Wednesday: 20th May.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
FIR HENRY R BEFORE HIS HONOUR
BERKELEY (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE).
THE GAGE STBELT MURDER TRIAL. A Liu Chui alios Li Kwai Fan was charged with the murder of Yueng Kno Wan. the Reformer schoolmaster, in Cage Etreet, on 10th January, 1901.
He pleaded not guilty.
Mr E. H. Sharp, KC Acting Attorney. General (instructed by Mr. F. R. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor), conducted the prosecution; and Mr. T. Morgan Phillips, barrister-at-law. was for the defenen.
The following jury was empanelled-Messrs. W. Nicholls. P. Dow. R. Saxon, J. W. Crouch, P. Hardmano, J. A. T. Plummer and A. S. Anton. Foreman, Mr Dow,
The
The Acting Attorney-General in opening the case said the accused was charged as being a member, in fact the leader, of a gang of four men who committed this deed in concert together. All four of these men had been for some time known to the Crown by name, but the other three unfortunately were not before the Court. They had not been caught and in all probability would never be found within the jurisdiction of this Colony so that they could be caught. The prisoner only returned to Horg
The kong last month and was arrested. circumstances of the murder were fairly notorius. Deceased lived at 52, Gage Street in a corner be use fronting upon that street and Aberdeen Street. He rented the whole of the first floor consisting of a large room and two cubicles and a kitchen in the rear. ground at the back was almost one stoly The first flour higher than in front. wes entered by the back firm a lane and wis a level with the late, which practically on debouched into Aberdeen Street by a short Deceased o nducted a pight flight of steps. school for the teaching of English to Chinese The classes commenced boys and young men.
Ca at six o'clock, in the large front room. the evening in question decessed was sitting at a table in the centre of the room, reading to a class from a book. The door was on the latch for the convenience of pupils arriving late, and it was ecsequently easy for anybody to enter without attracting suy particular attention. The wife of the deceased man, her daughter and two small children were in the cubicles at the About half-psst six back of the premises. o'clock a man suddenly appeared in the
class.r. om.
moment
He
was seen for by a few there but not by the deceased. This man walked a certain distance into the room fairly close up to the table and suddenly discharged three or four shots at the dencased. The shots took effect aud deceased fell forward on to the table, the pupils fed in pauie, and in
His Lordship-Ip esume you are going to prore-this-that these offloials publicly offered a reward for the man's apprehension or assassina. tion?
The Acting Attorney-General--I shall prove
that.
would
501
369
made the acquaintance of the prisoner on his Tam Chung, a Yaumati fisherman, said h uncle's marriage-boat at Yaumati in April, 1900. About July or August of that year he again saw him on that boat. Prisoner said he had
boat fr four or five days and then came come down to look for some business but dill cot say where from; he stayed on the
Hollywood Road. Witness went to live with over to this side and took a house in a lane off
5th January, 1901. him in the capacity of a cook. He left on the house to Sergeant Sullivan. During the time He had pointed oat this he lived with prisoner be remembered a pilot from the Au fui coming to the house. On prisoner he understood there was a man named one occasion he be rl the pilot telling the Yeung Kue Wan living in Hongkong and asking what was his occupation. Li Ka Chuk of the Chinese Government, he said, offered reward of between 810, 00 and $20,000 to anyone who would kill him and also to give several buttons; could the prisoner get some one to kill him? Priser said that if there
stay for dinner. the deceased. was a reward he would get some one to kill Prisoner asked the pilot to The pilot not only did asked witness to assist him to beat Yerng so but stayed for several days. Prisoner Kue Wan. Witness aid he had GPS would be very difficult to secure his services. classmen trading in this Colony and it
in the house. All of these co seated to join He flatly refused. There were six men living the prisoner. He heard the o people discussing what they were to do with the deceased; prí sonor suggested that be and two others should go down the street, keep a watch on Ynong Kue Wau, and, if he went to a house where there were only to shoot him. Witness left the prisoner's hou him; if there were many people they were not a few people present, shoot
implicated. He went back to his uncle's on 5th January becau e he was afraid of being boat.
May 23, 1903.]
