A novel plea was put forward by a defendant in a traffic case which came before Mr. G. W. King at Hi.M. Police Court on Thursday. L. A. Harrop, the owner of car No. 2983, appeared upon a summons issued on information of the French police, charging him with knocking down an Annamite constable at the corner of Avenue Joffre and Route Doumer on October 23. Mr. Tycho Wing (defending) submitted that, unless it could be shown that the offence alleged under the French Municipal regulations was an offence in England, a defendant could not be subject to criminal proceedings under the principal Order-in - Counci] in Shanghai. If this contention was not admitted, counsel added that he was quite prepared to have the case tried on its merits.
The Magistrate—Do you mean to say that no British subject is amenable to the French Municipal regulations? French citizens are amenable to the police and regulations in this Settlement, and so are British subjects to the police and by-laws of the French Concession. That has been held again and again in this Court. There was an agreement as far back as 1899 between the Ministers of Great Britain and France that this reciprocity should exist.
Mr. Tycho Wing said that such cases could be more properly considered as civil actions, His Worship said that the Annamite constable could sue the defendant for damages, but the case could never be considered purely and simply as a civil one.
Mr. Tycho Wing—The difficulty to the individual of having to keep in his head the whole vocal bulary of criminal codes must -be very great.
The Magistrate—Well, take the case of the International Settle ment. We are continually having alterations in the trafic regulations. There is a very long series of regulations that motorists and pedestrians must every day oh serve. It is the motorists' business to find out what these regulations are. If the regulations of French authorities are in French that does not matter. They are entitled to print them' in that language. It is the duty of the residents not perhaps to learn French, but at least to get some one to translate these regulations. It has been laid down and never con-troverred that the by-laws, of the French Concession are binding on British subjects.
The Annamite police constable then gave evidence.
Defendant's version of the acci-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.