The opium case which has. occasioned forensic eloquence of unusual character at the Mixed Court was closed on Saturday, when the Italian Assessor (Mr. Ferajolo) and Magistrate Tsang passed sentence on the accused. The Chinese detective, formerly on. the staff at Wayside, was sent to prison for one year, and the other three Chinese accused were sentenced to nine months each, to be afterwards expelled from the Settlement. The complainant was also fined $300.
The accused were charged with obtaining $300 under false pretences, and also with the larceny of opium to the value of $1,120.
Mr. J. B. Davies, addressing the fined Court for the defence, described the ease as one of the most remarkable that had ever been before the Court. On his own admission, complainant had engaged in the smuggling of opium into Shanghai. On the other hand, the principal defendant, the detective, who had worked faithfully in the Municipat Police force for 20 years and ha clean record, was brought to face charges made by a mao who was a malefactor and a criminal.
The complainant had stated that he was employed by Messrs. Funder & Ca., but in cross-examination he could only say that his business there was to stick on labels. Mr. Parlani owned Funder & Ca. and, as the Court knew, Mr. Par-ioni' had been. charged in the Italian Consulate for maintaining shops for the purpose of selling opium. The complainant had said that he was bringing the opium to Shanghai for sale to chemists? shops, but he would not state which shops. The inference was obvious. He worked for Mr. Parlani, who had been charged with keeping chemists' shops at which opium was sold.
Wayside district, counsel concluded, was the worst in Shanghai for opium shops and dens, and the accused detective had been active in running down opium offenders. He was an obstacle to their operations, and the only way to get rid of him was to "cook"? up a case such as this and get him dismissed from the force. The other three accused were "seconds" to this detective, and they also were menace and had to be got rid of. The man who should have been charged was complainant himself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.