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(5) I remember the disappearance of the said Mr.H.H:Kirch which happened between the 26th and the morning of the 27th day of April 1899. I was at that time staying with Mr. and Mrs. H.H.Kirch at 'Kirkendoa' The Peak aforesaid. On the morning of the 26th day of April 1899 Mr.H.H.Kirch left his house ('Kirkendoa'
aforesaid) about 9.30 a.m. and did not return. I myself endeavoured to find the said Mr.H.H.Kirch but
failed to succeed in doing so.
I informed Mr. H.J.Gedge of the firm of Messrs. Johnson Stokes and Master of Hongkong aforesaid Solicitors and Notaries Public (who I knew was acting as the Solicitor for a creditor of Mr.H.H.
Kirch) of the fact of Mr.H.H.Kirch's disappearance.
I also attended at the Office of the Honourable Mr. Francis Henry May, the then Captain Superintendent
of the Hongkong Police (now Sir Francis Henry May Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony of Hongkong and its Dependencies) and informed him of Mr.Kirch's disappearance and I know that he took due steps to endeavour to trace Mr.Kirch but failed to discover his body either dead or alive.
(6). I am a British Subject and Mrs. Kirch was prior to her marriage a British Subject. My father was a British Subject and for many years (from 1864 to 1891) practised as a Solicitor at Rockhampton in the Colony of Queensland, Australia and was for many years a member of the Queensland Legislative Council.
(7) I have never seen or heard of the said
Mr.H.H.Kirch since the date of his above mentioned
disappearance.
And I make this solemn declaration con-
scientiously believing the same to be true and by
virtue