Bojore Commissioner N. E. Lurton Altempt to Strangle Houseboy Shanghai, Aug. 30.
Had it not been for the alertness Jof some British soldiers stationed near JJessfleld Park two pistols would have been stolen by four Chinese (who wished to join "guerillas" in the western district) from a Briton living in the French Concession and the house boy in his employ would have eon strangled to death, This was revealed yesterday inthe First Special District Court when four men were sentenced to prison terms charged with attempted murder in connection with the strangulation of Chen Hou-hsing, the house boy which jenine was committed on August 16.
Two of the sentenced men told the court frankly that their asked them to join the "guerillas"
west Shanghai and that knowing that their victim could furnish weapons which he could steal from his British employer living at 622 Avenue Joffe they first stole the two pistols in connivance with the victim and then tried to murder the latter by strangulation in order to. destroy evidence, They asked for leniency cause their victim had not died anyway. The other two accused Jdenied that they had any. intention lof killing Chen but admitted that they had been called to the park to "beat" the victim, The first two accused, Chen Kuo-Jkwang and Chou Hsieh-tseng, were Jeach sentenced to seven years' imprisonment while the other two drew tone year and six months each. A ong rope with which they tried strangle their victim was confiscated by the court. The sentenced men were handed over to the French police so that they might be tried in connection with the theft of guns jand also more than 100 rounds of It will be recalled that the crime was committed early in the evening near the 200 of Jessfield Park when the four sentenced men tried to get of the houseboy after having made use of him in stealing the weapons. The boy was lured to the plas by the accused, two of whom is itood friends, to "lake a walla" but upon reaching the place they began to beat him and strangle him with Jo rope. He screamed at the top of hhis voice whereupon several Britich soldiers climbed a wall and came to his rescue. Two of the men were caught on the spot.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.