Coincidence as a ground for a ood defence did not meet with the approval of Inspector Jefferson in the Provisional Court on Monday when he discounted the evidence submitted by two unemployed nese who were charged with having uttered counterfeit Straits Settlements' bank-notes-
Shields said that the accused went to two exchange shops in Boone Road and Minghonz Road, and at the former place exchanged six counterfeit -Straits notes for the article was that of a protest, against the Soviets—the writer had suffered considerably at their hands whilst in Russia, His wife, daughter and brother had been murdered by the Bolsheviks, and, naturally, for the rest of his life, the defendant would be an enemy of—the Soviet. The writings of the defendant were merely political, In fact he had once described' the Soviet Consul as a thief, and murderer, and other appellations equally as severe, but the Soviet Consul had taken no action in the was writing purely in a political $70.10, ut, on attempting to negotiate further notes at the latter place, were arrested when the she assistant detected the forgery This assistant had a genuine Straits' bank-note and had made comparison. Hearing him telephon to the police, accused tried to 1 away but wore arrested when the assistant blew his police whistle.
The first accused said that he had been a bugler in the army at Naning und had found the notes the train when coming to Shangh: He denied the charge and said that he did not know the second accused.
The second accused said that he had recently arrived from Swatow and had found the bank notes on With all that, Mr. W. S. Fleming, for the prosecutor, would not agree. He suggested that defendant's motive was blackmail—else he was insane. "For 21 years Mr. Fleming! had practised at the Courts, but he had never encountered anything 0 malicious. The article not only reflected on the prosecutor, but also on the Chinese Eastern" Railway, and in the opinion of Mr. Fleming! the defendant constituted a danger, and a menace, to the community.
Counsel for -the defendant told Judge Chuo that the proceeution took much too serious a view of the case, but the Judge disagreed, and fined the defendant $90, prohibited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.