Memorandum.
[Handed to Mr. Olney by Lord Gough, August 10, 1895.]
Mr. James H. Bain, until lately purser of the British steamship Engineer, of the Harrison Line, states that his ship was loading at New Orleans for Liverpool last March. Shortly after 7 a.m. on the 12th of that month, while stepping on to the wharves in the discharge of his duties as purser, he was shot and wounded in several parts of his head and in his right arm by a body of men armed with rifles, shotguns, and revolvers, who, without provocation or warning, came up the wharf and attacked him.
Mr. Bain was rendered unconscious, and was sent to the hospital, where he was under treatment of the doctors.
At the time of the assault Mr. Bain suffered much from his wounds. One of the shot entered above his right eye and lodged behind it.
In April he was taken on board the steamship Orion. During the passage to England he suffered severely from nervous shock and weakness, which has caused him to be constantly under medical treatment.
In May last Mr. Bain underwent an operation, but only one of five pellets which had entered into his head could be extracted. The one which had lodged under the bone of the right eye could not be taken out without causing the complete loss of that eye.
Mr. Bain remained under medical treatment until June, and suffers constant pain in the right eye and head. In consequence of his wounds and subsequent loss of health he was thrown out of employment, and suffered severely from a pecuniary point of view.
The delay which has occurred in setting forth the above is explained by Mr. Bain’s absence from England, and by his being under medical treatment, and he will be requested to furnish medical certificates and affidavits as to his present condition and the losses which he has sustained (apart from personal injuries) in consequence of the outrage.