Tokyo, Mar. 7. Enthusiasm of some municipal assemblyman for inspection tours of North China has been cooled somewhat by the opposition voiced by reformers and taxpayers to one such lour now under way, according to the metropolitan press.
Ten members of a delegation of municipal assemblyman now are en route to China after having outwitted a reform group which tried io prevent their departure Љy forming a "human barricade" across the entrance to the Tokyo Railway Station.
About 100 persons opposed to the costly trip, including some members of ihe assembly, massed at the station an attempt to keep the ten member delegation from entraining, but the tourists merely postponed their departure a few hours and left later separately and secretly from Shimbashi, Shinagawa and Yokohama "Greedy Money Grabbers"
The departed, according to the "Asahi," in defiance of an alleged communication sent out by the War on to division commanders in North China advising them not to have dealings with the "greedly money grabbers.
Strong criticism of the tour, called "grossly extravagant," was voiced in the press and by reform groups who declared that another expensive expedition to China, on top of previous ones, would set a bad example especially—inappropriate at this time of national emergency.
Influential Opposition Among the opposition group which staged the demonstration at the station were Mr. Tsurukichi Maruyama, former Inspector-General of the Metropolitan Police, and Mr. Seiichiro Doke, dean of Senshu University and a member of the House of Representatives. Most of the demon-strafers were members of the Tokyo Municipal Administration Reform League.
When frustrated, the "reformers" went to the municipal building to see the Mayor, Mr. Ichita Kobashi, who defended the trip to China but told the demonstrators he too was opposed to "Daimyo processions."
According to the "Asahi', Dean Doke threatened to withdraw his support for Mayor Kobashi and to start a move to impeach him and several others. Dissatisfaction with the tour was expressed by Col. Kane-shire Shibayama, of the transport corps division of the War Office Military Affairs Bureau, the "Asahi" said.—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.