Tokyo, May 14.
The number and frequency" of crimes of a violent nature are increasing in Tokyo. Matters have become considerably worse than when I wrote to-you some time ago that Tokyo was in the grip of a atime wave.
The main trouble is that there is 1 species of leniency exercised by the Japanese citizen towards a criminal. Fore is seldom, if ever used, even when it fs patent that the_ intruder. is a burglar who is armed and means violence if you dare raise an alarm, refuse to obey "stand and deliver" order, or have the temerity to offer resistance. The Japanese generally talk to a midnight burglar in the poutest of Tanguage, and beg Mr. Thief to take what he wants, spare their lives and depart.
Why does the householder go to such absurd extremes?—Because tne peace-loving citizen fears the subsequent polite investigations in cuse he fires at and wounds a thief.
The potice take the line that it is their duty and privilege alone to use force. A citizen who does s0, no matter how black the criminal career of the intruder injured end how great the provocation he offered, is also looked upon as a law-breaker, Such an attitude naturally tends to infuse more dareaeviey Into burglars and hleves, ere are some end''the police wi ficial and rich people maintain their premises actual armed guards and these offer resistance to the point of using ugly clubs, naked swords and loaded guns.
If the police go on as they ha been doing, and if the authorities play ostrich when nearly every paper in the land is seriously commenting on the growth of violence, then, with the increasing precarious-ress of securing a livelihood and the gr severity of eeonor conditions, we might also, in course of time, have some sort of orga banditry, though not on such a scale, as you have it in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.