DIFFICULT DIOCESE

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1933, Page 9

DIFFICULT DIOCESE

WESTERN CHINA TURMOIL. BISHOP’S HAZARDOUS ADVENTURE. Bishop - Mowll, -Sydney’s Archbishopelect, has written to the Administrator (Bishop Kirkby) that he. intends to make a visitation -of his vast diocese of Western China before leaving for Australia, via England and Canada. He plans to hold a synod in .each of the three areas into which the diocese is divided, says Mr. F. S. Harty, in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. The whole of China is in a state of violent unrest, but conditions in Western China are particularly unsettled. Szechwan—to give the territory its Chinese name—has been in a constant state of civil war for many years. The rival war lords have found the men of Szechwan excellent material for soldiers, for, as an old Chinese proverb puts it, they have always been first in war and last in peace. Some months ago the bishop had a narrow escape when his house was in the centre of a pitched battle between two "generals,” who left little but ruins and dead bodies behind when they marched away. Now the position is made immeasurably worse by the addition to all the other sorts of brigands of bands of Communists. The pusillanimous politicians at Nanking are impotent in the face of this new outbreak of anarchy. Not that they ever restrained in any way the activities of the wai’ lords, but to them they could address protesting “notes.” Now even this pretence of authority is impossible. Szechwan is over 1000 miles from the coast, westward of the great mountain range of Central China, and is ringed round by. towering, snow-capped mountains of between |7,000 and 18,000 feet in height. Thus isolated from the rest of China, there is no hope of outside interference. The only law is that of might, and peaceful citizens on their lawful occasions have to trust to stealth and luck to escape.

Britain’s prestige does not avail to protect Bishop Mowll or any other of her citizens in Western China, as protests to the Central Government are futile and reprisals impossible. There is a long .and growing list of missionary martyrs in China, and Szechwan has contributed its quota. In 1928 a Chinese deacon was murdered by brigands on his way home to be ordained priest by Bishop Mowll. The bishop himself has been captured by brigands and held until ransom was paid. On another occasion he was severely beaten and robbed by Chinese gangsters. Dr. Mowll now proposes to make a tour of the province at a time when conditions are worse than ever before. Always he has bravely taken his life in his hands, and has had many miraculous escapes. His huge frame makes him an outstanding figure, not easily disguised, and brigands have a natural hatred for missionaries.

Bishop Mowll, inspired by his high sense of duty, is essaying perhaps the most hazardous undertaking in the history of missionary enterprises. Many months must pass before news can be received that this adventure has been accomplished.