OCR Text |
Show EMPEROR'S GIFT CAUSES UPROAR Victoria, B. C. March 2. Advices were brought by the Tamba Maru last night that the emperor of Japan had donated three quarters of a million mil-lion dollars to tho poor of Japan from his private purse. The bequest was accompanied by a rescript in which : the emperor said the changes taking place In national economies were making mak-ing people deviate into erroneous way. ing people deviate into erroneous ways. Tho imperial gift caused much comment com-ment in the vernacular press, which suggested that the unprecedented action ac-tion resulted from the recent anarchistic anarch-istic plot. Reviewing the comment, the Japan Mail says "In the present discontented temper of the Japanese nation it Is practically inevitable that every incident out of the common should afford food for more or less violent criticism. Wc do not mean to say the taxes levied are in excess of tho people's capacity to pay, but it is impossible to Ignore the fact that agricultural and commercial commer-cial classes aro subject to so many other demands that livelihood is hard to make." Japanese newspapers sec in the imperial im-perial gift a atticism of the general trend of the times and there has followed fol-lowed an unburst of condemnation against the government. |