March 25th, 1922.]
The witness said later that, as the pri- soner was waiting about, he looked at him. The Judge: Were you afraid he was going to shoot you -(Laughter.)
Witness: No. I was wondering why he was looking at the pillars. I thought he was a man who had never seen such things hef re. (Laughter.)
Mr. Jenkin: Probably right, too—(more laughter).
In re-examination, the witness said he went off to tiffin promptly at 12 o'clock because, in a coolie house, if one was not prompt to time, one would get nothing
to cat.
FROM THE BANK ANNEXE.
A foreman, employed on the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank annexe. said he saw 10 or 20 people running through Wardley Street. from Queen's Statue. He saw a European at the back of the crowd, on the paven ent. The two leading men turn ed into Des Voeux Road, to the right. As they turned the corner one had a slight lad. This man was in dark-coloured clothing and was a smal'er and thinner man than the other, who was in a grey suit. The man in the grey suit threw something over the railing into the gar- den; the witness could not tell what it was. It was slowly dropped over.
The Judge: Give him the revolver but don't let him throw it at Mr. Jenkin.
The witness then showed how the re- volver was dropped over the railing. He added that after that the man in grey clothing put his hat on his head. The third man, the little man, being follow- | ed by the European, crossed the tram lines and witness then lost sight of him. The main crowd of pursuers separated and went 'eft, right and forward at Des
Voeux Road.
Prisoner was made to stand outside the dock and the witness said that the man who dropped the revolver was a taller and stouter man.
A man working on the ground floor of the Bank Annexe said he saw three men running in Wardley Street. A tall man- the second one-threw something over the railing as he turned the corner. The third man, pursued by a European, cross- ed the tram lines.
When the hearing was resumed on Mar. 23rd the Attorney-Genera' announced that he did not propose to cross-examine, any further, the witnesses for the defence. His position was that there was a direct conflict between them and the Crown
witnesses and that the witnesses for the defence must be telling fa'sehoods.
Chief Warder J. C. West gave evidence that so far as he could see nothing was done at an identification parade held by the defence at Victoria Gao! to render the identification valueless. The witnesses for the defence identified the prisoner without hesitation.
saw a solicitor's clerk.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
Mr. G. K. Hall Brutton, solicitor for the defence, was called as to the identi- fication parade at the Gaol. Mr. Jenkin asked him if (in effect) anything was done to fake "the identification parade.
Mr. Judge: I think that is quite un- necessary. I am quite sure a gentleman of Mr. Brutton's standing would not.
""
COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE. Mr. Jenkin then addressed the Jury on After expressing the prisoner's behalf. sympathy with the victims (in which he was, later, joined by the Attorney- General) he said:-
46
"
selves to withstand the jocular cynicisms
I beg you most earnestly to steel your of your fellow clubmen should you find this man not guilty.' I say that ad- risedly because I move amongst people with whom we are all in daily communi- cation and I know, as you know, that outside of this Court this man has been condemned, hanged, drawn and quartered hundreds of times by lay judges who have never been inside this Court. They pick up scraps of the evidence from reading the newspapers and, though knowing absolutely nothing about it, they feel quite fitted to take the place of the Chief Justice and Jury and decide the verdict.
You will not be able to go into the Club and about the Colony, without "" What I meeting this class of question: You found that man not guilty!" You are bound to meet it-you have met it while
you have been on the jury. This man has been pre-judged and I beg you to care naught for these people outside who say that this man is guilty. You are strong enough to take the right decision if you think he is not guilty.
318
Mr. Jenkin said (later): It WBO obvious that, had the Crown taken the precautions which it might have taken with the material at its hand, it could have got a considerably larger number of witnesses than had been presented to the Jury in support of the Crown case. ADDRESS BY THE ATTORNEY- GENERAL.
The Attorney-General, after some intro- ductory 1emarks (omitted on considera- tions of space) said he thought it a little unfair to suggest that the Crown might have met the evidence for the defence (1 My friend suggests, by calling other evidence.
said Mr. Kemp, "that the Crown might have gone round Queen's and Prince's Buildings and collected European evidence to show that the evi- dence for the defence was a fabrication Wel, gentlemen, he has to show a large number of men running at the head of the prisoner and Capt. Morgan; it was equally open to him to go to these offices and call European witnesses to prove that."
the
Later when the subject was referred to again by the Attorney-Genera!, Chief Justice remarked, I take it, Mr. Jenkin thinks you might have called, in the first instance, other Europeans, if you had any, to confirm the evidence of Capt. Morgan.' The Attorney-General replied that he submitted that the Crown case was perfectly clear and convincing as it stood.
