SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH NEW AMBASSADOR.

RELATIONS WITH AMERICA.

Baron Hayashi, the new Japanese Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, who presented his credentials to King George as recently as Wednesday last, yesterday favoured me with his views on some of the political problems which are agitating public opinion at this date. His Excellency, who served as First Secretary to the Japanese Legation here many years ago, is, contrary to a widespread assumption, no relation of the Viscount Hayashi whose tenure of office as Japanese Minister in London, will be readily recalled. Baron Hayashi, who has been specially selected by his Government to conduct, in the early future, the negotiations pertaining to the renewal and possible revision of the Anglo-japanese Treaty of Alliance – which would expire normally in July of next year – was naturally disinclined to discuss this subject publicly. But on other subjects he was unhesitatingly and decidedly frank. For instance, when I ventured to express to him the uneasy feeling in this country aroused by the apparent tension between Tokyo and Washington, and suggested that in some quarters even the possibility of a rupture was being mooted, Baron Hayashi retorted with a serene vivacity: “War? war? But, just think for a moment! What serious statesman, what sensible person, on either side of the Pacific, could entertain such a thought? There are, of course, irresponsible writers here and there, who, deliberately or otherwise, are helping to spread this notion – generally about the other side. As if the lesson of the late war had been lost upon the world, and had not taught every thoughtful nation (and, assuredly, if it has done no more, it has taught every nation to think hard) that nowadays war, even the most successful war, is not a paying proposition. Let those to whom you have referred as suspecting us of harbouring bellicose designs but reflect on their very impracticability. In our war with Russia we had to have recourse for financial credits and supplies of war material to Great Britain, the United States, and other rich nations. But to-day, in this half-ruined world, credits for normal business purposes are almost unobtainable on any scale, while the requirements of modern mechanical warfare are incomparably greater than fifteen years since. War is simply impossible.”

JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE.

I then inquired of his Excellency whether, were the present differences between Japan and the United States to continue, his country would be prepared to remit their adjustment to the League of Nations? His pensive reply was:

“That, I am afraid, would be very difficult, in fact, almost impossible. As a last resort, perhaps. No, the differences in question are of such a character that they should be settled between the statesmen of the two parties concerned. A settlement should not be beyond the task of diplomacy. We do not want to overload the League with sensations.”

I gathered from Baron Hayashi that the amendment to the covenant on racial equality originally proposed at the Paris Peace Conference by Baron Makino, but withdrawn by the latter, with the intimation that it might be brought forward again at the League Assembly, will nevertheless not be brought up at the November meeting at Geneva, where Baron Hayashi is to represent Japan. “I have told you, we do not want to overload the League with sensations,” he repeated dryly. “It is only natural that the conception of the League should be only slowly gaining popular recognition in Japan, where there has just been founded a League of Nations Union.”