Heavy Penalties in Mixed Court Seventeen men alleged to have been concerned in the' sale of opium were haled before Messrs. Allman and Kuan, American Assesser and Chinese Magistrate, at the Mixed Court on Tuesday morning. The trial was a lengthy affair and it took more than three hours to determine the extent of guilt of the accused. Mr, E. T. Maitland prosecuted for the police while Mr. J. Em, Lemiére defended those taken downstairs during the raid.
Mr. M. 0, Springfield, Assistant Commissioner of Police, under whose direction a raid on accused's premises was conducted, was the first witness and dascribed the seizure of more than 60 Ib. of Persian and Indian opium, together with a small amount of Szechuanese and Yunnanese-reply to the Assessor, after showing a detailed diagram of the premises, he stated that there was but one main entrance at 2138 Kiangse Road, though a smaller door led to an alleyway. The rooms were all connected with one another and a small staircase led to the upper portions of the house. The house was ostensibly used as a cotton hong.
Visible evidence, consisting of four baskets of- paraphernalia—scales, weights, pipes, lamps and small vessels, was produced in Court, besides which a number of account books and alleged order slips were introduced. Some of these latter were novel indeed and showed an attempt to hide the fact that any illegitimate transactions had taken place. Several of them called for certain ounces of "red goods," "Szechuan wares," and "black beans," while in one instance the buyer asked a quantity to be delivered to bearer for a friend's price.
The exhaustive inquiry being completed, the Court ordered four of the accused to pay fines of $5C0, $260, $100 and $100, respectively, while a ricsha coolie, who had acted as messenger, was. fined $20. 'I'he convictions included alternative terms of imprisonment. The remainder of accused were warned. About $1,000 was ordered to be confiscated in addi. tion to the contraband, safes, ce tainers. equipment, and jewellery, but a few personal possessions were returned to the respective owners.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.