He was again told this after the ships had been sold and an adver-fisement appeared in the July 4, 1035, {issue of the "North-china Daily News;" notifying all holders of mortgages, liens, etc, that they would be paid by the China Finance, Plaintif, however, was asked to wait until the end of the year, when the money would be withdrawn from the bank, In January this year, he was in-Formed that the matter would have to go before the directors of the China Finance to see whether he was going, to be paid 60 oF 70 per cent. of the amount owing. In the meantime, the company paid out large sums to other Uenors, and eventually refused to pay Mr. Wei. It was alleged the defendant company was still in possession of about $000,000, and submitted that, fon the facts that would be proved, was owing to Mr, Wel on maritime lien, In reply, Mfr, Franklin aid the alleged letter of lies was not mentioned or authorized in the minutes of the company's board of directors, Tt was not recorded in the American Consulate, nor on Form 35 of the shipping ofice of the Consulate. When the trust deed was executed, nothing whatever was said about a. prior mortgage or lien of any kind; ale though Mr, Wei knew the debenture issue was being put out and all the property put under trust deed, he did not come forward and say:—"Look here, I have a prior len." Nothing was known by the trustees or debenture holders of the existence of such letter of lien until negotiations were practically completed for the sale of the vessels in June, 1035.
"Not a Claim"
The defence denied that Mr. Wel was ever promised he would be pald. The notice in the paper was inserted, and, pursuant to that, the trustees paid out over $400,000. Mtr, Wei was not paid, as it was not considered his was a claim constituting a Hen having Mr. Wel gave evidence of the hand~ ing-over of what he alleged was the letter of lien. He said he was asked to step outside his province and advance money for purposes other than in connection with the shipments of freight, as trade was bad, owing to the Communist menace in' Szechuan and growing competition on the river among steamship companies. wrote to the China Finance in June, asking that his $89.000 be repaid, and approximately $1463 was sent to him in July last year, In January, 1938,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.