The hearing of an interesting ease occupied the Japanese Court during the past week. It is one in which a Japanese petty officer, a sailor, and a civilian, are charged with various offences arising out of a disturbance in Hongkew on Thursday evening. It is alleged that at about 10 o'clock that night, the sailor took three bananas from the stall of a hawker at the corner of Yalu and Miller Roads, and the hawker states that the sailor refused to pay for them. Trouble ensued and the police were called in. A foreign constable came on the scene, and being unable to settle the dispute, requested both the hawker and the sailor to accompany him to the police station. The sailor refused, and the police evidence is that he drew a clasp knife. The constable in self defence drew his truncheon and struck the man, and following this several Japanese civilians and the petty officer attempted to release the sailor, who was however eventually got to the police station. The incident caused a big crowd to gather. and the district was in a state of excitement for some little time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.