Alleged Complicity of Japanese Official: Charges made in the Diet Tokio, Feb. 18.
Mr. Kohashi, a Kokuminto member, speaking to a resolution in the Diet, drawing attention to to alleged "irregular" activities in connexion with the opium traffic in the Kuantung Peninsula, affirmed that the ''Kosaizando" concern, which had the opium monopoly in Kuantung, though nominally Chinese, was really Japanese. He further asserted that, according to the books, this concern netted for the Japanese behind the scenes Y. 285,500 between August, 1919, and March, 1920.
He alleged that such large profits were due to close relations between Japanese and high officials of the Kuantung administration. He asserted, finally, that the irregular transactions had assumed such proportions that the drug must be smuggled out of Kuantung into other parts of China where its use was prohibited.
Governor-General Yamagata replied that the Government had in no way contravened international morality, and that such smuggling as was going on had been illegal and beyond the Government's control. He emphatically denied that the Government had had any connexion with irregular transactions, and said! he was inclined to doubt the authenticity of the books quoted.—Reuter.
Interpellation by Baron Fujimura:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.