Shanghai, 12th Sept.
At the Mixed Court this morning, before the Chinoto Magistrate Chen and C.F. Allen, Esq., British Assesoor, it was expected that some Chinese witnesses would be in attendance to acknowledge depositions taken in connection with the actions by Messrs, Dui and David of Chinkiang against the Swatow Opium Guild, for compensation for mouv-Polising the opium trade of Chinas by com ination in violation of treaty rights.
After the usual business of the Court had eon disposed of, the British Assessor asked Mr. Duff if his witnesses were in attendance.
Mr, Darr stopped forward and said—I am afraid there is going to be some difficulty getting, them Here, T an afraid they joon tampered with. At seven o'clock this morning they promised Mr, David and I that they would attend, but they are not here yet. They are afraid tocome, and 1 must ask you if you can adjourn the cate till Ibis afternoon. We can perhaps get them here then, or they might come in a fow minutes, ALLES—I will wait as long as you like if iz think you can get them.
it, DorF—But you will leave uow, I suppose, if there is nothing to do.
Mr. ALLEN—In the ordinary course of things I leave when the cases ure over and thoro is nothing to do, but I will stay now if you think the witnesses will turn up.
Mr. Dorr—Mr. David went to look after them and he has not returned yet. Perhaps ti hero will be some explanation when he docs return, but if the case could come on this afternoon it would perhaps be better.
Mr, ALLEX—I will ask what the Magistrate thinks about it—whether he will sit in the afternoon or not.
Having conversed with the Magistrate in Chin Mr. Axes ssid—Tho Magistrate says he is afraid to go into this walter without the Taotai. He does not want to interfere.
Aiter a pause, Mr, AtcEN snid—I will tell the Magistrate that Iwill take upon myself to bring these mon here this afternoon, and if be choses to admit mo to the Court he can. That is his affair and not mine. I shall bring these men, if I can get them, to the Court this afternoon, with these documents to be stamped, and then he won't allow them to be stamped that is his own look out. Itis his own Court and he may perhaps refuse me if ho likes, but I will bring the men here.
Mr. Durr said ho would go and sce if the wituesees wore coming, and left the Court for that purpose, On returning, Mr, Duff said—One of them has promised to be here in a short time, Mr, ALLes—Is that Ho Tze-tien Mr. Dere—Yee, Whether the others will be here or not I do not know. I fear they are afraid to come, and that we shall have more difficulty.
Mr. Darr a left the Court to see if the witness were coming, and when he came back he remarked—I must ask you to adjourn the ease to this afternoon, Une of them has slipped away from Mr, David, and they evidently do not want to come forward. 1 know they are afraid to do so, Mr, ALtex—Will you bring them to the Consulate at two o'clock this afternoon, and we will all come in a body from the Consulate to the Court.
Mr, Durr—I think I can get them to come to the Consulate at two o'clock.
Mr, Attex—That will do then, and we will come here together. We will leave the Consulate as near two o'clock as we can, and
Police would be at the Court, ahall be glad if one of the Inspectors of said he would be in attendance.
On the Court resuming in the afternoon, Mr, Antes asked Mr. Duff if the Chinese witnesses were now in attendance.
Mr. Derr—Yes, we have four of them here now.
Mr, Autrx—We will have Ho Tye-tien firet.
Ho Tze-rex was then asked to step forward, and he did so, but apparently in great fear.
Mr, AtLes—I will ask the Magistrate to ask him if he recognises this envelope, and if 80, to say where it came from, The question was put.
Mr, Autes—He recognises the envelope as coming from two members of the Swatow Guild, Li Kwan-chih avd Chen Shi The Magistrate has told him that this is only a preliminary enquiry and that he has no occasion to he afraid, "L will ask him now if the envelope contained these letter Witness-—Yes, the letters produced were in the envelope.
Mr. Dorr—And he ha already spoken to the statements in the lette Mr. Autes—Yes, but I want him to recoguise the envelope.
Mr, Antes—Tho Magistrate points out that there is no date on the envelope.
In answer toa question by Mr. Allen, the witness 80 letters were handed to me at Chinkiang by one Chen Tso-j manager of the Swatow Guild at Mr, Durr—I have another letter here, which the Taotsi handed back to me the other day from members of the Guild.
Mr, ALLEX—We will finish with the other one first. Woe must proceed in order. The witness says this letter was handed to him by Chen To-jen, the manager of the Swatow sinkiang. He also says that the deposition produced was written by at the British Consulate at Chinkiang, and that it was written a few days ago,—on Saturday, the Gth of September.
