A Charge of Assault that Made the Magistrate Tired At the conclusion of an assault ease in which an Indian watchman was charged with causing injury to a Chinese chauffeur with an iron bar, Mr. G. W: King, at H. M. Police Court on Saturday, said that the conflicting evidence heard might surprise anyone in court for the first time. ""Tt may perhaps make a person tired on a hot day," said the Magistrate, "'but it does not surprise me. After 15 years experlence of this sort of case I am quite used to contradictory tales from watchmen and inese. That there was a fight afterwards I can believe. It is part of the regular routine performance."
Mr. N. H. Langley Smith defended.
was stated by the complainant,. Lee Long-kung, and other witnesses that he had driven his lorry as far as 11 Dixwell Road, near the premises of the Shanghai Ice Cold Storage Ca., Ld. When he sounded his horn, the defendant, Jaga Singh, went into the godown and brought out an iron bar, with which he struck prosector across the arm.
Defendant, in evidence, said that the chauffeur got off his lorry and extracted packets of raisins from a case. He was told to desist and hit witness on the chest. His shirt was torn in the struggle which ensued. They both fell on a heap of stones. In falling the chauffeur sustained the injury to his arm. Witness had never seen the iron bar.
Mr. W. E. Dailey, assistant manager of the Shanghai Ice Cold Storage Ca., Ld., said their watchmen had been instructed to keep a strict watch for pilferers, as so many complaints-had been made recently of broaching cargo. There had also been complaints from the Sun Raisin Ca.
In their j endeavours to stop the evil at the godown, his firm had had to change the entire staff of watchmen.
The Magistrate, in dismissing the charge, remarked that the medical certificate did not help him in the slightest. Medical men were usually able to show on such certificates how a wound was caused, but such information was not on this certificate. He was not certain where the iron bar had come from, and the evidence was of the usual contradictory nature.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.