JAPANESE IN EUROPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1920, Page 5

JAPANESE IN EUROPE.

ITALIANS DISTRUSTFUL. J ''THE BtROWN PRUSSIANS" I A London, Marchfc j An Australian journalist who has beta ' touring France and Italy, deecriblne ltii impressions, states:— " j

Journeying from London I found Italy ' overrun with Japanese, in Naples ti single visitors and in Rome as battalion*. 1 while Florence, Genoa and Turin eaehxl possess more than a sprinkling, not only making the usual sightseeing fewd fat & penetrating into distant suburbs, tad' . even walking across country .between ■ stations. The position recalls tile eScpttr- Jj ience of Australia when a war * ship visits Melbourne or Sydney, and S we encounter strings of. bluejackets 1 trudging across the bills to Doncutw \ or 13eecroft i • '

The Japanese in Italy are mostly frijes ' warships, but there are a fair number gf civilians—all deadly'serious, all ' vant of every detail of tile country. and . all pausing intervals to marls spots on their maps, or make notes. VhKfov ■ the Coliseum they aVe impassive and ill" perturbable. Hundreds are seen alofta I the Appian Way, and others swarafi all the picture galleries, apparently ' studying the old masters." '

The average Italian regards the inqulsi- - tive visitors with distrust. They ale '>' caHed "Brown Prussians," and the u*i» of this nickname is fairly general, Np. - i body knows the reason for their extreme ' curiosity. It is quite possible that tW ■ Japanese are visiting Italy in larg« nil#- 1 bcrs merely because of their admiration for the country 'and its aft, but tit Italian is suspicious, and while accord-. mg the Japanese the invariable courtesy • extended all visitors, save Austrian*. fee - does not hesitate to voice his sutcicifti 'j and bitterness, j I wag standing with an Italian frietid * who spent many years in America, atd opposite were a dozen Japanese, indul- 'i mg naval officers. "Y ou know what Bluchor exclaimed when he visitad Ltt> don," said the Italian. "Can't you we 1 the same sort of look as he must lave shown in the eye of that Japf" This comment was possibly 'prejudice* bnt the attitude of the Italian was unmii< ■ < takable, and he added: "Whert It»lv en. ,) tercd the war I return from America by »! boftt ' and went to the front' J When America fights Japan 111 MtHtn - to America and enlist, and tfeeW are '■ . tens of thousands of Italians trill/do J the same." ■ j Franqp is frenziedlv busy confuting '' j the sword into the ploughshare, »»4 ']•«. :;i constructing her national life. The" 1 massed energies of the people should ' produce a marked effect on the next ■ 'j harvest. The entire country along the '|| war zone and from Paris to Boulogne Is S now smiling in the verdure of the com- j! ins crops. Most of the shell holes h*ve "'1 been filled, but the biggest arc still a ibie. The barbed wire is still stand- '1 jns. and great trenches cross-cut levelled' fields; yet the whole landscapel on either hand to the horizon is "«*«» '- ,1 cultivation. , ■ -. Most of the preparatory for tKe 4 * restoration of tlie countryside is tcrily toilsome handwork, hut strenuoUs'sil ?Toups can be seen, smoothing out He'd*, ploughing up and exploding and demolishing the ruins. They pre-if# sent a striking .spectacle, almost lead* 'J nig the passing visitor to thillk that', ] hostilities had been resumed.