Japanese Prince Coming to Dominion

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 337, 24 April 1928, Page 1

Japanese Prince Coming to Dominion

BROTHER OF EMPEROR CRUISER SQUADRON’S VISIT (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service) Reed. 1.10 p.m. TOKYO, Monday. Sub-Lieutenant Prince Takamat»u, the Emperor Hirokito's second brother, sailed on Monday morning for a six months’ training cruise aboard the cruiser Yafcumo, from Yokosuka naval base. She is scheduled to arrive at Wellington, New Zealand, on July 25. The squadron consists of the cruisBrs Yakumo and Idzumo, the same ships which visited the United States in 1927. % it is commanded by Vice-Admiral Kobayashi, who was adviser to the Japanese Delegation at the threePower Naval Conference at Geneva fast August. Prince Takamatsu is scheduled to return home in October or November. Special interest is attached to the visit •luring the coming winter of a Japanese tuning squadron, for Sub-Lieutenant irince Takamatsu, brother of the EmPeror of Japan, and second in the line „ succession to the throne, is serving- on tt-LJM.S. Yakumo, one of the two ships comprising the squadron. This young Prince of the Japanese Jto.yal Family comes merely in his cap*city as a naval officer attached to the squadron. But it is particularly interfrom another standpoint. New Zealand is to receive a visit from a mem"Cr of the oldest family on earth, with tree traceable by definite historical fact to the fourth century A.D., r lO to a date one thousand years prior ' if credence be given to the legarar >' history of earlier times. Young man in the early twenties, mee Takamatsu occupies much the me position in Japan as does Prince in England. Both are sailor not in the sense that they have s*®® given honorary rank in the naval sr« \ ce k>’ reason of their exalted per- * status, but actually as professional com° r I^ien - In each case promotion will and the ordinary way with seniority as P assin g of examinations. So far ® Japanese Prince is concerned, J* a radical departure from age-long tom, but it is only one of several in- °* democratic leanings on the of the Imperial Family.