Bureau of Asiatic Affairs, yesterday afternoon at the Foreign Office, handed to Mr. Sze wi-peng, Chinese Charge d'Affaires, a report concerning the investigations made by the Japanese authorities concerned into the Chinese murder cases. The gist of the report is as follows:
On September 3, S. Sato of Nishihara-machi, Koishikawa, District, Tokio, whilst on vigilance duty, mistook a Chinese named Wang Teh-hsien for a disorderly Korean and assaulted and wounded him. This case is now being trial. On September 4, T. Ozawa and eight others, while on vigilance duty in Doi Village, Kanagawa Prefecture, were about to attack 30 or 40 Koreans who were then engaged in the repairing work on the Atami line near the said village—there being a rumour that they had done violence to a Japnnese superintendent of the work and his wife—when it happened that two Chinese labourers named Lo Vu-kung and Chen Shao-ming who used to profess themselves Formosans came towards them.. These Chinese were also mistaken for lawless Koreans and murdered on the spot by. the Japanese above mentioned. This case, too, is now being tried. In the same district, there occurred another murder case involving the death of a Chinese named Shen Pao-tien, but as the cause of the crime has not yet been confirmed, it is now under in vestigation. On September 2, J. Yoshizawa of Hatsune-cho, Koi-hikawa District, Tokio, while on vigilance duty, mistook a Chinese named Wang Chao-cheng for a lawless Korean and assaulted and wounded him. This case aliso is now being tried at the public procurator's office.
Commenting on the Chinese murder, the "Jiji" to-day writes to the following effect:—
Faced by the unexpected earthquake disaster, and owing to various disquieting rumours, the popular mind was then so excited that not only Chinese residents but a good number of Japanesd and Koreans also were mistaken for lawless Koreans and murdered by vigilance parties. This deplorable incident being nothing but a by-product of a natural calamity, while qf is dug as a matter of course, that strict punishment should be inflicted upon whoever have been found guilty of the crime, it does not behave the Japanese Government particularly to hold itself responsible for the Chinese victims nnd to-Bay an indemnity for them alone. _7We take the view, however, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.