File No. 342.112Sm6/8.
Consul Messersmith to the Secretary of State.
Fort Erie, January 11, 1915.
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that on Friday afternoon, January 8, 1915, Chief Mains, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, in charge of the Ontario police in the district of which Fort Erie is a part, came to Fort Erie and arrested Provincial Police Officer Thomas Delaney, and Corporal Archie Kayo, and Privates Edmond Macintosh and Leslie Kinsman of the contingent of the 44th Regiment, stationed here. The arrests were made on the charge of manslaughter in connection with the killing of Walter Smith and the wounding of Charles Dorsch on December 28, 1914, at Fort Erie.
The men arrested were taken to the county jail at Welland. Attempts to secure release on bail for the men have been fruitless. The Crown Attorney, Mr. Cowper, has announced the preliminary hearing of the men will be held Wednesday afternoon, January 13, 1915, and that they will be tried on March 2, at Welland, when the spring assizes open.
I have [etc.]