Nippon Calls on Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 420, 31 July 1928, Page 1

Nippon Calls on Auckland

VETERAN CRUISERS OF JAPAN ARRIVE

Guns Thud Salute and Counter Salute

MOSING up the harbour this morning, amid the flash and thud of salute and counter-salute, came two veterans of His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Navy. With their three lofty smoke stacks, their sides bulged with great gun bastions and their bows curved down to the under-water rams, the Idzumo and the Yakuma did not look modern. But they do not pretend to be. They have reached the quiet autumn of a life of fire and thunder. Proudly emplaced on the quarter deck of the flagship is a, shell with a legend in Japanese on a copper plate. This explains that the shell, fired by a Russian ship, struck the Idzumo, but fortunately for the ship’s company proved to be a “dud.”

■yjyiTH the flag of Vice-Admiral Seizo Kobayashi, C. 8., C.V.0., at the fore, the Idzumo steamed up the harbour, first firing a salute of 21 guns as she passed Fort Cautley, where the Rising Sun of Japan flew courteously. The Yakuma’, on which H.I.H. Pi-ince Takamatsu, third son of the late Emperor, is a sublieutenant, followed slowly and finally bprthed behind the flagship at Queen’s Wharf.

It wap a chill reception the weather gave the two early-morning callers. The pilot launch saw them first, two wisps of smoke out across the dull green waste, which the dawn was making a half-hearted attempt to bronze. They took shape against the darker background of Tiri, and turned into line, the tall masts, top-hamper and funnels making an imposing show.

At the end of a vertical clamber up the side of the Idzumo, a smiling officer in his tight American-like jacket, said, “Good mornings. You are early birds.”

The ships had had a rough and dreary passage from Wellington, and little storm flags, emblazoned with a red sun on a white background, were flying at the stern. On the arrival of the pilot these were hauled down and big' ensigns went up.

Glowing against the dark grey of the ships were the golden emblematic suns on the bows.

The Idzumo seemed sleepy and quiet at first, but soon whistles were blowing, and the little men in slippers, separating the big toe from the others, began to trot here and there coiling hawsers and polishing brass.

Activity increased until every sailor on the ship seemed to have his allotted task and the place was a hive. At the invitation of the paymastercaptain, the pressmen went below to drink green tea from pleasant little bowls, and there the officers enlarged

their vocabulary with “Haeremai,” and “Kia Ora.” Whether Japanese like pets, or pets like the Idzumo, it is a fact that the ship is almost an animals’ home. In one special corner off the quarter

deck was a white fox terrier, a black greyhound,, with no great affection for visitors, a little monkey with green eyes, and a sleepy opossum in a straw bed. The monkey came from Singapore, and most of the other animals from Australia. At least six cockatoos

and two finches are kept in another place. Practically every sailor who went past the dogs would pat their heads. The officer who showed off the beasts was asked if there were any

more. He said, “O yes, there are thirteen dogs.” But perhaps he did not understand. Smooth-faced midshipmen are on board in plenty, and there are 21 lieutenant-surgeons distinguished by a thin red line on their caps. Nearing the wharf the bosuns came into their own, and the crew scuttled. Commands came crisply through megaphones. The Idzumo fired a salute of 21 guns as she came in line with North Head, and the fort replied. Then H.M.S. Philomel shook her sides with a succession of guns, and the Idzumo acknowledged the tribute, her guns pounding out 15 shots, while evexy man of the crew stood stiffly to attention. Practically all the officers speak some English, and they all know how to write it, because it is a compulsory subject in the naval schools, a young midshipman explained, with much hesitation and deep thought over his words. “But English is very hard,” he concluded. There was much curiosity first about Rangitoto, then about the War Memorial Museum, and finally about Mount Eden as the ships came up the harbour. “What is the best harbour you have yet seen?” a lieutenant-com-mander was asked, the pressman seeking tp test the Japanese reputation of courtesy. “Sydney is the best,” he said, although his eyes were on the Waitemata. , Another midshipman was not very impressed with Sydney. “It is a -:oo big city,” said he, “and the pedple are too busy. They were so busy that they had not time to welcome us.”