Charges Tokyo, Sept. 21 xA 46-year-old former British Merchant Marine officer and a lieutenant im the Royal Naval Reserve, Mr. Vincent Oswald Peters, yesterday was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Kobe District Court for violation of the military secrets act, Japanese reports reaching here said today.
Mr. Peters was convicted of espionage, the reports said. He was arrested on January 17, when he was about to leave for Shanghai aboard the Taiyo Maru.
The prosecution charged that he was a member of a foreign spy ring which was placed under police serum iny when suspicions were aroused its activities centring at the Seamen's Mission.
The prosecution, which demanded ihat Mr. Peters be sent to prison for ten years, presented evidence showing that the spy ring used a British Blue Funnel Line vessel for relaying Secret messages between Kobe and Hongkong, Japanese reports from Kobe said.
Mr. Peters was reported to have arrived in Japan in 1938 and claimed that he was a businessman. The prosecution contended that he was engaged in spying on Japanese naval and economic matters.—United Press.
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