CHINESE SLAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1930, Page 4

CHINESE SLAIN

TONG WAR CASUALTIES.

Within two hours after the. Hip Sing and On Leong tongs had signed a. treaty in which they promised “to maintain peace and quiet and indulge in no 'acts of lawlessness from this day on,” Charles Wong, a Chinese, was shot and killed in his basement laundry at 131, West 124th Street, New York, lie was the seventh Chinese to bo murdered since the recent outbreak of tongwar. The only witness to the' slaying of Wong was a negro woman who did the ironing in th© laundry. She is believed to have fled from the shop soon after a slim, well-dressed Chinese in brown suit and straw hat ran out of tho basement, and disappeared in the direction of Lenox Avenue. Police Commissioner Edward P,.Mulrooney summoned two tong leaders in an. effort to learn whether Wong had been a member of tho On Leongs or Hip Sings. Neither of the tong officers recognised Wong, which led Commissioner Mulrooney to believe the slaying was a personal act and was outside the pale of the treaty which had been signed in the office of District Attorney Thomas C. T. Crain. Mr. Crain and Commissioner Mulrooney were present when Dan Kew and Wong Wall Yil, of the- Hip Sings, and Poy Yee and Sam Ong, of the Ou Leongs, with the assent of their counsel, signed th© following document: — “Treaty of Peace. Hip Song 'PongOn Leong Tong.

“We, representing the above named tongs, hereby unqualifiedly pledge our lespective tongs to maintain peace and quiet, and to indulge in no acts of lawlessness from this day on. “Wo hereby pledge ourselves to notify tho United States authorities and the Chinese Consul-General and the different tongs throughout the country of this treaty of peace. “Signed at the office of the District Attorney of New York County this seventh day of June, 1930.” Before the treaty was signed Mr. Crain warned the tong represena lives that drastic action would be taken if

tho war continued. “I was once judge in a case where two Chinese wore convicted and later electrocuted for one of those tong shootings,” he said. . “Tin? eivil war that rages in China cannot. be brought, to Manhattan. The immigration laws provide a speedy means to carry four men and any oilier who start a. war here back to China. These Jaws will be applied immediately if the war is not abated. I am prepared to give Commissioner Mulrooney every co-operation.”