JAPAN'S CROWNING TROPHIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2201, 3 October 1907, Page 1

JAPAN'S CROWNING TROPHIES.

•Of tlio innumerable trophies ae-I . quired hy Japan in tho course of the £ war with Russia tho most highly I prized lias but recently come to light I - (says tho Standard’s Nagasaki cor- I -> respondent). It so happened -that -the more delicate of the spoils taken I during the siege of Port Arthur and I * at tho battle of the Japan Sea were 1 1 tied up in small packajges and sent j to the Sasebo Naval (Station, as the I nearest placo of security adjacent to I tlio zone of. conflict. A few dny-s ago I ono of these packages was bought by I a man named Isozaki. It contained I a remarkable variety of garments jL and fabrics, including what appeared I o to be a few old flags in a rather tat- I tered condition. Among the latter jwere tfireo specimens that struck tho 1 1 owner as being made of a particular- I ]y rich material. They were covered I j with a heavily embroidered design in c gold thread, and Isozaki set- them 1 aside with tho hopo that they might 1 r provo to bo of more than ordinary I s importance. It was suggested to him I that if ho would take these flags to I * tho Russian C-onsul at Nagasaki ho . might realiso considerable money oil I j them. Tho Russian Consul, being I , apprised of tho object of tho agent’s I £ visit, received him with open arms, I and was breathless to behold the i treasure o-f which ho had been in-I formed.- AVlien the flags were un- I rolled . aud solemnly held up to his I ® gaze he immediately made a pro- I | found obeisance beforo them, to the I 1 astonishment of the Japanese, who I was not yet aware-of .the real nature I o-f, tho relics; for the flags proved to 1 " be nothing less than tho Imperial I Standards of their Afajesties, the I f Czar and Czarina. The Consul has- I c teued to agree upon a sum for their e purchase, which was finally sot at I s £6000; but just as the flags were ah- I l out to ho handed over the Japanese - police appeared upon tho scone, and I seized tlio trophies as the property I < of the Japanese Government, Isoz- I aki has been obliged to yield posses- I ! sion of the captured standards to I i the nation, in which, as a patriot, ho I , could do no more than amicably ac- I quiesce: The Japaneso Government, I - through Admiral Uryu, has taken these trophies of the nation’s valor j and lias carried them to the capital, where they have bq?n set up as ,tho * crown of all the prizes won in the war, and the perpetual memorial of the nation’s victory over a great antagonist.