VISITORS FROM JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22194, 22 August 1935, Page 10

VISITORS FROM JAPAN

j Contacts" between Japan and New | Zealand have been fairly frequent lately. Some three months ago two ships of the Japanese Navy touched at these shores. Almost at the same time a commercial mission, headed by Dr. Abe, paid the Dominion a visit. Hard on their heels came Dr. Kagawa, a free lance from the official standpoint, a missioner of a different kind, yet still another exponent of Japanese views, aims and thought. Now there is present in New Zealand, in Auckland at the moment, the goodwill mission, headed by a distinguished diplomat, Mr. Debuchi. Ifs purpose was frankly explained by the leader at the official welcome in Wellington, when Mr. Debuchi said : "The object of my visit is plain and simple. I have brought with me no diplomatic knapsack, bulging with conventions and agreements, nor, like the commercial traveller, have I come seeking after business. I have come to your country solely on a mission of peace and goodwill—a simple friendly visit of one good neighbour to another." Contacts of that kind can be very valuable. There being nothing at stake, nothing to be lost or won, there is nothing to interfere with the task of understanding the two points of view, that of guest and of host. Japan and New Zealand, while at the two extremes of the hemisphere, are both Pacific countries. Both are concerned in that process of growth, of self-realisation, of expanding outlook which is characteristic of the Pacific sphere to-day. In it, interests are spreading, crossing and interlocking. There is the possibility of much good in their interaction, but there is also the possibility of interests clashing. If they do, to prevent the impact from breeding discord, which might deepen into something worse, there is need for patience, forbearance, and understanding—especially understanding. Because it promises to be an avenue toward a better understanding of Japan and the Japanese people, the present mission is entitled to a •special welcome, additional to that welcome which courtesy requires to be given to distinguished visitors representative of another country.