CHINESE CONSUL'S CLOSE CALL.

NZ Truth, Issue 405, 29 March 1913, Page 5

CHINESE CONSUL'S CLOSE CALL.

YUNG LIANG HWANG FIRED AT. CHIA MCBOW CREATES CONSTERNATION, ■■■ ' . •■■ ■ -- 7 . ■- ■• > Former Consul m New Zealand— A Marvellous Melbourne Matte r —Dismissed from the Consalate-^-The Tragedy of a Wedding — Story of the Sensation— Chia's Financial Straits — Modern Mongolian— His White Australian Wife — A Slap4n the Face' to Snob Sassiety— Charged with Attempted MurderCommitted for Trial.

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A" young Chinese with the parr -■ flially- Westernised cognomen of Thomas Jones Chia, who came into ' some .prominence ' m Melbourne m January last, as ,■ the Astatic brideI groom of a lair young Australian £v -bride, achieved some further notogwrfety on the Wednesday afternoon of v^Wjifecrch. 12, as one of the principals m ■ shooting affray at the offices of Song Liang Hwang, the Ck&iese Consul m Melbourne, who was formerly, ; the i "T^owser" M^thody Chinese Con-' sul for New Zealand, and resided m Wellington. The second participant, who was also the victim, was Tfang ; Liang Hwaag himself, who was Sponnded" m the upper part ©f the Ipft' arm, though fortunately for himself, net serioasly. Chia was Bubsejjueaily arrested on a charge of unlawfully weunding with intent vto murder, and was, later- an* committed for trial. Chia, who is thirty years of age^ is -a member of one of th'e - SSEERKHEt OHQBEESE FAMILIES,- • awl is a m«n of large pdoca-fciemal nt^f^ynntj Amongst other. qualifi- ' tetions. possessed by Mao, he was for some tfirae *cad master at the Perfectual C«llegj& at Chang Chew, of which place he is a^nati'Pe, and ia 11909-10 he was > prof essor of English i at the University m Pekin. In the interval between Chang Chew he was I from 1905 to 1907 chief secretary to the Chinese Commission to France, and for two years thereafter was in> the Imperial Government service of : the North China railways. In 191(* he went to Melbourne from Ghina. as« chief secretary to the Chinese Consu-late-there, pne Tong being then Consul. For all that appears to the contrary, there appears to *ave "been, no hint that he was NOT DISCHARGING HIS DUTIES satisfactorily during the major. pa^t. of the period intervening since his arrival. Yet, m September last, he was ffo"-***** feom the post by his home Gov«au»eiit on tie reconuneridafctast of tkß yimait Consul, Yung ' li&ng Hwang,, "who had then been; some +jmt* m office. That he had t^an dismissed was not allowed to txtuuM^rije, Instead, It was. made to appear that he had retired pwi«g to - -the death of Mb lather, ami the Conawl himself supplied personal para-; graphs to i 2» wwepapera coataiwing itke bare int&aatien that Chia bad "severed his connection with the Consulate.'' Am*mgst the duties, .which Chia had to perform as secretary to the Consulate were official translations. It has been whispepefl. Khat ".'