MYSTERIOUS FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 July 1939, Page 8

MYSTERIOUS FIRE

OUTBREAK IN CONSULATE,

SYDNEY, July 6

Police are investigating a fire in the basement of the home of the Japanese Consul-General (Mr. Akiyama), which at first they did not regard seriously. The fire occurred on Monday night and at first was thought to'.be only an accidental outbreak among the rubbish, in the basement, but a different complexion was put on it by statements made later by Mr. Akiyama and by the discovery of the words “China X 39” chalked on the door.

It was also revealed after the fire that Mr. Akiyama had reported to the police on Monday that he received a telephone message threatening violence against him on his way to a luncheon at the Millions Club, and that he had been given police protection. Two plain-clothes police were stationed unobtrusively near the Consulate and others outside the Millions Club, and two detectives in a car followed Mr. Akiyama’s car through the city.

In a statement to the newspapers, the Consul-General said there could be no doubt that the fire had been caused deliberately. “My gardener, a thoroughly reliable Australian, who has worked at the house for 20 years, put his tools away in the basement at 5 o’clock,” he said. “There was no chalk message on the door then, but when the fire was discovered and my chauffeur went down to try to put it out with the garden hose, the words were there.” The Consul-General, who arrived in Sydney only on May 18, as successor to Mr. Wakamatsu, who was transferred to India, also revealed, tha the had received several threatening messages by telephone since his arrival. He said, however, that ho them seriously. “Consuls, like othei officials, get such messages m all conn tries,” he declared. “My predecessor Mr. Wakamatsu, told me that nejiad received many.” . The Consul-General added thath himself had answered one of these telephone calls, and that the voice ne had heard was that of a foreigner, might have been a Chinese or I£ a Ilan,” he remarked. I don t ano But he was not a good Australian. He spoke rotten English. voice, Later it was revealed that a toicc, which called itself Mi. Wakamatsu on the phone in r when the Lyons the s Xiier Dalfrajn for p lg iron * e v X S aid Mr. WakaS would be the Dalfram blown up by a time bon .