THE MASSACRES IN CHINA.

Evening Star, Issue 9807, 21 September 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE MASSACRES IN CHINA.

PERSONAL NARRATIVES.

[From Oob Special Correspondent.]

London, August 10. Miss Mabel C. Hartford, the only American in Hwa Sang at the time of the massacre, has made and signed the following statementOn August l,.at halfpast Seven o ? clook in the morning, I heard shouts and screams fot the servants to get up, as the Vegetarians were coining, and were tearing down' the houses bn the hill belonging to the English mission. Soon afterwards I met a man with a trident spear. He yelled out ‘Here is-a foreign woman,’ and pointed his spear at my chest. I twisted it to one side. It just grazed my head and ear. He then threw me on the ground and beat me with the wooden end of the spear. I afterwards jumped down an embankment and ran till 1 reached the hill, when I stopped to recover my breath. The yells continued, and I saw two houses being burned to the ground. Subsequently all was quiet, and, supposing that the Vegetarians had-gone, I sent a servant to inquire what had happened. He returned and told me to come home, stating that five ladies belonging to the English mission had been killed and others wounded, but that my house had not been troubled. I went home, and there found Miss Codrington much cut about the head and beaten all over ; Mildred Stewart, twelve years of age, with her knee cut and bleeding very hard; Herbert Stewart, six.years of age, with his head cut and almost dead ; while the baby of the Stew'art family had one eye black and swollen, and the second Stewart girl, Kathleen, eleven years of age, together with the second boy, Evan, three y'ears of age, had been beaten and stabbed with a spear, but not seriously injured. The Rev. Dr Phillips, of the English mission, who lived in a native house some distance away, escaped injury, only arriving in time to see the bodies of the dead, and hear the Vegetarians say : ‘ We have killed all the foreigners.’ At first we heard that some of the foreigners had escaped and were in hiding; but Mr Stewart did not come, and we began to fear the worst. Dr Phillips went to the ruins of the burned bouses, and there found eight bodies, five of them unburned, and three so terribly burned as to be unrecognisable. Dr Gregory arrived after darkness had set in, and dressed the wounds of the surviving patients. Coffins were made, and in these the bodies of the dead were placed, while the bones of those who had been burned were put into boxes. Subsequently another burned body was found, making nine in all. The grown-up people massacred were Mr Stewart and his wife, the nurse Lena, who came from Ireland, Nelly Saunders and Topsy Saunders, of Australia, who lived at Mr Stewart’s house, Miss Hessie Newoome, from Ireland, .Elsie Marshal and Lucy Stewart, from England, and Annie Gordou, from Australia. The four first mentioned were burned beyond recognition. Topsy Saunders ran out of the house and was killed outside, Hessie Newcombe was thrown down an embankment, her head having been almost severed from her bedy, while Annie Gordon’s head was also almost severed. When the bodies had been coffined, we left Hwa Sang for Sinkow at four o’clock in the afternoon on August 2. Herbert Stewart died three hours later, just below Coiong. We carried the body in a chair and had a coffin made for it at Sinkow, which we reached at eight o’clock on the following morning. We then telegraphed to Foochow for a steam * launch. We left Sinkow in native boats at three in the afternoon, and on the following morning (Sunday) we met a steam launch conveying' soldiers towards Sinkow. We engaged it to tow us to Foochow, and soon afterwards we met a rescue party in a launch. The party consisted of the United States Marshal and two English missionaries, and they were bringing full supplies for the sufferers. Uong, the Kucheng magistrate, came to Hwa Saug on the afternoon of Friday, August 2, with 100 soldiers. He viewed the bodies of those who had been killed, saw the injured, and made inquiries as to the names and places of origin of the surviving victims. He drew up a report and did what he could to help us to get off to Sinkow.”

