Holding that judges of ordinary Jcourls are incompetent to hear cases Jarising out of collisions of ships at due to lack of marine knowledge ud experience, the Chinese Marine JOmcers' Association has sent a pell= tion to the National Judicial Confer-once being convened in Nanking asking for the establishment of The petition Is believed to be the outcome of an imprisonment term passed on the commander of the s. Haichow by'n local court, to whic the members of the Association tock rxception. The s. Haichow collided with a boat on the Whangpoo. The boat sank. It was reported that the special committee of the Navigation [Bureau freed the Chinese captain from any responsibility, but" the court, at the complaint of the owner Jof the boat, heard the cuse and senenced the commander.
Following is a gist of the petition to Nanking:
"Collision of ships is not an frequent occurrence, therefore, it is propriate that disputes arising of such accidents should be heard by ordinary courts the judges of Which usually possess no experience navigation. During the past few years many such cases have been misinterpreted in which numerous apiains and officers of ships have been unjustly punished under charge: nf the Criminal Law. Such unjust judgment in such cases by the courts, allowed {o continue, will greatly Jnandieap the profession of the Chinese marine officers. Moreover foreign seamen employed in Chinese ships, when involved in a collision.
never charged under the Criminal Law, all the Chinese shipping con cerns will prefer to employ foreign navigators in preference to Chinese. he Navigation Rights "with a view to protecting the interests of Chinese seamen and retaining the navigation rights IChina, this Association has previous-submitted a petition to the Na-anal Government requesting it to establish a marine court. A. reply was received from the Executive Yuan to the effect that the matter was then under discussion by the Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of INavy. This Association submits for your consideration this further petition with a request that, prior to the formation of such a court, when cases Jof such nature are being judged by Jthe ordinary courts, the opinions of Jexperienced seamen who have served Jas captains of ships for over three years should be solicited, or the leases should be heard in company with the members of the special Jcommittee of the Navigation Bureau as to avoid any unfair judgment. tt is also requested that, before a Jdefinite "decision is reached, the Jeourts should not detain the captains Jand oticers of the ships Involved in such cases.'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.