BEFORE JAPANESE COURT

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160740, 28 August 1920, Page 3

BEFORE JAPANESE COURT

BRITISH SUBJECT’S ARREST. TRIAL OF MR SHAW. SHANGHAI, Aug. 14. A message from Tokio reports that the Japanese Foreign Office states that Mr George Shaw, the British merchant at Antung, who was imprisoned by the Japanese police, will be prosecuted on a charge of an offence against the internal safety of the State. The case was forwarded to thq Public Procurator’s office on July 26th, and is now being tried in the Supreme Court at Seoul. A leading article in the Tientsin Times, referring to the Shaw case, points out thalj 90 per cent, of the Customs officials at Antung are Japanese. All the steamers at Antung are, therefore, under Japanese supervision. “If a case existed)” says the paper, “it should have been taken before competent British authorities, who would not encourage their subjects to conspire against a friendly Power, instead of allowing Japanese to await an opportunity to kidnap Mr Shaw in Japanese territory in order to try him by their own tortuous methods, instead of before a British Court. “The circumstances of the case appear to constitute an outrage, the passive acquiescence in which on the part of the British authorities will have a most deplorable effect on British prestige in the Far East. “The arrest is the thin edge of the wedge, and unless the British Government Insists on the release of Mr Shaw the Japanese will extend their pretensions until not one Briton, who has given the slightest offence to Japan on Chinese soil, will find it safe to enter territory under Japanese jurisdiction.” i*

In a statement issued on Tuesday, ~the Japanese police explained the arrest of Mr Shaw, asserting that his house was:the headquarters of Korean intrigue and that his steamers were used to bring asms and ammunition from Shanghai to Korea.