"My Utmost"

White paper roses adorned the lapels of Liberal (meaning ultraconservative) Party members in Japan's Diet. The roses were to remind Diet members to behave like gentlemen during the voting for the new Prime Minister.* The reminder was effective, but it did not help the Liberals' own candidate, Shigeru Yoshida. In an orderly manner, the Diet's lower chamber voted for busy, birdlike Hitoshi Ashida, leader of the Democratic (meaning mildly conservative) Party.

Ashida received 216 votes (five more than the required majority), while rose-wearing Yoshida got 180. The Diet's upper chamber voted the other way, 104-102; but under Japan's new constitution this was merely another nosegay for the loser: the vote in the lower house was the only one that counted.

The new Premier's Cabinet, like that of outgoing Premier Tetsu Katayama ("TIME, Feb. 23), would be formed from a shaky coalition of Democrats, Socialists and the small People's Cooperative Party. The prospects for Ashida were not encouraging, but the 60-year-old former diplomat throught he could succeed where Katayama had failed. Said he: "I will do my utmost."

*In another reach for uplift last week, the Diet's Cultural Affairs Committee hung oil paintings in the heretofore severely plain corridors and party offices of the Diet building. The largest party (the Socialists) got the largest picture, Tea Maidens. The Communists (four members of the Diet) got the smallest, Summer, a lady with a pink parasol. Said Committee Chairman Kanjiro Sato: "At first we thought the women members would create a quieting influence. But we were mistaken."

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