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SUPREME COURT.
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Monday, 19th September.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIE HENRY 8. BERKELEY (CHIEF JUSTICE.)
THE CALENDAR.
The calendar was a light one, comprising bly five cases, of which two applied to the same person. There WAS one charge of forgery, one of arson, one of detaining persons for the purposes of emigration, one of robbery with violence, and one of receiving stolen goods.
FORGERY.
Su Sang was charged with having on 16th August at Shaukiwad forged a receipt for Tls. 26.132, also with altering a receipt for Tls. 21.182, and with uttering the forged receipt.
He pleaded not guilty.
The following jury was empanelled:-Messrs H. E. Craddook, J. T. Dixon, W. E. Craig, S, V. A. Uldall, W. W. G. Ross, J. Gloyn, and H. G. Simons.
The Hon. Attorney-General, Mr. E. H. Sharp, K.C. (instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor), conducted the pro- secution. In opening the case he stated that the prisoner was charged with forging a receipt for Tls. 26 odd by means of altering the amount of the genuine receipt for Tls. 21 into Tls. 26 for the purpose of appropriating the difference between the two amounts. Prisoner was a buyer in a vegetable shop at Shaukiwan, for which he received a salary; he also had a share in the shop. As buyer for the shop he received a receipt book in which the persons to whom he paid money for goods bought for the shop entered the amount he paid and put their chops on the entries in the manner usual among the Chinese. The receipt which prisoner was charged with forging was one of the receipts in this book. On 16th August, early in the morning, the accountant in the vegetable shop handed the prisoner some money to go into Hongkong and make some purchases with. Prisoner came into Hongkong and went, amongst other places, to the Central Market, where he went to a fruit stall and bought goods to the amount of Tls. 21, or about 828 or $29. The man at the fruit stall accordingly entered in the prisoner's receipt book Tls. 21 and chopped the entry with the chop of the stall. Later in the day the prisoner returned to the shop at Shau- kiwan and the accountant at the shop saw this receipt, which meanwhile had been altered from Tls. 21 to Tis. 26, and thought from its appearance that it had been altered. He asked prisoner how much he had actually paid to the fruit stall, and the prisoner said he had paid him Tls. 26. The accountant therefore entered the sum of Tls. 26 in his books. Sub- sequently, being in Hongkong, he went to the fruit stall, and on making enquiries found that the amount paid by the prisoner was Tls. 21, and that he must have altered it himself. Prisoner's purpose was obviously to appropriate the difference between the two amounts. The characters representing the sums of Tis. 21 and Tls. 26 were so much alike that the addition of a single stroke was sufficient to make the alteration.
The jury after hearing the evidence found the prisoner guilty.
His Lordship in passing sentence of 18 months' imprisonment said that though the amount involved in this forgery was a small one the offence was a grave one in a commercial community like this.
ARMED ROBBERY,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
shop belonging to Cheung Fuk Yau at Hung-1 hau, a village at the head of Junk Bay. On 17th | August shortly after midnight the owner of the shop was asleep in the cockloft, and a woman named Hong with her two children were asleep in a room on the ground floor. Cheung Fuk Yau was awakened by the breaking in of the front door. He saw four men enter, carrying lights, and some of them with weapons. The robbers went into the woman's room and demanded jewellery and money. She said she had none; whereupon they bound and blindfolded her and ransacked the shop. Then they climbed into the cockloft and treated the man in the same way and took everything of value out of the place. When the robbers had got away with their booty the woman gave the alarm. Prisoner was a man employed in the Dock and lived at Shaukiwan. On 19th August, two days after the robbery, he sold some of the stolen property, and on information received by the police they arrested him and fou d in his house a clock that had been among the stolen property. Both Cheung Fuk Yau and Hong Chuen identified the prisoner as having been one of the gang.
Evidence was taken.
The jury found the charge proven, and- sentence was deferred until after luncheon.
After the interval, Yau Shan was further charged with having on 29th August received a quantity of stolen property, which he denied. The following jury was empanelled:-Messrs. J. Gloyn, H. F. Campbell, W. E. Craig. H. M. Basto. J. Oppenheim, N. J. Stabb, and A. H. Ough.
The Attorney-General said in his opening that the prisoner was charged with receiving stolen goods, the proceeds of s burglary which had been committed on the night of 24th August, he knowing that they were stolen goods. Prisoner was not charged with being concerned in the actual burglary, although the evidence should leave very little doubt in the minds of the jury that he was. From the nature of the goods stolen it would appear that the burglary must have been committed by a gang. and there Was no doubt that the prisoner was in league with the gang. How- ever, what he was charged with was receiv ing the goods which were the proceeds of the burglary. The scene of the barglary was the shop of a fishmonger named Cheong Kam Wo at Shankiwan. About half-past nine in the evening of 24th August the wife of this man was alone in her house. The husband and his foki were away looking after the former's boat as it was the first night of the typhoon. She went to bed, baving previously barred the door of the house. Two hours later she was a wakened by the sounds of the wind and the waves, and she saw the door standing open. The bar of the door when afterwards examined showed that the door had been opened by foros from the outside On looking over the house the woman found that two boxes of clothing belonging to the fokis of the shop were missing. She gave the alarm. Next morning the missing boxes were found some distance away, on the hillside, with the contents removed. A day or two later this prisoner WBX arrested by the police in another matter, and when he was taken to the station pawn-tickets were found in his possession which referred to a pair of trousers and a coat which had been among the stolen property. In his house another stolen cost was found. When charged at the station prisoner said the jacket found in his house was his own as well as the pawn-tickets. Before the Magistrate he altered his a'count and said he knew nothing about the jacket, and the pawn- tickets had nothing to do with him.
