TONG AND SING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21990, 27 June 1933, Page 6

TONG AND SING

The problem which the Duke of Ephesus had to decide in " The Comedy of Errors " was scarcely more involved than that which has confronted a judge of the Supreme Court in New Zealand. Mr Justice Reed's terse comment yesterday on the absurdity of Willie Tong's behaviour in allowing' himself to go to gaol on an order applicable to one Tai Sing will be read with sympathy, but not without a trace of amusement concerning the ponderous processes of law which an amiable Chinese may set in motion. ■ And Willie Tong deserves some sympathy, too, when the extraordinary things that have been happening to him are considered. The history of the case is not uninteresting. Tong had the papers of Tai Sing served upon him for a debt of about £B, and chose to ignore the matter. When, however, a magistrate sentenced Tai Sing to ten days in gaol, in default of payment, Tong became alarmed. But being Tong indeed, and riot Tai Sing, he was refused a rehearing of the case. The next development was that " a Chinese who claimed to be Tong was imprisoned." Tong's friends then secured legal aid, and the gaoler was served with a writ of habeas corpus. This, however, did not solve the difficulty, since the Chinese in the gaoler's care was entered in his records as Tai Sing. This difficulty was apparently overcome by a demand being made for the body of Tai Sing, whereupon that of Tong, as subsequent events have proved," was at last delivered to his wife and family. Released on bond, Tong was faced with the necessity of assuring the Court of his identity, and this he has at last achieved. His counsel was able to inform the judge yesterday that he had evidence that Tong, was not Sing, and the judge permitted him to leave the", chamber a free man. The proceedings provide . a striking illustration of the difficulties that may arise from a simple misunderstanding, especially when foreigners are involved. Englishmen who venture into strange lands may perhaps experience occasional trouble in convincing the authorities of their harmlessness, and. it is not surprising that a Chinese in a western country should now and again have a similar experience. To English people the features, pigmentation and expression of one Asiatic face have an extraordinary resemblance to those of any other, and most of them will echo Mr Justice Reed's plaint: " But Chinamen are very much alike." When, as appears in the case of Sing—or rather, of Tong—the mentality of the Chinese is also involved, the most embarrassing situation may occur.