JAPANESE SUSPICION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 13

JAPANESE SUSPICION

ATTITUDE OF MOJI POLICE AUSTRALIANS' EXPERIENCE BRISBANE, April 21 Australian passengers on the Nankin, who have been touring East, bitterly complained, on the arrival of the vessel here, of tho aggressive and insulting attitude adopted by Japanese police and customs officers in Moji Harbour, the first and last port of call for Australian shipping. Passengers stated that during the showing of passports on arrival in Moji they were treated like a shipload of coolies. The Nankin was delayed two hours while the water police questioned a passenger who was seen with a camera. He was put through a severe examination and was not released until the films were developed and found to show only scenic pictures. A woman who could not leave her cabin owing to an accident was ordered to bo brought to the lounge without delay, the water police refusing to see her in her cabin. Mr. G. W. Simpson, formerly Public Service Commissioner of Western Australia, said the acute suspicion of the Japanese concerning their fortified zones was becoming intolerable, and it was almost more than one's life was worth to take photographs. Moji is a fortified harbour at th« northern end of the island of Kyushu, opposite Shimonoseki, and is of importance in the export of coal. Kyushu is the island at the southern end of Japan