EXECUTED.

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1911, Page 5

EXECUTED.

THE JAPANESE PLOTTERS. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—COPYRIGHT. PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. Received January 25, 8.10 a.m. TOKIO, Jan. 24. Dr. Kotoku Denjiro, the Socialist leader, his wife and ten others, found guilty of a conspiracy against the Imperial House, have been executed. According to the Procurator-General at Tokio, when the conspiracy Avas first discovered at Akeshina, Nagano prefecture, in the latter part of May last, only seven men were arrested. As the examination of the case progressed it was discovered that there were accomplices all over the country. A large number were arrested and 26 men were found guilty of the conspiracy. The action of the accused falls under the purview of Article 73 of the Criminal Code, which provides that persons who have inflicted or have attempted to inflict a serious injury on the Emperor, Grand Empress-Dowager, Empress-Dowager, Empress, Crown Prince or hereditary Grandson shall be punished with death. In regard to the motive which prompted Kotoku and the others to frame such an appalling plot, it was found that in November, 1905, Kotoku visited San Francisco and associated with Socialists or Anarchists in America. He there imbibed a belief in the principles of Anarchism, and Communism, opinions which have as their ideal absolute liberty of the individual. Kotoku propagated these principles among Japanese residents in San Francisco. About May, 1905, he established a fraternity under the style of "Social Revolutionary Party" and formed a scheme to disseminate tho doctrines of the party in conjunction with those having the same views in Japan, In June of the same year Kotoku returned home and advocated "direct action" for the putting into practice of his principles. This was the beginning of the conspiracy for which Kotoku and his disciples have been executed. Kotoku decided to destroy the existing national organisation with a view to effecting a realisation of his doctrine in Japan. With this object ho published translations of the works of Prince Kropotkin, a leading light of Anarchism, and other advocates of Anarchistic principles, and distributed copies in Japan, strenuously exerting hmiself to inspire the Japanese with the spirit of Anarchism. He at last succeeded in securing a large number of supporters, and began advocating more extreme views than ever.