CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 223

Boumat Bat roll

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the other passengers on board signify their indignation,

but respectable merchants such as Wesers Fong Chush Ch'en

and T'an Shao Pu of Hongkong, Chang Lâu Chi of Canton

and Yang Ho Chia of Patshan also joined in the accusation

in the public interest. These witnesses, all beyond sus➡

picion, prayed the Self Covernment Society to bring the

case to the notice of Chino e at home and abroad, and the

Society was grateful to them for their disinteredness.

The despatch of the Portuguese Consul stated that they

wore assuming a false patriotimm referred to the Society

as an illegal body, demanded the punishment of the press

and the finiry of the witnesses, accused the Society of

obviously bribing the witnesses and was full of invective

of the like barbarous kind. It was absolutely devoid of

decent feeling, and the Consul was as caroless of other

people's reputations as he was of his own. He treated

their Government with contempt and declined to have eny➡

thing to do with the case. The Society was constantly

roceiving