[E annual general meeting of the Catholic Federation was held in the rooms of the Society last Sunday at noon, when the President of the Society, Father L. F. McGreal, stated that the Association had had a most satisfactory year, many new members having joined in 1940. The meeting, which was well attended. opened when the minutes of the previous general meeting were taken as read, and the President made his report.
The President welcomed tHose present and said how glad he was to see the number of members attending as this indicated their willingness to cooperate in the work of the Catholic Federation, The Priests looked upon the Catholic Federation. he said. as an index of this spirit of cooperation, for which reason he was most pleased to notice an increase in the membership during the year 1940 and also an increase in the Federation activities. "I know". he said. "that in the members of the Catholic Federation there is an enthusiastic body of people ready to help in anything."
There were no limits to the work that could be done and if members had not been called on enough, he could only say he hoped this would be corrected. His excuse was the same as last year.
"The harvest is ripe but the labour~ ers are few", There are still only two Priests attached to the Church and he thought it unlikely that this number would be increased in the near future. The work of the Federation need not depend. however. on the initiative of the Priests. Anyone who is interested can find something to do.
It was impossible for the Priests to get round so he was calling on the Catholic Federation and the members of the Apostleship of Prayer to approach people. Catholics who had lapsed or were no longer practising and people of this sort who needed ihe guidance of a Mission to come and attend.
The President then gave thanks to all those who had worked for the Catholic Federation during the last year.
Following this, the secretary, Mr. R. J. E. Price, read a report dealing with various aspects of the society activities during the year, mentioning expecially the Poor Relief Scheme. for which $2660 was set aside during 1940. He also mentioned the increase in membership of the Federation, which now has some 300 members, nearly 30 per cent. more than in the previous year. The secretary then read the library report, and the account of the activities of the Club Section of the Federation.
Mr. J. R. Blaikie, the Honorary Treasurer. presented the Accounts of the Federation for the year ended December 31. 1940, which had been A big fraud case involving at least $500,000 and possibly much more money when more victims are discovered was revealed in the First Special District Court yesterday when three employees of a cation hong which came into existence only recently at No. 6 Lane 457 Ningpo Road faced the tribunal In view of the complicated nature of the case the police asked for detention of the suspects for a week, pending further investigations during which they hope to arrest Chou Sen-hou, manager of the hong and alleged master mind behind {he crime, who escaped arrest on Monday. The request was granted by the judge.
The hong was alleged by the prosecution to have issued false godown certificates purporting to be issued by the Vu Feng Cotton Mill in Hongkew, 'a Japanese hong. Representatives of the Chinese hong, it was further alleged, would go to the Cotton Exchange daily to swindle other cotton shops of huge sums of money in exchange for false godown certificates. In ordinary times, these certificates would entitle holders to take out cotton from godowns as payments were made. It was stated by the prosecution that while it was impossible to state the exact figure at present, the hong in Ningpo Road had at least obtained $500,000 by means of fraud.
The fraud was discovered on Monday, only several days after the Ningpo Road hong had opened business. It was discovered by another cotton shop which, together with other cotton shops, had paid $25,000 for some false godown certificates. The words "Consolidated Tax Paid" were found not to be exactly the same as those appearing in genuine certificates and so the suspected certificates were given to the Japanese firm's downtown office for examination, They were found to be false and the Central Police were quickly informed. The arrests were then made, but when the police visited the Hotel Pacitc in Bubbling Well Road to arrest the suspected ring-leader, he was nowhere to be found. The police have obtained permission from íhe court requiring banks to stop payments to the fleeing man, who might still have some cheques in his possession.
The Chinese Cotton Exchange was closed yesterday morning as the result of the huge cotton swindle, while the number of complainants continued to increase at the Central police station there being four or five new reports made to the de-tactives investigating the fraud.
Tt was hoped that some of the native orders and cheques, issued by the victims to the perpetrator of the swindle, had not been cashed. The Chinese Banking Association has been notified to stop payment end to hold anyone attempting to cash the cheques.
The sum involved continued to rise yesterday and it was believed that the missing accused had got ay with approximately $500,000. No further arrests, however, were made yesterday.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.