ONLY CHINESE.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 722, 2 May 1914, Page 6

ONLY CHINESE.

■Showing How the Law is Still « Occasionally an Ass, THE other night a man named . Os- ( borne Hall made a Sudden yoked a,nd most dastardly attack iiuon two' harmless" Chinese sailors in Willisr-street. There was no tion shown, and the. assault seemed to be one of sheer ferocity,. Mr. Charles Macmahon, who witnessed it, says, ' 'It was the most abominably brutal and unprovoked assault I ever saw." To the - police, the man Hall stated that he attacked the Chinese because they had insulted two girls. The police questioned the young women, who promptly declared that the Chinese had not interfered with them. It was.- in short, one of those outbursts of pure_ savagery and - .cruelty to which..human- beings of a low or debased type are sometimes liable. The Chinese were sailors from a ship in port. They knew no English. They were sober, we'll behaved, and ly inoffensive. And yet, on conviction of this outrageous assault, ,the man Osborne Hall was merely .fined £1 on each charge. Obviously, it is absurd to impose a fine for such an offence. It means that any brute with a pound or two to spare can commit a grievous assault on some person. It means, in short,' that the man with money enjoys an immunity from punishment that is not enjoyed . by a man without money. No fine is adequate punishment for # the l ruffian who assaults quiet pedestrians in a city street. Imprisonment with hard labour is the only possible cure.