A further instalment of the late Count Hayashi's reminis- cences,
published in the Iiji Shimpo, a Japanese paper owned by his son-in-law, is summarized by Reuter in Thursday's papers. The previous instalment dealt with the German suggestion of a triple alliance between Germany, Great Britain, and Japan, and Count Hayashi now adds that Prince von Billow refused to participate owing to friction with Great Britain over other questions. But the most remarkable disclosures are those in which Count Hayashi, while frankly admitting that he himself suggested to his Government to utilize England's apprehension of a Japanese alliance with Russia to hasten an Anglo-Japanese alliance, denounces the simultaneous mission of Marquis Ito to St. Petersburg with a view to con- cluding a Russo-Japanese Convention as an outrageous breach of faith. He concludes with a bitter criticism of the Japanese
Government and the manner in which he was treated, and sums up his view of the despatch of Marquis Ito to St. Petersburg during the negotiations with Great Britain by saying that "Japan won the support of England at the cost of the respect of Russia and other European countries." The inconsistency of Count Hayashi's attitude in denouncing in others what he was practically doing himself is to a certain extent explained by Sir Valentine Chirol's letter to Thursday's Times, which shows how in 1901 the Japanese Emperor's advisers were acutely divided on questions of foreign policy..
