JAPANESE OFFICERS VISIT PALMERSTON N.

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6672, 27 July 1928, Page 3

JAPANESE OFFICERS VISIT PALMERSTON N.

PARTY PROM TRAINING SQUADRON WARSHIPS. Following the visit of His Imperial Japanese Majesty's training squadron to Wellington on Wednesday, a party of the squadron’s officers visited Palmerston North yesterday afternoon' as the guests of the municipality. The flagship of Vice-Admiral S. Eobayashi, the Idzumo, followed by her sister ship/ the Yakumo, berthed at Pipitca Wharf about half past eight on Wednesday morning, the officers of the squadron then proceeding on shore to pay the usual round of courtesy calls demanded by, such visits. When it became known that the Japanese ships would be berthing in Wellington, on behalf of the municipality, His Worship, the Mayor, Mr. A. J. Graham, extended to the visitors an invitation to Palmerston North. It was as a result of that invitation that a party of some 50 officers yesterday paid a visit to this city. Owing to the fact that the squadron will bo leaving Wellington for Auckland within a few days however the visit of the officers to Palmerston North was necessarily of short duration. The party, under Commander Togo, ar--1 rived by the Napier express a little after 12 o’clock, and left again by the New Plymouth train at 3.14 p.m. Mr. R. W. Fenton, of the Government Publicity Department, accompanied the officers. '

The Visitors were received at the station by thi Mayor and representatives of the borough council, the party proceeding immediately to the Grand Hotel, where the officers were the guests of the municipality at lunch. A number of the visitors then took the opportunity of obtaining a bird’s eye view of the town from the tower on top of the hotel. Two of the municipal buses next conveyed the party on a tour of the residential area before the officers left on the journey back to Wellington.

The route taken by the buses was as follows, proceeding round the Square into Eangitikei street, the visitors reached Featherston street, via Cuba and Pascal streets, thence driving" to the hospital and returning byEuahine street and Broadway Avenue into Victoria Avenue • By way of College street and Fitzherbert Avenue the visitors were then taken to the Esplanade, through the Victoria drive to. Cook street, and thence to the railway station. The officers were thus'given an excellent opportunity to see something of Palmerston North during their short visit, the weather, which had been somewhat threatening, fortunately remaining line during the three hours the party was in Palmerston North. ,■ , : The Visiting Squadron. , His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s ships, Idzumo and Kakumo are not new to New Zealand waters, but were here in 1924 under the command of the late Vice-Admiral S. Saito. - The ships have an interesting history. The Idzumo was launched in England id 1899, and saw service in the Eusso-Jap-anese War in 1904-5, being the flagship of Vice-Admiral Kamimura, Comman-def-in-Chief of the Second Squadron. The next important mission of the Idzumo was of a peaceful nature, the vessel being sent to the United States to participate in the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the founding of San Francisco. Then, with the outbreak of the wafj in August, 1914, the Idzumo was immediately despatched to the west coast of the United States, for the protection of trade routes, having Equimalt as headquarters. The vessel later became the flagship of Eear-Admiral Moriayama, commanding a fleet operating in North and South American waters, in conjunction with H.M.S. Newcastle and subsequently H.MiA.S. Australia. The Vessels. . The Idzumo subsequently acted as the flagship of several squadrons engaged in war patrol service. From March to June, 1917,' the vessel escorted New Zealand troops between New Zealand and Australia, being later despatched to the Mediterranean^ .In point of age the Idzumo and the Yakumo are twins, but the latter vessel was launched in Germany. The Yakumo also saw service in the EussoJapanese War, and .participated latex in the Saghalien expedition of 1905. After participating in the blockade and bombardment of Tsingtao in August and September, 1914, the Yakumo was sent with other vessels under Vivo-Ad-miral .TOehiaai to the Indian Ocean for the purpose of dealing with the German raider, Emden, which ultimately fell victim to H.M.A.S. Sydney. Later tho Yakumo did patrolling work in Javanese waters and in the vicinity of Singapore. She has since been used as a training ship. '