In the Saitama prefecture, 97 students, male dnd female, and 23 workers were butchered by vil-Jains belonging to these so-called Vigilance Committees in the very grounds of the police station. Members of the Vigilance Committee there, it is said, suddenly grew excited as the result of rumours that the workers and the Socialists were responsible for the burning of Tokio and Yokohama, rushed into the railway station and took 23: passengers, mostly labourers and_ pedlars, from an incoming train. These men were marched off to the police station and there handed over to the Police. The Chief of Police talked to the arrested men in severe tones, and_ then told them that they would have to r main in the police station. Thi however, was not what the gallant Vigilanee Committee men wanted and they attacked: the Chief of Police who fled into a mulberry grove. Soon after, five motor-trucks, carrying 97 students, male and female, passed that way. the leading truck bearing a big te banner on which was written "Saitama Prefectural Police Department." Three policemen ae. companied the lorries. The Vigi lantes attempted to prevent the trucks from passing by placing obstacles in the way, while, in the meantime, others rang the fire bells, a signal for the rest of the Vigilantes to hurry out. The party of students in the trucks were pursued to the police station and were all butchered there. The 3 workers and pedlars who had also taken refuge at the police Station were done to death by the members of the Vigilance Committee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.