orm he
had been pestered with unending introductions and beset by
conversation. But I do not know that my friend felt any strain. Nor
did the fashion in which the speakers wandered on and off the
platform, and thus, according to our notions, did their utmost to damp
the enthusiasm of the meetings, seem to have any such effect. Once in
an oculist's consulting clinic in Tokyo I was struck by the fact that
when water was squirted into the eyes of a succession of patients of
both sexes and various ages, they did not wince as Western people
would have done.

I was told that school fees go up a little when the price of rice is
high; also of the "negatively good" effects of young men's
associations. During the period of our tour efforts were being made to
systematise these organisations. The Department of Agriculture wanted
a farmer at the head of each society, the War Office an ex-soldier.
There can be no doubt that the militarists have been doing their best
to give the societies the mental attitude of the army.

In the country we were entering, the horse had taken the place of the
ox as the beast of burden. Two men of some authority in the prefecture
agreed that it was difficult to think of tracts in the south-west that
would be suitable for cattle grazing. There was certainly no "square
_ri_ where the price of land was low enough to keep sheep." As to
cattle breeding and forestry, one of them must give way. It was
necessary to keep immense areas under evergreen wood for the defence
of the country against floods. With regard to the areas available for
afforestation, for cattle keeping and for cultivation respectively, it
was necessary to be on one's guard against "experts" who were disposed
to claim all available land for their specialties.

When we took to an automobile for the first stage of our long journey
through Yamaguchi and Shimane--the railway came no farther than the
city of Yamaguchi--I noticed that just as the bridges are often
without parapets, the roads winding round the cliffs were, as in
Fukushima, unprotected by wall or rail. This was due, no doubt, to
considerations of economy, to a widely diffused sense of
responsibility which makes people look after their own safety, and
also, in some degree, to stout Japanese nerves. That our driver's
nerves were sound enough was shown by the speed at which he drove the
heavy car round sharp corners and down slippery descents where we
should have dropped a few hundre