AUCKLAND’S GUESTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 420, 31 July 1928, Page 8

AUCKLAND’S GUESTS

/COINCIDENT with the arrival of the Japanese Squadron in New Zealand was the announcement of the signing of a trade treaty between the Japanese and the New Zealand Governments, as a result of which a wider market will he available for many of oui* best exports. That, in itself, was a happy augury for the continuance of our good relations with Japan. The Japanese visitors arrived to-day in Auckland. They are assured of a hearty and sincere welcome. We in New Zealand have not forgotten that Japan was in the war on our side. It was a Japanese force that seized the German territory of Kiaochow in China. It was the Japanese Navy that patrolled the Pacific and Indian Oceans, protecting the coasts of New Zealand, Australia, and British Columbia; safeguarding the lanes of commerce from Hong-Kong to Vancouver, from Wellington to Sydney, and from Singapore to Zanzibar. Many of our troopships, too, were convoyed by Japanese cruisers, and in every sense of the word Japan proved herself an ally. Now representatives of the great Island Empire ofi the Mikado pay us a visit of courtesy. Auckland is glad to extend them the hand of welcome, and to express the hope that their visit may be productive of mutual goodwill and understanding. As Vice-Admiral Ivobayashi has expressed it: “It is very important that one 1 nation should understand the conditions of another. It is good for people to meet that their minds may meet too.” It is only by visits such as these that real impressions can he formed and false ones corrected. We welcome to Auckland these wartime friends of ours with the hope that tlieir stay may prove to be a thoroughly pleasant one, and that' the friendship cemented in years of stress may stretch ahead through peaceful years of prosperity.