RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21859, 23 July 1934, Page 11

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

CHINA'S CONSTITUTION ADVANTAGE TO MISSIONS The little-known fact that religious freedom and toleration are written into the existing constitution of the republic of China was referred to by the Rev. G. H. McNeur, a Chinese missionary of 33 years' experience, who preached at St. David's Presbyterian Church yesterday morning. Mr. McNeur mentioned the great difference that fact had made to Christian mission work in China. Prior to the new constitution of the republic, missions worked under the shelter of toleration clauses that had been forced on China as the result of war. Under those conditions mission work was certainly not on a strong footing. "Now China has become a republic," Mr. McNeur said, "and in her constitution, which is as yet tentative, she grants religious freedom to every Chinese citizen. Mission work is now carried on under the protection of China's own laws, and that puts Christianity on an entirely different basis." Many of China's great leaders had been Christian, Mr. McNeur said, notably Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of the Republic. Chiang Kai-Shek, the present head of the Republic, and his wife, were Christians, and so were either leading members of the Government. Mr. McNeur said there had been a growing feeling 'of friendship for Britain in China ever since in 1926 Sir Austen Chamberlain sent his memorandum proposing that Britain should persist in an attitude of friendliness to the Government of China.