The Korean Commission
1010 Peoples Life Building
♦Washington, D. C.
For Immediate Release
Washington, D. C, May I4. — — s The Korean Commission today transmitted to the French Ambassador, Honorable
Paul Claude1, the following petition for submission to the
French Government.
"The Korean Commission in Washington presents for
the attention and action of the Government of France the
following:-
"On April 30, ^Jr2.$  eleven Koreans rerslding in the  * ,
French Settlement' at Shanghai, China, were, at the request of
the Japanese Consulate General, arrested by French police and
delivered by the French Consulate General to the Japanese Consulate General, the charge being that these Koreans were in
some way connected with the bombing of the Japanese officials
on April 29, 1932.
"The Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai and
the Korean Commission in Washington deny that these Koreans
had anything to do with the bombing and explosion.
"The Koreans living in the French Settlement at
Shanghai are not criminals, nor criminally inclined, and all
are law abiding.
"The Provisional Government, organized as a result
of the famous Passive Resistance of 1919, and believing in the
principle of non-violence, has always discouraged any and all
violence by the Koreans.
"The Japanese have not established any semblance of
evidence against these Koreans, but are following their former
maneuvers of attempting to make the Koreans the scapegoats,
just as they accused an innocent Korean when a Japanese assassinated Premier Hara in 1922j when the earthquake was destroying
Tokyo in 1923, the Japanese likewise, without evidence, charged
the burning against innocent Koreans and killed many of them
in Tokyo and Yokohoma.
"There is no more evidence against these Koreans
than there is against the Japanese, Chinese, and Americans who
were arrested charged with participation in the bombing and
explosion, and who have since been released.
"in addition, the Korean Commission wishes to state
that the Koreans in Korea are suffering enough, under the ruthless misrule of the Japanese - religiously,, morally, politically,
socially and economically.  Just for one example,?, during the
last twenty years, Japan has already deprived the^Koreans of
two-thirds of all arable lands in Korea through confiscation
and illegal occupancy.  These landless Korean farmers have been
compelled to seek their livelihood in the neighboring wilds of
Northern Manchuria and Siberia.  There, Japanese now "have
followed and are harassing them.
"Now, the Shanghai bomb incident has furnished Japan
another pretext to clean up the Koreans in Shanghai.  About
fifty Japanese military and consular police, with the aid of
■4 'O'^'