What the final outcome will be is by no means certain, as the aus thorities are very reticent as to how much incriminating evidence has been discovered and what this evidence amounts to, but the following points have a close bearing on the whole affair and are worth noting:—, (1) Aa the arrests were carried out before the revision of the Peace Preservation Law, the maximum punishment that can be inflicted on any one of the accused is ten years' imprisonment, Few, however, are Vikely to. be given such heavy punishment.
(2) The Jury. System has been instituted since" the round-up took place, but it is still uncertain when ther the accused will be allowed trial by jury, (3) The amnesty to be given to tens of thousands of prisoners on the occasion of the Enthronement Ceremonies next month (November) 4s not to be extended to any of the (4) Phe authorities are oxercising extraordinary precautions in order to prevent any untoward event fat the time of the Enthronement, and everyone suspected of harbouring "dangerous thoughts" is, therefore, either to be detained tempora arily or cle watched with the greatest care, (5) Owing to the fear of "dan gerous thoughts" spreading amongst the student classes, the Cabinet recently decided to appoint 6% student supervisors and 70 ansintants to "guide the thoughts" of youths in the Government colleges and universities, and sanctioned the expenditure of Yen 146,000 for purpose on their own responsibility.
(6) The majority of those committed for trial appear to be guilty of nothing more concrete than holding advanced social theories.
(7) Soviet money is said to have been used by some of the alleged communists, but the report has never been' confirmed. It is extremely doubtful if any large amount has found its way into Japan, and in all probability the report is entirely lacking in foundation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.