JAPANESE COUP

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 257, 27 September 1935, Page 16

JAPANESE COUP

ACTION IN CHINA. ALLEGED DISCOVERY BY MR GARETH JONES. Mr Lloyd George’s action in calling for a special report from tlie Foreign Office on- the circumstances of the death of Mr Gareth Jones, after being kidnapped b,y Chinese bandits, gives significance to a story published obscurely in Loudon this week, purporting to give the real story of the death, says a London correspondent writing on September 15. Mr Lloyd George believes ' that Mr Jones was in possession of secret information and that this may have a bearing on his death. The story alleges that Jones and Mueller, his German companion, stumbled on the- early stages of a Japanese attempt to repeat the Chahar coup, which began when Manchuria was invaded in 1931. Jones and Mueller arrived at Dolonor on July 25, and allegedly found the place decorated with flags, and that the- Japanesecontrolled independent Government was supported by a full mechanised brigade of Japanese troops. Astonished, they visited Japanese headquarters, where they found an Indian who explained that he was the head of the Pan-Asiatic League, a Japanese Organisation for the extension of Japanese dominance in Asia. After leaving the headquarters, they found a notice board, on which was written “Headquarters of the Autonomous Government of East Chahar.” They were then arrested on suspicion of espionage, and examined by Japanese officers, who told them they must not leave the hotel while at Dolonor.

When they departed they had the choice of three roads, according to the story published in London, and the Japanese strongly recommended one of them. They took it and were captured by bandits, who were allegedly strangers to Chahar, and had to ask their way about. They allegedly told Mueller they were not bandits, but Chinese Nationalists recruited from Jehol by Japanese who retained their families under control as hostages for the good behaviour of their hired bandits. They had been brought to Chahar and ordered to travel for making disturbances. “FACTS SUPPRESSED.”

Thus, alleged the London story, Mr Jones was kidnapped because he found the secret of the next Japanese drive, and was murdered in the Japanese sphere of influence. No ransom was ever collected.

The story declares that the British and German Governments suppressed the facts because they did not desire to embarrass their relations with Japto embarrass their relations with Japan, and, after the murder of Mr Jones, the British Government announced it would protest to the Chinese Government.

One theory was that the bandits shot Mr Jones in revenge after becoming convinced that the ransom negotiations had broken down. Mr Lloyd George is not satisfied with the revenge theory, and says there are unsatisfactory features which have not been adequately explained. He adds that certain information which has come to light is responsible for the increase in his interest in the circumstances.