J.D.ローマン 演説原稿 於地洋丸朝餐会 1909年11月30日 （ジェームス・ディー・ローマン氏所蔵）
Copy of J. D. Lowman's speech at San Francisco on "Chiyo Maru" at breakfast
December 1 , 1909.
Baron Shibusawa, Ladies and Gentlemen :
As the time of our parting is now here, I wish to say a few words to you, though it is with diffidence that I do so, as you all know I have not the gift of speechmaking.
Three months ago you landed on American soil at Seattle, and since then we have been in daily and almost hourly companionship. Following the first two weeks, which were spent in visiting the cities which compose the northern membership of our Associated Chambers of Commerce of the Pacific Coast, you have traveled the length and breadth of the land and have been everywhere received and hospitably entertained. As the character of the men who compose the commission and the objects and importance of your mission became better known, our progress through the middle west and eastern states was attended with continued entertainment of lavish description and by a sincere display of friendship and goodwill.
Penetrating to the very heart of the manufacturing districts of New England and to the stronghold of the iron and coal industries of Pennsylvania, the same enthusiasm attended your steps, while the great cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington vied with each other in making you welcome. Baltimore, prompted by sympathetic hearts, omitted the most important part of its program and joined with you in mourning the death of your country's most able statesman, the lamented Prince Ito, whose funeral that day cast a gloom, whose shadow covered not only Japan, but travelled the thousands of miles of sea and land and touched the hearts of this entire company.
Turning our faces westward, and, to many of us, homeward, descending from the high plateaus of the Rocky Mountain Divide where Nature had already wrapped Mother Earth in her first white blanket for her long winter's sleep, down into the warm, bright sunshine of golden California, we all saw reflected in the smiling faces of the party the realization that you were back once more in the home land of your hosts, and that the hours were numbered when you should embark upon this beautiful Chiyo Maru to return to your loved ones, to home and to the nation which will greet with joy and gladness your safe return.
In these three months of close companionship we have grown to realize how near we are to one another, and that notwithstanding the wide differences between us by reason of race and faith and through ancient customs and traditions, in the great parliament of man we are all brothers with like aims and hopes and aspirations, and that, as has been so often said, the greatest barrier between us has not been that of East and West, but that of lack of knowledge of each other. We, too, have wanted you to know us better and so we men of the Pacific Coast invited you to visit us and have tried to show you every phase of our national life. We have taken you into our homes, we have shown you our churches and charities, our educational institutions, our industries, and our workshops ; we have called your attention to our civic advancement, but more than all these, which are material things, we have tried to show you the hearts of the American people, and to let you see they beat with friendship and kindly feeling for the people of Japan. If we have succeeded in showing this to you we ask you to take the knowledge back to your people as a message of international peace and goodwill, an earnest wish for continued friendship and co-operation between us. I hope that the sympathy and better understanding which have been created by the intercourse of the last twelve months may be productive of good and far-reaching results, and that with Japan and America joined by the strong bonds of friendship and mutual interests the peace of the Pacific Ocean may be assured.
Gentlemen of the commission, before I close I wish to thank you one and all for the uniform consideration you have shown me during the period of our travel together. Doubtless many of our customs have seemed strange and unusual to you, but with unfailing courtesy you have adapted yourselves to each new situation and have given me your whole-hearted support, and now when the time has come for us to part let us say, not goodbye, for many of you will come again to visit this country and some of us doubtless will see you once more in Japan, but rather let us say God speed and au revoir.
（『渋沢栄一伝記資料』第32巻p.380-382掲載）
参考リンク
- 都市詳細 サンフランシスコ - 渡米実業団
〔渋沢栄一記念財団 渋沢栄一〕
http://www.shibusawa.or.jp/eiichi/1909/city/c61_sanfrancisco.html
