S2
The Governor General after receiving a delegation of mission*
aries who had been to the districts where the murd.ejra had
taken place is said to have admitted the truth of their report
and at the same time denounced the harah meaoures used. He fur¬
ther stated that appropriate punishment had been motod out to
those responsible for the burning and murdering. What that pun¬
ishment was is not known.. He also ptated that

strict instructions had been sent throughout the country forbid¬
ding farther acts of this kind.

Despite this assurance of the Govem«r General authentic re¬
ports have reached me from Northern Korean stating that churches
some little distance from Pyongyang have been burnt to tho
ground and that the Koreans who have attempted to pijt the firo
out have been beaten into insibility, and in otaer cases treated
in a worse manner, by the soldiers who set ftre ti the buildi^vg..

Other cruelties are also reported and the greater part of
Northern Korea is in a state of terror. About five or six
churches have already be burnt down, and fears are entertained
that the few remaining will suffer the seme fate. My informa¬
tion is reliable, and a number of these churches have been
raised to the ground since the govemair General made the above
statement. Under these■conditions the Governor General's assur¬
ances do not count for much, otherwise the instructions which
he states have been despatched "all over Korea" are being dia-
reguarded. It is almost impossible to believe that such a thing
could happen, but as the churches are still being burnt down
and the people murdered it shows that the ndtice is not being
taken of the Governor General's instructions which the
foreigners expected. The Japanese papers and othor methods of
propaganda under government control are doing their best to
Minimize the situation, but to those who are closely following
the trend of event in Korea it ia plain that the large mili¬
tary force which has been brought into the country to put
^own an unarmed people is merely terrorising the people into sub¬
mission for the time being. The Koreans are daily growing more
jictermined to fight for their liberty and gathering hatred in
their hearts against their Japanese oppressors. They are allow-
p&  no freedom of speech, they are not allowed to publish a paper
and during some of the police examinations they have been ac¬
cused of harbouring "wicked' thoughts". Despite the Governor Gen¬
eral •s statement that they would not be any more harshly dealt
with, they are being driven to desperation by the ruthless me¬
thods of the Japanese gendarmes in the interior. In the neighbour¬
hood of Seoul it is had enough, although there are foreigners who
are at hand to chronislo events, or at least to chronicle some of
them, but even in that city cruelties are the order of the day
by the local police- While I was in hospital the police came in
and demanded ':hat a number of wounded men be handed over to them.
Some of the mur* whose custody were demanded were in such a con¬
dition that thftyt.v.nB- could not be moved, and it was only owing to the
fact thai -hr* hoapr'tal authorities pointed out that to remove
them woulc. naai. oaa'-.h that a nximber of them were allowed to re¬
main, Thivo, b'jwyver were taken away, and according to reports
that have rpaehed me, one of them was beaten so badly in the
police station, despite his wounded condition that he died.
If this happening in Seoul one cah imagine what is happening