In reply to' the Magistrate witness sai The Guild have never called in the services of a Inwyer to draw up an agreement between them and the foreign merchants at Chinkiang, Mr. Duryr—I may say that the agreement offered by the Guild to the foreign merchants at Chinkiang was totally rejected by them.
Mr. AtLEN—I now ask the witness if he is afraid of his life from the Swatow Guild men? '—His answer is that he is in from the men of the Swatow jong. The Guild say that if they win their ease well and good, otherwise they will have his life in revenge.
In answer to Mr. ALLEN, Mr. Durrand Mr, Davip had no further questions to ask the wit Mr. Derr—We only want to get the documents veritied so that these men can return to Chinkiang to-night. They are the priucipal compradores in the place, and I have guaranteed that they should be able to return to-night. Tt is a serious matter keeping them from their business, Mr. ALLEN—I have asked the Maj he wishes have been produced and he says he prefers not to.
The documents were then endorsed by Mr. Allen in the following terms:—' The three documents attached under the seal of the British Consulate have been examined and verified by Ho Tze-tien in the presence of Chen, the Magistrate of the Mixed Court, and of C. F.
R. Allen, British Assessor, on the 12th day of
these three documents we have onl; been able to obtain translations of two, whi are the following The letter from Ki Kwan-chih and Chen Shih-tse, members of the Swatow Guild at Shanghai, to Ho Tse-tien, (the witness just examined) at Chinkiung.
While your Excellency Chih-tion was staying in Shanghai we were delighted to listen to your instructive conversation, and shortly after bidding you adieu we. became quite anxious in your regard. Just as we were about to write a letter making respect. ful enquiries, we received your elegant note addrested to our humble selves. On regardfully perusing this we were delighted to find that your affairs were increasingly prosperous, and your business daily extending.
With respect to the regulations made when you were in Shanghai, that every foreign hong Should pay wharf-ge dues of TI. 1 upon every chest of foreign opium imported, we leora thas on your return to Chinkiang you thoroughly explained this matter to each foreign hong, when the foreigners alike promised to pay the aboveaneutioned levy. From this we perceive your great ability, the arrangements ing suitable, and the plans accurate, for which we beg to tender our acknowledgments. You mention that your honoured ginployer, on, his return to Chinkiang from Shanghat, stated that the new hong in Shang. hai (£. D: Sassoon & Ca,) and the white-headed (Parsees) merchants alike said that our society did not allow them to send goods to Chinkiang forsake, But with regard to this statement the fact is that the several white-headed bouge in Shanghai have of themselves begotten these apprehensions, and aya matter of fuct no-trid fate discussions are not to be credited, thing of the kind has occurred; street table
In this matter the 4th article of th agree ment made with D. Sassoon's house states clearly that if the former partners of the firm of this hong, now se hong, should sta at Chinkiang, in case the Canton and Swatow companies bad no means of putting matter straight, D. Saae soon's house niust be allowed to re-open a hou Chinlkiaog. Some days ngo we beard that D, Sassoon & Ca, had sent upwards of ten chests of foreign opium to Chinkiang for sale, In case this were not immediately put a stop to, what answer could be mae should D, Sons & Ca, inquire into the matter sequently each of us instructed our clerks to go to E. D, Sassoon and Ca,, to discuss the nierits of the ease. Ag the' latter had the agreement in the first place, they dared not obey it afterwards, and therefore unhesitatingly agreed to comply, and promised to act in accordance with the prior agr: ment, Although, however, they with their mouths abided by the agreement, in their hearts they were unavoidably displeased, and very possibly may have urged on the white-headed foreign hongs in the back-frowd. "After most mature reflection, "we ave come to the conclusion that Sassoon, Sons, and Ca, cannot at present retire; they must have some time allowed them for doing #0, E, D. Sassoon and Ca, are mentioned in the agreement; it is imparatively urgent that to prevent a failure their present intentions should be nipped in the bud, and thus prevent an out-growth of multifarious troubles in the future, If action such as this be carried out, Shanghai and chinkiang will alike be ' benefited, and the pian of the whole party be adequately carried out, We beg that you will communicate the above circumstances to all the gentlemen engaged in this business, in oriler to remove suspicions of any kind, Should any matter remain incomplete, we beg that you will give your instructions in onder that we may carry them out in coufor~ mity with your wishes, A letter from all the gentlemen in the same trade.
(Address written on envelope.) Bo good enough trustily to hand the important note enclosed herein to be opened by the cateemed Mr, Ho Chil-flew, in the very worthy hong of Tin Yuen."
Deposition made by Ho Tze-flex at the British Consulate at Chinkiang.
Ho Tze TIES states—In the 11th month of last year I received a letter from the Swatow Guild at Shanghai, in reference to the opium
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.