“At the Front” in China

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7961, 18 November 1911, Page 15

“At the Front” in China

Wu-Chang and Hankow Cities oj Importance

WUCHANG, the centre of the revolutionary disturbances in China, is the capital of the central province of HuPeh, unci is a city of about GOO.OOO inhabitants. It is situated just across the Yany-lbte river i'rom Hankow, and in a sense the two may be regarded as a single great city of 1,500,000 souls. Hankow is the grout trading centre for all central China, but Wu-Uhaug takes precedence over it in political importance. As the capital of the province and the seat of government of the Viceroy, it has a great number of officers, including all the high provincial mandarins and the mandarins responsible for tho government of tho city and tho prefecture. There are also to bo found in the official quarter hundreds of exxiectant mandarins awaiting aiipointments to prospective vacancies.

Tho xirovinco of llu-Poh —a name which may be translated “North Lake” —is considerably larger than England and Wales put together, and has a population of &V 900,000.

Wu-Chang and Hankow, as trade centres and x>orts for ocean steamships, have both felt to a considerable extent tho influence of Western civilisation. Both cities have electric lighting systems, cotton mills, silk factories, and schools. Wu- . Chang is tho scat of an important normal school for women. "Within tho last five or six years both citios have thrown their idols into the street or into tho river, clearing many of their tomxdes of priests and all emblems of worship, to make room for public schools. Tho movement was not religious, but purely materialistic. The leaders of it, stimulated by tho example of Japan in adopting ■Western methods of teaching, have been seized with tho idea that education is the one thing needed to make China great. Tho worship of Confucius remains for the present in the schools. Tho more progressive element in tho population, however, is said to regard all religion, whether Buddhism, Christianity, or any other, as superstition. Tho Christian missionaries, however, havo been ablo to mako considerable headway, particularly through their educational work and their hospitals. . The outbreak of revolution in \yuChang, says tho New York "Evening Post” of October 11th, lias come with great suddenness, and it is an indication of tho widespread dissatisfaction throughout China. Tho last previous outbreak of revolutionary activity was in the province of Sze-Chuau, 500 miles up tho river, and it appeared at Cheng-tu, an interior town 175 miles north of tho river. It is noteworthy that Cheng-tu also is a provincial capital. # Students of Chinese affairs have believed for a year or more that the signs pointed to a series of outbreaks which pessimistic observers believe will lead to the dismemberment of tho great empire. The struggle is said to be, in its essence, a test of strength between the great central government and the provincial baronies. CHURCH WORKERS AT WU-CHANG * Thera are many missionaries in Wuchang. A large number of them represent the United States, although but two church organisations have sent workers thither from this country. These are the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Society has thirty-four missionaries in and about Wu-Chang at present. They are: , _ T „ The Eev. Y. T. Lieb, the Rev. L. C. Wang, the Eev. L. C. Hu, the Eev. 1. S’en, the Eev. T. C. Nieh, the Eev i. C. Huang, the Eev. H. T. Hu, the Kev. Y. T. Chu. the Eev. T. H. Fu, the Eev. C. Y. Siu, the Eev. Y. K. Liso, Mrs Kwel, the Eev. T. S. Tsang, the Eev. W. C. Nieh, the Eev. E. E. Wood, the Eev. J. Jackson C.D., the Eev. L. B. Eidgely, the Eev. A. T. Cooper, the Eev. C. L lecher Howe, the Eev. Dudley Tyng, the Eev. Ed. M. Herrins, ELD., Miss Mary V. Glenton, Miss John MoWillie, Miss J. A. Wilson, Miss E. A. Kemp, Miss J. W. Sell, Miss E. P. Miller, Miss A. B. Byerly, Miss K. E. Phelps, Miss F. 11. Higgins, Miss M. E. \Vood, Miss E. L. Eidgely, Miss L. E. Baker, Mrs Lnn. Hankow and Wu-Chang aro tho centres of one of the largest missionary _ establishments maintained by tho Episcopal Church in China. John W. Wood, secretary of tho Episcopal Board of Missions, speaking to a New York pressman, said that recent letters had spoken-of the general unrest throughout China. At Wu-Chang, he said, the church supported Boone University, attended by 350 native students; a large school for girls, and a hospital, besides an establishment for evangelical work. In 1903 the Christian and Missionary Alliance of New York had two men and two women at Wn-Chang. The London Mission Society had three men and three women, of whom one man and one woman were physicians. The Wesleyan Missionary Society of Groat Britain and the Swedish Missionary Society of Sweden each had three men and their wives and a woman physician. Dr E.. H. Glover of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Society, who Is chairman of tho Central Conference in, WuChang, but was in Now" York on furlough with his wife, said that altogether there were about fifty missionaries in (hat section of China. Those representing the Alliance Society are the Eev. M. B. Birrel, now acting chairman of the Central Conference; , the Eev. W. E. Shantz and his wife, in charge of the local affairs; the Eev. W. T. Davis, who with tho Eev. M. B. Birrel has charge of tho two training schools of tho society, tho Blackstone Bible Institute, and the Boys’ Middle Boarding School, and the Eev. E. Torvalzson and his wife, who aro studying the Chinese language. Dr Glover added that there were also Bdman Catholic missionaries in WuChang who maintained a theological and collegiate school.