■"■. CHIA KjNBW TOO LITTLE £boat the Chinese language to be able to make these translations m accordance wtth the desires of the Consul. In view«of~what has already been indicated of CWa'a Educational B f-hAiiwr»CT>tH and general experience, (that statement cannot fail to arouse curiosity. There are not wanting those who affect to perceive m it Eastern guile. On April 2, 1912, Chia's marriage engagement with Eunice Camillo Russell, only child of Mr. and Mrs, E. 0. Russell, of Brighton, was announced! No secret was made of the fact that this prospective union was excessively distasteful to Chinese officialdom, and especially unpalatable to Chia's, relatives m China. And so there are th«se who now find bo difßcnlty m tr&ciag a sinister- connection between Chia'a persiste*ce m marrying Eunice Russell and his DISMETSSAL FROM THE CONSTOiATE. Moreover, Chia'.a father, who died emmtm little ,thao ago, disinherited hinu Tkus, thrown upon his own resources, Chia evidently cane speedily to his eai, and he easily fwud hixntseU m woeful unaacial straits. Though ho obtained a position m the Eastern Trading Company, "which was understood to afford him continuous employment, his financial horizon appears to have become blacker, and more threatening .with each succeeding day. It was current rumor on tho occasion of his marriage on January 2 that ho had been forced to pawn- overy little-b it of personal property of any yalue which, he possessed m order to SCRAFE TOGETHER -v SUFFICIENT Hk'xnonoy to keep up appearances at tho Chia'. had always been an | ultra-fashionablp flguro m Melbourno \ Society, to which his official p'osi- ; tion at tho Consulato had obtained ', film admission, and a social splash s of somo magnitude was contemplated m connection with tho nuptials. Whoreforc, In furthorauco of his transformation from Eastern to-| Western modo, he must niako expenBivo presents to his whiU brido and her dainty Australian maids— thus, n diamond braeclot to tho brido and Jewelled brooches to tho bridesmaids. Aftor tho marriage, there \va« no cessation m tho gathering of tho clouds, and Chia, for some time; past, has been casting about for: means to IMPROVE HIS PROSPKQTS. Ho turned to tho Consulate, anrl appears to havo made himself rather I obnoxious by his -persistence, ami as j lately as March 3, ho way curtly told : that Yung .Uang Hwang dfcl not wi»h to see him. On March 12, however, ho called again to kcc the Consul with reference to his ponltion under tho AUcn ImmiKration Restriction Act. and ho wanted authority to toll tho External Affairs l^opartmont that ho was still connected with tho Consulato. This vma refused, whereupon, it is -■said. Chla professed to bo anxious to return to China, and naked for letters of Introduction to tho Cotomlsaionor of Foreign "JUWrs m Shanghai and to ftfae Bond of to&wtry and Com-

