and Unreliable Baron Akerheilm, Swedish Consul-General, and two Assessors who have held an inquiry into the acensations against Petterson, the Customs police officer alleged to have caused the death of a rice-boat man, on January 27, gave their judgement, based on a lengthy inquiry into the circumstances of the case. They found that the Chinese had failed: to prove the charge, the evidence produced being unreliable and contradictory, and Petterson was discharged.
The judgement was as follows:
This is a case of a policeman on duty and executing the orders of his Superiors who is accused of having used violence in order to be obeyed and to have caused, as result of such violence, the death of another man.
The Court finds that the witnesses against the accused were so often caught with contradictory and con-fioting statements that, in consideration of the emphatic denial of the accused, their evidence does not offer convincing proof that violence was used by the accused on the occasion in question.
The post mortem examination, which merely consisted of an external inspection of the body and was made by a Chinese official, who is not a medical man, is of no value, as is convincingly proved by a well known and duly certified physician, who also certifies, that without a dissection of the body, the cause of death could not have been determined.
The Court finds that the post mortem examination does not prove that death -was the result of injuries caused by violence.
Under these circumstances the Court declares Petterson not guilty.
Dr. O. Fischer and Mr. Loh were present on behalf of the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs.
Mr. L. S. Dick was plaintiff in an action at H. M. Supreme Court on Wednesday, claiming from Mr. H. A. Clifton the sum of Tls. 271 on an exchange contract. Defendant did not appear, and the Assistant Judge (Judge Peter Grain) gave judgement for the amount claimed, with costs.
Inquiries at the various police stations throughout the Settlement have elicited the information that Shanghai has, during the course of the Chinese New Year holidays, been particularly free from crime, and there were comparatively few criminal cases set' down for hearing at the Mixed Court on Thursday. According to police officials the month of january, 1922, has been almost a record one on the right side.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.