JAPAN'S HONOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24144, 10 December 1941, Page 8

JAPAN'S HONOUR

AN INCIDENT OF 1914 EMPEROR REBUFFS KAISER * An old cablegram clipped from the Herald of November 29, 1914, and sent in by a reader, well illustrates the changes which time works in international relations. It makes odd reading now that Japan is at war with Britain, her Ally of 27 years ago.' The message? sent from Petrograd, now Leningrad, related to a speech which Mr. Balfour had made at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London on November 9. In proposing the toast of "The Allies," he said Japan had made the most dramatic answer to Germany's unparalleled insolence. / "The newspaper Recht," the Russian cablegram stated, "explains Japan's 'dramatic answer' to Germany, which was mentioned in Mr. A. J. Balfour's recent speech on the eve of the . fall of Tsing-tau. The Kaiser, it is stated by the paper, offered the Mikado - peace at any price, on condition that Japan attacked Russia. The Mikado replied: 'The day, when the last .base of German culture in the Far East falls will be one of the meat glorious .in Japanese history.' The Kaiser was reminded by the Mikado that Japan was incapable, of such treachery as Germany, had displayed respecting Belgium. The Mikado handed the Kaiser's message to the British Ambassador."

The Emperor of Japan in 1914 was Yoshihito, father of the present Emperor Hirohito. Yoshibito succeeded to the throne in 1912 at.the age of 33, and died in 1926.