VENGEANCE BY PROXY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

VENGEANCE BY PROXY

" REMOVAL " OF A RIVAL 'M DRAMA OF LOVE AND HATE® ASSASSINS IN THE ORIENT Elemental passions inflamed in far ill away Hongkong were responsible for. crime of singular ferocity and callousness which lately engaged the attention • 0 f the highest legal tribunal of the British Empire —the Judicial Committee of tho Privy Council. Enraged at being dispossessed of tha love of a beautiful young actress, a -1 wealthy Chinese schemed with Oriental cunning to avenge himself on his successful rival. While he lurked in the back- ; §f. ground hired assassins carried out his '!'• fell purpose. Tho tangled threads of the sinister "p conspir&cy were slowly unravelled, and m now the assassin-by-proxy awaits the ex- :M treme penalty of the law, his last appeal t| against the death sentence having, been m rejected. There was: much that savoured of the S§ Middle Ages in this story of a wealthy -1 Chinese who gratified his lust for vengeance by means of mercenaries. It was first told in the Courts of Hongkong, and the drama reached its final stage before the Privy Council. The members of the Judicial Com- tf mittee, Lord Thankerton, -Lord Wright, and Sir George Lowndes, had before them the petition of Cheng Kwok-Yau, who was found guilty at the Criminal Sessions, Hongkong, in July last of procuring the murder of Fung Him. Cheng -1 was condemned to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. The conviction and sentence were subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court of Hongkong, and it waa in the hope of securing leave 'to appeal that Cheng sought the intervention of the Judicial Committee. , Kit William Jowitt, K.C., appeared to support the petition. - h Shot at Close Range Here, in brief, is what was' unfolded by witnesses for the prosecution at Cheng's trial. In the year 1928 LaiMin Fai, a lovely Chinese actress, then only 18 years of age, became engaged tu B Cheng, who was also young, and, moreover, in affluent circumstances. Then their love affair was suddenly'hroken up. The girl Lai had fallen in love with Fung Him, who had been a friend of Cheng's, fttld she cast off her former fiance. At an interview on February 24, 1932, at which some jewellery was returned to Cheng by Lai, Cheng said to her, "If you want to give me up for Fung, I must spend all my money to prevent you living happily. If you give up Fung, I will take you back." On March 24, 1932, Fung was killed in Shartg Kwong Road, Happy. Valley, Hongkong, while in the company of liaL He was shot at close range by one of two hired assassins, who had followed the couple, and who, in turn, were watched and followed by the procurer of the assassins, one Chili Yung Shiun. ' It was the testimony of this man Choi —who, under a conditional pardon,, gave eyidence for the prosecution—that supplied a vital link in the chain connecting the accused man Cheng with the murder. Further Link in the Chain Chui's evidence was, in substance, that on February 25, 1932, Cheng's chauffeur, Lau Hing, approached him, and the oatcome of their conversation was that he (Chui) hired two criminals, Wong Nan Sheung and Kwan, to shoot Fung. The assassins, as already indicated, were successful in carrying out their commission, and shortly after the murder tie chauffeur, Lau, paid over a sum of 2000 dollars, which< was shared by the other conspirators. A further link in the Chain implicating the prisoner Cheng was, in the submission of the prosecution, supplied in this way. Two Eurasians, Zimmern and Christie, men of disreputable character, were arrested on March 31, 1932, on suspicion of complicity in the murder. Neither of these men was put on trial, but Zimmern made an 'illuminating statement. In March, 1932, he declared, he was engaged by Cheng as a bodyguard at a salary of 40 dollars a month. There were coaver-. sations between them concerning Fung and the girl Lai, and, eventually, Cheng stated that lie would give Zimmern and his friend Christie 10,000 dollars if they would " put Fung away with a gun." A Conspiracy that Failed Christie suggested poisoning with potassium cyanide instead of shooting, and, as the outcome of this suggestion, he, with Zimmern and Cheng, went to a pharmacy, where Christie duly purchased potassium cyanide, together with a needle and a glass tube. It was not the intention, of himself pr Christie, declared Zimmern, to really kill Fung. On the contrary, they had hoped to get him to join them in a conspiracy to swindle Cheng. The idea was that they should obtain seats in a cinema near Fung; that one of them should appear to insert the synngp into him, that should, drop down, to all appearances, stone dead, that he should then be carried out of the cinema, and that later the three of them should divide the reward paid by Cheng for the " murder." This scheme was destined never to come to fruition, however, for on March 24, 1932, the day of the actual murutr, Cheng informed Zimmern that Fung was dead. Asked by Zimmern how he knew this, Cheng replied that the girl Lai had rung him up at his house and sworn vengeance against him. The chauffeur, Lau, it was stated, had disappeared. Dismissal of Petition Sir William Jowitt, in his address to the Judicial Committee, submitted that there had been a fundamental miscarriage of , justice. The jurors, he contended, were not properly warned against the danger of acting on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, and, moreover, the case was put to them throughout as though the chauffeur, Lau, must have had a pri4|gpnl. , • .. In effect, the matter was put to tn jury this way: " Puzzle, find principal—who is he?" In his submission, stated counsel, there was no evidence that Lau ever hnd a principal. Without calling on counsel for tne Crown the Committee dismissed the pe tion.