54
THE NAVAL COURT.
51
[WRITTEN FOR THE **DAILY PRESS
BY "WAVING PLUME."] As in most cases where the navy is concerned there is more care; more attention to de'ail about the Naval Court than the Military. The Military Court Martial is described as taking place in a poorly furnished, uncleaned, white washed room, outside which the prisoner is kept standing under the escort of two private soldiers and a sergeant: Courts Martial in the Military Service are so frequent, since even in cases of ordinary drunkenness a soldier can claim to be tried by a District Court Martial instead of accepting the usual fine from his commanding Officer, that one fancies that possibly here familiarity has bred contempt and that the dignity of the surroundings of a military court have suffered in consequence. Whatever the reason may be there is a very marked difference between Courts Martial held in the two services. Military justice is administered by no less than four courts. besides the powers conferred on a commanding officer. These are the General, District, Regimental and Field General Courts Martial. Naval punishments are awarded by one court only, besides those which can be inflicted by the commanding officers of one of His Majesty's ships. This is obviously, a far less cumber- some method, and one which does away with the enormous volumes of paper covered in the administration of punishments in the army for what are frequently perfectly simple crimes to deal with. The fact is a naval cap'ain can award imprisonment himself up to ninety days hard labour, so that most ordinary cases of naval crime a:e settled on the quarter deck without the necessity for a court martial at
all.
Errors
As an example of a naval court we will assume that a lieutenant is to be tried for having run his gunboat ashore in B fog.
of judgment. mistakes endangering the safety of ships or men. are presupposed in the naval service to be due to carelessness or ineffici-ncy and, unlike
The day
military mistakes. are always made the subject of a charge before a court martial. before the court the admiral's secretary calls upon the lieutenant and confers with him as to the advisability of pleading guilty and throwing himself on the mercy of the court or of fighting the case out. There is a little confidential chat as to witnesses, &c., and the secretary leaves. At8a.m. the day appointed for trial one gun is fired by the flagship as an announcement to the fleet that a court is to assemble. At 10 am. the members of the court are on board, all men of seniority and experience. The prose- cutor is a post captain, also the president. The other members are commanders or senior lieutenants. The court room itself, in charge of an officer-not a corporal as in a military court is the admiral's fore-cabin. A long able in the centre with a green baize cover is aid with plenty of pens, blotting paper, blue foolscap. pencils and inkpot for each member. The prisoner's sword is laid in the centre of the table whilst around the actual space occupied by the members a rail has been improvised by the ship's carpenter and taste- fully decorated, as also are the sky-lights above, with draped flags by the sigt almen of the ship. The president, members, and the admiral's secretary, all take their seats, the president at one end of the table, the secre'ary at the other
orders the president.
· Open the court,* officer of the court throws open the door and any members of the public or of the crews can enter the court. The master at arms, a warrant officer in charge of the ship's police, taps at the prisoner's cabin door and marches him solemnly with drawn sword into the presence of the court. Prisoner is accom. medat d with a chair on the left of the
++
admiral's secretary.
There
is
The
a pause-a sound of complete si'ence broken by the hammering far down in the engine room. "Send the officer of the court here!" says the president with great dignity. The officer approaches and salutes. "Tell them to stop that noise on board. I won't have a sound on board the ship whilst the court is si ting!" Very good, Sir!" replies the officer, hurrying out. The noise ceases and the court proceeds to read the charge, to be sworn in, and to take
4.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
evidence. The scoretary swears all the witnesses and takes the evidence and cross-examination
down verbatim.
well;"
4
on
A book with cover bare one g'de and ornamented by a white paper cross
Romin the other is at his right hand. Catholic or Church of England?" he enquires Roman Catholic? Very of each witness.
as he hands the book cross uppermost The evidence you shall give and continues : before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; kis the book, full say so help me God,' and give me your
Each witness name, Christian and sirnams! drones on and his actual words are written down word for word. He is cross-"xamined by the prisoner, and by the court, whose mouthpiece is the president. Any question by the court is written down by the members aud passed up to the head of the table. Tae prosecution is finished, the court adjourns at 12 nooo for lunch and prisoner is told to have his defence The written or otherwise, ready by 1 p.m. prosecution in this case has called witnesses as to the facts of the gauboat having s'randed at such a time, in such and such a place and in such The defence is not going and such a manner. to deny these facts Lut has the onus of proving that nothing was due to lack of precaution, want of sill or inefficiency. After much of witnesses, the court cross-examination is cleared to consider its finding. During this anxious time the prison-r seats himself in his cabin, the master at arms remain. "Court's opeo. Come along, ing_outside. Sir! he says at length, and the prisoner is marched back to receive the finding of the court. The court," announces the president, "finds the charge against the prisoner Not Proven." Hereupon he takes the late prisoner's sword from the table and hands it to him, the
members disperse, the secretary collects all the documents and seals them in a large envelope; the guard of marines fal s in to salute the departing post captains; and a brilliant pigeant comes to an end in the boatswain's pipe. "Watch, unrig court martial room.'
