Sequel to Kidnapping of Mr. Percy Chu Heard in First District Court (Mr. Percy Chu, well-known Chinese its banker who was kidnapped in November last year while driving in his car in Road and who has now regained his freedom, escaped from the kidnappers Jair in the western district by bribing two of the men, who him, just before 19^ him after he had already the ringleader of the gang decided
received a ransom of $60,000 from the Chu family. Liu Cheng-kuo, the alleged ringleader wished to destroy all evidence by killing his victim after the ransom had been paiid, but his accomplices did not agree with him, thus giving Mr. Chu the last-minute chance to save his life.
This startling revelation has been made in the First Special District Court by two of the four arrested men whom the judge has decided to question separately. The two accused Who have already confessed to the nephew Chu Chuan-chuan told the judge that he was invited by his uncle*Chu Ah-shih to guard the victim in a room at 315 Great Western Road. As he was out of work at the time, he gladly accepted the request, he said. Some time later, a Japanese officer was shot in the area and to escape the attention of the authorities, the kidnappers forced Mr. Chu to live in the house of the ringleader in Columbia Road.
Accused said that the ransom money of $60,000 was paid on Decem. ber 2 but that after receiving the money, the ringleader wanted to kill Chu. He negotiated with his Uncle so that Mr. Chu could escape and the next day he escaped with Mr. Chu who voluntarily paid him $15,000 for the work. Part of the money had been given to subérdinates of the ringleader. of $36,997,640—an increase of $19,713,- 760 over the corresponding provision for last year.
In comment on his summary the Treasurer pointed out that in order to show the true cost of Section I of the Foreign Branch of the Police Force he had included under the appropriate heading an amount of $640,000 to cover the rental of leased premises and cash allowances issued in lieu of quarters. In previous years this mount has been included under the General Charges section of the Budget.
In reply to a member's question as to the practicability of effecting economy by establishing a central garage for the servicing and repairing of all Council motor vehicles, the Commissioner of Public. Works replied that the Economy Committee had gone into this matter and had come to the conclusion that such a scheme would be impracticable. The Council has no site large enough for sach a project, and-the existing sites used by the various departments for this purpose, being small. would be valueless for other purposes. Moreover, priority has to be given to work required for Fire Brigade and Police
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.