BREACH OF AGREEMENT CASE

BOMBAY, JUNE 16

At the High Court Chief Justice Macleod disposed of a suit by Steel Bros., Rangoon, against J.A. Grant and Co., to recover rupees one lakh deposit paid by the plaintiffs to the defendants and Rs 1,08,532 as damages for breach of agreement. The defendants chartered the Hwakuma and then sub-chartered it to the plaintiffs for a voyage from Rangoon to Bombay, and received from plaintiffs rupees one lakh as deposit. While the steamer was half loaded with plaintiff’s cargo at Rangoon the Captain, under orders from the owners, unloaded the cargo and would not take plaintiff’s cargo. The defendants’ plea was that the plaintiffs were agents in Rangoon, hence they should have protected the former’s interests when the hitch occurred. The defendants counter-claimed Rs 2,42,250. His Lordship gave a decree for the return of the deposit, and the suit was referred to the Commissioner for taking accounts to ascertain the damages defendants had sustained.

MYSTERIOUS MURDER

The adjourned Coroner’s inquest on the body of a Bengali woman named Ashtamani Dasi, a maid-servant in the service of Babu Kabi Keshab Lal Mullick, proprietor of the Italian Stores, was held on Monday. Evidence had been adduced on the first day of the inquest that the woman was found lying dead in a lane close to her master’s residence in Sreegopal Mullick’s Lane, in the jurisdiction of the Muchipara thana, with a cloth tied round her neck. The medical evidence suggested that death was due to strangulation. Keshab Lal Mullick and two other witnesses could throw no light on the case, whereupon the Coroner directed the police to make further enquiries. At yesterday’s inquest, the police officer in charge of the case having stated that no further evidence could be secured, the jury returned a verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown.

DEMOBILISED ANGLO-INDIANS

RANGOON, JUNE 16

The Burma Government have issued a communiqué in which they appeal to all employers to do all in their power to ease the present situation in the case of Anglo-Indian men who are now being demobilised. It is pointed out that the efforts so far of the Employment and Labour Bureau have met with small success, and it is reported that not a few cases have reached a state verging on destitution. All heads of Government Departments have been asked to do everything possible, but Government service, it is mentioned, offers comparatively little scope for the type of man in search of employment.