JAPANESE EFFICIENCY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 11

JAPANESE EFFICIENCY.

CADETS ON TRAINING SHIP.

ENGLISH CUSTOMS FOLLOWED. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, Feb. IS. ' A picturo of efficiency, the Japanese auxiliary barquentine Shintoku Maru berthed at Circular Quay, Sydney, last Saturday, with 65 cadets on board, in training for tho merchant marine. Eager youths, their faces light up when mention is made of Manchuria. "Japan must preserve her rights, they say, "although she would hate to oSend the countries with which she has been friendly for so long." Each of these lad§ is ready to do his part for Japan if called upon. Tho vessel belongs to the Japanese Education Department, and tho cadets are on a course of five years and a-half for the merchant marine, certainly, but the course includes naval gunnery. Tho first three' years aro spent studying theory ashore, and then comes the naval training, which is followed by a course in a training ship. Tho final year is spent as apprentices in merchant marine vessels, after which they return for examination for second mates' or second engineers' certificates. In better times it would bo possible to become. a master in three years. Th® mercantile officers aro in the naval reserve, and can be called up in the event of war.

It is interesting to find how closely English traditions are followed on the visiting ship. Doors all bear English titles, such as "Library,"- Ladets Room, ■ "Instructor," etc., and technical terms are in English, English text-books --predominating. The English of §ome of the cadets is surprising. "Ten Brown'* School Days" finds a place in the boy»* locker*. ' "