Chargé Wilson to the Secretary of State.

[Extract.]
No. 440.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the Marquis Saionji, prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, left Tokyo on the 14th instant with a party consisting of the chief of the political bureau in the foreign office, the vice-minister of finance, the director of the agricultural bureau in the department of agriculture and commerce, and several other commercial, financial, and agricultural experts and secretaries. The object of the trip upon which these officials have started is to visit Manchuria for the purpose of directly investigating the conditions there.

On the 13th instant the Marquis Saionji wrote to inform me that he had been granted a leave of absence, and that Mr. Nobuaki Makino, minister of education, would from that date be in charge of the department of foreign affairs. Mr. Makino is thus left acting minister for foreign affairs until the return of the Marquis Saionji or the arrival from London of Mr. Hayashi, who, as I have had the honor to inform you, is expected to assume the portfolio of the foreign office.

I have, etc.,

Huntington Wilson.