Tragedy of the Siberian Arms Scandal: A Scapegoat's Wife From Our Own Correspondent, Tokio, Oct. 11.
Whilst the Japanese nation is awaiting the result of the investigations instituted by the civil authorities and the Foreign Office into the alleged sale of arms and ammunition to Chang Tso-lin by Japanese military officers, the first victim of the Vladivostok incident, the wife of Major Hara, the officer on yaen i the Pleas selereige the militarists, has peri by taking her life. In a Jetter she wrote before she committed the act, Mrs. Hara declared that her husband has been made the scapegoat by higher officials, and points out that since her husband hel no higher rank than that of a major, he could not have directed the disposal elsewhere of such a large quantity as that said to be found missing. Major Hara is at present in a military prison awaiting trial by court martial for alleged disposal of military stores clandestine-
With her nine-year old son, Mrs. Hara was going to Fusan in Korea to visit a cousin. She is said to have been very despondent during the voyage and as the boat was nearing Fusan, she threw herself overboard, after having previously addressed a letter to the captain of the vessel, in which she stated that her husband was only paying for the crime of people higher up and that she could no longer bear the shame of her husband being implicated in a plot that has already caused such disgrace to Japan.
The press generally expresses the greatest sympathy with the deceased lady, and the "Kokwmin," a very powerful daily paper, in an editorial utterance, declares that "the plot of the militarists, led by Marshal Uyehara, Chief of the Army General Staff, is the cause of Mrs. Hara's death." Other papers, though less guarded in their comments, express sympathy towards Mrs. Hara in such a manner as to leave very little doubt regarding whom they hold morally responsible for the rash act of the over-sensitive lady.
A further development of the Vladivostok arms episode occurred when informal conversations were held in Tokio between representatives of the British and American diplomatic authorities here and of the Japanese Government regarding the final disposal of whatever war material is still held by Japanese troops in the Maritime Province. The British spokesmen, it is reported, made three proposals (1) That Japan should bring the stores over to this country and hold it in trust until a responsible Russian Government, acknowledged by the Powers, comes into being with whom it wudd be possible to negotiate ing the return of the arms; (2) That Japan should continue to maintain sufficient
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.