he subject of debate unless it is supported by at least
thirty members.

The Constitution of Japan, as I have remarked, contains a vast amount
of detail. The framers of that Constitution seem to have been endowed
with an abnormal amount of prevision. In fact they foresaw the
possibility of occurrences and made provision for those occurrences
that nations which are, or which consider themselves to be, more
highly civilised have not yet taken any adequate steps to deal with.
For example, Article 92 of the Constitution enacts that in neither
House of Parliament shall the use of coarse language or personalities
be allowed, while Article 93 declares that when any member has been
vilified or insulted either in the House or in a meeting of a
Committee he shall appeal to the House and demand that proper measures
shall be taken. There shall, it is decreed, be no retaliation among
members. The Constitution also contains several salutary regulations
in reference to the disciplinary punishment of members.

The establishment of a Parliament in Japan has produced parties and a
party system. I suppose that was inevitable. In every country there
is, and as human nature is constituted there always will be, two
parties representative of two phases of the human mind: the party in a
hurry to effect progress because it deems progress desirable, and the
party that desires to cling as long as possible to the ancient ways
because it knows them and has had experience of them and looks askance
at experiments--experiments for which that somewhat hackneyed phrase a
"leap in the dark" has long done service. I have no intention, as I
said in the Preface, of dealing at all with Japanese politics. There
is no doubt a good deal of heat, and the resultant friction, evoked in
connection with politics in Japan as elsewhere. Perhaps this young
nation--that is, young from a parliamentary point of view--takes
politics too seriously. Time will remedy that defect, if it be a
defect. At the same time, I may express the opinion that, however
severe party strife may be in Japan, and though the knocks given and
received in the course thereof are hard and some of the language not
only vigorous but violent, the members of all parties have at heart
and as their objective point the advancement of Japan and the good of
the country generally.

The Japanese Constitution, though not a very lengthy, is such an
all-embracing document that in a hurried survey of it, it is