CHAPTER VII: THE SIXTH DECADE (1869-79)
ON the night of the 16th February 1869 a disastrous fire broke out on the premises of Locke, Hong Ghee & Co, Storekeepers, in Raffles Place, which resulted in the total destruction of their godowns and the office of the Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce located above these godowns. On the 23rd March on information laid by Wee Ah Teng, a coolie lately employed by Locke, Hong Ghee & Co, the two partners Low Thuan Locke and Yeo Hong Ghee were arrested and charged with arson, bail being allowed in the sum of $10,000 each. The case came on for hearing on the 29th March before Mr FH Gottlieb, the sitting magistrate, when the evidence of the informant Wee Ah Teng, the only witness for the prosecution, completely broke down, and in acquitting the accused the Magistrate said:
It is a matter of most serious moment to reflect that a coolie might at any moment come forward and endanger the liberty, and perhaps the lives, of any of us. With reference to the defendants, I regret extremely that such a charge has been brought by means of such an instrument, and in discharging you I have only to say that you leave the Court without the smallest imputation or stain on your characters whatever
