UNREWARDED IMPERIAL SERVICES

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 115, 16 May 1901, Page 4

UNREWARDED IMPERIAL SERVICES

The British Throne and Empire have delighted to honour the heroes of the South African campaign. Recognition also of the Imperial services rendered by. the fleet and army in China has not-been-, wanting. But it has been left to the American Minister in Pekin, and to the British Commissioner ,of ...Customs at Shanghai, to bring into ..notice -services of the most important kind tendered to. the Era: pire and to the allied nations in China ._

At the. very time when Lord Salisbury, in Exeter Hall, under the giiise bi! superior Christian wisdom, was doing his best. to alienate sympathy from missionary effort in the East, and when; the whole Empire held its breath, with atlernating hope and despair, as to the fate of the British and other European legations in Pekin, we find that the missionaries and native. GhristJtans vwere engaged in the most self-sacrificing efforts to frustrate the savage decrees of the palace; dooming all Europeans to immediate death. All-, honour to Dr. Morrison, the fTfmes^" carrespon*dent,. to Lady Mac Donald, and to others,:*-for their' graphic pictures ..of the deliverance of the city and legations. • The credit given- to British soldiers and sailors, to'lndian, and to the allied forces, is well deserved. But, as in the days of old, when there was found in a besieged city, hopeless of deliverance, a poor, wise man, who by his wisdom delivered the city, "yet no man remembered that same poor man," so one action in the saving of "the city and legations of Pekin has* been largely overlooked in the British Empire.

The grateful telegram of Mr Conger, the representative of America, thanking the missionaries and native Christians of Pekin for their services, ■without which the Legations sons', hato

fallen into the hands of barbaric demons, should have been enough to awaken gratitude in the hearts of. all saved from the most'horrible forms of massacre, and in the hearts of the nations they belonged to, saved from an almost intolerable anxiety and grief. But this does not seem to have proved so. The recognition from America ' stood alone for nionths, and seems to have awakened little interest anywhere. Perhaps the additional testimony of Mr R. E. Bredoh, who is regarded as Commissioner of Customs at Shanghai, as next of importance to Sir Robert Hart, may rouse the British Government and Empire to do justice to the services of brave, .self-sacrificing and successful volunteers in the work of saving the Legations and Etiropeans of Pekin. The Shanghai Commissioner is no gushing enthusiast in regard to Christian efforts in China. He makes no profession even of decided convictions in religion. He simply feels compelled, as an^.honest eye-witness of the terrible scenes of the siege of the Legations, to repel some cruel and untruthful charges of looting against the agents of-the Christian churches. He says, in the "North China Daily News": "I was during the siege a member of the General Purposes Committee, which had surveillance of practically everything but the fighting, and in that position had the best possible opportunity of knowing what was going on, and I can say that the conduct of the missionaries was, in my opinion, not only creditable, but admirable. All that went to make our life moderately comfortable and safe was done by missionaries or under their auspices. The helpfulness and unselfishness shown by the missionary ladies,;many of whom had the burdens of heavy family caret, of their own to bear, were beyond praise. As to the native Christians, many of whom were men of a class far superior to that from which they are generally supposed to be drawn, they supplied willingly all the labour we had, and without which we could never have held out. Their missionary teachers led them in every work and in many positions of danger. I feel, that my experience of £he Legation siege has raised very considerably my opinion of the missionary, Anglican and non-Anglican, English and American, of his capacity and his work, and of the native Christian and the influence of his religion uponhim."Some 134 missionaries, with 48 children, have of late suffered martyrdom in China. The heroic death of many of them, completely victorious . over shame and suffering, must yet be read of by coming generations, side by side with the thrilling history of the noble army of ancient martyrs. The Empire can do little for the dead. They have found a reward above all the honour we can offer to their memory. But since this section of the deliverers of the Pekin Legations have been overlooked, and sometimes even reviled in public, it is high time justice was dbneto them by the British churches, Government and Empire. Imperial services rendered by missionaries and native Christians, of the high order certified to by the American Minister. and British Commissioner, should have some public recognition and reward.