Hongkong, Dec. 18.
Doubtles vou have received by cable a short account of the sen-national escape of four prisoners from Victoria Gaol. following the murder of two warders, one European and one Indian, and the severe wounding of another. A searching inquiry into the tragic' affair is now being conducted by the Coroner, and until all the evidence has. been sighted it is ent to say exactly what hap-vened. Fortunately one of the escaped prisoners, who was reported to be hiding on the hill-side, has been re-captured.
Believing that the way was open for him to leave the Colony he came down to Causeway Bay to catch a train and was immediately surrounded. He was dressed as an ordinary street coolie and offered no resistance. According to his story the plan of escape was made a month ago, and it appears that the intention of the ringleaders was to set free all the convicts, raid the armoury and to murder as many of the warders as possible in the general stampede, The alarm, how. ever, was given too quickly for this cold-blooded design to be canned through, Evresce or Drerry Larp Pror.
It seems almost certain that the convicts must have had friends working in collusion with them outside of the prison gates. All prisoners are paraded twice a day and searched and the cells are search ed frequently also, but in spite of these precautions an auger a borer, a large corkscrew, three chisels, a screw-driver,.a_ small spanner and two pieces of wire were in some manner concealed. It was thought at first that these might have been obtained from the work-shops but they are of different pattern to the police tools, the stock of which, moreover, ' was found to be complete and the assumption is, therefore, that they "ere smuggled into the building.
Some months ago a pass key was lost and although a search high and low, including all cells and prisoners, was made it was never discovered. At the time it was regarded as probable that a warder had lost the key outside of the goal, but it now appears likely that its theft was part of the plot. Discarded prison uniforms were found in the cells after the pri. soners had gone and the possibility is admitted that the clothes in which the men escaped might have been made in: the prison tailoring department. A key which was not @ prison key, but would unlock the doors of some of the cells, was also found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.