TORTURE IN KOREA.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 221, 17 September 1919, Page 7

TORTURE IN KOREA.

BARBAROUS INHUMANITIES. AUTONOMISTS MALTREATED. BETTER CONDITIONS PROMISED JBy Cable.— Press Association.~Coprr!ght.i (Received 11.45 a.m.) TOKYO, September IC. Eye-witnesses from Korea testify that tho Koreans are bitterly opposed "to the Japanese owing to the punishments meted out for demonstrations in favour of independence. Since the spring risingtwenty thousand have been imprisoned, and thousands have been flogged with wooden paddles. Barbarous tortures have been in use in old Korea. The correspondent states:—"l have seen many photographs of youthful students with their flesh cut to'shreds: many of them died. Many other indignities have been offered women students. I Admiral Saito, the new Governor of Korea, is introducing more humane rule, and promises immediate amelioration of conditions and eventual selfgovernment. He announces that Japan does not de?ire to eradicate Korean ■culture. Admiral Saito's administration marks the end of the brutal military rerrime which followed the rising—(A and N.Z. Cable.)

A report of alleged Japanese ntrrc:tiee in Korea was made public recently at the headquarters of the '"Presbyterian Church in America. It vrae a result of investigations by representatives in Korea of the Church, following the imprisonment of some of its mi.*.sionnr!es by the Japanese authorities. The report, which is several thousand words in

length, is described by the Presbyterian Church as follows: "-The American papers are full to overflowing with the reports of atrocities in Korea. Knowing that another 'Belgium is on the world's hands, it becomes ne.'«t-ary that the facts bo stated by some one, and that these be held to form the of constructive reformation later on. This article is written with this idea in mind. !V\ hat is reported here can r oe duplicated in scores of pinces in Korea, and some of the report* thus far received aro even more harrowing than the ones we report. But 8s they have not been deSnitelv established by competent witnesses, we omit them, and confine ourselves strictly to incidents which are known beyond the shadow of a doubt to be true. Many of th reports are repulsive in the extreme, and our readers' blood will boil with indignation as ours has who have witnessed these things. We leave the facte to convey their own lesson." Hundreds of Koreans who had professed Christianity are said to have been driven by Japanese gendarmes at the point of bayonets into churches, there to be fired on through open windows ne they huddled in terror, and later to perish in the flames ac the places of worship were put to the torch. Most of these victims, it is narrated, were* men. Surviving women and children were left in destitution.

Respectable women in one part of Korea were not safe in their Ifomes during- the day. the report continue.-. and so were forced to spend most of their time as refugees in the hills, re turning to their homes at night. The Japanese police designate all women who favour the independence of their land as social outcasts. One case cited referred io a Christian woman whose arm was said to have been wrenched from the socket by her persecutors.