26
were at the hands of pirates or private enemies. On the
contrary, if such people were the real culprits the fishermen
would have so reported, as they have done in other cases. For
there is an added inducement then to report truthfully in the
hojo that the offenders may be caught and justice done to them
at least.
24. Even if ordinary pirates had been the culprits in
this Lintin case, they would have attacked the junk, and not
the samen. nd would private enemics of these particular
people, encales speaking no Cantonese, specially obtain a motor-launch, find out beforehand (if that were possible) on
which saipan and in whose company the intended victims were
going, and then follow through all the elaborate procedure reported in the story, incluling summoning a strange sampan to their aid, and then leave one man carelessly half-dead to
witness against then, assuming that if he did not die he would
join in concocting a credible story putting the blanc on the
Japanese?
5.
The considerati ns mentioned so far support the bna
fides of the complainants and the essential truth of their story.
Four of the witnesses have also been closely re-tested as to
what they actually saw and heard themselves; statements by Cheung
Yau-lel, Cheung Kan and Cheung Kwai are attached. Lei Saa,
the fourth, could say nothing first-hand.
6. Cheung Yau-lei covering ostrich-like on the poop of
his junk, and peering through his binoculars was probably unable
to distinguish what colour the vessel really was, and though I an satisfied he honestly believes he saw the flag, he probably
only thinks he saw it. He could, however, have distinguished
the outline of the vessel well enough, and the sketch of its
shape as drawn under his directions tallies thus far with Cheung
Kwel's.
7.
Cheung Kan could throw no further light on the subject.
8.
Cheung Kwai was the only young man of the three, and