412
[December 7, 1908
CANTON.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.}
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
the Japanese Doctor of the Reform Army, one English Doctor, and one Doctor of the Canton Ambulance Society. It is reported that the Chinese insist that another trial should be held, this time at the Portuguese Consular Court. A dispatch to that effect is said to have been POLITICAL DISCUSSION FORBIDDEN. sent by the Viceroy to the Portuguese Consul-
H. E. Viceroy Chang has notified the Civil General. A boycott of the steamer is also on
and Military officials of all ranks in the Kwang- the programme at the instigation of the Self-tung Province that they must not discuss the Government Association.
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blanket. I saw the accused shake a man by the, shoulder. He sat up in a dazed manner and when his ticket was demanded he, after some delay, tendered 50 cents and it was handed to me. I looked at the man and he appeared to me to be dazed with opium. I remarked this as I passed on. We
finished collecting tickets about 25 minutes past 11 p.m. There was no disturbance or noise of any kind while I was on deck. There were 666 passengers on the lower deck. The lower deck is fairly well lit with electric light. If a passenger is asleep he ig usually shaken up hy his shoulders. I have never seen any member of the crew kick a passenger to wake him up. It is usually opium smokers who have to be wakened by shaking. With 600 passengers on the lower deck it would be impossible to walk across the deck without touching some of them. The accused went round with me to collect the tickets. We sometimes have to shake a man more than once.
Chan Kim Cho, Compradore was called and said:-I went down with the captain after some passengers had told me that a man had been kicked to death. It was about 12.30 a.m. I do not know any of the men who spoke to me on the lower deck.
THE DECISION.
The
The 72 Guild Press comments on the decision of the Court as follows:-
In reviewing the case in which the deceased was wounded by a kick he received near the heart from the foot of the accused, and also a blow given with the hand, both of which were causes of the man's death, it should be said that in both instances there were marks of bruises and there was the clear evidence of numerous persons proving it beyond doubt. Therefore it was impossible for the accused to be ex- cused or held blameless. In reviewing the evidence given by the fellow passengers of the saccued, one of them not only said that the accused did not beat the man to death but that he did not beat any body at all. The pas. senger died because he was ill when he went on At the conclusion of the enquiry the board of the steamer and he died a natural Consul-General said:-The proceedings at death. They actually hushed up a case of such this preliminary enquiry aro not alto.
crave importance. This can only be described gether regular, for two reasons: - In the
as arbitrary, and treating the Chinese people first place no definite charge has been framed
with contempt. The evidence was false and against the watchman, Noronha, of having trumped up and there were many contradictions. oaused the death of this passenger.
For instance the chief offer said that the Viceroy's letter simply states that a Chinese watchman pushed the man on the shoulder passenger on th· Futshan has be en umur lord by
the Indian watchman said the same thing, but a foreigner; no further details are given.
the sailor said the watchman only asked the However, as I learnt from other sources that deceased to get up, and called him twice, when he the watchman Noronha was accused of having got up and that no watchman pushed the done this thing, and as he voluntarily came to
deceased by the shoulder. Although this is not this Consulate-General and offered himself for investigation into the truth of the allegations discrepancies in the evidence and we cannot a very important point in the case, it shows against him, I decided to hold the enquiry.blame the British Consul for saying that the In the second place, Noronha is a Portuguese subject and as such, if a serious charge of this nature is preferred againt him. he should be tried by his own Consul. But I decided, in consultation with my Portuguese colleague, M. de Moraes, that, in view of the fact that the alleged criminal offence had been committed on board a British steamer by a person on that steamer's articles, and in view of the popular excitement prevailing in regard to this case, it would be expedient that I should first hold a preliminary inquiry into the circum. stances attending the death of this passenger
on the Fatshan. This I have done in as public and thorough a
manner as possible. A deputy from the Viceroy has been present at the hearing, taking notes and cross-exam- ining the witnesses. The public, including members of the Chinese press, have been allowed to be present and the Portuguese Consul. General has occupied a seat in Court. I have
come to the conclusion, after carefully consider- ing all the evidence that has been brought forward yesterday and to-day, that there is not sufficient evidence to justify me in handing over the accused to his Consul on a charge of having caused the death of tliis passenger. Of the 600 odd passengers on the Fatshan that night only two came forward to testify that they had seen the accused assault the deceased, and their evidence, for reasons which I have mentioned before, I am bound to regard with grave suspicion. On the other hand Dr. Davenport's evidence, given in the clearest and most explicit manner, goes to show that the deceased died 8 natural death. Under these circumstances the accused, 1.8 far sa the Court is concerned, is discharged. It is open to the Chinese Authorities, should they consider the result of this enquiry unsatisfactory, to charge the accused in the Portuguese Con- sular Court, where, I am sure, all charges made against him will receive an impartial and fair hearing. I will ask Mr. Greaves, Messrs. Butterfield and Swire's Agent, to hold himself responsible for Noronha's appearance when called upon..
Mr. Greaves gave the necessary assurance.
