Republican farmer., 1919-06-06
LAPS KILLED
 MANY KOREANS

lOhiO, O uHe -NSOTTeSpCnOence Ol The Associated Press) - Thirty-1ve Koreans were shot or killed with swords or bayonets by Japanese sol diers in a Christian church building at Chean-ni. 40 miles from Seoul in connection with the Korean independ- ence movement.
 This has been confirmed by an in vestigation by British and American consular agents and by missionary leaders in Korea. The facts are ad- mitted by the Japanese authorities at Seoul. including the Governor General Hasegawa. The authorities say that they deplore the outrage, that those guilty of 1t have been pun ished and that orders have been given to prevent a recurrence
 Investigators also have found that Soochung, another village near Cheam-ni, was burned by the Japan csc and that several Koreans there were wounded in an attack by Japan ese soldiers who shot them or used their swords and bayonets on them as they fled from their burning homes after the troops had set fire to the buildings
 Reports have been received of the burning of Christian churches in three other villages and Koreans told The Associated Press correspondent at Seoul that they could show him nine. villages which had been burned by the Japanese.
 Details of the massacre at Cheann- nj were obtained by The Associated Press correspondent who visited that place in company with Raymond $. Curtice, the American yice-consul at g-- A rsi- can missionary. Subsequently the correspondent again visited the place with MT Royds, the British consul, and several missionaries including Rev Heron Smith, who is in charge of the work of the Methodist church in Korea Describing his visit to Cheam-ni, the Seoul correspondent writes that when they asked residents of nearby villages why that hamlet had been burned they were told that it was because there was a Christian church and many native Christians in the village.
 When we got to the place which had been a village of about 40 houses rye found only four or five standing. all the rest were smoking ruins,' he continued. ''We found body fright fully burned and twisted lying in compound and another either of young man or woman just outside the church compound. Several groups of people were huddled under little straw shelters on the hillside with a few of their pitiful belongings about them. They were mostly women, some old, others young mothers with babies but all sunk in the dull apathy of abject misery and despair. Mr. Underwood, an American missionary, who talked to them in their own language, brought the story of what had happened.
 The day before we arrived sol diers came to the Village cnd ordered all the male Christians to gather at the church. When about 30 were in the church the soldiers opened fire on them with rifles and then entered the church and finished them off with swords and bayonets. After this they set fire to the church and to houses which otherwise would not have been burned"
 The party however divided up and obtained many interviews concerning the story as the correspondent learn ed it on his first visit. They were told that two of those killed in or near the church were women who went to that building to learn what was happening to their husbands.
 The party headed by the British consul then visited Soochun and found the village had been burned The Koreans told the visitors that they were awakened in the night by finding their houses on fire. When they ran out they were struck with swords and bayoneted or shot. None were killed but several were wounded and we saw one man whose arm had been laid open with a sword. A church and 30 houses had been burn ed here but no attempt had been made to clean up the others
 Rev. Stacy L. Roberts, an Ameri- can Presbyterian missionary station ed at Pyeng Yang, has issued a state ment asserting that more than 100 Koreans were shot or beaten to death in Tyung-ju and a church there was burned by Japanese.
 Tn another village eight miles away another Christian church and an academy for boys were burned by Japanese soldiers after the contents such as benches. stoves and mats were carried away and put to use in the government school at Tyung-ju-