(C) The Daily Press of 10th June 6.
ANOTHER HOMICIDE IN HONG-KONG.
Late on Monday, the 7th inst., the police received information of a fatal stabbing case in Hongkong through the admission of the victim into the Government Civil Hospital. From his statement and that of a friend of his, the facts appear to be as follows. This man, whose name was Tsai Akin, was with a friend in Queen's-road West, and they were discussing the advisability of purchasing a Tafa lottery ticket of a particular shareholder,
when two men came up behind them and attacked Tsai Akin with swords, cut him about the back and arms, and gave him a thrust, the blade penetrating deeply into his body from the back. These blows were given before the unfortunate man had time to turn round, and instantly the cowardly assailants decamped. The wounded man's friend chased them some distance, but they escaped. Oddly enough, neither raised the least outcry, and the whole thing was done so quickly that scarcely anyone was aware of it. The injured man went home, and neither made any report to the police, who never heard any word of it until the man went to the Civil Hospital. From Wednesday to Monday, he remained at his house under Chinese attendance, but when his case became quite hopeless, and the man was really dying, they sent him to the Hospital. He died at that institution during the night from his wounds. In this case, there seems to be small prospect of justice overtaking the assassins, and it will probably add one more to the alarmingly long list of unpunished homicides that have taken place in this colony, for neither the deceased nor his friend knew who their assailants were. They never even saw the men's faces, for they were attacked suddenly and swiftly from behind, and were retreating before either fairly realised what had happened. It is believed they were men connected with some gambling case, as the deceased had on various occasions acted as a gambling informer to the police among a class of men of a dangerous character.
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(d) 365 The China Mail of 19th June,
Serious Rioting in Hongkong. Two rather serious riots occurred in the Western and Central districts yesterday afternoon and evening. The first riot arose out of a dispute between two different sections of the Triad Society. One section is bent on levying a tax of 30 cents on each coolie who leaves for the Straits Settlements, and another section seems bent on strenuously resisting this charge. The first symptoms of the coming fight were observed on board the steamer Ocean, where a company of the opposition party were endeavouring to dissuade coolies from paying the tax. From the steamer, the party, having been reinforced to the number of 40 or 50 from Taipingshan, attacked a boarding house in Praya West, a little on this side of the P. & O. Wharf. A free fight there ensued between the two sections, and a large crowd collecting, there were elements for a big row. Some lukongs who were on the scene interfered, and in trying to separate the parties, two of their number got so badly handled that they had to be removed to the Hospital. On a reinforcement of police appearing, however, the attacking party took to their heels, and about twenty of their opponents, who had retreated to the houses, were captured. Among the prisoners, however, it is supposed there are some of both parties, and the police will have great trouble in separating the sheep from the goats, or to speak more correctly, the one class of goats from the other. The twenty men were brought before Mr Mitchel-Innes this morning at the Police Court, but no evidence was taken, the trial being adjourned till Thursday.
But by far the more serious riot was the one that occurred later on in the evening, about eight o'clock. A shopman named Lo Aluk had received solicitations to join the Triad society, but had refused to have anything to do with it. At last, he was threatened that if he did not comply, men would be sent to attack his house. Accordingly, the agents of the Triad Society sent a body of about 100 men armed with fighting poles and short swords. These men attacked the house, and not being able to get at the shopkeeper, wreaked their vengeance on one of the inmates, whom they stabbed in the back and thigh, the wound in the back bearing the appearance as if the whole of the man's back had been ripped up. Information had meantime been lodged at the Central Station by the shopkeeper himself, who had escaped from the clutches of the men; and a body of police accompanied him to the scene of the disturbance. On the appearance of the police, the crowd scattered, but several of the ringleaders, it is said, were observed to enter the house No. 21 Gough Street, exactly opposite No. 20, the shopkeeper's house. The front door of that house was locked, but the constables managed to effect an entrance through a side door and found four men hiding beneath the bed. These, with not much trouble, they managed to secure, while another individual who had retired to a loft was also secured. Another batch of the attacking party was pointed out by the shopkeeper in No. 6 Gough Street, to the ground floor of which he said they had retired after ransacking his house. There, seven men were found, and in the room, no fewer than sixty bamboos or large wooden sticks were discovered. Finally, in all, about fourteen men were arrested, the last being a man who it is supposed had crept over the houses and was found at the top of a detective's house in an adjoining lane with a revolver in his hand. The connection of this man with the attack is, however, not very clearly established.
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