CHINESE COMMENTS ON THE CASE. The local Press is still publishing hostile articles concerning the matter, and a petition has been a sent to the Viceroy praying that the body of the deceased may be exhumed and a fresh post mortem examination held by three doctors, viz.
evidence was not clear. The British Consul further said that there was no evidence to show that the accused committed a crime. It is only on account of racial distinction that the matter was hushed up and the Consul had time to think of public justice. It is really a very great pity.`
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EXCITEMENT AT CANTON. ↑ There is great excitement in the City (writes our Canton correspondent) over the decision
given by the British Consular Court of inquiry re the s.s. Fatsban incident. A boycott of the Steamboat Company's entire fleet seems to be threatening.
I have no doubt the excitement would soon fizzle out if the local authorities were to issue a proclamation explaining clearly to the public the facts of the inquiry or if the proceedings at the inquiry and the evidence of both foreign and Chinese witnesses
were translated and
published in the leading local papers.
The translation of a circular which I give below, issued by the Self-Government Association, apparently the first step towards a boycott
is
movement :—
<
Wo be respectfully to inform the public that on the night of the 6th day of this moon (29th Nov.) a Chinaman was kicked to death by a foreigner on board the s.s. Futshan. The following patriotic and ominent persons viz. Yeong Wo Kai, Cheong Lau Ki. Tang Chenk and Tam Shew Po were strangers to the deceased yet they possessed such patriotic and honourable feelings as to come forward as witnesses to give evidence in the case and petitioned the Authorities to obtain redress on behalf of the deceased. This really shows the sincerity of their feelings and ardent love of their country and their brethren.
November 26th.
present position of Government affairs; they are to attend strictly to their duties and carry out the State mourning in accordance with the law. All officials are requested to remain at their respective Bureaux and no leave of absence will be granted.
អ
ENCOURAGING NATIVE INDUSTRIES." In a dispatel sent to the Viceroy by the Board of Agriculture, Labour, and Commerce at Peking it is stated that the Chamber of Com- merce in the Kiang-su Province has informed the Board that the cotton cloth manufactured in the above province is strong, flexible and white and its quality is far superior to that manufactured in Bombay. Hitherto its con- sumption has been confined to several northern and eastern provinces, but of late years foreign cloth has found its way into those markets and has been ousting the native cloth trade. Recently the Board has received several Im- perial Edicts commanding them to encourage native manufactures. The Board requests the Viceroy to give instructions to all Military and Police Departments and the Directors of Schools and Colleges in the Province of Kwangtung to purchase the native cloth manufactured in Kiang-su for the use of the military, police and students. The Viceroy has issued notios to
that effect.
BLACKMAIL.
The International Banking Corporation here has again received a letter demanding $1,000,000 blackmail to be paid within five days on board a certain Shek Loong junk.
November 27th.
CANTON-HANKOW RAILWAY.
The total sum of money due on the second instalment of the shares of the Canton-Hankow Railway Company amount to over $13,200,000 out of which about $1,300,000, is reported to have boon collected by the Company up to the 30th day of the 10th moon (23rd instant), and from this amount the sum of ¡$200,000 was paid into the Company in drafts or promissory notes to be collected on the date.
THE FATSHAN LINE.
been made by many passengers of the Fatahan It is reported that recently complaints have Railway of articles missing from the passengers' luggage cars.
Owing to the recent increase of railway fares many steam launches have been placed on the Canton-Fatshan run, and, if stern measures are not taken to put a check to the pilfering which is causing great annoyance to travellers, the bulk of the passenger trade will fall into the hands of the steam launch owners.
OBJECTION TO A KEROSINE DEPOT.
Samshui for the purpose of building a kerosine A British firm purchased a piece of land in depot. The gentry there objected to a kerosine depot and applied to the Sam-shui Magistrate to issue an injunction restraining the foreign firm from erecting the depot on the ground that kerosine is dangerous goods." The Magistrate reported the matter to the Viceroy who directed the Provincial Treasurer to investigate and settle the question.
THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THE NEW SOVEREIGN. H.E. the Viceroy has received cable instruc- tions from Peking to notify the officials and the people of the Kwangtung Province that the enthronement of the young Emperor will take place on the 1st day of the 1st moon next year and that the Grand Council has decided to adopt
From inquires made we learn that all these
the two characters Shuen Tang () patriots are business men. For several days the title of the reign of the new Emperor. As they have wasted their precious time and dis- it is customary in many lines of trade to print regarded their toilsome labour.
Those who are
the title of the reigning Emperor on the articles our brothers must really respect them. We manufactured, the cablegram expressly instructa have decided to invite these patriots to come to
His Excellency to issue proclamations to inform the Association on the 10th day of this moon
the public that all articles and goods which are (3rd instant) for the purpose of taking their
now being, manufactured for the forthcoming photographs, which we will carefully preserve year must bear the title of the new Emperor. as a remembrance. We therefore invite all our brothers to attend at the Association' on that day to pay their respects to them."
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NEW COINS.
The Viceroy is also in receipt of telegraphio instructions from the Board of Revenue at
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.