Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1927 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 August 1927, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1927 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA

THE rcpoil made by American Catholin missionaries upon I lie internal condition ni Miil-Ohina as disclosed during their jicriliiHs journey from Kwci.•liow In Shanghai (a distance of from 1,000 In 1.2.00 miles), indicates Ihe lerI'ibli! sulii fit" the people of China through tin- prolonged stale of civil -war. The repi n also shows that the work <>i' 'Jhnstian missions in Western and Ccntial China lias nraeiieallv ceased.

Till a year or two ago, and before the pronounced anli - foreign movement reached its height, there wen- some u,OOO Protestant missionaries and 1,500 Catholic missionaries in China. Move

(han half of them came from the United States ami Canada. Tlwy were distribuled between 2,000 mission stations, every province containing its proportion -il such stations, The American Protestant, missions alone, had invested in land, buildings, including churches and schools, upwards of 16 millions sterling, and spent on their Work of evangelising upwards of 2 million pounds annually. The Protestant mission; - , claimed close ■in one million converts, arid taught over a quarter of a million children in their 7,000 schools. The, Catholic missions could show results proportionately great. But. today this movement —which lias been described as "the best financed, the best, equipped, the most, heavily and efficiently .staffed, the. must altruistic" exhibition of Christian endeavour in Asia-is in danger of extinction in every part of China when' the missionaries cannot, be protected by the guns of foreign warships. The missionaries suffer in the general anti-foreign movement, because they are, identified by the, great bulk of the Chinese people with all other foreigners in China. In order to show the intense feeling against the millions, we quote the experience of Tang Leang-li, the author of a book entitled "China in Revolt" : There is no group of foreigners who have done more harm to China than the modern missionaries, either directly or indirectly. It is in connection with their subversive activi ties that. China has lost the greater part, of her dependencies. By their teachings they have denationalised hundreds of thousands of Chinese converts and have thus been instrumental to a great extent in disintegrating not only the body but also the spirit of the 'nation. . . . They have made the. civilisation of China grievously misunderstood in the West, and are therefore largely responsible for the loss of prestige* which China has suffered for nearly a century.

However wrong "these conclusions may be, they seem to account for the present movement against Christian missionary effort in China. Rut there is a. silver lining to the cloud. The Christian converts have proved themselves staunch towards their teachers. This was proved recently at Nanking, where in tlie midst of the, rioting arid outrage the Chinese Christians stood manfully by their for eign friends at grave risk to themselves, and it seems that it was with the help of Chinese Christians that the Catholic missionaries of Kweichow were able to make the long and perilous journey to the coast. A well-known authority states that the missionaries have not been discouraged by this hostility shown to them as foreign.'is and that, such hostility makes them eager to translate their activity into Chinese terms. Indeed many missionaries are of the opinion that the present troubles will be for the good of Christianity in China, since they have proved the courage, of Chinese Christians, and will fend to weed out such missionaries as are unable to naturalise themselves among the Chinese people. There are many serious difficulties to be faced, and those difficulties are accentuated by the terrible state of the country, induced by the continual ■civil war and brigandage. But when the present unsettled state gives place to order ami good government, and new relationships are established between foreign commercial interests and the lulers of a united China, the. missions should share in the benefits of the restored goodwill and good understanding. For the present China suffers in the throes of internecine strife, and the missions suffer with her.