THE BOND OF ROTARY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 9 December 1927, Page 8

THE BOND OF ROTARY

A FACTOR IN WORLD PEACE.

ADDRESS BY JAPANESE CONSUL-GENERAL.

Wellington, Dec. 6. Speaking English iiuently and charmingly, Mr. iyemasa Tokugawa, Imperial Japanese Consul-General in Sydney, who was among the guests at the Rotary Club’s.weekly luncheon to-day, expressed the opinion that for the sake of good relations between Japan and Australia and New Zealand, it was necessary that the people of each country should know the real conditions and circumstances obtaining in each country and be on terms of good understanding, which could only be brought about by co-opera-tion.

Sir Alexander Roberts, who introduced Mr. Tokugawa, said that their guest was the son and heir of Prince lokugawa, President of the Japanese House of Peers. He represented Japan at the Washington Conference in 1921, and served for about six years altogether at the Japanese Embassy in London. During the latter period he took charge of the Embassy several times in the absence of the Ambassador. He was also due of the Japanese delegates to the Assembly of the League of Nations. Formerly he was first Secretary of the Japanese Legation in Pekin for nearly four years, and was private secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Mr. Tokugawa, who was greeted with applause, said he attended a conference of the Tokio Rotary Club during his recent visit to Japan, and he wished to convey greetings to the Wellington Club. One of the ideals of Rotary, continued Mr, Tokugawa, was the promotion of peace and understanding. It was very nesessary that the countries bordering the Pacific should have a proper knowledge of each other’s viewpoint. Without cooperation mere words of peace were useless. Rotary’s contribution in that direction was well known, and he congratulated the various clubs in New Zealand on their splendid work.