Victim of German Sabre

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 May 1927, Page 3

Victim of German Sabre

Methods of Hun Village Police BERLIN, April 7. A policeman cut down a Chinese with his sabre and shot him through the body a few days ago in the police station at Fuerstenwerder, a village near Berlin. The policeman is still the guardian of law and order in the village of Fuerstenwerder, and with one solitary exception the Berlin Press has not considered the killing of a Chinese sufficiently important to record. The Chinese Legation, whose members regard the dead, some say “murdered,” Chinese with respect and affection, although he was but a pedlar, has already drawn the attention of the German Foreign Office to the affair. There are some 600 Chinese pedlars in Germany who go from door to door and smilingly offer Chinese china and Chinese geegaws, which, I am afraid, are all made in Germany. “A Silly Ass” Such a pedlar was Ye Chin-hoo, the man who was killed by the German policeman. He was taken to the police station because the village constable found that his licence did not cover hawking in that territory. He was told that he would have to pay a fine of 100 marks and, as he had only five marks in his pocket, he had to leave his pack of wares as pledge. It is stated that he turned his back on the policeman and put his hands in his pockets, and that, although he was a very gentle man, he called the policeman “a silly ass.” The policeman therefore thought himself justified in drawing his sabre and giving the Chinese two hacks on the head and one on the shoulder. The Chinese, according to the policeman’s story, tried to seize the sabre, so he put three shots through his body and killed him. Two women were witnesses of the scene.