CO129-333 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [1-4] — Page 208

COFI.

(Fransiation.)

Viceroy to Consul-General.

Sir,

206

Canton, 23rd. November, 1905.

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 10th. instant with reference to the seizure of the Yac Hsiang Coal Depot belonging to Chou Tung Sheng, in which you inform me that Feng Hua Chun is unable to proceed to Canton to

give evidence.

Sufficient proof of ownership of this property

is furnished by the admission of Heng Chi Wu, accountant to Chou

Tung Sheng, in his evidence before the Prefect that the business

was carried on with Chou Tung Sheng's capital.

Oven granted that Feng Hua Chun could mortgage:

the coal belonging to Chou Tung Saeng - which as a matter of fact

he could not do - then Fena Hua Chun must either have fraudulentiv

represented himself as the owner and secretly effected the mort-

-gage, or elise Chou Yung Sheng must have been aware that his de-

-falcations 10 the Treasury would oe discovered and so bave coos-

that

-pired with Feng Hua Chun the latter should be put forward as

owner of the coal and the Bank imposed upon.

Owing to the flight of Chou Tung Sheng and

the non-appearance of Beng Hua Chun, it is impossible to find out

the facts by examination of the two parties; but as Peng Chi Wu

has deposed that the coel in the depot is as a matter of fact the

property of Chou Tung Sheng, it ought to be confiscated to make

good the latter's defalcations.

Again, the National Bank's first statement

was to the effect that Feng bua Chun bad borrowed $80,000 and they

did not explain at the time that this money belonged to Shewan,

Tomes