Defence of Father's Memory Undertaken by Dead. Official's Sons in a Petition to Nanking: Charges Said Not to Be Based on Facts A. very lengthy petition, a copy of which was inserted ' in the vernacular papers in the form of a quarter-page adyertisement, has been submitted to the National Government by Messrs. Sheng An-yih, Sheng Shen-yih, [Sheng Vu-chang and Sheng Vu-yueh, the four sons of the late Mr, Sheng Honan-huai (Sheng Kung-pao), repudiating charges against their father which had been made by lawyer named Lu Tung.
The National Government, it will be recalled, last week issued a mandate for the confiscation and sealing of the late Mr. Sheng's estate on the ground that deceased embezzled huge sums of public money during his tenure as an official under the Manchus. It was alleged that this mandate was based fon charges made by Lu Tung.
In the course of their petition to the National Government, Messrs. 'Sheng say that they do not know ]what charges have been preferred by' Lu Tung against their father but, according to the "Republican Daily News" of February 15 last, two important charges were preferred by this man against the late Mr. Sheng, the first being that he made false reports regarding the funds used in the organization of China's tele graph administration and the. other that he prevented the Japanese merchants from making " loan to the Chinese Government when the Into Dr. Sun Yat-sen was Provisional President in Nanking. where Lu Tung obtained his books and documents and it is open to question whether the books and ments in his possession are Joriginal and genuine. Therefore, Lu Tung's first charge is groundless.
"Apropos of the second charge, viz, that relating to the Japanese loan to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in the 1st year of the Republic, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen was Provisional President in Nanking, the Chinese Government negotiated for a loan from Japanese merchants with the Han-Yeh-Ping Tron & Coal Ca, as security. Being a large shareholder, Mr. Sheng, who was recuperating in Japan, made certain alterations in the proposed The Telegraph Business Continuing, the petition says, inter first charge, the late Mr. Sheng, in the eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Kuang Hsu, was ordered by the Manchu Government to invite Chinese merchants to subscribe capital for the organization of the Chinese Telegraph Administration because, at that time, the British, American, French, German and other foreign governments were contemplating the establishment of an international telegraph office in Shanghai and the late Viceroy Li Hung-chang of Peiyang was unable to raise funds for the organization of this branch of the government service to prevent the foreigners from carrying out their intentions. This was the reason why the late Mr. Sheng was ordered by the Manchu Governnient to invite Chinese merchants to subscribe capital to the telegraph scheme. From the of Kuang Hsu, telegram were installed after numerous obstacles which had to be overcome by the late Mr. Sheng who, at the same time, brought about' agreements with the Great Northern and Eastern Extension Telegraph Companies, under which El telegraph rights were taken from the hands of foreigners. All. profits derived from the telegraph were either allocated for the Nanyang or Peiyang Universities or contributed to the Manchu Government.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.