TEACHER'S ARREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21769, 7 April 1934, Page 11

TEACHER'S ARREST

COMMUNISM IN JAPAN FRIEND EXPRESSES FEARS A vivid impression of the detestation which the Japanese authorities have for Communism, and of the difficulties which may lie ahead of Mr. W. M. Bickerton, formerly of Christchurch, who has been arrested in Tokio on suspicion of being engaged in Communist activities, was given in Christchurch recently by Mr. Lan R. Little, who has just returned from a business trip to Japan, and had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Bickerton in Tokio. Mr. Little scouted the suggestion that Mr. Bickerton had been actually engaged in Communist activities. But, he added, the arrested teacher bad made a study of Communism and Russian principles, and it needed only a breath of suspicion to bring the Japanese authorities into action.

" Mr. Bickerton would not be interested enough in Communism to take any active part," Mr. Little said confidently. "He appreciated how dangerous it would be even to mention anything like Communism there, and he was very careful. I aim satisfied that there is nothing in any suggestion that he gave money to some needy Communist, or had anything to do with Communists.

" I have a cutting which says that the authorities have confiscated several things found in Mr. Bickerton's house. No doubt, as a detached student of Russia, he possessed books on the subject, and it is my impression that these would be sufficient to incriminate him in the eyes of the Japanese. When it comes to Communism, the Japanese authorities need only suspicion to make them go 'right off the deep end.' "

Mr. Little expressed the opinion that there was a troubled time ahead for Mr. Bicker ton. Another European in Japan, he said, once fell into casual conversation with a Russian in a big hot-el. The Japanese police got on to the European's track, and scarcely let him out of their sight for two years. Every morning they called at his house to see that he was still there.

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