'The hearing'of the case in which a Russian, named J. Jonin, is charged with forging four sets of bills of lading purporting to cover 250 cases of bristles, in the' Provisional Court on March 20, was almost wholly occupied by a cross examination of Mr. J. A. Gray, manager of the Eastern Underwriters, by Mr. F. J. Schuhl, coun-sol for the defence, and Chief Det.- Insp. J. A. Quayle's evidence of arrest, Judge Kao and the Senior Consul puty, Mr, G. A. Herbert, were sitting" and Mr. R, W. S. Winter prosecuted, Mossra, Schuhl and Ivanow appeared for the defendant. and Mr.
Brown and Dr. 0. Fischer held awatching brief for Mr. Gri while' Mir. N. BF. Allman _watehe the interests of the Equitable tern Bank.
The accused is alleged by the prosecution to have attempted to sell the eases of bristle and to have taken samples to Mr. Gray and asked him whether he wanted to buy them. Gray, on his att, 8 did not but would find a buyers, and consequently took two sere of the bills to Melchers & Ca,, to ascertain whether the goods described were according to sample. He was told by a clerk that the merchandise was not on board the Aller as stated on the bills of and that the bills were for-gen Gray left with the bills in his possession and according to him, the accused came to his office and,' after he had told him that the bills mere forgeries, tore away the signatures attached them which were! supposed to be those of Melchers in Meanwhile, Mr. Topar of B. Topaz & Ca, who had two. other sets of bills of lading drew a loan from the Eastern Equitable Bank for Ts. 6,000 on the merchandise, the bills being endorsed by Mr. Gray, of the Eastern Underwriters. 'A letter of authorization was asked for from Mr. Gray by the bank through Topaz, which was duly received, Mfr. Gray when asked in court by he had endorsed the bills when he know they were forgeries, said that he did so before he was told sbout them.
Mr. Gray denied knowing Me. Topas saying that he had signed the bills atthe request of the accused, and not Topaz. Agai asked why. he signed the bills at the request' of the accused, he stated that Jonin told him that as he was 'a Soviet agent from Russia the merchandise would be seized by the Chinese "Government, but if he endorsed the bills they-would go through the customs.
Mx. Schuh! "What is your Dusiness?—Insurance agents and veal estate brokers.
Have you a number of compradores?—Yes. Do you do plenty of business?—Yes, we have a fair! volume of business now.
You keep books don't you?—Certainly.
Do your books show any transaction between yourself and Mr.
Oh, why not?—We never make any entries until payment is due, vhich in this ease is at the end of the month, So you have not recorded anything about what transpired between "Whom did you issue the insurance policy for?—For the Eastern Underwriters.
In other words, to yourself?—Yes.
Does it not seem strange that you should issue the insurance policy in your own favour?. Rather an unfair piece of business?
I did that because of Jonin, I did not Know he was in gaol before.
Mr, Schuhl:—I was expecting you would say that. I ask the court to forget what he said because ho is prejudiced against the accused, At the last hearing Mr. Gray seid that the accused went to zntsin to effect the shipment and there telegraphed to him asking for a loan so that this could be done.
The defence was a denial of this and Mr. Schuhl stated that the accused had not been away from Shanghai at all.. As proof counsel said that the ace sed would have to obtain a passport to I that he counsel, visit Safety Bureau and learned that the accused had not been away. Counsel produced a letter in Chinese from the Bureat C.D. Quayle said that the police of Tientsin were helping in the case and he received a copy of a tele gram which Mr. Gray said he received from Jonin asking for cash.
This was signed by a man called Pagnoft. The inspector said he also received a copy of the telegram Mr. Gray said he had sent to the accused. Aly that was wanted now. Was an answer from the commissioner of police from Tientsin to the effect that the telegram sent by Mr. Gray was addressed to Jonin.
The ease was consequently adjourned indefinitely pending a reply from Tientsin.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.