wmstn: Mr. Leighton Shields, US District Attorney prosecuted. fore Judge Milton J. Hetmick '(Sentenced to ninely days)
Shanghai, Feb. 1.
'Three unemployed American' sca-men, Lawrence D. Morgan, 31, Theodore William Johnson, 27, and. Albert C, Evans, 20, were each sen~ enced to serve 90 days in the Ward oad Gaol by Judge Milton J, Helmick after having pleaded guilty to charges of vagrancy in the United States Court for China yesterday morning. 'The men were each pul Under a' bond of US$200 but upon their failure to put up the bond they were sentenced to gaol, In sentence ing the men, Judge Hielmick ruled that the three seamen could be granted a parole at any time during their senteniee provided they were ood physical condition and able to Obtain work. He emphasized that the best course would be to send the men back to the United States as soon as possible.
The three men were arrested by Deputy Marshal Arthur Peterson 0 Tuesday after they had visited. the Asmerican Shipping Consul. seeking, information regarding outgoing ships Mr. Leighton Shields, U.S, District Attorney, told the court that the trio had arrived in Shanghai last November and that during the past three months they had been supported by American community funds. Mr. Shields charg-fed the men with being idle persons without work and loral lives, which cot vagrancy. The District Attorney said That the men themselves had admit. ted that their background included reform schools and workhouses, Ife Said. that they had received clothes in Shanghai and sold then.
The men had landed in Shanghos without any identification papers and were therefore unable to qualify for any when they applied to the "American Consulate-General. When the District Aitorney recommended that maximum sentences, be Smposed on the three men, Judge Helmick inquired as to the physical condition of the seamen and was told that two of them were suffering from disease and needed special attention.
'Evans, the youngest member of the three, fold the court that he had never sold any' of the clothes which had been given to him. He said that he. had been employed by the Bakerite Company for two months and had resigned because of ill Mr. Wilbur Judd, who appeared as a witness for the prosecution, said that the three men had obtained asitanee through him from, the Amer-Relief "Fund and pen the United States in the USS, lien derson, naval transport, but failed to s0, because the men were unable to prove American citizenship, First Special Court
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.