Witsox.
Robert Wilson, an unemployed seaman, was charged with being drunk and incapable in the Sailors' Home on Saturday. Prisoner admitted the charge.
James Eveleigh, superintendent of the Home, said: the prisoner' was: discharged from the Helen Bretcer and had never given any trouble before.
is Worship dismissed the charge.
4th August.
R. o, Perera Darra. state of the steamers personally and sas, present at the interview at Mr. Chu's, Then the accounts' were. gone, into, but nothing was done except threats were made by Mr. Chu to put soldiers on, board the steninors: Mr. Chu undoubtedly agreed to the. letter in which it wae stated the only way out of the difficulty, was' the payment of the amount of liabilities and, The return of the steamers. In consequence of Int. Chu's threats' the Ning-thaw was sent to Hongkong. The Com. missioner of Customs: had never objected to thst course, Thb Commissioner re-feted, the sering of, the iongiio.
mesa was on board' that vessel one day and discovered the captain, Mace, getting ready, to hail'up the anchor: "He" dis missed him: thore'and then, Mr. Ko was fon board; he was intending to have the Vessel taken to the Arsenal, Mi. Ko Cleared off and witness left the chief officer in sole charge. Blaco wanted his wwages.but the firm was security for him Tor'more than they were in his debt. A Ghinese gunboat was plead there and was there stil. Two days before the time the ship was seized negotiations were going on between his legal advisers and those of the defendants.
At this stage the Court rose for the day. a Pegersm Datta was changed with being Road on the previous day. ere jrunk and incapable on the Yan; My. Pollak was further examined... He said" he remembered. the appointment of Mr. Herzberg to be. chief engineer. of Inépector said this was prisoner's the Tooning. Mr. Herzberg-complained fifth apy rance before the Court. of the pate. of the engines of. that vessel.
Sikh.C. 68 proved the charge, and after she had. been-handed over by...the. His Worship sentenced the prisoner to De repairs which were not carried out' by the Department and Mr. Sonne's. suggestions were not all carried out. Mr. Herzberg furnished a report of the breakdown of the Wooning and said it would. take three weeks. to repair her. He also recommended the appointment. of another-engineer, as those on board had been working 36 hours at a stretch on the breakdown.
Cross-examined by Mr. Drummond, Mr. Pollak said he had been some five years in China and doing business principally.in Shanghai, import business generally; partly by himself and_partly. in conjunction with another firm, He was with Messrs. Spitzel and Ca. and left them at the end of 1895 and joined Mr. Bennertz in February, 1896. He lad business with the Chinese Government and at Nanking met Mr. Chu. 'The business.of forming the Hsin 'Loong Ca, was arranged between himself, Mr. Chu, and Mr. Bennexts, He knew very well what the four ships were, but did not sob them: If they were to be used as trading' vessels they would have required a great deal-of alteration, 'The contract gave permission to. Bennertz and Ca, to change the vessels into those fit for trade: It did not say in' the charter-parts that it was to be done at Bennertz and Ca, expense, and. it was understood' all along that the Department'was to do that before handing over the ships. There wis no clause ini the agreement stating that it was to be done by the Department.
The Court adjourned until Monday. 2nd August.
Upon the Court assembling, Drummond recalled the fact that the question of the exact meaning of a certain clause in the contract between the parties had been left over for settlement by. Mr. James. Scott and Mr. Fung Yee. The translation he submitted was: The Hsin Loong firm has chartered from the authorities of the Kiangnan Defence and Pay Department, the three steamers, to wit, the Cass, the Smith, and the Sinfokien, which steamers the Hsin Loong firm shall be at, liberty, to turn into trading vessels coy freight and passengers." to run between the different ports and
it. Scott said the correct sense of the Chinese was that the firm should be allowed to take the steamers and deal with. them as merchant vessels;.''turn into" trading vessels was not the meanitig of the Chinese.
Mr. Fung Yeo agreed.
Mr. Pollak's cross-examination was then continued by Mr. Drummond.- He said that Mr. Bennertz attended principally to the shipping business of the firm, and also had more dealings with Mr. Chu than; witness. Witness was present at the interview between Mr, Chu and Mr. Bennertz on the 5th of August when the draft agreement was drawn up..Tt was written at the interview. and fully explained to. Mr. Chu, but not signed by, him.
Mr. Drummond—By this document it would be understood that you agreed to hand.over, the ships on certain conditions, and on the other side that Mr. Chu undertook to pay forthwith all the outstanding accounts.
Witness—The only explanation I can give is that Mr. Chu was at that time in trouble with his own. government and no doubt wanted some documentary evidence of what the firm required. Mr. Chu undoubtedly understood the document.
Mr. Drunimond—Did you not think it necessary to get his signature to the document? 5 Witness—Not as he had demanded it. He gave us the impression that he could. settle on those terms, but he wanted a document to show to Tseng Taotai.
Witness, replying to further questions, admitted that.the letter to the Commissioner of Customs of the 6th.of August, purporting to give reason for the intended stoppage of the steamers was untrue, but it was impossible in, business to always ad-re to the truth: The true reason was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.