JAPAN’S GRATITUDE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 September 1924, Page 9

JAPAN’S GRATITUDE.

FOB HELP AFTER EARTHQUAKE

Album of signatures,

, A most interesting souvenir in the form of an album of signatures has been received by the Government from Japan as a token of appreciation for the gift of £25,000 which New' Zealand sent to Japan last year to help relieve the distress eausedfiby the earthquake disaster in September. The organisation formed, for securing the signatures was known as the “League for Collecting Signatures as a Mark of Gratitude.” The- album has been received by the-Government through His Excellency the Governor-General from His Majesty’s. Charge d’Affaires at Tokio, and A ill be preserved in the Turnbull Library.

The scheme for collecting the signatures originated among the students of Tokio, and was the outcome of a quite spontaneous movement to express the gratitude of the inhabitants of the stricken areas and of the Japanese people at large for the help and sympathy extended to them by foreign, nations at the time of the great earthquake. The signatures run into nearly half a million, and many are written in English. Accompanying the album is the following letter of thanks addressed, “To the People of Foreign Countries”:— “Words fail us to express our feelings of deep thanks for the sympathy you showed us on the occasion of the recent seismic disaster. , Not only are the citizens of Tokio and other cities and towns, who were stricken by the calamity, unfeignedly grateful for your humane help and compassion, but the whole Japanese people share the feelings. We have been impressed more than ever by the fact, that all men are brothers throughout the world, and cannot refrain from offering you our sincere thanks.

“The desire to convey to you ouv gratitude for your cordial friendship has long animated the minds of the citiens ..of Tokio, but unhappily complete order is not yet. restored in'Tokio. and, besides undergoing the present hardships, the citiens are busily occupied in preparing against the approaching cold of winter. They have not, therefore, so far, had an opportunity to carry their desire into effect. “In these circumstances we thought it well to start a movement for collecting the signatures of our citizens, and thus make manifest the feelings they all entertain. About half a million people have signed the roll, and now we wish to lay the paper before you. The annexed documents are not all that -were signed, as we have had to divide them amongst various countries; moreover, they are anything but clean, inasmuch as we have had to place tables in the streets and ask the passers-by to record their names on them. But we can assure you that they symbolise the boundless gratitude of the Tokio citizens, high and low, old and young, and we should be very happy if they help to realise their sentiments- of intense thankfulness.

“League for Collecting Signatures, as a mark of gratitude fer the sympathy of foreign peoples. “Tokio, the eleventh month of the twelfth year of Taisho (1923).”