merce m Pekin. * The first was ■ PROMISED CONDITIONALLY ; the second was refused ; whereupon, it is said, Qi^a, who, up till , then, had displayed admirable /good hurudr, flamed with sudden anger. After complaining 'that he had received no pay from the Eastern Trading Coinpiny;" arid that " he did not know what to do, he appears to have completely lost his self-control, and, l drawing, a revolver, he fired four shots,, one taking effect, as already, stated. As the trigger was pulled for the third time, the; Consul grap-' pled with the man, and, assistance . being at hand, he was disarmed and handed over, to the police, still m the throes, of an OVKftMASTEIiING EXCITEMENT. Where now is the "glamor of* romance" which Society sycophants professed to see m, the., "union of ; Orient and Occident" which;' wiis effected with so much pomp and circumstance at St.. Peter's Anglican Church, Eastern Hill (Vie), on January 2, when Eunice Camille Russell was given m marriage, according to the canons of tie Christian Church, to Thomas Jones Chia, descendant, of a long line of followers of Confucius ? What now of the horoscope which was cast for Eunice Russell, and of which so much silly fuss was made m certain quarters as serving, to accentuate this, very .questionable "glamor of romance" ? All that it * accentuates is -the silly superstition ■ that prompts the indulgence m such < so-called occultism. It was said, t and repeated from mouth to mouth IN AWED "WHISPERS •as the fashionable crowd waited for. < the -bride, that, four" weeks before she met^ Chia, Eunice Russell, as she' then was, had her horoscope cast. . and .was informed by the- seer that, r she would be sought m marriage by someoxe of noble lineage, but offoreign extractian, and that, though at first, through a conve»tio«ra.l nttental outlook, she would refase his offer, she would ultimately marry this foreign suitor. Within a nsonth, Chia had proposed. A triumph, for .occultism, said Society, and made a mental vote of the prophet's address for individual purposes, of its own. . Society's goats have much m common with the quadrupedal sheep. And of this "union of the ' Orient and the Occident,"' the pandering daily press put it .-.. on. record that "the ivy-clad .-".'■ . CHURCH WAS CROWDED TO THE DOORS r Ung before the hour fixed for the ceremony.'' In a front pew was Sir Henry Weedon, an ex-Lord Mayor of ♦Melbourne, and the solemn rite of marriage, m this case the giving of a clean-blooded white Australian woman into the arms of a full-blooded Chinaman, was performed by that pillar of ecclesiastisicism,. Canon Hughes, who is connected, by marriage with the Snodgrass family, of which the late Janet Lady Clarke was a member, and consequently is indirectly associated with the "Australian peerage." So that it was, indeed, a "fashionable" wedding. And a white man, presumably an Australian; was "best man," an another was groomsman. And there was a champagne tea — whatever > that may mean — at the strictly exclusive Oriental Hotel Cafe, and thero was a speech by that EXALTED PHOTOGRAPHER, Sir Henry Weed«n. who, presumably, told everybody to look, pleasant. Lord knows, there must have been some need for the injunction, for the same daily newspaper accounts, which gloated over the fashionablo surroundings of the wedding, has put it oh record that the brido was more tkaa half an hour late m arriving at the church, and that as sko walked down the aislo to tke altar, site "looked very frail." Likewise, • there was a speech by Mr. G. H. Knibbs, the statistician of the Commonwealth, whoso most cherished 1 principle is a White Australia. What was Mr. Knibbs doing at this uwian of tho Orient and tho Occident? Certainly not lending any moral support to the avowed determination of the people m wboso pay ho is, to keep the white race puro by tho ADMIXTURE OF ASIATIC BLOOD. His daughter was a bridesmaid at this portentious ceremony, and his wife gave a matronly prop to tho affair. Also, there was a Chow parson, a lady with a decidedly Jewish -| namo, and a host of people wko | movo m tho very best circles, donI cherknow. Likewise, the* papers | printed a long list or presents to the brido, which included a tolerablo piece of earth from her papa, and a piano from her mamma, and sundry < things. in tho way of jewels, and tea- | pots, and vases, and general household truck from somo of Melbourne's "very naiccst." As an instance of FASHIONABLE FOLLY it might havo aroused no more than passing attention, and little interest outsiUo tho circle, of thoso immediately engaged m it, but people of normal mind, looking Intelligently to tho future, could not fall to perccho tho sinister Rlgnlficanco of it-^-cannot | fail to c/o so m every union of West j and East. To begin with, they aro : unnatural. K'ipllng's lines apply to thorn with stunning force— ' "For East is East and West is We«t, Nor over tho twain shall moot/ Exporlenco haa taught that there can bo NO COMMINGLING OF THE HLOOD of tho Asiatic and the wbito without corresponding deterioration. A bastard rnce arises which i 8 neither lish, ilesh, fowl, nor good red horring. It is isbmaclitlHh. Everybody's hand is against it, and its hand agwiast piyeryt^ody. Instlnetivoly' it- ropcla and,.

is ropellort. It foets lt» Inferiority to the pure white race, and is correspondingly ero.bltt.ercd.. und must for over bo at war with the dominant race. All tho fulsome references to tho "union of .Orient nn<l Occident" which marked the marriage of Kunico Hussoll to her Chinese husband, were so much flam and llapdo'odle. Tho plain, hideou«, uncontrovcrtlblo fact remains behind, that the fnuft of such n marriage will bo Eurasians, a mixture of yellow and whit©, n bcoto and a byword alike to the virile Australasian and the wlvito man all tho world over, and to full-blooded Asiatic And those "mean" whites who assisted at this "union of tho Orient end the Occident" have acted traitorously to their race m giving tbo countennnco of their presence to the pitiful tragedy which opened at Eastern HiH tnyJannary*