The origin of the serious riot at Cheng-tu is thus described by the representative of the China Inland Mission About a month previous to the 28th May, Dr Hare, of the Canadian Methodist Missions, had to attend a mid« ifery ciso, in which a woman was safely delivered of a child alive. He attended her for nearly ten days afterwards, and she made such good recovery up to that time that he deemed it needless to continue his visits. Quite a number of days afterwards, however, the woman caught a chill and died. The husband sent for Dr Hare about midnight, saying his wife was again ill. Dr Hare, all ignorant of their devices, went. After seeing that the woman was dead, he told her husband so, when the latter sprang towards the door and bolted it. Dr Hare managed to make him open it, but by that time a great crowd had gathered, and set upon Dr Hare, who had to run for his life. Next day the' city was in a perfect stir, rumors being afloat that a foreigner ,faad murdered a woman, and all sorts of wild stories were circulated concerning us. The magistrates, after this, were appealed to over and over again to put out a proclamation forbidding the circulation of these rumors, but, alas for Chinese officialism, no proclamation came.” Passing on to the 28th May, the writer proceeds; “ Large numbers of people assembled on the city wall, and engaged in scattering plums which were scrambled ior by children and others. The place where this game was carried, on is quite near the spot where the rioting began, and we think that a number of evil-disposed people had planned to take advantage of this crowd, many of whom would be the worse for drink, and thus start theriob . . . Abmit4.3o in the afternoon of the 28th stones began to be thrown at the Canadian Methodist Mission compound, but nothing serious was at first anticipated ; but about seven in the evening we heard of the trouble, and immediately sent to the Yamen to ask for a sufficient number of soldiers to protect all the places in the city. Our request was acceded to, but the number of soldiers sent for protection was ridiculously insufficient. An anxious night was passed, but, notwithstanding that we heard of the destruction of the Canadian Mission, we still lived in hope that nothing would be attempted at our mission. Alas ! our hopes" were grievously disappointed. Owing to the laxity of the officials, the mob started afresh next morning to complete the destruction of the hospital and the chapel that had been left standing. As (he mob continued to gather at our door, we deemed it best to get off as many as possible in chairs to the Yamen. Four chairs had gob safely away—-my wife and I were to take the next two. When we had just got in the yard, at the large door the mob set up a terrible yelling. For the moment it looked as if all was over with us ; we expected to have our chairs smashed to pieces, and ourselves to be killed on the spot. However, the Yamen runners were able to keep a way clear for us, and we managed to pass out from the crowd, who kept hooting and scowling as we passed along. Scarcely had we got twenty yards away when the mob burst into our place, and the remaining friends there had great difficulty in getting over the back wall and into the neighbors’ house. Giving these neighbors a little silver, they were perfectly content to keep the friends hidden in a secret place—here, in a little room, huddled altogether in .one bed, the curtains drawn, were five people and three children. Only a few yards away was the mob, smashing and looting our place. So awful was the'-destructipn that not even a whole tile was left on the premises, everything being levelled to the ground, and all that could be stolen carried off. After dark the friends from the .place got off in chairs to the Yamen, and about midnight the American friends also escaped to this place. . . . Brother Vale has decided to remain on here iathe hope that we may yet get baek and settle in the city. Through all this trying timhwe have proved how faithful our God has been in providing a way of escape for us, and we have also had our hearts cheered by seeing how fathful the native Christians have stood by us.” . The writer of this letter safely reached Hankow with his,wife on July 5. A missionary at Kuan-hien writes: “We were iu great suspense. Our actual crisis

was reached on Sunday, June 2nd, at noon, when we were told that a placard was out calling upon the people to come and smash up our place as the people had done at Chen-tu. I. immediately sent out my helper to tear it down and take it to the Yamen. This evidently precipitated matters, for, discovering that their placard was gone, a number of roughs came at once to our place. I met them in the doorway and kept talking quietly to them, but as the crowd increased many slipped past me and went into the courtyard. Seeing that it was useless to palaver there any longer, I invited them in to see for themselves if the stories brought from Chen-tu about men’s ■ bones and children’s skulls were true or false, hoping that they would quietly look in and go. Finding that my wife and little ones had already escaped by the back window into a neighbor’s house, I felt more at ease, and threw our sitting room, bedroom, and side doors and windows open, and invited their inspection. This - kept them in good humor. I took my stand in the doorway, and kept talking to them with as pleasant a face as possible. All this time the crowd kept streaming in, filling our large courtyard in every part. A theatre in the city which had been in full swing was deserted. This state of matters lasted for at least an hour and a-half. Although half of the mob had come with the intention of looting and destroying they could find no occasion to begin the fray. We invited them to inspect our premises, and asked them to speak a word for us in the street. At length at about half-past three in the afternoon the runners arrived on the scene, and by dint of hooting and yelling and pushing and beating succeeded in clearing the yard. The mandarin himself then arrived and took his seat at our front door. He told the people that we were not Japanese but English, and come to do them good.” He adds : “ I believe, as a whole, the city people are inclined to be friendly towards us. -It is the people from Chen-tu and the students that have caused the trouble. The magistrates have done their best under the circumstances, and however much we may regret the suffering caused by the anxiety and the loss of goods and hindrance to the work I cannot say I feel sorry for those riots, which, I believe, have drawn us nearer to the people.” The average Londoner has, I fear, small sympathy with missions to China. Considering the desperate condition of our own poor and the urgent need of money for and laborers amongst them, it does seem scandalous that the badly-wanted oil and corn should go to Ah Siu and Co. But then, you see, there’s no glamor about an East End missionary. These good men, who bring physical, moral, and spiritual help to thousands, die at their posts daily, their unselfish heroism unhonored and unsung. But if some sleek, notoriety-hunting Stiggins in China or Timbuctoo gets a knife in his gizzard for intolerant religiosity and trampling on all a Native holds dear the martyr’s crown and an east window in one of our churches becomes his portion. While on this subject I cannot do better than quote that recognised authority on the East, Mr George Curzoa. He says:—

