The following statement has been issued by Major General Sato on behalf of the Japanese War Office, in reply to charges brought by missionaries of Japanese atrocities in the Chientao district. The statement is issued textually as received.
"Speedy executions and burning of houses have been rendered necessary, because the Chinese have expressed anxiety that the Japanese shall accomplish their task of stamping out outlawry and Korean plots as speedily as possible and then withdraw.
"The very nature of the task requires either a slow deliberate procedure or a quick dash, smashing the centres of trouble, ' regardless of the fact that some. innocent persons probably suffer.
"It is a coincidence that many of the plotters who have been exccuted were Christians, but the plotters in many cases ally themselves with the Missions for the sake of the security thus afforded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.