"
The Military Court wad scribd by Waving Piume in the Weekly Press of July
14th.
MANILA AS THE TRADE CENTRE OF THE ORIENT.
The following observations are taken from the Coblenews :-
There are serious obstacles to be overcome, and these obstacles, strangely enough, are to our thinking made by the Americans them- selves.
It is not enough that Manila is, by lo ation, its splendid bay, and ease of access from so many tropical countries, seemingly destined to Nor is it enough be a great city of commerce. that our people want it to be great and so add to our country's greatness.
As it is now, the trading nations are wary of this port. The customs regulations are said to be more troublesome and vexatious than in At present the almost any port in the world. landing of passengers and cargo is difficult,
expensive and unsatisfactory. This, of course, will be remedied in a few years when the new wharves are built, but even then the very large boats will cot be able to enter the thirty foot channel.
The American manufacturers, generally speaking, have made little or no effort to s'uly trade conditions here. They do not try to find out if there is alredy an established mirket and what its lines are.
The pople here have very decided tastes in the things they know about and will not buy imitations or things which are not according to their standards. Many things they have not yet learned to need, but even in these, care must be taken to adapt them specially to the tropics- furniture must be fastened with glue that will withstand moisture and wood that will not swell; cotton goods must have fast colours and be of artistic desig..s, machinery adapted for use at home with ten or twelve horses must be made as to be drawn perhaps by much lighter so carabao over swampy land.
Lord Timothy Dexter, of Salem, is said to have made a fortune in the old days by shipping warming pans to the West Indies, which the natives utilized for sugar ladles, but the modern
(July 24, 1905
merchant need not count on such good luck, for he has all the world in the market against him, and the native of any faraway clime knows what the rest of the world has,
The American packs his goods as if they were to be delivered a block away by messenger. Result, they arrive broken and damaged, caus- ing much vexation and loss of money to the buyer, and often delaying important public contracts for several months till a duplicate order can arrive.
If the United States excepts to be the and the commercial master of the Pacifio
besides Far East it must do something
hustle." Plain common sense and intelligence are needed. Our country is entering markets where it is not wanted, and competing against other selling nations which have many points of superiority and a·lvantage.
Given common sense and intelligence, a steady, persistent, thorough effort for a few years, and Americans will make Maoil, the trade centre of the Orient, but it will not be with the present methods.
CHINA TEA.
33
The following comments by the N.-C. Daily News are couched vigorous'y, but seem to have been fully called for. The Eling ignoramus seems to have thought “geisha to be Chinese for "fea-bouse. The Evening Standard is the new paper for which the Times stands sp nor.
Our Shanghai contemporary says:-One reads time, on topics of which the Editor is as idiotic letters in the home papers from time to. ignorant as his correspondent, but we have seldom seen anything quite so stupid as a letter written to the Evening Standard on the 16th of
March last by a Mr. Charles L. Wilkin, who dates from Ealing; it obviously should have
been Hanwell. He deprecates the use of China tes, which he cal's "a very poor substitute for Indian teas at the best of times," and after impugning the honesty of the Chinese mer. chant, he says:-In China tea drinking is very largely indulged in, and it can be bought at the numerous geishas' in a small earthenwarə cup
for the value of a half-penny. The cup is usually thrown away as soon as the contents are consumed. The infused leaf is re-dried and mixed with a small proportion of new tea, and it is this anwhol-some mixture which finds its way into London under the name of Pure China Tra.'
19
Such malicious nonsense as this seems hardly worth notice, but we note that a contradiction of Mr. Wilkin's statements was sent to the Evening Standard by twelve of the leading tex dealers in Londor, and a letter also appeared from Mr. Chas. Schlee, who wrote:
46
Intelligent people who know China and ap. nies with contempt. Chinese merchants have preciate its tea will read Mr. Wilkin's calum. the very highest reputation for the very reverse of dishonesty by those who know them. Geishas!!!! are a Japanese institution and not Chinese. Who in their senses ever heard of the economical Chinese throwing away their
tea cups after consuming the contents: They might possibly at the head of your correspondent were he to make his insulting remarks in their company."
DIVIDENDS,
The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co. Ltd., is paying an interim dividend of $21 per share, to 30th June. Vide advertisement appearing in another columo.
^
The Directors of the China Flour Mill Co., Ld.. on July 12th declared an interim dividend of 1 per cent (s. 5 per share) for the half-year ended the 30th ult.
The Directors of the Shanghai Lind Invest- ment Co., Ld., announce a dividend of six per cent for the half-year ended the 30th of June,
The Shanghai Gas Co., Li, has declared an interim dividend of 7 per cent for the half-year ended the 30th of Jan).
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