r daggers, and were only
prevented from carrying out their purpose by the vigilance of the
gendarmerie.

A number of missionaries were named as their associates or sympathizers.
Chief of these was Mr. McCune, who, according to the confessions,
distributed revolvers among the conspirators and told them at Sun-chon that
he would point out the right man by shaking hands with him. Dr. Moffett of
Pyeng-yang, Dr. Underwood of Seoul, Bishop Harris, the Methodist Bishop for
Japan and Korea who had long been conspicuous as a defender of the Japanese
Administration, and a number of other prominent missionaries were
implicated.

When the prisoners were faced by these confessions in the open court they
arose, one after another, almost without exception, and declared either
that they had been forced from them by sustained and intolerable torture,
or that they had been reduced by torture to insensibility and then on
recovery had been told by the Japanese police that they had made the
confessions. Those who had assented under torture had in nearly every case
said "Yes" to the statements put to them by the police. Now that they could
speak, they stoutly denied the charges. They knew nothing of any
conspiracy. The only man who admitted a murder plot in court was clearly
demented.

The trial was held in a fashion which aroused immediate and wide-spread
indignation. It was held, of course, in Japanese, and the official
translator was openly charged in court with minimizing and altering the
statements made by the prisoners. The judges acted in a way that brought
disgrace on the court, bullying, mocking and browbeating the prisoners. The
high Japanese officials who attended heartily backed the sallies of the
bench.

The missionaries who, according to the confessions, had encouraged the
conspirators were not placed on trial. The prisoners urged that they should
be allowed to call them and others as witnesses, and they were eager to
come. The request was refused. Under Japanese law, the judges have an
absolute right to decide what witnesses shall, or shall not be called. The
prosecuting counsel denied the charge of torture, and declared that all of
the men had been physically examined and not one of them had even a sign of
having been subjected to such ill-treatment Thereupon prisoners rose up and
asked to be allowed to show the marks still on them. "I was bound up for
about a month and subjected to torture," said one. "I have still marks