Eighteen members of a so-called Japanese business inspection party returned to Japan yesterday after they had been forbidden to land la America, They were Zurther charged with attempting to smuggle themselves into the United States by falsely representing themselves a, while immigration authorities also lodged a protest with the Japanese authorities. When the President Taft, on which the men were forced to return, docked at Yokohama, all of them were taken into custody by the water police, as the Japanese authorities are inclined to take a. very serious view of the case.
The party was organized by an paper and their professions were described as lumber men, tailors, marine products merchants, Jandseape gardeners and building contractors.
The first stag came at San Francisco when immigration off grew suspicious owing to the youth of these self-styled investigators of American business and industry, Investigations, in which the Japanese consul-general assisted, revealed that the majority of them had been living in farms or fishing villages and had been out of their: native villages for the first time, At first, the men insisted that they were Gout fide merchants, but finally confessed that the party was organized with the object of, smuggling some of them into the United States.
Some of the men wore European clothes for the first time in their lives, while others had sold all they had to try and get the expenses—they were so sure of getting into the States. The Japanese officials are making exhaustive engi it is reported the snee to unearth a deep-laid conspiracy to smuggle Japanese labourers into Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.