Five Years Imprisonment for Young Chinese Who Wanted to Borrow Money Five years with expulsion was the sentence passed by Magistrate Yui and Mr, Blackburn at the Mixed Court on Wednesday on the well-dressed young Chinese who some days ago caused a sensation in the Bank of China by demanding at the point of a toy revolver $300 from the management. In addition te being charged with attempted 7 extortion in connexion with this affair, there. were two further chargeg against him of demanding Tls. 5,000. from a merchant in Ningpo Road, by sending him threatening letters and two bombs; and also $600 from the manager of the Chekiang Silk Guild.
Mr, R. F. C. Master prosecuted on behalf of the Bank of China. He said that the prisoner wrote to the bank, taking the letter himself te the manager's private house, at which he called on three ocean sions. As the manager was not at Tome on any of these dates, the Frisoner had the audacity to go to the bank. While asking for the manager, he drew the revolver, which happened to be only a toy}! pistol. He was arrested at that very moment by the bank's detective who snatched the toy out of]; the man's hand. He had been in the habit of carrying it with a view to intimidating every person from whom he demanded money.
A private detective employed by complainants bore out Mr. Master's statement, and added that after being set down and closely guarded until the arrival of the police, the prisoner emphasized that the weapon was only a sham one.
Det.-Sgt. Douglas stated that, when brought to the station, the prisoner said that he had asked a fortune teller to write the letter to the bank.
Det.-Insp.
Cruickshank gave evidence relating to the second and third chargey of attempted extortion:' With reference to the second charge, the prisoner had received no answer to his letter, so he sent round a box, purporting to be.a gift of a pair of boots. In it were two bombs, apparently of the same type that were often made use of by the Chinese and which were exceedingly dangerous, Tt owned out, however, that the bombs were only filled with mud.
Concerning the third ase of extortion, similar methods" were employed. In asking that a severe sentence be passed, the officer pointed out that on a previous occasion when bombs in a white cardboard bootbox were sent by some criminals to a family, their Eouse was blown up and its occupy ants perished.
The only explanation offered by the man in the dock was that he merely wanted to borrow the money. 2 Thea Court then gave their verdict.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.