JAPANESE NAVAL SCANDALS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2132, 25 April 1914, Page 5

JAPANESE NAVAL SCANDALS

PROSECUTION OF AN ENGLISH

JOURNALIST

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE

By ftslcEra-rrli—Press AESaciaUon-Cspyright

Tolsio, April 2*3. In eamieetian with tiro Japanese naval scandal, the SiGmOTis-Shuckeri Company is prosecuting Mr. I'ooloy ftemctly Heater's correspondent ftt Tokio'j and his wife, to recover £5000riaid to Mr. Pooloy as a reward for returning secret papers which ho had purchased from Carl Itichter, who was recently tried and sentenced in Berlin to. -two yean? imprisonment' for having stolen certain documents frara tha Tokio office of tho Sie.ineus*Shttckert Company,

It iva-s net known by. Pootcy that they bad been stolen.

HISTORY OF THE CASE, After the trial of Hie liter., ivljo declared that Uu': documents showed ihiit the -fen had bribed high Japanese officials, the m;i.i-| issues! a statement dealing frith .luehter's, They pointed out Hint, as is customary ill countries outside Europe, nil their natal business in Jnpita has been dene through native agents, who ere naturally paid a conirateion. Tho nrtfi declared that they have never paid vommiismis, direct er. indirect, to offis ciajs of the Japanese Government. lm» I mediately ;ln attempt at blackmail was -*»ado the firm rofßrted tho matter to Ute Public Prosecutor, and informed! the Japanese Upveriiment. In connection With. tho nbovo. statement, it way -he ■ mentieaed that, in. the course of the .trial, the defence demanded. t.ii.e reading of tke stolen iettors., but the Court refused, to allow this. Tho only dat anient mid was a ..Jfttc-r written by the accqstd to Efefr Willrelm, act-in-ff director or Messrs, Mwneiis-Schtrkert, and containing fiHesed ■ quotations from. the stoku correspondence, some of these went to sl»w ihni Captain Ide, then a member of the .T;:;;a----iieso Nav:i] Commission jii ixjndoiy, critic* ised Somen's prices, and that in a letter reffatding tliis the Tokio branch of this firm wrote'"Any considerable i'mlrtetian in prices is inadvisable. The orders are given in Tftkio-, and recent orders shew that, th© firm's friends in the S.l.mstry of Manila .ai's workiuj,' trtistworthily-. If Mo continues to annoy us ho must so. It will not bo hard for us to manage it." The letter .goes on. to inciitiost that sluotlser JtspaueSo official, whoso unfile 'S given, "lias ft mission in London to find but what members <sf the Cam-mission, rtn Pot work for its and according -to tine wishes ©f bur friends here, and to soe tliat they are removed or laddered- liftrinlek?."

. Jlr. I'oolcy, Jtuutcr'a correspondent in Xoirio, was arrested by the Japanese ajj. Ihoritic* oil January jg®, after -M% naras-<l by i.i deputy in (lie Japanese Diet as bring involved in the naval scaluiai concerning the Alleged bribery of high officials by 4 Go raw n thin, ivticl in connection with his arrest, M.V. liobert Young, editor of the "Japan Chronicle," wrote aii indignant letter of protest to ■tho leading jouriials ill G;w.t Britain. It was believed that Mr. Pooley had obtained certain doduitte-ufiiry <eyideflc9 ill support- of these charges affecting a iruro-be-r of foreign armament jnatrafactißaeiSi ami in the coma of ft debate in the iJiet it was alleged that- 3ms had been .-guilty of Kiacknyail in connectioq tfifcli docHni'e-ii'ts ftolen t>y. tlio employee of a (icrnian firm. Jilt. Poeley, after issuing « statement through his lawyers strongly denying the: charge, wa,s summoned by the fnocuriitor of the .TokiQ Court and closet? interrogated for a whole day. On the following, day. hs was arrested without any deflni'tß c'ljargo b®ft{f : ; forirvjrlrv'teij• hixa-^thia^boiftg. qiiito unnecessary .Tipa-tiese legal 'Jaced, in' iho very depth of -w inter, in a room 01 cell vrtiteh. there was no means of heating ar'iilttally. His wife was also summoned to the Procurator's office, where sheKOpejU* to have been so frfehtehed that «ho became . hysterical, and, returning home, atlem-pletl to ebmuiit suicide; & domiV-iliary search of Mr. VooleyV how# was then made. - Not Satisfied w.itii that, • the authorities proceed ol to search theoffice and the private. resicle.uco Jfr. - Pooiey's solicitor at Yokohama, after d'e- J (nandi'iig- fusel obtaining certain papers.