CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21465, 6 May 1935, Page 11

CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA

| LITTLE ORGANISED OPPOSITION STATEMENT BY VISITING MISSION WORKER "The attitude of the Chinese Government towards Christian mission* is now far more sympathetic than ever before since the establishment of the Republic," said Mr A. J. orn> land, treasurer of the Church or England diocese of North China, who is on a visit to New Zealand, m an interview here yesterday. " aggressive anti-religious movement of a few years ago has practically died out.' ! he said, "and* with the exception of those districts wmcn are in the hands of the Communists the preaching of Christianity in China to-day meets with practically no organised opposition." Mr Britland said that it was significant that the New Life movement initiated by General Chiang Kai-shek and his wife owed a great deal of its organisation to Christian principles. It was, in effect, an attempt to achieve officially that improvement of social and moral conditions which the Christian missionaries had been trying to bring about indirectly ever since they had gone to China. Asked if there were any signs of friendly feeling among the Chinese towards the Japanese, following the recent reported attempt by the Japanese Government to foster a sense of racial kinship with Japan in China, Mr Britland said that the Japanese, by their occupation of Manchuria, had created a feeling of very strong hostility in China which it would take many years to eradicate. He could see little prospect of any co-operation between the two countries. One very marked result of the Japanese incursions, he said, had been to make the Chinese leaders realise their weaknesses and try to cleanse their official life, insisting on honesty and justice. It had been proved to them that they must first of all help themselves before they could expect assistance from other countries. It was notable that, in spite of the great disappointment at the failure of the League of Nations to adopt some, co-operative scheme by which the wrongs of. China could be righted, there was very little talk among the Chinese against the i publicly expressed aims of the j league.