WAR TALK PREVALENT IN JAPAN; CALIFORNIA LAW AROUSES PEOPLE

TOKYO, Friday, April 18. -- The situation brought about by popular resentment to the proposed California alien land law is becoming increasingly serious. War talk is prevalent. A mass meeting today, composed for the most part of irresponsible persons, demanded the most extreme measures of retaliation by Japan. The singing of war songs aroused intense feeling during the gathering.

Shigenobu Okuma, former premier and former minister of foreign affairs, today delivered a speech to a number of representative Japanese Christians and Americans, in which he said diplomacy, the courts and commercial men had been shown to be helpless in the face of the crisis and that only the influence of Christianity now remains. Otherwise, he declared, war is impending.

Among those present at the meeting were: Hamilton Wright Mable of New York, Dr. Peabody and John L. Mott, secretary of the international committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, who previously had been guests at a luncheon given by Baron Novuaki Makino, the foreign minister, at which some of the most prominent men in Japan were present. Cordial feeling prevailed at this event.

Following the remarks of Okuma, Mott delivered a speech in which he agreed that the influence of Christianity is now all important.

Dispatches were sent by the meeting to President Wilson and others, imploring them to use all their influence on Christians and thoughtful people to avert a calamity.

Anonymous writers in the newspapers give an outline of plans for the seizure of the Philippines and Hawaii and, at the same time, denounce the Japanese government's submissive attitude.

It is said changed conditions in Japan render it impossible for the government to restrain the newspapers and the lower classes.

The Japanese government considers the present anti-Japanese movement in California as most dangerous, and is faced with the prospect of placing itself in a most unwelcome position owing to the unwillingness of the federal government at Washington to intervene and the impossibility of introducing counter measures here.

Japan's Action Determined.

In the event of the passage of an alien land-holding bill through both houses of the California Legislature, Japan will issue an imperial ordinance enfolding the Japanese foreign land ownership bill of 1910 and will apply to the federal government at Washington for permission for Japanese to become naturalized citizens of the United States.

At the great mass meeting of protest held here last night, there was a hysterical anti-American outburst, Deputy Matsumura urged the dispatch of a Japanese fleet to California as the first step toward establishing Japan on an absolutely equal footing in the United States.

M. Mitiake, an editor of The Japan Times, deprecated the constant visits here of American peace apostles, "when their own country is in urgent need of the principles of justice and humanity."

Other fiery orators insisted that the questions between Japan and America had better be settled now, once and for all. Otherwise, their constant recurrence would lead at last to the arbitrament of war.

Firebrands Seek to Mould Opinion.

Twenty thousand people listened to the remarks of the firebrands, who apparently are engineering a campaign to mold public opinion in Japan.

The foreign land ownership bill passed by the Japanese Diet in March, 1910, prohibits foreigners, except under certain restrictions, from owning land in Japan and they may not own land at all in Saghalien, Formosa, Hokkaido, or the fortified zones. This law has never been officially promulgated.