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trading in a Treaty Port. I think it right to add to what I have said, that the error into which Messrs. Reuter, Brockelmann and Company fell, and which was the origin of all this litigation, was perhaps due to the fact that the firm trades in so many Treaty Ports in the East as well as in Hongkong, that this essential distinction between Hong- kong and the rest of the East had somewhat escaped them. This much said I revert to the facts; and the fact is that the defendants claimed for more than they were by the law of this Colony entitled to claim. The amount they were entitled to prove for and therefore (putting the bankruptcy question on one side) to claim for, was about $15,000, and not about $45,000 or $50,000, which in fact they claimed for. On this point I must refer to the uncertainty which prevailed in the pleadings as to what sum ought to be alleged to be due to the defendants. As originally filed on 3rd December 1907 this amount was stated to be $50,000; as amended on 14th April 1908 this figure was altered to $15,000; and on the morning of the trial the original figure $50,000 was re-instated.
In the early part of this year certain information was supplied to Messrs. Reuter, Brockelmann by their com- pradore Mok Kun leading them to believe that one or more partners of the Kwong Hing Cheung, a silk firm in Canton, were also partners in the Cheong Loong, Acting on this information the defendants' Hongkong branch wrote to their Canton branch reporting the circumstances, and requesting them to take necessary action; and the Canton branch accordingly, in a letter dated 21st February, com- municated the facts to the German Consul at that port; informing him of the fact of the Cheong Loong bankruptcy: that that firm owed them $50,000, of which only $5,000 had been paid "as provisional security": and that "the other three partners of the Cheong Loong firm" resided at Honam. The Consul was requested to cause these three men (whose names were given in a separate document) "either to sign the enclosed promissory note,'
11 or to pay a further sum of $5,000 as security; and "should they refuse, to choose one of these two expedients"; then the Consul was requested "to have them arrested at once by the Nam Hoi Magistrate, and seize their silk store 'Kwong Hing Cheung' at Honam to cover the amount due."
The document setting out the names of the three men was in the following terms:
"The Kwong Hing Cheung at Canton Chau-tau-tsui, Honam (Canton) solely trading in and exporting cassia and raw coarse silk business.
Masters-Wong Hiu Tung, Cheung Tsz Woon alias Cheung Le Pat, Leung Lai Shang, Manager and 'Ma Chin' and Branch. The Hongkong Cheong Lung-sugar and molasses business,' >>
And the so-called promissory note was in these words :-- "I hereby promise to take delivery of the 4,600 bags of sugar bought by my firm "Cheong Loong" in Hongkong against contracts Nos. 5651/2 which are still lying in Messrs. Reuter, Brockelmann & Co.'s godowns and to pay up the money due plus interest, storage and fire insurance; besides I promise to pay up the amounts due for syrup (molasses) which my longkong firm 'Cheong Loong" has already taken delivery of,'
I may remark as to this document, that why it was called a promissory note, I have not the remotest idea. It professed to be a promise to take delivery of and pay for the bags of sugar not yet taken delivery of; which, on the hypothesis of these 3 men being partners, they are already bound to do. In so far therefore as it would have professed to give the defendants a further claim upon these three men, it was not worth the paper it was written on.
It was the time of the Chinese New Year, and the three men had gone to their homes in the country; the efforts of the Consul to obtain an interview with them at the Consulate resulted in nothing. And the next fact that we know of is that the Kwong Hing Cheung was seized on 13th March by the Nam Hoi Magistrate and seals put upon the goods. It is in respect of this ineviable hiatus in the relation of the facts that the question of trespass has arisen. On 19th
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