Perjury Among the Asiatics

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 73, 25 October 1884, Page 5

Perjury Among the Asiatics

The extraordinary recklessness of Asiatics in committing deliberate and circumstantial perjury always causes amazement to Euro> peans newly arrived among them. It is not merely the scoundrels who hang about courts of justice, ready to swear to anything for a shilling or two, who do this, but in many lawsuits the principals indulge in false testimony to an unlimited extent. A notable instance occurred at Calcutta the other day, when a native sailor lodged formal information with the police that the chief officer of mail steamer, then on her way down the Hooghly, had murdered a Lascar and thrown his body overboard. Every particular of the crime, including the name of the murdered man, was given, and the police authorities felt bound, therefore, to telegraph orders to have the steamer stopped, and the accused officer arrested. This was duly done, and the supposed murderer being brought before the magistrate, the formal inquiry took place. For some time the defendant found it very difficult to meet the charge brought against him, supported as it was by his accuser on oath. But just when it looked as if the charge would be sent for trial, the Lascar, who was supposed to be murdered turned up in court. Instead of being killed and thrown overboard, he had deserted the ship just before her departure, and the accuser, becoming aware of the fact, thought it gave him a capital opportunity to pay off an old grudge lie bore against the chief officer. He imagined, no doubt, that the Lascav would keop silence for fear of being proceeded against for desertion. — " London Globe."