Believed to be the only survivor in Japan of those who suffered persecution at the hands of the Tokugawa Government in pre-Meiji days, the Rev, Father Ame Billon, French priest living in the historic city of Nara, was the recipient last week of special honours by the prefectural authority and the people, the Intter presenting Father Billon with a bronze dust of higeself.
Father Billon, who is 88 years! of age, came to Japan as a youth and "began work at Okazaki, a small town near' Nagoya. Immediately upon arrival he was harassed by the' Tokugawa Government which was at that time waging a vigorous anti-foreign and anti-Christian campaign. With his followers, he was arrested and imprisoned on more than one ocension, He holds the distinction of never having visited his native land since he arrived in this country and of having been the means of educating, or influencing several of those Japanese who realized that the Policy of isolation must end. Among these latter were the famous Prince Ito, Count Okuma, and the late Premier Kei Hara,' the last-named Imown as the first commoner premier of Japan. The bust pre sented to Father Billon is about two feet hi Assisted by Mr. K. Inahata, pres-dent of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce, and a pupil of the aged prelate, Father Billon has built a small church at the foot of Mount Mikasa, in the prefecture of Nara, where he intends to spend the rest life in solitude and medita-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.