TRINIDAD I THEN AND NOW. 



838 



A may or may not be a party to the fraud 



but in either case the Customs is defrauded. In 

 the ease to which I am alluding they did not even 

 take the trouble to do this ; an obliging landing 

 waiter simply certified that the goods were shipped, 

 when in reality they were sent to their real destina- 

 tion under the eyes of the officials in Port-of-Spain. 



Any way, these frauds were one day brought to 

 light and I will simply relate of one group, I think 

 there were five in all implicated, two landing waiters 

 and three merchants. I must here relate an incident 

 relative to this case which nearly wrecked the whole 

 set of cases. 



I need not enter into all the details, suffice 

 it to say that several arrests were made and 

 the offenders charged with their several offences. 

 One merchant who was only the cat's paw of the 

 others having been arrested retained Mr. George L. 

 Garcia, an able barrister, afterwards Attorney-Gene- 

 ral, to defend him ; he seeing that his client was the 

 tool of others advised him to become a witness for the 

 Crown. He was arrested on a Saturday afternoon 

 and bailed to appear on the Monday. Mr. Garcia 

 having heard his statement went direct to the Crown 

 Solicitor and made the proposal for his client to be 

 accepted as " Queen's evidence." Mr. O'Connor 

 would not consent to this without consulting the At- 

 torney-General, and to him they repaired. They ar- 

 ranged for a consultation to take place on the follow- 

 ing morning, I being present. Mr. Garcia made his 

 proposal which the Attorney-General promptly de- 



