The daily sentinel., 1912-07-11
Associated Press.

Seoul, Korea, July 1.-THE cases
of the Koreans charged with plotting
against the government, and the life
of the Governor General are to come
up for hearing shortly. The evidence
in the hands of the public prosecutor
is understood to be voluminous. In
all lO3 persons are held.
The interesting feature of these
arrests is that nearly all of the ac-
cused are protesting Christians. This
has caused much comment, and the
accusation has been made that the
japanese government was directing a
campaign especially against Chris
tians because of uneasiness lest the
influence of the church might become
unpleasantiy powerful in Japan's new
possession.
The official of Korea, including the
governor-general, express surprise at
the attitude taken by number OF
the. leading missionaries. The gov
ernor-general, Count Terachi, himself
has said that there did not exist
in the official mind the faintest sus-
picion of any completely or fore
knowledge on the part of the mis-
sionary body in connection with this
plot. He declared that it was the
desire of the government to cooper
ate heartily with the missions, and
said: Il and my successor will al
ways live up to the promises and
the program laid down when Japan
first assumed the control and govern
ment of Korea The instructions of
the emperor are that religion and
politics must be kept apart. In 9th
er words the state and church form
two different branches. Both, how
ever. tend to the same goal, which is
the betterment of the people, and
both must cooperate
General Akashi, the chief of the
police, said that the evidence of a
plot was, he believed, conclusive, but
the great difficulty was to secure
truthful statements from the kore-
ans concerned. These were mostly
young men with advanced Ideas
students-and he admitted most of
them were students in the mission
ychoolss He said that in the past
large numbers of Koreans had pro-
fessed Christianity in order to Sc
cure the protection and the assist
ance of the foreign missionaries
against the abuses and injustices of
the Korean government. After the
japanese had annexed Korea, there
existed large element of discomfort.
by the missionary for his Korean
scholars, or so-called converts, these
latter believed that the missionaries
would support them even though
they might plot sedition. General
Akashi who had been accused of
much harshness in dealing with this
case. said that he did not believe
statements made by prisoners who
asserted that the missionaries had
actually attended meeting where this
conspiracy was discussed.
The prisoners are all confined in
jail in the center of Seoul, where
some 400 other prisoners are con-
fined The prison is crowded. The
prisoners sit closely together and
occupy each just sufficient space to
enable him to lie down. However.
the Korean In his own home lives
and moves in small space. The cells
are clean and thoroughly well ven-
tilated. The prisoners all appear to
be cleanly clothed and to be in
good health One or two of the bet
ter class of prisoners are confined in
more spacious cells, and one of them
"a baron-formerly minister of ed
ucation, has a cell to himself with
mating and ample bedding.
The accusation has been frequently
published, and is believed by many
of the missionaries, that torture has
been used in the preliminary exami-
nations to elicit testimony which
might prove the case for the police.
The governor-general and General
o. Akashi positively deny the use of any
form of torture or of violence in the
prison.
Some prisoners who have been re-
leased have shown marks which
they declared were caused by tor
ture, such as hanging by the thumb,
ffogging and mental influences. Anal
ysis of their stories does not prove
the truth of the statements. Ger
tainly none of the prisoners now
confined shows any outward evidence
of torture.
A number of missionaries express
themselves as satisfied that a plot
did exist.
The trial will be open and the
prisoners will be given counsel. The
evidence will all be read in open
court, and appeals to two higher
courts are permissible.
The common belief is that the
case will develop a conspiracy in
which a number of educated young
Koreans have been connected as the
leaders. 1t is asserted that Koreans
now living in America and certain