SECRET JAPANESE SECT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17780, 13 May 1921, Page 5

SECRET JAPANESE SECT

ARREST OF THE LEADERS.

PLOTTING AGAINST STATE. Renter. TOKIO, May 11. News was released to-day of a sensational raid made on February 12 on the headquarters of a religious sect called the Omotokyo, resulting in the arrest of the leaders and seizure of several millions' worth of gold and silver coins and quantities of arms and ammunition. The prisoners, including a former admiral and the editor of a large Osaka daily newspaper, are held on charges of lese majeste, also of issuing secret publications involving the safety of the State. The Omotokyo headquarters are in a small town near Kyoto, upon which 200 police from Kyoto descended. Surrounding the temple during a religious celebration, they seized the god from the altar, despite the horror of the assembled worshippers, and destroyed the image. The police then searched the vaults under the temple, discovering treasure, arms, and tons of seditious literature.

News of the arrests was suppressed for fear of the effects upon the minds of many thousands of Omotokyo followers throughout the country.

TEACHINGS OF THE CULT. | WAR AGAINST AMERICA. I A. and N.Z. TOKIO, May 11. I Those arrested at Kyoto in connection i with the Omotokyo sect have been charged j with distributing alarmist reports calculated to disturb the public mind. The ' teachings of the cult include the necessity for war with America;