A SURPRISE PACKET.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 12 May 1917, Page 3

A SURPRISE PACKET.

JAPANESE ARMY CROSSES CANADA. (From the San Francisco correspondent of the Dunedin Star.) Although strongly associated with the Entente Allies, it was learned in the United States with the greatest surprise that thousands of Japanese troops have been 'landed on |t3ie \veatf ctoast of Canada during the early part' of March by the Allies and transported to Quebec, and are now in France. It was definitely known that the first brigade of Japanese troops, numbering 25,000 men, passed through Canada in the first few days of March, bound for France. The information was learned from J. L. Tobias, chancellor of the Chicago Law School, Avho learned of the troop movement from an inspecting engineer in the employ of the Canadian Government. The engineer has now returned to his home in Chicago. Here is the story as told to Tobais: —"I thought the whole world knew by this time that the Allies had begun to transport Japanese troops across America to France. Not until my arrival in Chicago did I become aware of the censorship of this news. I was not the only astonished one when I saw 25,000 Japanese soldiers marching in Ottawa last week. come from Vancouver. In front of the palace the troops were reviewed by ex-Premier Laurier. Afterwards they gave an exhibition of their fitness by doing a double-quick march for a mile to the railway depot. At the depot they were entrained for Quebec and the journey across the sea. Their outfit was perfect. They were equipped for a long campaign. I was told by Captain Aseltine,'head of a Canadian battalion recently returned from the trenches, that this brigade was the first of a large number of Japanese soldiers which the Allies are sending to France. He estimated that within two months more than a million Japanese Avould be in the trenches of France. The Canadian officer explained that the first brigade of the troops to pass through Canada were veterans of the Russo-Japanese War, and were the pick of the Mikado's army. ''

Long ago militray experts in the United States expressed surprise that England had not enlisted the proffered help of the Japanese army on the European battlefields, for the Orientals gave every evidence of their unbounded bravery, in ousting the Germans from Kiau Chau.