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two got into the sampan, whence most of them took to the mainsail. After drifting for two hours they rowed over to Chan Kau's junk which had not entirely sunk. After seventy two hours on the stern of that junk they were towed by another junk to San Mei.
20. Chan Kau's junk was hit four times and went down by the head but did not sink. There were no casualties on board. They picked up the survivors from Yeung Yat-hei's junk, and after three days and three nights were towed into San Mei. On board his junk were ten women and two children.
21. Fung Kam-shing owner and master of junk No. 1822HW licensed at Shauki- wan. capacity 1591 piculs, worked in partnership with his father Fung Hing-wo, owner and master of junk No. 611HW licensed at Shaukiwan, capacity 1663 piculs. His junk was struck twice amidships and sank. One member of the crew Leung Hong was wounded severely in the foot and has since died after having half his foot amputated. The cause of death was pyæmia due to injury to the foot. The survivors, 12 males and 9 women and children, took to the sampan and the mainsail. They drifted about until about noon on 26th September when they were picked up by a junk and taken to Aberdeen.
22. Fung Hing-wo's junk was sunk. There were on board eight women children and ten males. No trace of any survivors has been found.
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23. Li Mun, owner and master of junk No. 3407HW licensed at Shaukiwan, capacity 1664 piculs, sailed from Shaukiwan on 19th September together with Ng Ying-kit owner and master of junk No. 3891HA, capacity 1275 piculs. His junk was struck three times and sank. The third shot hit the junk by the stern and killed Li Mun's wife and three daughters aged 2, 6 and 8. Three members of the crew Ho Kau, Li Tai, and Lai Yau were wounded. The survivors drifted off on the sails. The sails became separated and Li Mun with six other men, one woman and one child were picked up by a small fishing boat about 1 p.m. on 27th September and taken to Chelong lighthouse, whence they made their way to Hong Kong. Other ten survivors were picked up on 27th September by the s.s."Scharnhorst ". Two other survivors from this junk were those picked up by the s.s." Kaying ".
24. Ng Ying-kit's junk was the last to be disposed of by the attacking vessel. It is possibly for that reason, as a savage parting gesture, that those from this junk who took to the sampan and the mainsail were treated with such callous inhumanity. Two shells struck his junk. The first one killed two young women aged 18 and 27 respectively and wounded two members of the crew. The second fortunately took ΠΟ toll of victims. The junk sank and the survivors took to the sampan and the mainsail which were tied together. Among them were five women and eight children. Twelve persons were in the sampan and the remaining seventeen were clinging to the mainsail. At that moment they saw the vessel turn and approach them. A machine gun was fired and of the twelve persons in the sampan nine were killed outright and was wounded. Those killed were the owner's two sons aged 19 and 6, two grandsons aged 6 and 4, his daughter-in-law, his daughter' aged 7, two granddaughters aged 10 and 2 respectively, and his niece aged 18. The wounded woman was his wife. The bodies were thrown into the sea. Two days later the survivors were picked up by a fishing junk and taken to San Mei. On 13th October Ng Ying kit and his wife, who required medical attention, came to Hong Kong.
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25. As no interested parties have been represented before us none of the Chinese witnesses have been subjected to any intension cross-examination and the question therefore inevitably arises how far the testimony of these witnesses can be believed.
We are dealing with members of the fisherman class unaccustomed even to life ashore and still more so to giving evidence before a quasi-judicial tribunal. They are illiterate for the most part and in many ways simple or even stupid, but with a little patience a connected story can be got from them. We have no hesitation in saying that the account of the happenings on 22nd September told to us by each of them is one which in essentials we believe to be true. There are undoubtedly discrepancies regarding minor
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matters: the wonder is that there are not many more discrepancies, and we cannot re- sist the conclusion that each of these witnesses was honestly trying to give us in his own way a truthful account of what he, from very different vantage points, saw of the events of a day which will live long in the memory of each of them.
26. Of direct corroboration of their story, from other than Chinese sources, there obviously can be none, at least until members of the crew of the attacking vessel enter the witness box and give their account of what occurred. Of indirect corroboration, however, there is much. The fact that the s.s. "Scharnhorst" and the s.s. "Kaying" on 27th September picked up twelve survivors from junk No. 3407HW, some of whom were wounded and others in the last stages of exhaustion, shows conclusively that some- thing catastrophic had befallen that junk. The evidence of Dr. Court regarding Leung Hong who was wounded on board Fung Kam-shing's junk, and Chan Kwai-kam wife of Ng Ying-kit who was wounded on board his junk, and the evidence of Dr. Bau relating to the injuries for which he treated Lai Yau, Ho Kau, Li Tai and Lai Pak-yau demonstrate cogently that at least on junk 3407HW and junk 3891HA something had occurred which involved the use of copper bullets with metal casing, and intense dis- ruptive force sufficient to drive fragments and splinters of wood through clothing and into the flesh of the victims and to tear the whole instep from an adult man's foot.
27. Further corroboration is to be found in the evidence of the Government Analyst and of Inspector Hopkins of the Hong Kong Police. The small jagged piece of metal taken by Dr. Bau from the buttock of Lee Tai is consistent with a piece of shell casing or a splinter from any other larger piece of metal, but the bullet extracted by Dr. Court from the knee of Chan Kwai-kam the wife of Ng Ying-kit has on examination proved demonstrably to have been fired from a weapon with a rifled barrel having four lands and grooves with a right hand twist. The bullet, a photograph of which is shown in Appendix VII was found on examination to contain a whitish substance consisting of barium, magnesium, carbonate and hydrate, a residual product of the interaction of barium peroxide and magnesium. That, we have been told, is a standard mixture used for causing great heat or flame. It is, we are told, a mixture used in tracer bullets or incendiary bullets. In the opinion of Inspector Hopkins the bullet under examination was an incendiary bullet. It is a bullet of an unusual type, and was certainly fired from a weapon with a rifled barrel.
28. That the shipwreck of any of these junks was not due to ordinary perils of the sea is conclusively established by the evidence of the Assistant Director of the Royal Observatory. The weather in the locality with which we were concerned throughout the period from 22nd to 27th September was fine and fair. The wind was moderate, with a velocity of from thirteen to eighteen miles an hour, and the sea was slight to calm.
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29. As we have already indicated eight of these junks carried arms, particulars whereof are shown in Appendix I. The cannon are primitive cast-iron muzzle-loading weapons, and the muskets also are muzzle-loaders. The escape of junks Nos. 28HW and 4470HA provided an opportunity for obtaining photographs of the cannon board, and these three photographs form Appendices IV, V and VI. The police photographer has sworn that on board junk No. 4470HA the cannon was lying on deck as shown in Appendix VI while the gun carriage was used as ballast in the hold below, being secured to the ship's side with wire. Lam Chu has deposed that he kept his only cannon inside the hold for safety, and in this he is corroborated by his cousin Lam Yau-tai. Witness after witness was emphatic in declaring that no shots were fired at the attacking vessel from any of the junks, some of them adding in surprised tones "how dared we do such a thing?" Even if the presence of such primitive armament on board these junks could give the impression that they were armed Chinese vessels their presence could not justify the failure to make any attempt to rescue survivors or the machine gunning of a small boat containing women and children.
30. There remains for consideration the evidence going to the identification of the attacking vessel. In this paragraph we quote in extenso the evidence on this all im-
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