A MISSIONARY'S STORY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9999, 17 June 1918, Page 7

A MISSIONARY'S STORY

RESENTED BY CHINESE CONSUL

STRONGLY-WORDED LETTER TO ACTING PRIME MINISTER.

Mr Lin Sliih Yuan, Consul for the Republic of China, has written at length to the Acting Prime Minister (Sir James Allen) protesting strongly against statements made by a missionary who is lecturing ip the Dominion on the .subject of China. Mr Yuan quotes the following passages from a lecture reported in a Wellington newspaper:—

1. His stories of life in China were not in the least attractive, but they helped to impress tho need for mission work in the land of Confucius.

2. Life there is apparently cheap. 3. Men steal girls and sell some of them.

4. Unsuitable wives are also sold. 6. Mothers destroy baby girL

6. And there is other need for Christian influence.

These sentences, writes Mr Yuan, were apparently tho texts upon which Mr Powell based Ilia remarks, and the lecture was illustrated by lantern slides, which in the language of the report ‘‘tell moro than can be conveyed in words” and “are really appealing and instructive.” Mr Yuan asks whether it ia not possible for tho Government to prevent a repetition of these statements. . Referring to statements 2,3, 4 and 6he says:—“While there may be a grain of truth underlying each statement that grain of truth no more discloses the characteristic of the Chinese nature than docs a single grain of dooksoed indicate tho character of the thousandton shipment of wheat into which it unfortunately obtruded and of which it forms an infinitesimal part. _ The statement No. 2 that life there is apparently cheap seems to suggest a disregard of the moral law respecting the duty of a Chinese to his neighbours, and this Is answered by the dictate of Confucius who said: ‘Do not do unto others what you. would not they should do unto you,’ a dictate which has been impressed upon every schoolboy during tho past 2200 years. The Chinese make short shrift with criminals, and hence tho Chinese are a moral and_law-abid-ing people; but a missionary would possibly prefer to save the life of one whose presence among them self-re-specting Chinese would resent. WHITE SLAVERY. “The statement No. 3 is one which unfortunately, is as applicable (or even more so) to all Christian countries as to China. Those Chinese who have studied tho manners and customs of Christian countries are quite as much shocked at the practice of ‘white slavery’ In those countries as is Mr Powell at tho kidnapping of girls in China; but neither practice is a characteristic of the nation concerned. With reference to tho statement No, 4, while suoh a transaction maybe possible among the lowest orders in China, I venture to say that a similar transaction is not unknown among the- lowest orders of tho Europeans; No. sis a statement which has been repeated till one is sick by short-sighted travellers who gloat over the garbage supplied to them by low-class scandalmongers, who are well aware that a lie commands a higher price thali tho truth. It la not true that infanticide is common in China. It is true that it wna practised to some extent in certain parts, but tho practice is being eradicated, and for centuries there have been established in various parts .of tho country, homos where tho child which is ‘not wanted’ is taken in and edred for. The sixth sentence suggests that there are other things which ‘Christian infltuonco’ will remedy; but I would point out that if Christian influence has not eradicated the evils referred to in those countries which are professedly Christian, Christian missionaries would be doing a more fitting work if they cleaned thoir own countries before branding a whole nation as vicious, because among the people in that nation thoro is an infinitesimal number who do things which are abhorred by the nation at large. “NEED FOR MISSION WORK.” “The gravest statement, however, is that contained in the sentence No. 1, ‘His stories .... helped to impress the need for mission work in the land of Confucius.’ To couple Confucius with such stories as Mr Powoll relates is a gross insult to tho Chinese nation, and to tho man whose works contain tho finest code of morals over yet published, and who compiled that code without claiming assistance from anything supernatural. Well might a Chinese paraphrase tho sentence after relating stories of the white slavery, wife-beating, adultery, infanticide, declining birth-rate, drinking to excess, and other vices in Christian countries, aay that such conditions “impress tho need for mission work in the land of Christ." After some references to the opium traffic in China, Mr Yuan concludes by saying: “Following in the footsteps of my great grandfather, High Commissioner Lin, who, in 1839 and succeeding years, took a great part in an endeavour to save his country from tho blemish caused by the uso of that most pernicious drug above referred to, ] deem it my duty to try to save my country from wicked aspersions on tho character of its people, and I respectfully appeal to you as tho leader of tho Government of this country to assist mo in helping to establish mutual respect and friendly relations between tho peoples of our respective countries.’’