The wind was of a very high degree,
GOVERNMENT audit was in doubt as suspicious in the highest degree only because it was in my power to decide on assumptions that appeared to be gathered from the internal evidence but not actually demonstrated, that I did not discharge the prisoners.
Beyond the bare assertion of identification, there is nothing whatever to connect the prisoners with the burglary.
The testimony was uncorroborated as to the value of the assertion of identification: One of the witnesses who identified the prisoner recognised him because the prisoner had tied him up and kept guard over him in Ma Shi's house, while another witness identified him for precisely the same reasons, but in a different place altogether. The witness whose evidence I had regarded as of the most value turned out to be an old Chinese prisoner.
There was a good deal of appearance of evidence bearing in the direction of showing that he is attached to the Chinese gunboat of which Captain Li Lai is the Commander, and was put forward as a detective to cement the evidence of the other witnesses.
During the trial, one of the prisoners committed suicide.
I beg to refer to the Daily Press of the 30th April for a correct account of the remarks I made in giving my decision.
Sgd. H.C. Nolde,
Police Magistrate.