CONFUSION IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 20905, 23 September 1931, Page 7

CONFUSION IN CHINA

BAHBITBY AHD COMMUNISM The Rev. George W. Shepherd, now of Foochow, on the American Board .Mission, has scut to his father, Mr 11. F. Shepherd, of Kaikorai Valley, Dunedin, extracts from the. report, dated July 20, that was forwarded to America as to the then state of affairs in China, and a copy ot those extracts placed at our disposal reads thus: — Wo have been kept out of our field, as the road between Foochow and Kicnning was infested with more vigorous gangs ot bandits than we ever had on the Min. Defeated troops had hived off, inviting .seven times more wicked spirits to unite with them in wholesale robbery and kidnapping. Owing to tbo activities of the bandits wo have time and time again had to put off the date ot our annual meeting. Although wo could not personally visit Kienning, the work of the mission was proceeding most successfully, especially among the Chinese troops of the 56th division. Many of the officers and men attending regularly and studying to make themselves eligible for church membership on confession of faith. The presence of the division, which forms part of the national army of China, gave a sense of security to the whole district which for .some time had boon threatened by Communist hordes from Kiangsi. All was going well. Then came the great blow from which wo are still reeling—the invasion of Shaowu by bandits and Kicnning by the Communists. They came almost without warning, and in enormous numbers, surrounded the fortifications of the well-prepared 56th division, stormed the heights around Kicnning, and as a fighting force decisively defeated the Government troops, who fled in confusion to Yenping, leaving behind them numerous rifles and machine guns, five field radio outfits, and enormous quantities of ammunition which had been stored in the church. Tho people also fled, but the descent of tho Communists was so sudden and overwhelming that they captured hundreds of refugees before they were well started. Father M. Geser, a Gorman Catholic priest, with whom we had enjoyed close fellowship over a period of years, was shot dead by bandits on the way out. Dr .Silas Huang, of our Kicnning Hospital, with his wife and child, was captured twenty-five Ji outside tho city, robbed of bis money and valuables, and taken bade as a bound prisoner. He remained in captivity about a month, and has given us about tbo only reliable information that wo have received from Kicnning and Tabling since the invasion on May 31. Dr Huang is now being invited to assist in tho Vcnping Mission Hospital. Pastor Liso Ching Sung and Air Chiu Ching Wen escaped to a village, which, within a couple of days, was raided by the Rods, but once again they were able to elude their pursuers. Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and neighbours, all were separated in the grand scramble to get away from tho Communists. _ Many were caught, robbed of their possessions, and as promptly released. Others wore sought out on far distant mountain peaks by paid agents of tho ‘'People’s Government.” 1 Dr Huang reports that the Communists distributed our furniture, beds, bedding, books, etc., and then pulled down our house. They convoyed the drugs, instruments, and apparatus from the hospital to one of their military headquarters, and then pulled down tho hospital also. They explained that in burning the buildings of capitalists and their agents they were likely to destroy the homos of the poor. So far as wo know they have decided to use tho other .mission buildings, and, though damaged, they have not yet been destroyed. , All deeds am! titles to land and property have been destroyed in accordance with Soviet principles. Whether or not they have been able to open tho mission safe and destroy the mission deeds is something on which wo have not had any report. Tho question might bo asked .why many of these movable possession were not transferred to places of safety. With such a largo number of Government troops on duty no one expected Kicnning to ho tahen by the Communists, and, oven if wo did, wo would not have dared move onr possessions, as tho very act would take the heart out of our Chinese colleagues and give the impression that wo were withdrawing permanently. Keeping faith with tho Chinese church in its difficult rural programme has been and still is of more value than tho thousand dollars gold which it will cost ns to refurnish in the old or another centre. The Chinese Government has already made provision for rewriting and stamping the lost deeds of tho people, and there should not be any difficulty in establishing onr titles and having tho mission deeds rewritten when the Soviet Government is expelled from our mission area. Whereas there has not been any definite perse ution of Christians as such by the Communists, practically all our church leaders and laymen are land owners and come under the designation of capitalists. .If the Communists continue to administer our district, all our church members will bo reduced to tho status of coolies, and it will certainly be some time before organised Christianity may again take its place in the community. The self-support, and in Kienning itself the endowment which the church had recently raised, ivill all bo swept away over night. This latest calamity that has overtaken ns affects not only the missionaries and the staff of tho Chinese church, but the entire Christian community as well. Before the year under review actually closed on Juno 30, 1931, wo had opened a refugee fund and already assisted qnjto a few of our Christian families who had fled empty handed down to Foochow. It has been out of the question for many of them to travel so far on account of bandits and tho expense of travel, and reports inform ns that they are hiding in the villages, being forced to constantly change their places qf concealment, since many of the peasants are being organised into Soviet spies and agents. Tho future of our work very largely depends upon the success of tho Nanking Government in its campaign to eradicate Communism from tho southern provinces. Given security, the people of Kien-tai-taing, whore our interest and work have been centred, present many favourable and friendly opportunities for the further development of the Chinese church and its allied institutions.