,,
As to the witnesses for the defence, Mr. Kemp said they each came (with one exception) from a different section of the route of the pursuit. Each told a short. simple story (which was all the more difficult to break down in cross-examina tion); as two men were not called from Reviewing the evidence, counsel said: one spot their evidence could not be "The crucial point is the place at which tested one against the other. He hoped the chase started. Capt. Morgan's evi- the Jury had noticed their demeanour dence failed signally there." After dis-"So very c'ear and dstinct in answer to cussing that evidence in detail Mr. Jenkin my frend," said Mr. Kemp, "but when advanced a theory that the revolver I began, so stupid and evasive." On the must, from its position, have been drop-other hand, Mr. Kemp said that although ped from Des Voeux Road, as his wit- there were naturai discrepancies, due to nesses said, and not from Wardley Street, as the Crown suggested.
The Chief Justice: I wish we had dis- used that when we were at the view. I did not see anything in its position to prevent it from having been thrown from Wardley Street.
Replying to the Attorney-General's suggestion that the evidence for the de-
fence had been fabricated counsel said that it was easy for Mr. Kemp to say so. It was easily said but it was not so easily proved and the jury wou'd ask for some more proof of it than the mere statement of the Attorney-General.
The evidence of the witnesses for the defence was stamped with honesty by the identifica- To meet the charge of fabrication of tion parade last Saturday.. evidence, a foreman who found some of the
The Attorney-General said, "Why had witnesses for the defence was permitted they not come forward before?" As to in spite of the rule against admitting that, did Europeans come forward? "In hearsay evidence to say what the men told him in the first instance before they the streets and the Club," remarked Mr. Jenkin, are lots of Europeans who saw what happened--at least they say they saw what happened. They take your place on the jury and decide the case: Why don't they come forward? It is all very well for the Attorney-General to sit down and say that he will not examine the witnesses. With its minions, its detective department and so on, if the Crown. in the preparation of its case, had done as Mr. Brutton had done, had gone to all of the offices which overlooked the locus in quo and had collected the available evidence which possibly was then they might have been able to say, Here is the evidence of a number of Europeans of standing and it is in direct conflict with the evidence
the défence.'"
The Attorney-General expressed the hope that the Crown would be granted the same privilege on occasion,-it would help
in numberless cases.
the
The witness said that when solicitor's clerk called on him he "did not want to tell him, at first, what he had discovered from the fokis.
[C
Why not?" asked the Judge. "Because regarding things in Hong kong it is better not to interfere," replied the witness.
for
cross-
Mr. Ho Cheuk was then re-called at the request of the jury. He said the ricksha coolie who pointed out to him the re- "Some volver in the Bank Garden said one threw it there." He saw the coolie again next day but on neither occasion The Attorney-General: Your evidence did he take his number.
ig new.
difference of recollection and so on, in the Crown evidence, the witnesses were trustworthy and, if the Jury believed that Capt. Morgan did not lose sight of the prisoner they must find the prisoner guilty of murder.
SUMMING-UP BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
"}
The Chief Justice joined with learned counsel for the defence "if it was neces- sary in asking the Jury to banish any pre-conceived ideas from their minds Dealing with the evidence, the Chief Justice said:
+
If you are prepared to accept the evidence for the prisoner the case for If you rejers that the Crown fal's. evidence it will involve finding a con
on the part of a number of spiracy Cunese witnesses to defeat the adminis tration of justice in this Colony. Gentle men, I have had experience, now, for some years of Chinese witnesses and am porfectly justified in saying this to you that while most Chinamen come into the box to speak the truth and promote the administration of justice, I am bound to tell you that collusion of witnesses to tell a story having no regard to the truth of that story at all is not, I regret to I have had to find, as say, uncommon. a fact, that the most extraordinary de- tails, carefully interwoven; one witness building the foundation, another adding the super structure and a third carrying it a little further until the chain of evidence, becomes so conclusive that the Court, in ordinary circumstances, would be convinced; I have have to had to find as a fact that such evidence has been entirely and absolutely unfounded and
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