Consul-General); Mr. Frank P. Lockhart, American Consul-General, and Mr. Tateki Horiuchi, Japanese Consul-General, at 2.30 pin. on Monday, May 12, will hear final arguments by counsel in the "fan-tan" land case involving the adjudication of the right of the S.M.C. to collect land tax amounting to more than $1,000,000 an-unally on "fan-tan" land in the Settlement. It is expected that judgment will be reserved by the full court.
Mr. E. A. Long, Secretary of the Consular Body, was appointed Commissioner' to take the evidence at nine sessions of court convened for the trial of the case which was brought against the Council by four Chinese "fan-tan" land owners who sought redress for the Council's action in disconnecting their light and telephone services, as they alleged, following their failure to pay the tax. Claiming exemption from payment they asked for restitution of the services and adequate damages, declaring through their counsel, Mr. S. Francis Liu, that the Council had acted illegal The Municipal Advocate, Mr. R. T. Bryan, called a number of witnesses in defence, including Mr. J. R. Jones, former Secretary of the Council and barrister-at-law who was a surprise witness. As a colleague of Mr. Justice Feetham on the Council who assisted the eminent jurist in the gathering of data for his report which Mr. Bryan described as a monumental work, Mr. Jones said, inter alia, that Mr, Justice Feetham had ex' pressed surprise that the tax had not been collected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.