Cargo Broached.and Part Stolen:
Quartermaster's Vigilance and 'Thieves' Fright An attempt to commit a daring robbery which was only partly successful owing to the vigilance of '8 foreign quartermaster wag out-ined in the Mixed Court last Fri day morning before Mr, C. E. Whitamore (British Assessor) and Magistrate Shao' when three Chinese oiler makers were charged with The complainants were Alfred Holt & Ca, on behalf of whom Capt. Dixon appeared and for whom Mr, Mancell Reece conducted the prosecution, Mr, Sidney A. Moss appeared far two of the accused.
Tnspeetor Bourne of the River Police outlined the ease and shated Yat at about 3 am. on January 15, he received a telephone message from Holt's Wharf saying that theft of cargo had been committed on str, Bumeus, At 10 am. the accused was arrested and admitted Darticipating in the theft, also implicating the other accused. The crew of the cargo boat used by the accused wore questioned and pave good account of the robbery, stating that they had been hired by tone of the accused to carry rice. As a result of investigation the loth which was stolen: was found in a deserted sampan on Yangking-Hoon, The accused all made sbatements and one of them, the third to be arrested, was a known thief, Wholesale Theft Planned The Chinese detective who arrested the first accused gave evidence that this man had told him that the three accused had hired the cargo boat and had gone to Holt's Wharf. A small door in the side of the ship was opened and three bundles were thrown out on to the stool lighters beneath. A foreign quarter-master hoard the noise and gave the alarm and ¢o they left and returned to Shanghai side when the third accused left and took the bundles to hide them in the sampan, Capt. Dixon said he was the manager of Holt's Wharf and said that a ease had been found empty and the cloth which was originally inside had been taken and hidden in the bunker of the str, Eumeus, Hero they found 66 rolls of cloth intact but very dirty and also 22 pieces from other rolls which had been torn up to make ropes for tying the other bundles. The three rolls stolen by the accused wore Antely recovered by the River Police but "the damage to this cargo amounted to £600. It was only the watchfulness of one of the foreign quarters that prevented the complete theft of this cargo.
'The Court sentenced two of the accused to three years' imprisonment and the third to twelve months,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.