Police Prevented from Raiding by Curious Instructions of Poriuguese Consul One would suppose the work of the cipal Police in dealing with illicit. trail ie in arms a opium to have reached a promising stage when contraband goods have been located in the Settle ment, but.ja case has just occurred showing it is one thing to get on the track of offenders and quite another to get them dealt with according to law.
As the result of investigations which had been going forward for some time, a party of police under Assistant Commissioner Springfield paid a visit to Yuenfong Road om Tuesday afternoon, being interested in the premises numbered 115 to 118 occupied by a Chinese named Kwan Chang. The purpose of the visit was to search for arms and opium, under authority of a warrant issued by the International Mixed Court. and the search thus authorized was duly proceeded with until an interesting discovery was made. A member of the party noticed hung up on a wall a nicely framed certificate announcing te all whom it might concern that- upon January 1 this year Mr.
Kwan. Chang was registered at the Portuguese Consulate as a Portuguese subject. Doubtless it was Mr. Chang's pride in this assumption of another nationality, and not the possibility of its usefulness in case the police appeared, which prompted him to have this framed document placed in a prominent position.
"The result of its exhibition was that the police had no alternative but to withdraw, abandoning for the time being the object of their search—in spite of the fact that opium had been seen there. An effort was then made to get in touch with the Portuguese authorities. If was learned that the Consul-General had gone to Macao, the Vice-Consul could not be found, and the acting Consul (Mr. Bbtelho), whilst very courteously offering to assist the police, was quite unable to do so. Upon learning the circumstances, Mr. Botelho was quite prepared to issue a warrant, but was prevented from doing so by a somewhat curious instruction given him by the Consul prior to his departure for Macao. The ins.truction was this: that in the event of the Municipal Police applying for any warrant, Mr. Botelho was first to obtain from them a bond of indemnity under the terms of which the police would agree to indemnify this Portuguese firm for any damages they might do to the premises or the business in the event of no opium being found. This intelligent anticipat tion of police action had the natural effect, since obviously -the police gould not give amy such undertaking on behalf of the Municipal Council. Accordingly the matter has been allowed to drop—for the time being.
A watch was kept on the premises after the police had retired, and it was noted that eight boxes said to contain opium, heroin and other narcotics were brought out and carted off in ricshas,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.