JAPAN (POLITICAL SITUATION). (Hansard, 18 March 1920)

§ Sir H. GREENWOOD

The following information has been received from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Tokio:—The Diet was dissolved on February 26th on the ground that measures for further extensions of the franchise presented to Parliament by the opposition parties would, if passed, amount in effect to adoption of universal manhood suffrage, for which the country was not yet ready and which it did not unanimously demand. The Diet, therefore, though in favour of gradual extension of the franchise, was obliged to submit the issue to the impartial judgment of the nation at a general election which would be held under the extended franchise law passed by the last session of the Diet. The Cabinet was being heavily attacked in both Houses and by the Press, not only on the suffrage issue, but also on finance and on the failure to reduce the cost of living, The Premier, in deciding to go to the country, felt confident of an increased majority under the present electoral system, which includes the mass of the electorate in the rural constituencies upon which the Government party relies. The elections are to take place in May. The immediate result of the dissolution is the failure of the Budget, which provided for increased expenditure on defence and the postponement of measures for increased taxation, for the revision of the tariff on Protectionist lines, and for anti-dumping legislation.