TRUCKLOADS OF WEAPONS

Evening Star, Issue 25618, 19 October 1945, Page 5

TRUCKLOADS OF WEAPONS

FOUND IN TOKIO HOMES

SECRET ROUND-UP BY AMERICANS

(Rec. 10.15 a.m.) TOKIO, October 18. American troops, aided by Japanese police, made a secret round-up of Tokio homes and seized 20 truckloads of arms and ammunition, from modern weapons to quaint museum pieces, reports the Associated Press correspondent , The haul included 1,600 modern rifles, hundreds of grenades, and 12,000 Samurai swords. The American provost marshal said the raid was precautionary only, but ensured that no uprising was possible. Allied officers found 103 tons of silver bars valued at 2,000,000 dollars stacked in a barn 85 miles from Tokio. The farmer said the silver was sent to him to prevent loss during bombings. IMPERIAL PALACE BURNED. Following the first military inspection of the Imperial Palace area in history, (Brigadier-general Thorpe, chief counterintelligence officer, said the palace had been burned to the ground during the war, except for one wing containing the kitchens and banquet halls.. The grounds generally were neglected. Hirohito at present is living in an area set aside as a memorial to his marriage. DRUG TRAFFIC. Allied headquarters estimate that 90 per cent, of the world’s illegal narcotic supply has been cut off by an order for the destruction of narcotic-yielding crops in Japan and Korea. Allied investigators reported that bookkeeping controls and the handling of drugs in factories had been loose, and the smuggling of opium, hashish, morphine, and cocaine commonly observed before the war in Japanese transocean vessels. Documents showed that the Japanese supplied narcotics to' subjugated peoples; also there were 5,000 Japanese in poppy culture.