heavily influenced by his background; he believed the Imperial Court should be guarded and that it should not participate directly in politics: the same strategy employed by noblemen and the Court in Kyoto for hundreds of years. This was another point in which he was opposed by nationalists in the Army, who wished for the Emperor to participate in Japanese politics directly and thus weaken both parliament and the cabinet. Nationalists also accused him of being a "globalist". Elder statesman Saionji was appointed a genrō in December 1912. The role of the genrō at this time was diminishing; their main function was to choose the prime ministers – formally, to nominate candidates for Prime Minister to the Emperor for approval, but no Emperor ever rejected their advice. From the death of Matsukata Masayoshi in 1924, Saionji was the sole surviving genrō. He exercised his prerogative of naming the prime ministers very nearly until his death in 1940 at the age of 91. Saionji, when he could, chose as prime minister the president of the majority party in the Diet, but his power was always constrained by the necessity of at least the tacit consent of the army and navy. He could choose political leaders only when they might be strong enough to form an effective government. He nominated military men and non-party politicians when he felt necessary. In 1919, Saionji led the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, though his role remained largely confined to a symbolic role due to ill health. During the negotiations, Saionji proposed the addition of a "racial equality clause" to the Covenant of the League of Nations, though this met with strong American and Australian resistance (both nations being racially segregated) and was not adopted. Saionji, by now an unmarried 70-year old, was accompanied to Paris by his son, his favorite daughter, and his current mistress. In 1920, he was given the title kōshaku (, Prince) as an honor for a life in public service. He was detested by Japanese militarists and was on the list of those to be assassinated in the attempted coup of February 26, 1936. Upon receiving news of the mutiny, Saionji fled in his car but was pursued for a great distance by a suspicious vehicle that he and his companions assumed held soldiers bent on his murder. In actuality, it held newspaper reporters. For much of his career,