The jury after hearing (dence returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.
Yan Shan was brought up on a charge of His Lordship said he had been found guilty having on 17th August at Hunghan, together of two serious charges-armed gang robbery and with certain persons unknown, committed an receiving stolen goods. He was a dangerous armed robbery and stolen over $100, some character to the community, and would be jewellery, and about 50 pieces of clothing belong-sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard ing to Cheung Fuk Yau and Hong Chuen; he was also charged with receiving stolen goods.
A ples of not guilty was tendered.
A jury was chosen as follows :-Messrs. H. B. Bridger, N. J. Stabb, E. G. Smith, H. F. Campbell, J. T. Dixon, W. Wadekind and N. K.
Davidson.
The Attorney-General in opening the case said the scene of this crime" was a grocer's
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labour on each count, running consecutively,
with 24 strokes of the birch within the first six months in respect of the first offence.
AESON.
Lam Yam; a youth of 20 years, was charged with having committed arson at 123, Wellington Street, or alternatively with having set fire to two rattan chairs, the property of the owner of the house.
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[September 24, 1904. *
The prisoner admitted having set fire to the chairs, but said he did it under the infidence anger against one of the men employed in the house, and had no intention to burn down the dwelling.
Sentence-12 months' imprisonment with hard labour.
The Court adjourned.
Tuesday, 20th September.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION;
BEFORE HIS HONOUR SIR HENRY 8: BERKELEY (Chief Justice)
OFFENCE AGAINST THE EMIGRATION ORDINANCE.
were charged with having on 15th August, by Wong Chun, Yeung Cheung, and Chu Han force, intimidation and fraud, detained four men for the purpose of emigration.
They pleaded not guilty. The following jury Messrs. N. J. Stabb, H. E. Craddock, E. G.
was empanelled
Smith, M. H. Michael, F. G. Smith, O. J. Ellis, and H. M. Basto.
The Attorney-General, Hon. E. H. Sharp, K.C. (instructed by Mr. F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor). conducted the prosecution. He said in opening the case for the Crown that the first two prisoners were watchmen and the third a cook in the employ of the Kwong Hop Wo, a licensed boarding house for emigrants. They were charged with unlawfully detaining four men. He would show that this was a part of a larger conspiracy, where n no doubt other persons were concerned, to defeat and evade the beneficial provisions of the Emigration Ordin. ance, made for the protection of unwilling emigrants. He would prove also that the kidnapping and trepanning of emigrants was unfortunately very common in this Colony. It was an offence difficult to bring home to the offenders, partly because the kidnap. ped persons were shipped out of the Colony quickly
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and sent down to the Malay States and other places, and partly be cause they belonged to a proverbially stupid class of people, called by the Chinese chu liai ("little pigs), people of no intelligence or they would not allow themselves to be kidnapped. This boarding house was known as a little pig" boarding house, because they evaded the Emigration Ordinance and sent accomplices to impersonate the emigrants and submit them. selves to examination of the emigration officer. who was supposed to find out whether or not the emigrants were willing to go.
His Lordship remarked that the Attorney- General must confine himself to the facts re- lating to this particular case.
The Attorney-General said he only made these remarks after having fully considered the matter and in view of what might occur in the future. The Police had discovered through this case that this was a general practics. This boarding house consisted of the two upper floors --second and third-of a building running from Des Voeur Road West to Connaught Road. The entrance to the whole premises was by a door on the second floor, 80 that it was practically a prison. It WRA accidental circumstance that led to the discovery of this case. On 16th August a man fell over the verandah of the top floor into the street and was killed. The police entered the house, and on making enquiries found that the deceased bad been a kidnapp-d emigrant who in trying to escape had fallen over the verandah. Sundry inmates of the kidnapped emigrant class told the Police how they had been brought down from the interior under promise that they would get work in Hongkong. The agents paid their fares and all expenses. On arriving in Hong. kong these unhappy men were taken straight to this boarding house and were not allowed to leave it. Watchmen were constantly stationed at the doors to prevent them leaving, and they were threatened with all sorts of consequences if they got out. They were told that they would be immediately arrested by the Police, and being ignorant people and total strangers they were terrorised by those absurd stories. It was not until the very last moment they wer told anything about "emigration. On 15th August ten people from this boarding house"
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