Heavy Penalty in Mixed Court as Result of Police Raid At the Mixed Court on Wednesday morning, before Mr. Yiu (Magistrate) 2ind Mr, Blackburn (British Assessor), a Chinese woman and her stepson were charged by the Municipal Police with having been concerned together in opening premises at No. 162 Fohkien Road for the purpose of selling cpi'm.
Sub-Ins, actor C. Maguire pro-secured on behalf of the Police, and Dr. Fischer appeared for. the defence.
Det.-Sgt. Isaacs gave evidence that he, accompanied by Sub-Inspector Maguire and Chinese detectives, raided the premises in Fohkien Road and found in an upstairs room a quantity of opium, money, documents, etc. © opium was concealed in an ordinary desk, of which an upper drawer extended the whole breadth of the desk, while the lower drawers extended only half that length. Opium was discovered in the cavity behind the drawers, and the panels at the side of the desk were loose. The cused woman admitted that she was the owner of the opium and handed over to witness the keys of her safe.
Exhibits of the seizures were put into Court, and these included one and a half balls of opium, three jars of prepared opium, six pieces and five packets of opium, $761 in notes, $134 in silver, five money orders, 311 ten-cent pieces, in addition to some provincial notes and four cracked silver dollars.
Cross-examined by Dr. Fischer, Det.-Sgt. Isaacs said that when he first saw the male accused, the latter was in bed in a room adjoining that in which the opium, ete., was found. A bag (produced) was found' underneath his bed. Witness did not ask his business, but ascertained that he was the stepson of the female defendant. Having ascertained his relationship to the other defendant, and having found him in the adjoining-room, he made the arrest. Witness had no knowledge as to whether this accused had ever sold opium before: he had never seen him before the time of his arrest. There was no opium in the safe—only money. The female accused occupied two rooms on the premises. Witness did not ask her how she came into possession of the money seized.
Sub-Inspector Maguire then took the witness stand and said that over $700 in money had been found on the premises. The female accused B; told him that her books were kept by an outside man, and that she had obtained the opium from the French Concession. "She admitted that she had sold opium occasionally, and said that her husband had smoked opium. Witness had no evidence before the Court that day to show that she had previously sold opium. She gave witness the keys of the safe when he asked her to do so. Witness had not had any translation made of the chops that had been seized.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.