I. JAPAN.
The opening of the year 1914 was attended by many disasters. In Hokkaido and the North-East Provinces of Hondo owing to the failure of the rice crop of 1913, famine existed on a scale which was reported by missionary associations to demand all the assistance that could possibly be given. The Government made appropriations amounting to 830,000l. towards the relief of the sufferers, who were unofficially stated to number some 9,000,000 persons, and while its attention was being given in this quarter of the Empire, a calamity of a most alarming nature occurred in the south-east.
On 9 and 10 January an eruption of the volcano of Sakurashima, an island in Kagoshima Bay in Kiushiu, took place. The island was soon aflame, nearly half the houses were burnt and the inhabitants fled as best they could to Kagoshima. Streams of lava and dense bodies of ashes poured into the sea and over the island. The Japanese Government was prompt in rendering assistance. Two squadrons were at once despatched to the spot and measures were organised for the relief of the sufferers. The number of deaths which took place was not so great as might have been expected, but the devastation caused was such that over 10,000 persons were forced to emigrate. Apart from the assistance given by the Government a relief fund of over 50,000l. was raised by Japanese. Further disturbances were feared but nothing on a large scale took place, though the field of disturbance extended to Akita in Hondo.
Following on these great natural and physical disasters there occurred on April 9 the death of the Empress Dowager, a calamity felt to be as much of a national nature as the others. Preparations for the forthcoming Coronation were at once cancelled and the country joined in genuine mourning for the lady who had held so high a place in their affections and who had as Empress exhibited sympathy with the nation in all its joys and troubles. The unfailing dignity and tact shown by the Empress in the novel circumstances arising out of the introduction of a Western atmosphere into her Court had won her also an admiration abroad intensified by her grace and sympathy.
While suffering under these misfortunes, the nation was at the same time burdened with a scandal arising out of a contract for the battleship Kongo. Proofs of bribes given by the firm of Siemens & Schuckert were produced in the course of a long trial which included the representatives of that firm as well as other foreigners and Japanese of high standing in naval departments. Indignation meetings were held in Tokyo and a vote of no confidence in the Government which was moved in the House was lost only by 205 to 163 votes. As a result of the vote, the mob outside tried to break down the gates of the Houses of Parliament, and order was restored only by a display of military force.
The trial of the persons accused extended over two months. Admirals Fujii and Matsuo were severally sentenced to four and a half and two years' imprisonment, the managing and three other directors of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha received sentences varying from two years to three months' imprisonment, Reuter's Agent, Pooley, was sentenced to three years, Siemens' manager, Herrmann, and other Japanese and foreigners to minor terms. How bitterly the scandal was felt was shown not only by the popular outcry, but also by the attempted suicide of Vice-Admiral Yamamouchi and the surrender by the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha of 75,000l. received illegally as commission on the Kongo and the devotion of that sum to charitable works.
The Government had been seriously affected by the disclosures attending the discovery of this scandal in the early part of the year, and the Budget introduced in January failed in consequence to receive necessary support. Under the Budget Revenue and Expenditure, ordinary and extraordinary, balanced at yen 641,000,000, and a naval programme entailing an expenditure of 16,000,000l., spread over seven years, was provided. Of the revenue yen 75,000,000 was furnished from a surplus in 1912-13, and economies effected by administrative reform in 1913-14. A reduction in taxation to the extent of yen 10,200,000 was also granted. But the Budget met with no favour in either House. In the Lower House an amendment was passed involving a reduction of yen 18,000,000, and in the House of Peers the Naval Vote was further reduced by yen 40,000,000. This action was followed by a joint Conference of ten members of each House, in which the Peers' reduction was rejected by one vote. Parliament was prorogued three days later (March 23) and the Ministry resigned.
Great difficulty was experienced in forming a new Cabinet. Prince Tokugawa, the head of the old Shogunate, was the first to be asked, but he declined the task. Viscount Kiyoura then attempted to form a Ministry, but failed. Finally Count Okuma, in spite of his age, seventy-six, accepted office and appointed a Ministry in which Baron Kato was Minister of Foreign Affairs, while Admiral Yashiro and General Oka took over the Admiralty and War Offices.
In June the Naval Budget passed the House of Peers with an additional appropriation of 600,000l. passed by the Lower House to cover ten years' expenditure on ships under construction.
Thus, to Germany's misfortune, all the difficulties and disasters of the year had been mastered and overcome in Japan when Germany declared war upon Great Britain, and when applied to by her ally for assistance in protecting her trade in the East, Japan loyally responded to the request. But the existence of Germany's naval base at Kiao-chou in Shantung made protection impossible until this base was abandoned. Accordingly on August 17 an ultimatum was issued by Japan to Germany, demanding the withdrawal of her fleet from the Far East and the surrender of Kiao-chou, and an answer was requested before noon on August 23. The ultimatum was based on the importance of the preservation of peace—the reason assigned by Russia, France and Germany for requiring Japan to retrocede Liao-tung, after that Province had been ceded to her under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Germany's pride permitted of no answer to this ultimatum, and the Kaiser telegraphed to Kiao-chou: "It would shame me more to surrender Kiao-chou to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians."