A Preliminary Court Martial.
After the Inpso of a fortnight, during which the Russian authorities had apparently taken no action to bring to trial the two bluejackets from the Askold, accused of being concerned in the killing of @ Chines on the Shanghai Bund, a "preliminary inquiry" was opened on Saturday at the Russian Consulate. It was continued on Monday morning and afternoon, and is again on Wednesday, rest. Members of the Prosshave been admitted, but application has been made to' each for his name, apparently as a guarantee of good th. It has also been requested that, as this is only preliminary and the Press are admitted as courtesy only, the idence taken be not disclosed until the enquiry has terminated. The facts of the cade are so simple and are so generally known that: there seems very little object in the temporary suppression, but, with this explanation, we state merely that, so far, the evidence taken has been that of the three Sikh constables, and the three Chinese constables who were present at the arrest, and of three native carpenters who were at work near the scene of the tragedy. Their testimony repeats, with a few slight variations, natural enough in the excitement and confusion of the moment, the story already known. me interpreter. The proceedings are conducted very informally, all the officials mentioned smoking cigarettes during the hearing and apparently deriving a good deal of amusement from the whole affair. A Russian-speaking English lady, who seems to be taking notes on behalf of the Court, intervenes decasionally to question a witness or clear up a point in interpretation. The evidence has been given in Chinese, or Hindustani as the case may be, interpreted into English, and again interpreted into{Russian. Neither of the scoused has been present. Inspector Matheson attends on behalf of the Police.
The utmost courtesy has been extended to the Press, who have not only been given facilities for taking notes, but have been entertained with pro-verbal Russian hospitality.
The preliminary Court of Enquiry into the Bund murder case resumed session at the Russian Consulate on Wednesday. Theprisoners were not present, but during the day evidence was taken from several foreign witnesses. Mr. Ispolatoff, the Russian Postmaster, acted as interpreter to the satisfaction of all parties. The evidence of each witness was taken down in Russian, and was then translated over to him. Each witness had to sign his evidence, At the conclusion of the proceedings Inspector Matheson had to sign the day's evidence, as he was conducting the: prosecution. There wore then only three witnesses to be heard and their evidence was taken yosterday morning. The date of the trial has not yet been definitely decided upon?
It will be seen from Miss Mnssey's letter in this issue that an explanation is forthcoming of the seeming levity at Monday's session of the Court. For the gentleman so unhappily affected we can only express our sympathy. It soams unfortunate, however, that another inter-prefer could not have been found on Monday as well as on Wednesday. Quite spart from this unlucky incident the proceedings were conducted with an absence of decorum, which would be noticed at all events in a British inquiry, even of the most informal description. Considering the particularly grave nature of the present matter under investigation, and the peculiar circumstances under which the Russians are here at all, the did not appear to be getting the serious attention it should have. The proceedings on Wednesday were perfectly dignified.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.