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newspapers would certainly give them the impression that they were charged with four different offences-they or their officers-charges more or less serious. They prepared to defend themselves and they have gone so far-as Mr. WHITEHEAD said the other day-as to retain the leading Counsel in the Colony. What they are waiting for is to have these charges formulated specifically and also proved, that they may be prepared, when they appear before the Committee, to disprove those accusations against them. Now the proceedings here have been conducted in a peculiar manner, to say the least. We call witnesses one after another without any order or reason.
A member says I
should like to call this person and that. I should like to call four or five more witnesses but he does not say for what purpose at all. Again, the charges, some of them, were explained away to a certain extent, others were left in an informal and uncertain condition, and no wonder that a body of men whose knowledge of law or legal proceed- ings or Committee proceedings is very limited, no wonder, I say, that they are all frightened at the summons to this Committee. They are to come up here for what? They say that members may try to cross-examine and question them and make them tell things perhaps which they did not intend to tell, not because they want to hide them but by misunderstanding they might be made to tell things which may be to their prejudice. Now, if we adopt the suggestion of Mr. MAY, I am sure that the Committee, or some of them at all events, would gladly attend this Committee. I think I know them well enough to state that as a probable result. Let every thing that we are likely to have against them be stated and let all the witnesses that you want to call be finished, and then, if you want only to know the working of the Society or anything else, they might come and give all the information required. It is well-known, and I am sure all the legal members of the Colony would tell you so, that a case is often lost or won upon the determination which side is to begin first, and it is a very usual thing, I should say, for lawyers to find out and establish their case by simply badgering the witnesses on the other side. I think those are the reasons for the Committee not appearing, and I have stated that, if I were in their place, I would not have acted otherwise than they have done.
Honourable C. P. CHATER.-I think if the circumstances were as represented by Dr. Ho KAI the suggestion would be very good indeed, but, at the present moment, I do not think we are here trying to substantiate direct charges made against the members of the Committee of the Pó Léung Kuk. Mr. MAY has also erred, and said that they were the defendants in the case, and did not know what evidence has come forward, and, unless the other witnesses were all examined, they perhaps would not like to come forward. It is not possible that the Governor would appoint as a member of this Committee one who is supposed to have made charges, to substantiate them against the defendants. It would not have been just, or fair, or right. I think this is only an enquiry. I only want information, and I desire nothing more than to get information from the members of the Committee as to the working of the Society. I am not antagonistic.
Honourable F. H. MAY.-What information ?
Honourable C. P. CHATER.-That is what I should like to know. I should like to put a few questions.
last ?
Honourable Ho KAI-You don't object to the Pó Léung Kuk Committee coming
Honourable C. P. CHATER.-Not a bit.
Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD.--The reasons given in this letter from the Govern- ment for their non-attendance, which have been referred to by Mr. CHATER, and I concur in every word which he has said, state that pressure of business prevents their attendance. It is about the flimsiest excuse which could be put forward that their attendance here for an hour or an hour and a half is inconvenient. For the Government to write to men who have been placed upon this Committee in such a way is something
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