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THE BENNERTZ CASE.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND his capacity of Consul-General, but the Chi- nese may be excused if with their own na- tive ideas they fail to realise that as at all possible. It is understood, however, that the present ill-advisedTM arrangement of duality of office is to be terminated when Sir NICHOLAS HANNEN retires, and it is therefore unnecessary to insist further upon | that point.
All the Shanghai papers unite in condemn- ing the judgment given by the Chinese Court in the Bennertz case, but none of them take the trouble to analyse the judg- ment and show in what respect it is wrong in its finding of the facts or in the con- clusions founded thereupon. The position assumed seems to be that as a Chinese Court has given judgment against a British firm in a claim against a Chinese Government de- partment the judgment must necessarily be bad. For our own part, the case strikes us as being one which at least has two sides to it. Sir NICHOLAS HANNEN, the British Consul-General and Chief Justice, sat as Assessor at the trial and on his report will depend the question of whether the British Authorities will press the matter further. On the conclusion of the hearing Sir NICHOLAS went away for a short holiday and the judgment was promulgated in his absence, a course which was characterised as a breach of faith, but it is ex plained in one of the papers that Mr. FUNG-YI, as Secretary to Taotai TSAI, who presided at the trial, called at the British Consulate in his official capacity and in full dress, and in the absence of Sir NICHOLAS HANNEN formally handed to Mr. MANSFIELD, the Acting Chief Justice, the finding. It was not until this had been done and the document accepted that Mr. FUNG-YI Communicated copies to the local press.
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[September 29, 1897.
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a mast across a wide expanse of water in order not to interfere with the prim- ordial right of navigation. Among the methods which engineers have had at their disposal up to the present may be cited boats or ferries, pivot basculating or draw bridges, tunnels, and submarine, rollers. M. CHOLLET examines each of these sys- tems and points out their disadvan- The case illustrates also the inadequacy tages. The fixed bridge, he says, máy of the existing arrangements for disposing give most satisfaction to navigators, but of claims brought by foreigners against if the channel that they span commands
The suit preferred by Messrs. an important harbour they must Chinese.
to enable BENNERTZ & Co. was brought under the erected at such a height as provisions of article 17 of the Treaty of vessels with the highest masts a fairway masts Tientsin, 1858, and Section 2 sub-section 3 under them. Now, we often see of the Chefoo Convention, 1876. Article 50 metres above the sea level. At the 17 of the Tientsin Treaty provides that a mouth of rivers the coast is generally low British subject having reason to complain or flat, consequently traffic across such a of a Chinese must proceed to the Consulate bridge must be subject to a gradual inclined and state his grievance; the Consul will plane or elevators. If the inclined plane enquire into the case and do his utmost to system is followed and you give a reasonable arrange it amicably; if disputes take place declivity, 5 per cent. for example, you will of such a nature that the Consul cannot be obliged to travel over a thousand metres arrange them amicably, then he shall request to reach the platform of the bridge, with a the assistance of the Chinese authorities further decline of a thousand metres. If, that they may together examine into the for instance, you have a river of 400 metres merits of the case and decide it equitably. to cross you will be compelled to make a Section 2 sub-section 8 of the Chefoo Con- stiff climb of two thousand four hundred vention amplifies this as follows:-"It is metres. Looking exclusively at the traffic "further understood that so long as the laws we find a bridge of this description very ex- "of the two countries differ from each other pensive when the banks are not considerable "there can be but one principle to guide higher than the river. Looking further at judicial proceedings in mixed cases in the construction, we find it still more ex- China, namely, that the case is tried by the pensive, as the viaducts of access necessitaty "official of the defendant's nationality, the considerable work to attain such an elevation, The circumstances of the case are briefly "official of the plaintiff's nationality merely especially when we are in a town or near as follows:-The Nanking Pay and Defence "attending to watch the proceedings in the quays, as is generally the case, and where Department chartered to Messrs. BENNERTZ "interests of justice. If the officer so attend you are bound to proceed to considerable & Co. four steamers. The charter had not 'ing be dissatisfied with the proceedings it expropriation to build such inclined planes. been running long before disputes arose as "will be in his power to protest against The "pont à transbordeur" is put forward as "them in detail. The law administered a means of communication superior to all to repairs, the charterers claiming for repairs which the owners claimed should be paid "will