Portuguese Clerk and his Bill for Board: Remanded to Chinese Authorities J. H. de Souza, a clerk un-Tecognized by the Portuguese Consul-General as being a Portuguese citizen, was brought up on remand before Mr. Dawis (American Assessor) and Mr. Kuan (Magistrate) at the Mixed Court on Tuesday morning on a charge that between September 22 and October 22, 1922, he unlawfully and fraudulently obtained board and lodging to the extentsof $70 from Mrs. E. Zimmerman, of No. 7 W. Jukong Road, by means of a fraudulently executed paper.
The accused had been before the Court the previous day, when Mr. Davis and Magistrate Li had ordered that he should be sent to the Consul-General for Portugal to ascertain whether he would take jurisdiction. Mr. Casanova decided the same morning that the accused was not a Portuguese citizen.
Chief-Inspector Wheeler called the attention of the Court to the fact that the offence stated in the charge had been committed outside the Settlement and in Chinese territory. He understood that the' Uommissioner of Police did not wish to have the gaol filled with prisoners of unrecognized nationaility, who had committed offences in Chinese territory. Ha therefore asked the Court, after hearing the evidence of arrest and sufficient other evidence to establish a prima facie case, to hand the aceused over to the Chinese authorities Yor trial. When Mrs. Zimmerman filed her complaint, she filed with it a letter of guarantee given her by the accused, purporting to be signed by E. H. Morrison, of the Shanghai Industrial Ca., undertaking payment of one month's board. The accused had endorsed on the back of this document an authorization-to Mrs. Zimmerman to collect the money - from that company. but after submitting the account for payment on October 20, 1922, she was informed that. neither the accused nor E. H. Morrison had any connexion with tle firm. Witness understood that, since his arrest, the accused had admitted that the document was a forgery and that the endorsement was written by himself.
Mrs. Zimmerman having given proof of the charge, the accused said that the original letter of guarantee was given to him friend, who had formerly been employed by the Shanghai Industrial Ca. Hefrequently visited his friend at the compamy's office, and that was where the note-paper was obtained. He. himself made tha endorsement on the back of the letter of guarantee.
The Court decided that a prima-facie case had been made out and that accused be handed over to the Chinese authorities for trial.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.