The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-25
DISMISSAL OF
MEREDITH HAS
BEEN ORDERED
Upon the Report Of Special
Agents, Major Moore May
Also Have to Go.

Smith alludes especially to the case Of
Fong Suey Wan, Chinese procuress.
! and other Chinese who were captured
in that raid, and shows that Meredith
! allowed Fong Suey Wan to escape. not
withstanding the fact that evidence
had been put in his possession showing
that she was guilty OF felony.
Assistant Secretary Howell said to-
night that even. Collector Jackson was
now of the opinion that Meredith was
at fault.
The report of the special agents in
Moore's case furnishes much evidence
adduced in San Francisco tending to
occasions made. improper advances to
women, as alleged in The Call.
Collector Jackson said yesterday that
he received no information as TO the al
legged dismissal from the service Of
Benjamin E. Meredith, chief of the
Chinese bureau. He said that MI
Meredith was attending to his duties as
usual, and that neither Of them had~re-
ceived' any news from Washington.
Special Agents Linck and Smith said
that their report must have arrived in
Washington last Thursday, but that
they had not heard what disposition
had been made of 1t. There was large
mass of reliable evidence against Mere
dith tending to show that Meredith de-
signedly allowed Fong Suey Wan, the
noted procuress, to slip through his
fingers after he had been warned by
Miss Cameron of the Presbyterian Mis-
sion and several other persons that she
would be brought into court and dis
charged on her certificate Of landing.
1t was also shown that he had engaged
at various times as interpreter Harry
Huff, a man who had the reputation Of
owning one or two Chinese slave girls
in Chinatown.
The recommendation of the agents,
together with the evidence submitted,
were that Meredith had been guilty of
willful neglect of duty in failing to
prefer the proper charges against Fong
Suey Wan, and that his failure to do
so was reprehensible and ineXcusable.
Another charge against Meredith was
that he had been guilty of conduct I'M
becoming a gentleman and Federal off1-
cial in that he had used vile, profane
and insulting language to member or
the press and to Dr. Gardner, at the
time n official interpreter for the bu-
reau. The testimony showed that Mere
dith was of an overbearing and testy
disposition while at the head of the
bureau, and that he resented a suggeS-
ton from any of his subOrdinates as an
impertinence On one occasion, when
DR.. Gardner suggested something in
the line Of suppressing the notorious.
traffic in and landing of coolie slaves
and contract laborers, Meredith re-
warded his zeal by calling him an i'm
pertinent puppy and ordering him out
of the office on pain of being kicked out.
DR.. Gardiner, being a man of peace,
likewise a preacher of the gospel Of
good will, did not wait to be kicked.
but he has the consolation of knowing
that some unlocked kicks come home to
roost.
The evidence against Major Moore
was overwhelming. He confessed to his
assault upon Mrs. Pickens. The agents
expressed the opinion that he is insane
at times and on certain subjects, and
the Treasury Department viii no doubt
take the fact into consideration when
passing sentence upon him.