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in November, 1938, a new draft bill was ready
for consideration by a Commission for the
Investigation of Religious Systems which was
specially appointed to deliberate upon it.
By
December this Commission had concluded its labours
and the bill was ready for submission to the Diet;
for a time it was doubtful whether the Cabinet
of Baron Hiranuma would proceed in the matter or
whether in order to avoid controversy they would
drop the proposed legislation in the same way
as they had abandoned other measures of reform
which had been included in the programme of
Prince Konoye. They finally decided to proceed
and the bill was introduced in the House of Peers
early in the session.
3.
The following is a brief description
of the main provisions of the measure, together
with an explanation of the attitude to be adopted
by the authorities as regards certain points,
taken mainly from an official description of the
bill published in a weekly volume of reports
issued by the Cabinet Information Bureau:-
(1)
A "religious body" (Article 1) is
understood to be an association of persons
organised for the purpose of advocating a
religious faith and of conducting ceremonies
in connexion therewith; a "religious society"
(Article 23) is an association of persons
similarly /