Arizona republican., 1915-09-26
WOMAN CLUBS ARESYMPATHET|C
Engage in Movement to Amend the Treaty With Japan to Make Kidnap- ing an Eytraditable Of fcnse-The Fills Case

1 A movement is being forwarded by \ the womens clubs of this country to petition congress to take measures | to include Kidnapping among the eX- | traditional offenses mentioned in the | treaties between the United States and all foreign countries. The clubs will forward a resolution to its re- | spective senators and representatives asking them to use every effort to facilitate early action.
 The widespread interest of club women in this particular phase of | legislation was aroused in the case i of Olga Fills, a little girl who was
 kidnapped from Revere, Mass, Feb
 ruary P, 1913, and found in Tokyo. Japan, the following September In | order to regain her child Mrs. Fills | has been forced to commence legal proceedings and her funds are nearly exhausted. Mrs. Franklin P. Hams, chairman of the legislative commit tee of the General Federation of Womens Clubs, has suggested that the club women of the United States finance the suit. the cost of which will be 5000, and with this end in view asks that five dollars be the donation of the smaller clubs and ten dollars the larger donations,g- to be sent to the California club, San
 Francisco.
 Mrs. Henry D. Ross, president of the Arizona Federation of Womens Clubs, has been in constant com munication with the California club since the matter was first given con- sideration and submits the following
 resume of the case:
 .'TTbe shit for the custody Inf Olga was made necessary by a series of prosecutions eliminating in the il legal commitment of Mrs. Fills to an insane asylum by her husband.
 "The details of her commitment, made public during the trial were cruel and unnatural and aroused the suspicion and sympathy of the two policemen who took her to the asy- lum: they allowed her to communi cate with her brother, and later ap- peared as witnesses in her behalf. The doctors at the insane asylum subjected her to the most careful tests for seventeen days, and then released her. They also appeared as Ter witnesses and testified that she was not insane when she entered the 1 asylum. nor during her entire stay there. and that there was no evil 1 dence that she ever had been in | sane The doctors who committed 1 Mrs Fills defended their action by | saying that they believed her to be ] insane: that the history of a pa tient's case had much to do with | the examining physician's decisior; {! and if the history were falsified. it ] could not be expected that the doc |! tors would do detective work.
 
 custody of olga in both the probate and superior courts. She is now ] bringing suit against MT. Fills wit i nesses. including the two doctors who | committed her, on criminal con l spiracy charge.
 Mrs. Fills claims that their do- mestic life was very unhappy. She had previously applied for a divorce 1 but withdrew her application because !! Mir. Fills pleaded for one more ! chance. She thinks her husband 1 placed her in an asylum for the pur- | pose of obtaining the divorce him. l self He was at the time of her 1 commitment a Unitarian minister in 1 Chicopee, Mass.
 When located in Japan, Mir. Fills ] could not be arrested for kidnapping | since that crime is not mentioned as l an extraditable offense in the treaty between the United States and Japan.
 "A perjury warrant based on Mrs. Fills illegal commitment to the asy- lum, was therefore issued, and in October, 1919, MT. Fills was arrested l at the instance of our government by the Japanese authorities, and held pending the arrival of the United States officers sent to bring him and olga home l.
 "On the arrival of the officers, but without giving them a hearing or-t consulting our ambassador, so fined officers claim. the Japanese govern | lnent refused to extradite Mir Fills on