MISSION WORK IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22102, 4 November 1933, Page 9

MISSION WORK IN CHINA

WILSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Mr John Wilkinson, hon. secretary in Dunedin of the Chinese Inland Mission, writes to say that an idea of what a medical missionary hospital accomplishes in the course of a year in China may be gleaned from the following extracts from the report for 1932 of Dr Stanley Hoyte, medical superintendent of the Wilson Memorial Hospital in connection with the China Inland Mission. This hospital is situate at Lin Fen (formerly called Pingyang), in the Province of Shansi, China. The foreign staff of the men’s and women’s wards of the hospital consists of one doctor, two duly qualified nurses, an evangelist, and a business manager. The Chinese staff is one doctor, three male nurses, four female nurses, three men exercising the various offices of evangelist, a registrar, a steward, a Bible woman, and a registrar for the women’s hospital., The total number of operations performed for the year was 433: — During the year 1932 the world-wide depression was felt even in inland China. Five hundred fewer people came to us for help than came last year. I made inquiries in all directions as to the reason for this falling off, and the chief reason always given was that the people had no money. Following a whole series or famine years came disaster to the currency. The Provincial Bank failed. Its notes became worthless, and everyone s savings and ready money vanished. _ To the whole community it was a terrible loss, from which people are only slowly recovering. The scarcity of money is made worse by heavy taxes, and though there are hundreds of' sick folk within a day’s journey of the hospital, if they have no money they do not come. - We have done our best to meet* this widespread poverty. We have reduced some of our charges for treatment, and many days half the people attending have had these reduced charges reduced still further, or remitted altogether. We always try to meet a man. One old fellow with cataract came to Us from a distance, bringing with him one dollar (value about Is 2d). For that fee we did the operation, and for a fortnight fed the patient and a friend who had come to look after him. Another man with the same trouble had begged a dollar to pay for the anaesthetic. He had no other money, but be had food, so we let him live in the ward whilst his wife brought in his meals every day. A carter came with a badly broken leg. He could only afford to pay. for his food for a month. We let him do this, but kept him a couple of months and made no charge for the extensive ’ dressings .that were needed. Many who were penniless. have been treated, and U need be, admitted for xiothing. We try to do something for everyone who comes to us, especially if curable, and if a man can be cured we do not leave the treatment incomplete if a few dollars_ is the only lack. When a patient is incurable we try to give some relief, but do not spend much money on him. There is, however, one class oi curame patient for which at present we are quite unable to provide adeqquate treatment. I refer to those suffering from tuberculosis of the bones and joints. lor instance, last year 17 cases came to us ,with tuberculosis of the hip or spine. 21 came the year Many of them were children. • Given a number of years in a sanatorium the majority of them could be healed, but the parents do not believe in us and our methods sufficiently to make them willing, even if they able, to pay for such lengthy treatment. If we 'took them in absolutely free they would probably consent, but we do not feel equal to tackling a group of semipermanent free patients. Lm Fen is too hot for such cases in summer. ,What we really need is a sanatorium in the mountains at some place that could be reached by a motor. Ones natural impulse is to attempt to start such _ place, but it 1 is no light thing to carry on an institution in inland China, it has to be staffed, and then to be kept in operation, so that all that goes on i it every day is pleasing to Christ and! actively promotes the building up of the in great disorder, but Shansi was fortunate in that banditry was almost entirely suppressed, and the people , lived saf y with well-behaved troops ready at any moment to deal with disturbers of the peace. In one instance where we Happened to be concerned the authontiM showed themselves very wide-awake. A man came to us saying that iiutne hills ho had been attacked by robbers and wounded as he fled. A bullet had entered the back of the neck and had come out in front, smashing the jawbone. It was a bad wound, but he was fortunate to escape with his life., A fraction of an inch more to one side and the shot would have killed him. We admitted him, but then the police came quietly round ana in a few hours carried oflj our patient. It transpired that the man was a criminal. He had been captured, condemned, made to