Tokio, Aug. 4.
A number of American newspapers, and notably the "Christian Science Monitor," have published a statement based upon a report from one of the minor news agencies to the effect that the Japanese Government is hiring bandits to create disturbances in Manchuria. This statement is denounced by the authorities as absolutely false, but as the authority quoted by the "Christian Science Monitor" is stated by the agency to be an official report to the State Department in Washington, the Foreign Office in Tokio has issued the following statement:
"The attention of the Japanese Government has been called to a report sent out by a news agency and published by the "Christian Science Monitor' of Boston, as being based on an official report received at the State Deparcmens en July 19, charging that the Japanese military authorities in Manchuria are making use of mounted bandits, supplying them with money aad arms, to create disturbances along the Chinese Eastern Railway, and especially around Harbin, in order to wrest the control of the railway from the Chinese, on the pretext that the Chinese are unable to maintain order in the district. Other press reports of a similar character are circulated abroad.
"The accusation is preposterous on the face of it and a thorough investigation has proved that the statements contained in the report as given in the "Christian Science atone are absolutely unfound-"Tt is true, however, that bandits are showing activities in some parts of Manchuria, and the Chinese authorities seem to find difficulty in handling them.
"For some time past a charge has been made persistently in some Chinese quarters that these outlaws are in secret agreement with the. Japanese. The fact that the bandits themselves spread the same report in order to make people believe they had the support of the Japanese doubtless forms the foundation.for the false accuse tion."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.