Taro KATSURA, Prime Minister, expected the alliance with the Seiyu party in order to stabilize the political situation during the war and made a secret promise with Takashi HARA that he would transfer the position of Prime Minister to Saionji (however, the recent study on the diaries kept by Hara and Katsura proved that, at first, they did not clarify the date of transfer and that they decided the date, with a sense of crisis about the weakened Katsura cabinet after the Hibiya Incendiary Incident).
桂太郎首相は、戦争中の政局の安定を図るため、立憲政友会との提携を希望して原敬との間で次の政権は政友会総裁の西園寺公望に禅譲するという政権授受の密約を交わす（ただし近年の原と桂の双方の日記の研究によって、当初はその時期を明確にしていなかったこと、日比谷焼討事件後の桂内閣の弱体化に危機感を抱いた双方の合意によって具体的な時期が定まったことが明らかになっている）。