MISSIONS ATTACKED

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1930, Page 16

MISSIONS ATTACKED

CONSUL-GENERAL’S SPEECH. HOSTILITY TO MISSIONS DENIED. That Mr. F. T. Sung, Consul-General for China, had attacked Christian missions in a recent speech in Sydney, was denied the Rev. H. Davies, a New, Zealand missionary who was present and heard the address. Speaking at a Bible class rally held in his honour at Auckland, Mr. Davies said hb had been astonished to see the address reported in a Sydney newspaper under tho headlines: “Missions —Attack by Consul-General,” and with comments to the same effect accompanying the account of Mr. Sung’s remarks. “Although Mr, Sung criticised some aspects of mission work, he could hardly be said to attack missions,’? continued Mr. Davies. “If any attack was made, it was a veiled attack on what are commonly spoken of in China as the ‘unequal treaties.’ “In order to understand Mr. Sung's remarks, one has to remember that he is a representative of the Nationalist Government of China. One of the main planks of the Nationalist platform is the abolition of the so-called unequal treaties, which provide, for extraterritoriality. and give all foreigners, including missionaries, certain privileges which the Chinese naturally , consider an infringement of the nation’s sovereign rights. These concessions were in former days won by force, and Mr. Sung considers that many foreigners have grossly misused these special rights and privileges to exploit the Chinese people for their own gain. “But, as he says, ‘To the average Chinese mind, every foreigner is ■ a Christian, and by liim and his behaviour Christianity is judged accordingly.’ Moreover, Christian missionaries also live and work in the enjoyment of these special privileges. It is with this in mind that Mr. Sung says, ‘What view must the Chinese then take of the Christian doctrine of the universal brotherhood of man? Is it to be wondered at: that the Westerner is represented in pictures as carrying a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other?’

“This criticism has been hurled at Christian missionaries in China during the past five years by pamphlets, by newspapers, by placards, by cartoons, and by street orators, and has, at times, made our position most unpleasant. “It is a question to which there are two sides. Some missionaries have tried to denationalise themselves. But this is a practical impossibility. Most British missionaries have been content to get on with their- job and leave the question of treaties to their Government to settle, confident that they will do the fair thing by the Chinese Government.

“There was one point that Mr. Sung made in which I think he was unfair to missionaries. He considbrs them unsympathetic with China's national aspirations and as an instance refers to their attitude toward the registration of schools. As a matter of fact, one of the sins that missionaries are often accused of by some of their fellow nationals in China is that they are pro-Chinesc and unpatriotic, for the simple reason that they understand the Chinese point of view and sympathise with them.”

Regarding the non-registration o? schools, Mr. Davies explained that it was prompted by no lack of sympathy with Nationalist aspirations, but was in efl’ebt an appeal to the “religious liberty” clause in thc\ republican constitution. •

Mr. Davies quoted from an explanatory statement made by Mr. Sung two days after his address. In this the Consul-General referred to the early affiliations of the Nationalist movement with Christianity and Christian education. Mr. Sung continued: “For my own part, I am also the product

of the mission schools and American universities, and have always been, and still am, a keen supporter of the Christian Church in China. That my remarks were interpreted as an attack on the missions wae unfortunate. This was far from mv intention. I nave Iwea lona enough a China to. realise what manifold benefits the Christian religion has conferred upon our Chinese people. “My intention was merely to hying to the Christian followers in Australia the point of view of Cie average Chinese, whose mind has ben bewildered by the apparent inconsistencies of the Christian religion, and to explain in some measure the difficulties that have to bo faced by missionaries in China today.”