SURVEILLANCE IN JAPAN.

Shannon News, 9 March 1928, Page 2

SURVEILLANCE IN JAPAN.

IN VIEW OF CORONATION

Although the coronation ceremony of the Japanese Emperor is several months off, the metropolitan police have already completed measures to keep a keen surveillance upon, or detain, if necessary, Communists, Anarchists, and other persons that may attempt to make scenes during the ceremony (writes Alfred E. Pieres, the Tokio correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle). A list has been prepared of these alleged dangerous characters, and they will be watched. The police declare that this precautionary measure will restrict the activities of person? of radical tendencies and will avert any untoward incidents.

The police bureau of the Home Office has notified all prefectural authorities throughout- the Empire that a strict vigilance should be kept on all suspicious characters for some time prior to the coronation ceremony and until the royal rites are over. According to an official estimate there are in Japan 500 dangerous radical men and women.- In addition, there are said- to be 14,000 persons of questionable loyalty. From now on the police .will set to work to secure photographs of all these people and their residences, and to compile a sort of "curriculum vitae" of each

person. The Home Office, in co-operation with metropolitan police, intends to mobilise 25,000 policemen for service during the coronation. Of this number 6000 will be stationed in Kyoto, which has been chosen as the venue for the ceremonies. The rest will be placed in the larger towns in and around Kyoto, while a few thousand will be" stationed along the principal railroads leading to Kyoto. Long before the coronatidn day, the police in each prefecture concerned are expected to check up their "black lists," and-it is thought that, by the time November 8 next year arrives, which is the day set for the coronation, all suspicious characters will be under the official ken or in gaol. Shanghai and Harbin have been included as possible .sources whence the radically-in-clined may endeavour to come to Japan with ulterior motives, and these two cities will also be covered by the police net. - ■ ' . '