CHINESE SLAIN

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 August 1930, Page 7

CHINESE SLAIN

SEVENTH CELESTIAL MURDERED. TONG WAR CASUALTIES. Within two hours after the Hip Sing and On Leong tongs had signed a. ] treaty in which' they had promised “to maintain peace and quiet and indulge 1 in no acts of lawlessness from tins' day on,” Charles Wong, a Chinese, was shot and killed in his basement laundry at 131, Wes t 124th Street, New York. He was the seventh Chinese to be murdered since the recent outbreak of tong war. The only witness of the slaying of Wong was a negro woman alio did the ironing in the laundry. She is believed to have fled from the shop soon after a slim, well-dressed Chinese in a. brown suit and straw hat ran out of the basement and disappeared in the direction of Lenox Avanue. Police Commissioner Edward P. Alulrooney summoned two tong leaders in an effort to learn whether Wong had been a member of the On Leongs or Hip Sings. Neither of the tong officers recognised Wong, which led Commissioner Alulrooney 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 Alulroouey were present when Dan Ivew and Wong Wall) Yil, of the Hip Sings, and Poy Yee and Sam Olig, of the On Leongs, with the assent of their counsel, signed the following document: — “Treaty of Peace. Hip Sing TongOn Leong Tong. “We, representing the above named tongs, hereby unqualifiedly pledge our respective tongs to maintain peace and quiet and to indulge in no acts of lawlessness from this day on.” “We hereby pledge ourselves to notify the 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 tli-e District Attorney of New York County this seventh dav of June, 1930.” Before the treaty was signed Mr. Crain warned the tong representatives that drastic action would be taken if the war continued. “I was once judge in a ease where two Chinese were convicted and later electrocuted for lone of these tong shootings,” he Said. “The civil war that rages in China cannot be brought to Manhattan. The immigration laws, provide a. speedy means to carry you four men and any other who start a war 1 here back to China. These laws will he applied immediately if tlie war is not- abated. I am prepared to give Commissioner Alulrooney every co-oper-ation . ”