Mr. Shields Unable to Prove Forging of Documents A demurrer was filed in the United States Court for China yesterday by Mr. J. B. Davies, attorney for the defence, in-an action brought against "Mr. Frank Arthur Simon, 51, who had been charged with conspiring against the laws of the United States. "The hearing was presided over Judge Milton J. Helmick who a journed the case until he shall have arrived at a decision.
The statutes used as a basis for the complaint, Mr. Davies told the court, were passed in 1792 and referred to sea letters; on penalty being written for their misuse. It was then pointed out by the defence that in the complaint, the defendant was charged with having defrauded two Chinese of $710 in a transaction concerning the registration of Chinese junks as American property. "The charge had been dropped, however, as the complainants were no longer in Shanghai and because the money had been returned.
Mr. Davies pointed out that the documents in fact were only letters in which nothing was forged.
In reply to a question by Judge Helmick, Mr. Leighton Shields, District Attorney, said that he was not in a position to prove that the documents had been forged.
Statutes 61 and 62 concerning obstructions in the duties of the State Department, were then quoted by Mr, Shields who added that in this case the defendant had used official letters for the purpose of proving the ownership of certain junks that actually did not belong to him.
The hearing was then adjourned.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.