JEANNE SAN’S STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17570, 22 June 1925, Page 8

JEANNE SAN’S STORY.

JAPANESE BARON. AND HIS FRENCH WIFE. TOKIU, May 0. East and West may never meet, but there is little doubt that the Occident and the Orient are finding a- lot in common. There are some phases of Eastern life and Western life, however, where it were best for all concerned that tho Easterner and tho Westerner remain on his own side of the, fence. This is especially true as regard.* social life. 1(. seems amply justified in a rase receiving considerable attention in Japan to-day, as the result of a rift in thc domestic: lute of a noble Japanese family. On (he one side .s the girl-widow of a Japanese nobleman, and on thc other her extremely Br.ro n Shigcno, a Japanese nobleman of good family, was commissioned l»y the Army to proceed to France and learn nil there was to bo learned about modern aeroplane warfare. He was a widower, his .Japanese wife having died a few years before hostilities on gulfed Europe. In trance Baron Sliigeno threw himself with ardour into his task, and actually fought for tho French. While on a brief leave in the south of France, ho met a chi© Parisienne, a girl of the upper middle-class, and later they were married according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. I lie war over, Baron Slug-mo returned to Japan, bringing with him his French wife. The family of the Baron was none J-oo pleased, but so long as the Baron lived no serious differences of opinion occurred. Soon after their arrival iu Japan the Baron was presented with a son and heir. During the next three years boro another son to the Baron, TROUBLE ENSUES. On tho death of the Baron, trouble arose. The mother-in-law’ at first refused to recognise that licr son’s ch.il drcii by 11 is .French wile could succeed to the title. After considerable bickering, in which Baron Shidehnra, tho Foreign Minister, and M. Paul C laudel. French Ambassador in Tokio. interfered, thc Imperial Household Department agreed to regard thc Baron’s children by his second wife as perfectly legitimate. The mother-in-law was not so easily won over, however, and insisted that tho right of succession should go to a daughter of the Baron by his first wife. The law of succession in Japan forbids a woman from being heir to a noble -title direct, hut, claimed the mother-in-law, it did not forbid her husband from legitimately becoming the next baron, and a. husband for the girl, now sixteen years of ago, could be easily found, added the mother of the late Baron. The French wife thereupon put up a strenuous fight for her children s rights, and eventually won. The Imperial Department agreed that her children were tho rightful heirs to their father’s title. But another obstacle then interposed. This was as regards the education of the children. Tlieir mother wished that thov be educated in France, her native country, but her husband’s people laughed at thc idea.. Imagine, they said a member of Japan’s nobility not know mg Japanese properly, not knowing anything about, the manners and customs of their father’s land! The next Baron Shigeno would he a Frenchman, not a Japanese! Utterly impossible! CHILDREN’S FUTURE. For a long time the question of where the children were to bo brought up was debated. Finallv, for th a children's stake, the mother agieed io the older lady’s dictum. In Japan, in tho case of a separated coupie, or when the husband dies, it is the custom to leave the male issue with the family of tho husband, and the i'em-ile issue with that of his wife. Jeanne-san ■’ was the name by which the French wife was known to her family-in-law. The title of j Haro ness was never conferred on her. Her children are to live in the baronial mansion with their grandmother, but. Jeannc-san lives by herself j n a ]jft I o cottage erected for her on the grounds of the estate. She will be able to •see her children every day. hut, will yn o no part m tlieir up-bringing or their education. ®