170 FROM ABORTIVE REVOLUTION TO OPEN WAR

of the sentences; on the other hand, the guilty officers, when executed,
will have become martyrs to many of their fellow-officers in the Army,
and revenge in Japan is a traditional virtue. I think that further
" incidents " are more than likely.

A visit to the United States to attend the Harvard Tercentenary celebration
interrupts the diary and correspondence at this point.

BACK IN TOKYO

November 27, 1936. Tokyo

And here we are, picking up the threads again, all too many of
them, but after a vacation like that, one feels ready for anything,
In fact, I am more than happy to be back in harness, and Dickover
said that he was more than happy to unload the responsibility, a
feeling which we've all many a time experienced. So on with the
dance—and, incidentally, the diary.

CHECKING IN WITH HIROTA

November 30, 1936

During my call to-day on the Prime Minister to pay my respects
on returning from leave of absence, the conversation at first entered
upon the recent election in the United States and the assurance that
the general foreign policy of the present administration, including
the policy of the good neighbour, would be continued for another
four years. I spoke also of the Harvard Tercentenary celebration
and the Japanese art exhibition in Boston.

When I asked Mr. Hirota how things were going in Japan, he
replied that his greatest difficulty at present had to do with taxation.
He said that the Japanese Army and Navy were seriously disturbed
at the great increase of armaments in Soviet Russia, which exceeded
even the military organization of the Tzarist regime, and it was largely
owing to these increasingly heavy Soviet armaments that the Japanese
Army and Navy were calling for greater increases of armaments in
' Japan, which in turn led to the necessity for higher taxation.

Since Mr. Hirota on his own initiative had touched upon foreign
affairs, I then asked him concerning the reports in the press about
an agreement between Japan and Italy. He replied that no agree-
ment existed. The simple facts were that Italy was going to open a
consular office in Manchukuo and Japan would eventually do the
same in Abyssinia and that this was all there was to it.

The Prime Minister then said that as regards China the negotiations
were proceeding very slowly and that they were still based on the
three points which he had formerly enunciated, particularly the
demand that anti-Japanese activity in China should cease and that
steps would be taken to combat Communism. I asked him about
the reports to the effect that the Japanese demands included tariff