LETTER FROM A MISSIONARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12989, 2 June 1904, Page 9

LETTER FROM A MISSIONARY.

Mb Adam, of Bon Accord, lias received a letter from the Rev. John Itaciutyre, who is in charge- of the Presbyterian mission at Haicheng, Manchuria, ddtsd March 4, from which we are permitted to wake the followin™ extract:—"lt stems to me clear wo cannot remain during' hostilities. We are on tho fighting line, and Haicheiig is bouml to figure again as it did in 1895-6. If again Britain steps into the quarrol, then we may have no footing nearer than Tientsin. Wo feel wo ought, if at all possible, remain in touch with our Chinese Christiaus, and by tho aid of .1 few couriers I could do.so if allowed to reside in Jsoweliwang. Our girls' Eehools arc suspended. The sfirls went homo in natural course for their Now Year holidays, and meanwhile war- was declared. Wo now know that oven tho country schools, the schools in the homes of tho people in quiet, ■ secluded places, cannot go on. Everybody thinks of the possible outcomo of tho hurly-burly of war, and everybody has his or her ' bundle' ready to floe. A great deal of movement has taken place already—mostly to quiet nooks among the hills, which gavo wondrous sheltp; , in the Boxer war. As to tho war itself, you get tho details sooner than wo do. Wo learned on February 11 from the Russians that -there hail been a serious mishap. The magistrate put out a proclamation forbidding tho well-to-do to depart, and especially orioring shoiikecpem net to shut up shop. Then the. peoplo jumped to tho conclusion Uiat tho Japanese would bo tearing in in a trice, and they refused to receive Russian money. Another proclamation from (he- magistrate followed, compelling tho fre-o use, as heretofore, of tho Russian paper rouble—only nobody, not even our city autocrat, could keep it up to I its former value. . . Then wo had another scare—ono hundred and fifty good horses or mules wanted in an hour's notice; all tho city gates shut, and tho magistrate with a sentry over him, "'while the city wb ransacked for rattle. . . Of course the attack on Port Arthur wa3 fho causa of our trouble. The Hussians never ; boUored in the possibility of war till that moment, and Jioiire the hurry to get troops up to weak spots."