THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 22, 1937.
CONTEMPT OF COURT CHARGES
Salutary Fines On Chinese Editors
REMARKING THAT IT WAS SOLELY BECAUSE SUCH CASES WERE RARE IN THE COLONY THAT HE DID NOT PASS PRISON SENTENCES, THE CHIEF JUSTICE, SIR ATHOLL MACGREGOR, IMPOSED SUBSTANTIAL FINES ON THE EDI- TORS AND PUBLISHERS OF THREE CHINESE NEWSPAPERS WHO APPEARED AT THE SUPREME COURT THIS MORNING TO SHOW CAUSE WHY THEY SHOULD NOT BE COMMITTED FOR PRINTING ARTICLES HELD TO AMOUNT TO CONTEMPT OF COURT.
THE ARTICLES WERE CONNECTED WITH THE “CHAR- COAL MURDER CASE,” WHICH IS TO BE HEARD AT THE CRIMINAL SESSIONS NEXT TUESDAY.
The Honourable Mr. C. G. Alabas- ter, Attorney General, appeared for the Crown and in reading transla- tions of the articles revealed that one of the papers published a com- plete picture of incidents of which there was no direct evidence.
Britain And The
Paris Pact
London, To-day-
His Majesty's. Government consider themselves fully bound by the provisions of the Paris Pact for the renunciation of war, the Foreign. Secretary in- formed the Commons in reply to a question. British Wireless.
P.C. SHOOTS ASSAILANT IN SHAMSHUIPO
Resistance To Search The Motive?
Resistance to search, when challenged is reported to have been the origin of a savage at- tack with a chopper made upon a Chinese police constable in the Shamshuipo district.
ence had he come across a more seri-
As a result of the clash, the al- ous case of contempt of court. The aguments of youth and inexperi-leged assailant is lying in the ence were extremely belittling, he Kowloon Hospital suffering from a said, adding: great as the powers bullet wound in the thigh, while Mr. Macnamara · produced an
of Press are, and useful in organis-the constable, who received chopper Affidavit of a Mr. Yung, who
to wounds was also given attention and swore that he read at least twoled society, it is for the Court
control their actions beyond the detained in hospital. Chinese papers every day, but had seen no warning by the bounds which are proper and just.
He had given the case serious Magistrate. The article was pass- ed by the censor, added Mr. Mac-thought, and with His Honour the namara, thus illustrating the Puisue Judge, Mr. Justice R. E
Lindsell, had decided, solely because value of censorship.
Cases of the kind were so rare, to impose substantial fines. The Ching Po had published a' correand the editor and publisher would be fined $50 each.
The defendants were the Hong Kong Ching Po edited by Yeung Lau and published by Wong Fat- With regard to the publisher, Mr. chit; the Shek Shan Po, edited by Macnamara continued that he left Ling Ching-kok, published by Tang the Colony about two days before Kwong-ngai; and the Han Wa, the article was published. He there- edited by Ling Fung and Tseng -Tat-fore had no knowledge that it was fong and published by Yeung Sai-printed. cheong.
IGNORANCE OF LAW Mr. H. C. Macnamara appeared Yeung Lau, editor of The Hong for the Han Wa editor and pub-Kong Ching Po pleaded that he lisher:
I knew nothing of the laws of Hong STILL SUB JUDICE
Kong as he had been in the Colony Prior to the commencement of the for only three months. After see- hearing, the Chief Justice addressing the Magistrate in Kowloon, his ed Press representatives pointing paper immediately rectified the mis- out that the defendants were in take by apologising. Court on an allegation by the At- The editor of the Shek Shan Po, torney General, on behalf of the Ling Ching-kok, said he knew no- Crown, that they had abused the thing of the warning of the Magis- privileges of the Press. He need trate, as his paper had no repre- not, he said, remind Press representative in the Police court. The sentatives that the case: connected article in question was contributed with the proceedings was still pend-by an outsider. Tang Kwong-ngai, ing, and that they should refrain publisher, said he had nothing to from publishing any of the trans-add to the editor's statement. lated paragraphs read in Court
SERIOUS CASE
Fines of $500 each would be im- posed on the editor and publisher of the Shek Shan Po. The joint editors of the Han Wa would be fin- ed, $250 each, and the publisher $500. The defendants would be de- tained in Court custody until pay- ment of the fines..
CORONATION COST
£689,400 Out Of Public
Funds
London, To-day.
The constable, No. 383, drew his revolver and fired on his assailant. The affair is now under investi- gation,
HOPEI MISSION TO JAPAN
What Is Behind It?
Tientsin, To-day. Tientsin, and twenty representatives Mr. Chang Chi-chung, Mayor of
of the Hopei and Chahar Political Council and chambers of commerce will leave Tientsin to-morrow morn- ing for Japan. It is stated that the Mission will stay in Japan for a month.Our Own Correspondent.
Two cases of typhoid, one from The estimated expenditure from Kowloon and one from Victoria, public funds în connection with were reported to the Health
De- the Coronation will be £689,400 ac- partment yesterday. There were
The Attorney General said the Giving judgment, the Chief Jus-cording to a Commons reply-Bri- also two cases of dysentery and one case of the Hong Kong Ching Poltice said that never in his experi- tish Wireless..
of diphtheria.
was less serious than the other
two. They, at least, did take ac- tion to rectify their mistake. They published a correction stating that the report did not correspond with the facts after they had been warn- ed by the Magistrate. The article published, however, gave a complete picture of incidents of which there was no direct evidence.
an
The Shek Shan Po printed article, giving the alleged motive of the murder, and continued by pub- lishing another, similar article after the Magistrate had issued a warn- ing regarding such reports.
the
The articles in the Han Wà, said Mr. Alabaster, were comments on the case and deductions from the statements of the accused. The last two cases were to be regarded as much more serious than the first.
SMALL CIRCULATION Appearing on behalf for editors and publisher of the Han Wa, Mr. Macnamara said the case Was indefensible. The Han Wa had a circulation of only 2,000 copies which was very small in com- parison with other Chinese papers. The paper was edited jointly by two editors, who were young - and His clients deeply Mr. Macna-
inexperie the error.
regretted mara said his clients had hardly had time to publish an apology and rectification They never heard the Magistrate's warning as they had no representatives in the Police Court. They usually gathered what had taken place from other papers.
Japanese spy scares are in creasing on the west coast of the United States following the arrest of two Japanese in possession of sketches of naval bases. Discovery of two Japanese-operated radio stations in the Compton area, not far from Los Angeles, have added to the alarm. Inset is Yoshiro Iwai, who was detained by the police and is said to have been unable to give a satisfactory account of himself.