Mr, Shunsuke Tanabe, acting manager of the London Branch of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, entered the company shortly after his gradual tion from the Tokyo Higher Commercial College in 1918.
The following year, Mr. Tanabe was transferred to the London Branch office, but returned to Tokyo after five years in London. In 1938, he was head of the branch office of the Company at Karachi, India, and last year became acting manager of the London Branch.
Mr, Satoru Makihara, manager of the London Branch of the Mitsubishi arrest last night of two prominent panese by Scotland Yard agents was received with astonishment by official as well as non-official circles here. Although the Foreign Office maintained strict silence regarding the arrests pending the receipt of full official, information, little doubt was expressed among the general public that the arrests were no more than a retaliatory measure against the arrests made in Tokyo of Britons on suspicions of espionage.
All newspapers splashed the news on their front pages under streamer headlines, some reading "Base British Retaliation." It was recalled here that the managers of the Loi don branches of the Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha and the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha had refused, it was stated to cooperate with the British Government in the latter's blockade against Germany.
Reports from London declared that the two Japanese, Mx, Shunsuke Tanabe, London Branch manager of the Mitsui Bussan Company, and Mr. Satoru Makihara, London Branch manager of the Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha, were arrested for violation of the amended Defence of the Realm, Act which provides that foreigners committing acts detrimental to the prosecution of the war shall be taken into custody instead of deported.
It was stressed here that the Japanese action against the Britons under detention in Japan was taken in order to maintain peace and order within the country, while the British action has been entirely different, having been- actuated by political motives—Domel.
Shoji Kaisha, also was a graduate of the Tokyo Higher Commercial College. He entered the company in 1919 after having finished College and subsequently held many posts abroad including Singapore, Sydney and London.
In 1937, he became head of the Fisheries Section of the main office in Tokyo, but in September 1939 was appointed manager of the London Branch.—Domei.
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.