column the vase of W. Rafalka, who We report this morning in another
was tried before the Mixed Court yesterday on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, and sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment. The case in itself is not, at first sight, of any extraordin nary significance. But its importance lies in the fact that, according to the evidence of the police, Rafalka had teen charged with a similar offence aleut a year ago, when he was sentenced to vight days before the Russian Vice-Consul. Notwithstanding the fact that the Russian Court accepted jurisdiction a year ayo in the case of Ra-falke, it refused precisely similar jurisdiction yesterday, on the ground that the man had no papers aut could not, therefore, be regarded as a Russian subject, He was accordingly sout to the Mixed Court, in spite of the fact that, so far as papers were concerned, he way in exactly the same. position twelve months esterday, Russian an-rinsing their clinty in refusing juristiet where the pers of any man d ug, tos be tried, them are not in strict order though their contention in this pa the fact that the var age. e that wis himself to be, explaining the eof his yapers by the fact that he ran away from his lu Russian Poland. Such an esp is too dangerous for any man to give, for it to be supposed that he would adopt it rely for the sake of avai of being tried in the Court, when his own statement might land him ultimately in a far worse predicament with the Russian antlorities, It is, therefore,—extremely regrettable that the Russian Consulate which it had already strained a year ayo—for the sake of European prestige, and to keep out of the Mixed Court a case of drunkenness by a white man, which inuxt be exposed to the most humiliate ing contempt among all Chinese waiting at the Court. Our contention has nothing to da with the particular culpability or innocence of Rafalka. bat The W.-C. Herald and S.C. & C. simply with a general Drunkeuness is an offence from whic the Chinese are almost entirely free and while unfortunately such cases by white men cannot be prevented from y. occurring in the streets, it is surely advisable in Shanghai to do everything to stop them from coming into the Mixed Court for public comparison with Chinese standards.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.