CHİNA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. the confusion the man who fired the shots, for the house of the deceased. slong with another man who accompanied bios, arrived in the neighbourhood of deceased's
When they the man. The Chinese Government had sent scaped. Deceased's wife and daughter rushed house Tsui Fnk mounted guard at the junction to be done." He hoped the English Go- the man down from Canton and "everything the room, found him in a state of collapse, of Gage Street and Aberdeen Street. Prisoner verament called the police. When the injured man was taken to the hospital Dr. Bell found that Street as far as the bank of the house and Kwong had come to his house two months ago
and the other two men continued up Aberdeen happened about half-past seven.
do him justice. This his injuries were too serions to allow of the stopped at the entrance of the lane. Then and told him that Ng Shui Shang had gone up A man named extraction of the bullets. He died next morn prisoner reconnoitred the back of the house and to Canton to make arrangements with Ting ing. Three bullets were found in the body and presently afterwards came down and joined his Fan Toi and asked him to make a design of the cause of death was certified to be internal two companions at the foot of the flight of murder on deceased; if the business succeeded hemorrhage. Deceased made a dying declara-staps. There they had a short conversation, and it would be $20,000. tion implicating the Chinese Government, say then the other two men went up the steps and ing that they had offered a reward of $20,000 entered the house, the prisoner mounting guard for his life. One of the most interesting points at the corner so as to command Aberdeen Street about this case was that the circumstances of and the lane at the back of the house. The the crime were knowu evidently to a very large shots were fired immediately after these two amber of Chinese, both before and after the men entered the house. murder. The principal reason they remained
Direfly the shots passive was probably that they were afraid the house and came down the steps. They were fired the two men reappeared from of the Chinese Government. Deceased w.5 A member of the Reform party. He was they walked very quietly down Aberdeen Street were followed by a witness who knew them and prominently concerned in the Waiebon rising In September. 1900, and for his connection with gang of four got into a sampan and went out to as far as the Praya. There three out of the that rising he was wanted by the Chinese the Harbour. A little later on prisoner appear Government. The Acting Viceroy of Canton ed across at Yaumati atamarıiago-boat belonging and Governor of Kwangtung offered n to friends of bis, to whom he told more or less reward of $20,000 together with official rank of the story and asked them to put him up for the capture or assassination of the deceased They refused. The prisoner disappeared and man. La Ka Chuk, the mandarin in Canton he was not s eu again. But presently afterwards who was in charge of the military guard and the whole gang were back in Canton where they had power to do anything with the police stayed in Li Ka Chuk's barracks for ten days or force there, took the matter up and practically more, during which time the murder was very organised this murder.
frequently discussed and the prisoner frequent ly referred to it, boasting that he committed the deed and claiming the reward for it. There was no secrecy preserved there about the their reward and the Viceroy promoted the matter. The four murderers actually received
fifth rank. In conclusion, be said the jury prisoner and two others to be mandarins of the must leave out of consideration any sympathy which they might have with the Reform move- ment, if they had such a sympathy. Notwith- by the Chinese Government or officials of the etanding the extraordinary breach committed fundamental principles of international rights and the intolerableness of having a foreign government's emissaries eutering our territory for the purpose of murdering somebody who was under the protection of our dag but was obnoxious to that foreign government, it organised this affair were actuated by patrinfic was conceivable that the Chinese officials who
was perfectly possible. But that had nothing motives. He did not know they were, but it to do with the motives of this gang of murderers who were actuated by no spirit of unsolishness
He called at the prisoner's house and patriotism but by the meanest and most
on the 9th, on which occasion Lam Trai sordid motives of money to be gained.
and a man Damed A Toug were there. In regards the law in the instter, his Lordship previous gang were afraid to do anything, they' As the presence of these two, prisoner said the would tell them that in the case of murder by a gang, althongh only one mou might actually Canton, Witness next saw prisoner sbout had no pluck; so he got these two men from inflict the fatal injury, they were all alike liable sight o'clock at night on the 10th on his uncle`s for the crime.
boat at Yaumati, where prisoner arrived by witness.
E. W. Carpenter, P.W.D.. was the first sampan, alone. Prisoner asked to be allowed to house 52, Gage Street.
He put in and proved plans of the stay for the night. Witness's uncle asked ̈·
where he bad been and what he had done. Friscuar replied that he had killed Yeung Kue Prisons then asked for a blanket but did not Wan. His uncle refused to take him in.