be the law of the nationality of the others for navigable channels. A technical for by the charterers under the terms of the "officer trying the case." The section also description of it is given, from which we gather charter party. The owners offered to sub-contains a declaration that this is the that it is something in the nature of an mit the matter to arbitration and to deposit meaning of the corresponding provisions aerial flight adapted to heavy traffic. An Tls. 10,000 in the British Consulate to abide of the Tientsin treaty. But a purely native iron way supported by matallic cables is the result, but this offer was declined. court is obviously an unsatisfactory tribunal thrown across the channel at a sufficient Mutual distrust ensued and Messrs. to dispose of such a case as that which has elevation to admit of the passage of ships BENNERTZ & Co. sent one of the steamers recently excited so much interest at Shang- under it, and from a trolley moving on this way is suspended a platform. The trolley surreptitiously to Hongkong to be out hai, as foreigners cannot entertain full con-
is moved backwards and forwards by means of Chinese jurisdiction, and the remain-fidence in the knowledge and ability of a ing steamers were virtually seized by native judge, even if his absolute impartiality of an electric motor and can be stopped im- the Chinese, as they were placed under be conceded. Then there arises the difficulty mediately in case of necessity. We thus surveillance and Customs clearance refused. as to appeal in the event of the plaintiff have a railway crossing the channel, but in- The stead of the cars running on top in the or- Messrs. BENNERTZ & Co. then claimed for being dissatisfied with the judgment. damage sustained by being deprived of the official of the plaintiff's own nationality dinary way they are suspended some forty use of the steamers, the total claim amount- attending the trial may protest against the or fifty metres below. With regard to the ing to over Tls. 120,000. The defendants proceedings in detail, but there is no pro- capacity of the car itself, this can be made deny the claim in toto and allege that Messrs. vision for a new trial or rehearing, and to meet the necessities of traffic. The shape BENNERTZ & Co. are indebted to them in the matter must then enter the domain of the car may be adapted either for the sums amounting to about Tls. 160,000, but of diplomacy, where it may remain for an carriage of pedestrians only, for cargo, or even for carriages with ponies. As for the this latter claim is not dealt with in the indefinite period before a settlement is
arrived at. With the extension of foreign pillars or pylones supporting the structure, judgment.
intercourse in China and the growth of they must be made of metal, on account of foreign trade it would seem that some their great height and at the same time to system of judicial procedure that will com- enable the passage of air through the open mand more confidence than the existing one trellis work and thus mitigate the strain, If the conception of the preceding, says M. should be devised.
CHOLLET, had not received the test of prac- tice, people might fear that the platform of the "transbordeur," suspended such a distance below its rolling motors would be affected by the wind with a swinging motion, a kind of pitching, interfering with the traffic; or they might fear the power of obedience to the motor, especially at the landing point. Besides this, people un- accustomed to the progress realized during the past few years in the construction of suspension bridges might fear that a plat- form of this nature would not be rigid or solid enough to hold the rails. The experi ments which have just been concluded at the mouth of the Nervion, Spain, proves that any fear on the subject should be set
THE "PONT A TRANSBOKDEUR.”
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case may be, it exemplifies very clearly the undesirability of the offices of Consul-Gen- eral and Chief Justice of Her Majesty's Supreme Court for China and Japan being united in one person. The dispute might have been brought before the Supreme Court on a claim by the Chinese against Messrs. BENNERTZ & Co. and been tried
There recently appeared in the Feho de before a jury. Whether the Chinese would Chine an essay by M. CHOLLET, the en- under any circumstances have adopted that gineer of the French Municipal Council at course is open to doubt, but it can well be Shanghai, ou "A Practicable Method of understood that they would be reluctant to
joining Shanghai with Pootung by a Pont do so when the Judge presiding in that
"à Transbordeur, System Arnodin," a trans- Court was the official who by virtue of his lation of which is published by the Shang- office as Consul-General had had to interest hai Daily Press. The spanning of maritime himself in pressing the claim of Messrs. channels has always been a difficult problem BENNERTZ & Co. against them.
to solve, especially when near the sea, where NICHOLAS HANNEN would, of course, have they are subject to the variations of waves, been able to approach the case with a tides, and currents. The first difficulty judicial mind and to have disregarded the arises from the necessity of bridges being built representations previously made to him into such an elevation ns to clear the height of
Sir
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