JAPANESE STILL NOT SATISFIED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21827, 6 July 1936, Page 11

JAPANESE STILL NOT SATISFIED

OFFICER’S DEATH IN PEIPING FINDING OF CONSULAR COURT PEIPING, July 3. The British Consular Court of Enquiry decided that there was no case against the British soldiers who were alleged to have killed a Japanese officer outside a cabaret. The Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, on being advised of the finding, called on the British Ambassador and expressed Japan’s disdissatisfaction. A high official states: “We still believe that the British soldiers murdered the officer.” The Peiping correspondent of “The Times” says that the British Consul (Mr N. Fitzmaurice) after announcing that there . was insufficient evidence against Privates Cooke and Hunt of the Military Police, concerning the death of the Japanese officer, Sasaki, said that a prima facie case existed against Cooke regarding an assault on a Japanese named Onishi, whom he is alleged to have assaulted about midnight, while the Japanese officer who was killed was assaulted half an hour later, Cooke pleaded not guilty. The defence pointed out that two Korean barmaids employed in the bar where Onishi was assaulted gave evidence that Cooke and Hunt were there together on the night of the assaults, whereas Hunt was on duty at the barracks. Cooke was out with Corporal Heal, whom none of the witnesses mentioned. The barmaids knew all the military police. There was no doubt that some of the witnesses were accusing certain men of the assault in consequence of ill-feeling due to the police searching for absentees. Several soldiers of the embassy guard gave evidence that Cooke and Heal were in a cafe half a mile from the Korean bar at 11.50 p.m. A sentry said in evidence that they returned to the barracks at 12.10 a.m.

The defence emphasised that it intended not only to prove an alibi, but that it was anxious to satisfy everyone that British soldiers were not involved.

[The Japanese authorities recently demanded that the British Embassy investigate the death of a Japanese army officer eutside a Peiping cabaret. The allegation was that the officer was killed in a fight with British soldiers from the legation guard, “who were concerned in a series of assaults on Japanese suspects at bars and cabarets, injuring four men and a woman.” The British enquiry disclosed that no member of the guard was in the part of Peiping where the affray occurred. After a second communication from the British Embassy disclaiming responsibility for the murder of the officer, General 'Matsumuro. the political representative of the Japanese Army in North China, in a conference with Japanese press correspondents, said angrily; “In spite .of definite evidence the British are showing no sincerity which is regrettable. The Japanese will be forced to take extraordinary measures if this attitude continues.” After further Japanese pretests, the British Military Court was again convened in order that Japanese witnesses could be examined.]