Yaumati. get it, and at last went ashore in a sampan to towards the end of the year in Canton, Witness next met the prisoner time in February. The Kin Yui Kai the
a Chinese gunboat, and Yeung Ching asme of the captain, who was Canton. nader Li Ka Chuk, the military governor of
On this occasion rewards in the shape. of battons were mentioned, and the prisoner you would have plenty of money to spend and said to witness: "You are a coward, otherwise
His Lordship-Because it is a very serious allegation to make against these officials,
The Acting Attorney-General-I think 1 will prove it to your Lordship's satisfaction, His Lordship-You must offer evidence, The Acting Attorney-General-Certaiuly, my Lord. This mandarin, he went on to say, really organised this murder, although he did Det sotually come to Hongkong; and some of his braves were in the gang who committed the murder. Yung Ching Kai, captain of the Chinese gunboat Kin Yui, came to Hongkong and acted as intermediary between the mandarin and his emissaries. Prisouer was the leader of the gang who committed the deed. He tried for some time to get assistance in the murder. Many per sous und bean traved who were asked and refused to act with him. He was therefore fr some time trying to make up a gang. One of the persons who were asked to co-operato actually lived in the same house with the prisoner for some time and he would speak to the meetings between the Chiness offeials and the hatching of the plot, he being present at some of the meetings beld. This man left before the murder.
the boase shortly Sonte of those who were asked to co-operate would have been quite willing to assist in kidnapping the deceased but would not take part in nur- der This mau
felt it gother too serious and he went away bat Was getting alto- was afraid to report the matter. January of 1901 there were meetings held in Early in Li Ka Chuk's barracks in Canton between the captain of the A'in Fui and officers of the man- darin, Chan Lam Tsai, Tung Chung and Tsui Fak. The last two men were braves. These three men
The wife of the murdered man next gave arms, she said, she came out from the cubicle evidence. When she heard the report of fire-
all the pupils running out. When she went into where she had been lying on the bed, and met the front room she found her husband leaning forward with Lis head on his hands. He was bleeding. The lamp on the table at which he sat was extinguished; it had been buruing before table; it was alight. With the assistance of the murder. There was another lamp on a side her daughter she laid her husband upon a bed. he had been shot at the instigation of the When she asked him what had happened he said Chinese Governme.t.
A young Chinese who was a student of the murder was committed gave evidence as to the deceased and who was in the room when the deed.
were engaged by Li Ka Chuk to assist the prisoner in this enterprise and with the prisoner these three meu constituted the gang who carried out the purpose of this con- spirsey. On the morning of th January these three men came from Canton to Hongkong. They joined the prisoner here and thereafter until the time of the murder they were con- stantly together. On the day of the murder in the late afternoon there was a meeting in the home of Ng Shui Shang alios Ng Le Sam, a man who was one of the conspirators though not a member of the gang of four. He was banished shortly after the murder. There were present at this meeting the gang of four men
After other witnesses had given evidence, ncluding the prisoner who was the leader, also
Dr. Bell went into the box. He described two officials from Cunton-Li Ka Chuk's and spoke to the dying deposition made by the the man's con'lition when brought into hospital secretary and the captain of the Ain T and deceased and written down by witness at the an aquaintance of Ng called Kong, this meeting the final arrangements were made for the murder, sod
At time. Deceased's deposition was to the effect that he was teaching at the English school in mination of that meeting the gang sei ont in and shot bim fone times.
at the ter- his house when very quietly the murderer came He did not know
in the room but the man who fired the shots. Cross-examined---There was no other stranger Prisoner was not there.
some
was
a button to wear. bad received only a few hundred dollars of the Prisoner said also that he
fifth rank. When witness was living with him reward so far.and a button--a crystal one of the
the prisoner was buttonless. He asked the Year was approaching but he said he had not ● prisoner to lend him a few dollars, as the New
eash left.
Cross-examined--Witness was a fisherman, and had bis own boat in Yaumati. He gave up be had never been a fisherman. His uncle gare cooking in January, 1901, before which date him the boat. Witness had a brother named Tam Tai who visited the houss where he was cooking for the prisoner, but witness knew nothing about his antecedents, nor whether he was hiding from the police in consequence of
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