Shanghai, Mar. 23.
Chang Kuo-tseng and. Wan Hsiao-Tenang, convieled extortioners, were tach sentenced to. one year's "ime prisonment yesterday by the First BpecialDisiriet Court," They were fumd to. have. written several extortion letters to Mr. Kung shan-fon. an offeiat of the Bank China, hank ola was assigned Spper shop Avenue Read. Thin after a godown of a Chinese
fng'that he was rich, the accused Wwrote the extortion letters. to him Yemanding 2 sum running into four figures. Negotiations between. their fended viellm and themselves enabled. the police to. discover their trick and they were soon arrested in the western" district. When they.g tried to extort money they posed as guerillas.
In another extortion case, two suspects were declared not guilty yesterday "ay the same court. The released men are Yen Yi-chung, manager of a massage bath house in Vu Ya Ching Road, and a friend named Sheng Ching-yung. They were alleged by the manager of another massage bath house located the same street to have written extortion letters to him demanding $3,000, Tt was found out by the police that the extortion letters were not written by the two suspects. A lawyer of the suspects told the court that the plainti(t hated the two men because one of the latter failed to return some money which he lost in a-mah longe game in which the Pose as Detectives Shanghai, Mar. 24.
Charged with impersonating a public officer and also with extortion, Wu Pienien, a middle-aged Chinese, was brought before the First Special District Court yesterday on a writ of detention. It was alleged in. court that Wu was caught red-handed on Wednesday after he and two accomplices who are at large had visited a Chinese residence at House No. 8 Sun Yang Li, Amoy Road, where they extorted $25 by posing as detectives attached to the Anti-narcotics Der partment of the Settlement police.
In presenting the case to the court, Mr. Paul Ru, Municipal Advocate, stated that several similar. crimes might have, been committed and that since most of the victims had violated the anti-narcotic regulations themselves things were hushed up. To facilitate investigations he asked the court to postpone the hearing, which request was readily granted.
It was revealed in court that the trio pald a visit to the Amoy Road house knowing that an aged woman had been smoking opium there. They presented two letters purporting to have been written by informants stating that the woman living in the house was an opium smoker. A little item of $25 was introduced for keeping the matter hushed up and after being paid by one of the relatives of the woman, it was alleged, they tried to escape when accidentally they met a real detective at the door.
The detective at once held Wu but the other two men managed to escape with the $25 they had been pald. Wu ter taken to the Lown Poller
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.