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[Ist witness Lam Chu.]
46. How far away were you from the lighthouse? I could not see the lighthouse
where I was but at night I could see the light from the lighthouse.
47. What date did you arrive off Chelong lighthouse?. 21st September... 48. Was your brother Lam Shu-po with you? Yes.
49. Were there any other junks besides
ground off Chelong lighthouse? Yes.
50. How many?
10.
5
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[1st witness Lam Chu.]
68. Witness: We could only see a small piece of mast sticking out of the water until
she came along.
69. Mr.
Whyatt Where was she when you first saw her? She came from the direction of the lighthouse approaching us from our stern.
yours
and your
brother's
on the fishing
70. Chairman:
51. You have told us that you and your brother fished together as a pair: did the
other 10 junks also fish in pairs? Yes, they were all together in pairs.
52. I want you to tell me if you can
describe it to me, the sort of formation that these six pairs were fishing in? I must have some models or something so that I can arrange them and give you some idea.
53. Witness demonstrates with paper-weights :--
About 8 a.m.
What time was it when you first observed this boat? 71. Mr. Whyatt: Will you please come down to the table and illustrate where the
submarine was when you first saw it.
72. Witness:—
X
X
X
X
Lighthouse.
***Submarine.
X
X
Junks: X
X
X
X
54. Fishing junks were in pairs arranged as above.
Lighthouse at Chelong.
55. Can you tell me the names and masters of these fishing junks, taking them in
this order and working right round?
X(4)
X (2) x(1)
x (3)
x(5) ×(6)
56. (1) Lam Fuk-tai and Shek Kai-cheung,
57. (2) Lam Yung-hei and Lam Yung-shing.
58. (3) Lam Chu (myself) and Lam Shu-po.
59. (4) Chan Kau and Yeung Yat-hei.
60. (5) Fung Kam-shing (owns two junks.)
61. (6) Ng Ying-kit and Li Mun.
62. Mr. Whyatt: You say you arrived there on 21st September? Yes, the position in which I placed these models represents the position of the junks on the 22nd September; we arrived there the previous day.
63. That was on the morning of the 22nd September that the fishing fleet was in
this formation? Yes.
64. What was the weather like on the morning of the 22nd? Fine weather.
65. About 8 o'clock in the morning of the 22nd did you see anything unusual whilst aboard your junk? I did not see the flag but I saw a steamer, silver grey in colour, a whitish-grey colour.
66. What sort of a vessel was this? A gunboat, a submarine.
67. Mr. Whyatt to Interpreter: Tell the witness that the two things are not the same thing. Tell him a submarine is something that goes under the surface of the water and also along the surface of the water, whereas a gunboat can only go along the surface of the water-explain that to him, please.
X
X
73. It came this way and hit the stern of the first pair of junks.
The very
74. I want you to tell us in as much detail as you can remember what that submarine
did when she came up against the stern of the first pair of junks? first thing she did was to fire on these junks with a big gun.
75. Did you see what happened to that junk after the submarine had fired at her? She was hit several times and she sank. Shek Kai-cheung's junk was hit first, and after she was hit many times she went down.
76. And what about Lam Fuk-tai's junk? She was also hit three or four times before
she went down.
77. After that did you see where the submarine went after firing at these two junks? After that the submarine went for us-that is my junk and my brother's junk and opened fire. The other pair had escaped.
78. Which direction did the second pair escape? Taking a south-west direction.
79. When the submarine came up to you there, how close was it then? Very close-
about two or three times the length of this court*.
80. Did you see any men on board her? Yes.
81. What sort of men were they? Japanese.
83.
82. How do you know? Because I have seen Japanese when I was in Hong Kong.
What was it about their appearance which made you think they were Japanese? Because I could recognize them by their clothing, the outer garment had a sort of suspender leading from shoulder to trousers.
84. You were telling me about their clothing. The distance you were away-could
you see their faces clearly? I could not see their faces clearly, no.
85. Could you see anything about their physical appearance by that I mean the face which indicated to you what race they were? Yes, by their features I could see from the distance they were Japanese.
36. How many of these sailors were there? I saw about ten of them, they were
working at the gun.
87. Whereabouts was the gun? Two guns, one on the bow and the other on the stern
of the vessel.
88. Chairman: Before you go further, will you be so good as to clear up one little difficulty I have. The last position of the submarine which we have, which is also the first, the submarine had only a little piece of mast sticking out of the water.
Can witness give us an indication of what he next noticed-whether
he saw the vessel come to the surface? Will you tell us where the men emerged from and what amount of superstructure was above the surface when the first shots were fired?
*
Length of Supreme Court is 72 feet.
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