kneel down, and in the merciful way usual out here, the executioner, standing behind, fired a revolver into the base of the skull. But the shot was misdirected. The man collapsed, however, as though dead, and his eon was allowed to come and carry him away lor burial, but on reaching home he discovered that his father still breathed. He placed him in the coffin and invited relatives to the funeral. When night fell he got his father out, revived him, and liked the coffin with stones and padding, thoughtfully adding 2lb of pork. There Was an elaborate funeral, with white garments, and wailing, music, and all the usual ceremonies. As it was July the pork produced the right atmosphere, and to all appearances the man had paid the penalty of his crimes. In reality, he lay hidden until well enough to come to us to be healed. But the police got wind of it, tracked him 40 miles to" this hospital, and took him away. I am convinced that but for an efficient police the* millions ot people around us in this province would be harried and tortured, have their houses burnt, their women carried off. and their old people and children held to ransom, just as is done in other provinces. . „ A little boy of seven fell and broke his arm. the fracture healed, but the elbow joint had grown together; it could not bend; the arm was just a rigid bar. The parents brought him 100 miles to us here; he was with us a month or more, and went home with a movablejoint. _ He spread the fame of the hospital, and from a nearby village they brought another little boy, this time with a large internal stone. We took it out for him, and when I handed it to the father he gazed at it awestruck, and exclaimed that our skill was like that of the gods. The son of one of the chief 1 men in the city fell and cut his head. He bled at intervals for 10 days until he was quite white, whilst Chinese doctors attempted in vain to stop it. We gave him an anaesthetic, tied the bleeding artery, and later gave him q tonic. He was soon well again. Hie father was so grateful that he gave us a feast and presented a banner inscribed to the effect.that our ability was like that exhibited at the Creation. The mother of the boy is a Christian; the father has often heard the Gospel, but it appears not to have touched him. I was surprised to note whilst waiting in his library that he was reading a Chinese translation of the autobiography of the Kaiser. Who would have thought of anyone in this far-away city reading such a book! Students often come to us for treatment, the nurses make friends with them, bring them to the services, and I am sure the hospital has a good name amongst them. A reputation for prescribing spectacles brings many of them to us, for a number are severely handicapped by defective sight. Some struggle for years through the schools unable to see what is written on the blackboard, and others cannot read 'a book for any length of . time without discomfort. The surprise and delight of those who get the right lenses and suddenly see all things plainly is a pleasure to witness. During the last year I have prescribed spectacles for nearly 80 people. A number of those-who profees conversion in hospital return home, and though losing for the time all touch with other Christians make some attempt to live as they have learnt; They refuse to join in idolatrous practices, they read if they can, they pray, they give thanks before meals, they repeat the hymns and Scripture verses that they have learnt, and at least are eager to come fonvard and welcome any Gospel preacher who goes to their district. Follow-up workers find them, or preachers from other churches or tent workers come across them. The position towards which we are moving is that if the hospital spends time and money in follow-up work it must he so spent that it is a stimulus to the Chinese Church, not a deterrent to their

activities. We try to say to the Chinese Church, "These new converts are obviously your responsibility. If you find the burden heavy we will help you. If you will .send out someone to look them up we will send someone with them, so that there will be two, and we can help one another.” Working on these lines a considerable amount of visiting has been done, with very encouraging results. Some years ago we used to employ as men nurses Christian boys of 18 to 20 years of age, but recently we have employed older men whose characters were formed and who had had some experience of Christian work. We have every reason to be pleased with the change; these older men become fellow-workers to a degree that was impossible to the younger men. They share the missionary spirit, and are far more careful in their work and considerate of the patients than-were the former nurses.

The number of (foreign patients is increasing. Last year I had 86, with 318 consultations or treatments; most of these were in the summer. In July there was an epidemic of cholera in the south, and practically all missionaries were inoculated.