JAPANESE MANDATES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 January 1936, Page 5

JAPANESE MANDATES

ALLEGED FORTIFICATION. (Received Wednesday, 11.5 a.m.) GENEVA, Tuesday. A report of the Mandates Commission reveals full discussions regarding the alleged Japanese fortifications on mandated islands in the Pacific. A German business man, Richard

Voigt, a resident of Japan, who visited an island for health reasons, complained to the League of “the intolerably vexatious and suspicious supervision,” He said he was watched night and day and was continually interrogated by the police. His freedom became so restricted that his hotel “became nothing more than a prison, the only difference being that I w r as a paying guest.” Voigt did not conceal his belief that the reason for shadowing him Avas a fear that he would pry into “public works,” which he believed were actually fortifications.

Other allegations against Japan, which the Commission considered, related to the enormous increases in munition imports into the mandated islands.

The Commission decided that the contradictory reports, in respect of Japanese actions in the Pacific, were disturbing and that uneasiness would continue while impartial and independent witnesses were not freely allowed to visit the islands.