The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-12
PREMIER OkUMA IS
 NOT. TO RETIRE AS TOXIC RUh|0R SAID
Famous Statesman Promot4 ed to Marquis for Negotia-
 ting Russian Alliance.

Toki6s Aug 12. The secretary of the. Japan&s6s cabinet has issued an official statemAnfs denying an ifsistent report in the Japanese press that Premier Okuma. would retire. The statement allowsstt to be understood that the op- position groups in the Diet were re- sponstple for the reports.
 The idea advanced was that Premier OkumA has long felt that it was time for htm to withdraw and that the suc- cesSfsi3 negotiating-of an alliance with Rus a offered aNfavorable moment for retiferAent as it represented crown ing act of statesmanship.
 Thesopposition press suggested that the new cabinet would be coalition ministry containing both Marshal of K0rea, and Baron Takaah Kato, ex-minister of foreign affairs. or it would be a cabinet headed by either one df these statesmen.
 Premier Okuma is receiving con- gratulStions from all sides on his ele- vation; to the rank of Marquis. The immediate occasion of this honor was the conclusion of the alliance with Russia but it has to do very largely with his distinguished services rem dered to the Empire during the war with Germany.
 Promotion to the rank of Marquis gives Premier Okuma a seat in the House of Peers.
 "Of all the veteran statesmen" says the Japan Times, "who were survivors from the galaxy of the Meiji pillars of state, none has waited so long for a full opportunity to test his statesman ship as Count, now Marquis, Okuma. Nor has it been the lot of any other to experience so much pressure of arr duous work in ripe old age as he. Everybody is well aware of moun- tainsgof political obloquies heaped upon him in late years and yet un- scathed he stands above them. The reason is that his political opponents forget the real great service he has rendered to the country. The bitter est attack leveled at him is that, com ing into power, he has failed to carry into practice the. lofty political ideals he had been preaching for decades. Where did the critics get those lofty | political ideals from? It was the new
 Marquis who most prominently and indefatigably pounded and hammered them into the nations mind, and who taught them the use of the very weapon they are now employing against him. The part he has thus played in the promotion of political leducation of this country will never be ob1iterated."
 The journal concluded as follows: ''Besides being a political educator, the new Marquis has for years stood internationally a figure representative of Japan, contributing rot ,..le to- ward planting cordially in the social intercourse of the country with the rest of tine civilized world. Here he stands peerless in the land. Then coming to the question of Japan's par lticipation in the present war, opinion has been divided as to It's wisdom; but all careful thinkers are agreed that history will yet prove the cor |rectness of his Judgment On top of }aH. he has signalized the achievement lof his regime by concluding a great iworM. work, namely, the new Russo lpapaneAq convention. His present lhonor haA ceitainIy not come to him boo sod1f z "A