With rare exceptions, more liberal-minded than their fellows, the missionaries adopt an attitude of implacable hostility to all native religions and ethics, ignoring alike their virtuous aspects and influence, the all-powerful hold which they have acquired upon Chinese character, and the sanction lent to them by a venerable antiquity. Particularly is this the case with regard to ancestor-worship, with which they decline all parley. . . . The Chinaman, who is entirely content with his own religion, and asks only to be left alone, is assailed by a propaganda that commences with an attack upon ail that he holds most dear. To him the ethics of Confucius sum up the whole duty of man to the family and the Strte ; while the payment of homage to the higher powers is provided for by the polytheistic conceptions of the Buddhist cult. He hears the former disparaged, the latter derided. He is invited lo become a convert at the cost of ceasing to be a citizen; to tear up the sheet anchor of all morality as the first condition of moral regeneration. ... If the evangelists of some new faith were to appear in England, drawn from a race whom we hated and despised, and were to commence their preaching by denouncing the Bdjlc, and crying Anathema Maranatha upon the Apostles’ Creed, what sort of a reception would they meet with ? As for the political drawbacks, Mr Curzon says

Nevertheless the presence of the missionary bodies, as a whole, in the country is a constant source of anxiety to the Legations, by whom, in the last resort, their interests, resting as they do upon treaties, must be defended ; and is equally distasteful to the Chinese Government, which frequently finds itself called upon to reprimand a native official or punish a local community at the cost of great odium to itself. This is the explanation of the extreme reluctance exhibited, as a rule, by the central authority, in bringing to justice the notorious authors of calumny or outrage.

Touching the practical charges brought against Protestant mission work in China, Mr Curzon speaks out with a plainness that amply justifies the points made in the loading article in the ‘St. James’s Gazette.’ After reference to the “ lack of personal aptitude” in some of the missionaries, the “well-appointed houses,” the “comfortable manner of living,” the large families, the domestic engrossments, and, in the case of missionaries at the treaty ports, the “ summer exodus to the hills,” he says:— Another source of misunderstanding is the constantly increasing employment of women, and partiou’arly of unmarried women, by the missionary bodies. A steamer rarely sails from the American shores for Yokohama without carrying a bevy of young girls, fresh from the schoolroom or the seminary, who, with the impulsive innocence of youth, are about to devote their young lives and energies to what they conceive to be the noblest of purposes in Japan or China. A scarcely inferior stream of female recruitment flows in from the United Kingdom and the colonies. In a country like China the institution of sisterhoods, planted alongside of male establishments, the spectacle of unmarried persons of both sexes residing and working together, both in public and iu private, and of girls making long journeys into the interior without responsible escort, are sources of a misunderstanding at which the pure-minded may afford to scoff, but which in many cases has more to do with anti-missionary feeling iu China than any amount of national hostility or doctrinal antagonism. Only last year, at the remote inland town of Kuei-hwa-chcng, a friend of mine encountered a missionary community consisting of one male and of twenty Swedish girls. The propaganda of tha latter consisted in parading the streets and singing hymns to the strumming of tambourines and guitars. ________________