COMMUNIST SCARE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 326, 11 April 1928, Page 9

COMMUNIST SCARE

JAPANESE SOCIETIES - DISSOLVED RESULT OF MARCH RAIDS By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright, TOKIO, Tuesday’. The police have removed the ban they placed on the publication of the facts about the raids on Communists carried out on March 15 in which upwards of 700 alleged Radicals were detained. At the same time the Home Ministry announces the dissolution of three Left Wing organisations—the Ronoto, or Japanese Farmer-Labour Party, headed by Ikuo Oyama, M.P., the Nihon Rodokiai Hyogikai, or Japanese Labour Council; and the Nihon Musanseinen Domes, a proletarian youths’ league. The Prime Minister, Baron Tanaka, visited the Emperor, Hirohito, to-day, presumably to report the same matter. The fact has been revealed that the police acted as a result of evidence of Communist activity at the general election in February, when propagandists preached the revolutionising of Japan and the adoption of the Farmer-workers’ dictatorship. The Communist organisation was perfected on December 4, 1926, shortly before the death of the Emperor Taisho. GRADUATES ARRESTED It. has also been disclosed that a Japanese branch of the Russian Third (Communist) International was formed in September, 1927. It is understood that those arrested included a considerable number of students and university graduates. The Red trades union organisation included 400 members who were acting as organisers in 36 provinces. Well-informed sources consider that the Communist scare is not in the least an indication that the stability of the Japanese State is endangered. The police revelations have failed to indicate th'at any evidence was obtained, of official Russian support for Japanese Communist activities, and" it is stated that no strain on the relations between Japan and Russia is expected to result.— United Service.