His Worehip said in that case it was obvious that the prosecution could not go on. Addressing the accused, his Worship said that the Chinese laid the complaint three and a half years ago. At that time they were not arrested because they got out of the jurisdiction of the Court. Now, three and a half years later, the Chinese complainant refused to give evidence. If he had been a British subject of course the position might have been different; be had power to insist on a prosecution going on, but eeeing that the man was Chinese he was not going to exercise the power. He must say, however, that the whole proceedings seemed to him to be very curious. Here was an information laid in April, 1911, and on that a warrant was issued. The accused ran away and escaped arrest, and now they returned to Shanghai, no doubt knowing that the warrant was still in force against them. The accused were discharged, his Worship intimating that he would write to the Crown Advocate informing him of what had happened in the Court.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.