being elected by the members of provincial and communal councils. This year a new scheme was placed by the Government before the Volksraad and adopted by that body at its meeting of July 17, by which it will consist of 60 members besides the President, of whom half will be native subjects who are not Dutchmen, and the other half Dutch subjects and foreign subjects other than Dutchmen, the latter as nearly as possible in the proportion of 1 to 12. The President of the Volksraad will be appointed by the Crown. Twenty native subjects who are not Dutchmen, 15 Dutch subjects and 3 foreign subjects who are not Dutchmen are to be elected; the other members are to be appointed by the Governor-General. In this way the Volksraad will advance a further stage towards representative Government; the centre of gravity indeed will be shifted from the appointed members, who, with the President, are at present in the majority, to the elected members. The proportion which is now 25 to 24 will become 23 to 38. The revision of the Government Regulation, which had become necessary owing to the changed relation of the Netherlands East Indies to the Mother Country (vide ANNUAL REGISTER, 1922, p. 267), has not yet been effected. Early in October, indeed, the Government in Holland, on the suggestion of the Volksraad, had introduced a Bill to replace the former "Regulation regarding the Governance of the Netherlands East Indies. by the "Law regarding the Statute of Government of the Netherlands East Indies," but owing to the Cabinet crisis in Holland this Bill had not been dealt with by the end of the year. An important new feature proposed in the Bill is the election, from the Volksraad, of a Legislative Council of 19 members in receipt of a salary, which will be a permanent body engaged in legislative work. The task of the Volksraad itself would then mainly be limited to discussing the Estimates and kindred matters. The Estimates will be fixed in sections by the Volksraad, and the Governor-General and the Dutch Parliament will no longer decide upon the separate items of the Budget, but will have to approve it in sections. The Volksraad itself will be extended by the new Law on the lines mentioned above, whilst on the Council of India, which advises the Governor-General, natives will also be allowed to sit. The economic revival which commenced in the autumn of 1922 continued throughout 1923, and exercised a favourable influence on the public finances. The policy of retrenchment, moreover, was pursued vigorously. That policy, commenced at the end of 1921, had brought down the estimated deficit for 1922 of 250 million guilders, to not more than about 119 millions; but the forecast for 1923 proves to have been too optimistic, and for that year a deficit of over 181 million guilders is expected. For 1924 the total expenditure is estimated at nearly 718 millions, 76 millions less than in 1923, and the total revenue at over 637 millions, i.e., nearly 24 millions more than in the preceding year. The deficit will thus be reduced to about 81 million guilders. The deficit on the Ordinary Budget, which, for 1923, is expected to be over 86 millions, has been estimated for 1924 not to amount to more than 23 million guilders. In 1923 the Netherlands East Indies again issued several loans, which were placed without difficulty. In January 5,000,000l., being part of the 1921 loan, was issued in London, the rate of interest being 6 per cent., and the price of issue 98 per cent. In May it was decided to issue loans to a further extent of 300 million guilders. Of these 65 millions were issued in Holland, the rate of interest being 5 per cent. and the price of issue 90 per cent., and of the total subscriptions only 13 per cent. were allotted. In London 6,000,000l. were issued, the rate of interest being 5 per cent. and the price of issue 92 per cent., and in New York 25,000,000 dollars, the rate of interest being 5 per cent. and the price of issue 90 per cent. These two latter loans also were greatly over-subscribed. The floating debt sank in 1923 from 430 to 225 million guilders. During the year a visit was paid by the Governor of the Philippines, General Wood, to the Governor-General, for the discussion of certain administrative matters. CHAPTER IX. AFRICA: RHODESIA-THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA-BECHUANALAND-SOUTH-WEST PROTECTORATE-MOZAMBIQUE-MOROCCO -EGYPT. SOUTH AFRICA. SOUTHERN Rhodesia's emergence from the tutelage of the Chartered Company to the status of a self-governing colony was historically and politically the outstanding event of 1923. The grant of responsible government marked the termination of a keen struggle between protagonists of conflicting political ideals the advocates of a system of government by Rhodesians for Rhodesians, and those who espoused the policy of incorporation with the Union. The late Mr. Bonar Law, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, announced in the House of Commons on February 27, that it was the intention of His Majesty's Government to give effect to the Referendum (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1922, p. 274) at the earliest possible moment, and that the procedure would be by way of an Order in Council annexing the territory, and by Letters Patent providing for the Constitution. In the House of Lords, on July 10, the Duke of Devonshire, as Colonial Secretary, announced, in reply to Earl Buxton, the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations between the Colonial Office and the British South Africa Company regarding both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, This statement |