The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-31
OLD MEN
TO RULE
Chinese Plan to
Capture the
Society.

Passing over the election OF officers
by the new party in control of the
United Chinese Society, Goo Kim, as
Vice-President and Ii Cheung, as Sec
rotary, have issued call for a meeting
of that organization, to be held this
evening, for the purpose of electing Of
ficers.
This move was decided upon last
evening and the call issued. This, it
is expected, will result in the capture
of the society by the friends of Consul
Yang Wei Pin. The call contemplates
n meeting of the twelve men still in ex-
istence, who belonged to the original
board of trustees, for according to the
statements of men of both parties,
there never was an election of any
members of the society, under Article
" of its constitution. Every one of
the men who has held office since the
retirement of Goo Kim from the pres
idency, insists that he was asked to
come into the meetings by that official,
but all insist there was no regular
election.
The call as issued sets forth that the
election is to be held in accordance
with the directions of Treasurer
Wright. This is taken by those who
should know to mean that the plan is
to so perfect the legal status of the
conservatives, that if there should be
an appeal to the courts of the Terri
tory there will be nothing upon which
the reformers may lay hold as an ir-
regularity in transaction. Men of both
sides expect that the final stage of the
proceedings will be the courts, and the
setting up of meetings and member
ships is in line with the plan of each
to show a continuous line of prece-
dents.
The conservatives insist that the
election of Wednesday evening was alb
solutely irregular, in that there was
no conforming to the constitution, but
simply a signing of the roll and paying
an initiation fee The constitution is
very plain in it's ruling upon the max
ing of new members. The provision is
that new members may join the society
with the consent.-of the officers and
members The conservatives insist
that there was no election as may be
contemplated in this section but that
the roll was open to everyone who
would pay the price.
1t is to meet this that the call is is
sued for the meeting Of this evening.
1t is understood that the first thing to
l.be done is to call the meeting of the
Iftrustees to order, and then to fill the
Vacancies in the list The facts are
very hard to get at after the long wait,
fbut it is admitted that there are quite
a number of the old trustees still here,
as well as several of the members OF
the advisory committee. These two
bodies are of the same size-ifteen
MEMBERSHIP while the former are
managers of the society the latter are
provided as advisers without any vote.
While the conservatives declare that
there are twelve members of the orig
inal board of trustees here, the reform
ers say that there are in all eighteen
of the two bodies, and that there are no
records which will clearly establish
which are the members of which. AS
Goo Kim is the vice-consul it is very
likely that he will rule the former way
and thus make it necessary to elect
only three members of the board of
trustees.
1.-THE bringing into existence of the
Chinese Relief Society as chartered
organization means, it is said, that the
consul is getting ready to control the
residue of the contributions for the re-
lief of Chinese after the plague and
fire, and not that there is to be made
any attempt to wreck the United Socie-
ty just yet. 1t is understood that the two
trustees for thefund, Vim Quon and zee
Chin, have already turned over to the
new organization the funds which have
been on deposit with Bishop & Co.
since their collection. The reformer
members of the United Society say they
are preparing to fight this, as the
money was given to the trustees not to
be held for another society but for the
benefit of the United Society. The two
men named We're at the time officers of
the United Society, and the allegation
is made that they would not have been
given the money except for that fact.
1t is understood that in the event of
the failure of the move which is set for
this evening, through any of the causes
which may arise, the next move will be
in court