The two men Wong Tai-kee and Wei Cho-tai who were captured by the police on the occasion of the bank robbery were brought up in the Mixed Court this afternoon before the District Magistrate, the Mixed Court Magistrate Mr. Tsai, and the British Assessor Mr. Playfair.
Capt. McEuen was present on behalf of the Police.
No fresh evidence was forthcoming but that of Mr. Polite who answered two or three questions put by the Magistrate the finding of the cartridges and some other points, The package was found upon the second prisoner while a few loose cartridges were found upon the other. The dollars and jinricsha tickets were fonnd in the canvas bag which was carried by Wong. Ho stopped the prisoners of the corner of Nankin and Kiangse Roads and Sergeant Smith and Mr. Cole came up shortly afterwards. When he saw the prisoners one of them was loading the pistol and the other firing them behind his back.
'The prisoner Wong, in' reply to the Magistrate, gave a slightly different story from that which he previously told, The other prisoner was removed from the Court during Wong's crimination.
Wong stated that he came from a place about 15 li from Foochung or Foongchung, but nobody in Court seemed to know very much about the geography of this locality. He adhered to his former statement that he was a countryman and added that he owned about 40 mow of land. When questioned as to when he left home, he said it was about the 15th or 14th day of the ninth month. When examined about the object of his visit to Shanghai, however, he made a rambling statement from which nothing could be gathered. It appeared from what he said that he met the other men at Hangchow from which they went to Chinkiang in a boat. He could not describe the appearance of Mow, the leader, any better than he had' done on the last occasion. They lived in the boat while they were at Chinkiang. He had not been to Shanghai before. When they came to the bank their captain handed him a pistol and said ''keep guard." The pistol did not belong to him but to the captain. When examined as to how many rounds he fired the prisoner denied that he fired any, and said lie had the pistol up his sleeve. He also denied that he had two daggers with the gang. pistols. He did not see any knives or
The other prisoner was then brought in and said that he recognized one of the pistols produced as the weapon he used on the night of the robbery.
The first prisoner was further examined and appeared to give more definite informa-by the magistrate as to his e place
tion, for the magistrate remarked that nine out of every ten people from the place from, which the prisoners came were pirates.
Mr. Tsai asked the prisoner how he knew about going to Wong-doo when he had never been there before to which the prisoner replied that the other men brought him there. He had not been to the bank before the robbery.
The second prisoner was then questioned and told very much the same story. He did not know, according to his own account, where he was going, and he was forced to go the robbery by the others. He could not tell what he was given the weapon for. He denied the ownership of the piece of bamboo and the canvas bag, as also did Wong. He left his home, which was near that of the other prisoner, in a wheelbarrow to sell some cotton stuffs. The other men met him and induced or forced him to go with them. He was not given any weapons but picked the pistol up off the ground after it had been dropped by one of the others. He saw four pistols in all amongst the gang, He did not hear any talk amongst the others about the robbery beforehand.
He afterwards stated that Mow gave him a pistol, but would not tell him when or where it was intended to be used.
The Magistrate said that there was no use in examining the prisoners further, They would not give any more satisfactory evidence, but from their own story it was clear that they were guilty. The Chinese people were not in the habit of ing pistols unless they had some evil intentions.
The second prisoner said that if he was allowed to go back to his native place he would point out the other men who were engaged in the robbery. He knew that one of them went back for he left an aged mother and his children behind him, The Magistrate decided to send the prisoners into the city where they will be dealt with, after they are allowed an opportunity of aiding the authorities in the eapture of the other men implicated in_ the robbery, and in reply to Mr. Playfair he said thie' sentence will be notified to the police authorities in the Settlement, The prisoners were then removed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.