JAPANESE DELEGATES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 September 1926, Page 6

JAPANESE DELEGATES.

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

HURRIED TOUR TO; STUDY THE COMMONWEALTH.

To study Australian conditions, especially its labour problems, a party of six members of tbe Japanese House of Representatives, accompanied, by a secretary, arrived at Sydney at the end of August by steamer from the north, writes the Wellington Post’s Sydney correspondent All that they will be able to learn of the Commonwealth must be superficial, for after spending two or three days in- this city, they left for Melbourne, and will return from there in time to embark on the steamer for Japan on Saturday next. The delegation explained that every year the Japanese Diet sets aside a sum of money for a party of its members to visit foreign countries. This year the party was to attend an international conference at Paris, but at the last moment this conference was postponed, and' Australia was substituted at the last moment.

TO PROMOTE FRIENDSHIP. Although- most of the members of the delegation understand English they are not sufficiently confident, of their knowledge to epeah it, and interviews had to be made with the spokesman (Mr. Hideo Higuchi) through an interpreter, who, by the wuy, wasa B. . of Sydney University. Mr. Higuchi said that the party had only come to see the country, which business and proximity made interesting to Japan He had no commission, hut he hoped that what he and his companions learned in their regrettably short stay, and what Australia learned of them, would promote new friendships between the two nations. He hoped too, that the party would learn something of ora government and of our industrial life, which might help them to solve then own problems. Like the rest Die world, Japan had many of these, and he thought that in Australia he might find parallels to manly of the problems of Ins'own country, Which was also a land of rapid transition and development

POLITICS IN JAPAN

' Mr. Higuchi admitted that Bolsheviks were active ill Japan, but the Government’is campaign, against them circumvented their influence, and, deprived of a press, they were not terriivinglv powerful At the moment there was no Labour'Party in Parliament, but after the next election—m when the franchise would be extended, the party which was formed recently to represent the workers, would probably have a few. members in the House. The I'liew franchise might straighten . out many difficulties, but the whole position was complicated, and not easily to be commented upon. At the moment the franchise was allotted on the basis of income tax. , i A large party of. Japanese residents of Sydney, including the ConsulGeneral (Mr. Tokugawa) met the visitors on the steamer, and in the .lounge revived a ceremony of old Japan, which seemed; to Western eyes strangely but charmingly formal, like the gestures_ot our own 18tli century. Each member { of the welcoming party would approach one of the visitors and bow lightly. Then from his breast pocket lie would produce with a flourish a visiting card r This, with a second and more profound bow, he would present. Bowing, too, the visitor would receiye it, and present him own, and having read, each •; would conclude the introduction with « smiles and a sweeping and graceful acknowledgment. This is one of the customs whicli Japan has .not replaced with the manners of the West, whose 1 method of introduction, she says, is •far too casual and indefinite. .- i Among the entertainments given to the visitors while in Sydney was a ! dinner 'given by the Consul-General. At this, Mr. Higuchi said- “We wish to learn something of your administration. and legislation, particularly of your Labour Administration. We had hoped to spend at least two weeks in Australia, hut this we cannot do. With ' the eye that is wider than a hundred years, however, we trust we shall see. a little of this industrious and prosperous country. Help us to look into the heart of your country and understand the great people that you are.”