New Zealanders With the Missions in Stormy China

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 27, 23 April 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

New Zealanders With the Missions in Stormy China

| The following graphic article 1 on life in (Jhina to-day has f been sent to THE SUN by the i Rev. Alex. Murray of Herne | Ray. It is written by Mr. J. ] Thompson, of the C.I. Mission . INVENTS are moving rapidly in China. u The incident of the shooting at the mob by the Shanghai police (in sheer self-defence) has been made great Capital of by the Red antagonists of Britain. Naturally China was stirred over it. If nothing else, it served to show them the importance of their nation and Government, but much more has been made of it than it deserved. One point that needs to be kept in mind is that agitation had been going on underground for a long time, and that was but the spark to the fuel. You will hear much about the “unequal treaties.” Well yes, “The Treaties” are unequal in some things and perhaps they are out of date and overdue for revision. Many of them would be revised by now if China could put up anything like a government fit for the job. In the meantime China does suffer some disabilities. But to blame “unequal treaties” for all China’s muddledom and fearful corruption is nonsense; but that is exactly what is being done by hosts of China’s liot-heads. If you remind them of their corrupt officials and rulers they say, ‘ Oh but these corrupt militarists have the backing of Britain and Japan.” It is an untruth to say they have the backing of Britain. I do not answer for Japan. Britain has certainly made mistakes in times past in her dealings with China, but of recent years Britain lias been a model of patience to'Yards China. Her every act has been characterised by goodwill and a desire to help China. To cite the opium traffic alone*, it is more than ten years since all legal trade in opium between Indio, and China has been stopped .by the British Government in India, and recently in order to check a certain amount of smugglnig still going on the same Government has taken further steps to prevent its expert from Inclia on the off-chance of its being smuggled into China. This last action has entailed a further loss of revenue to the Indian Government. Opium is still being brought in from Persia and Turkey with no restrictions whatever by the Governments of these two countries. It is estimated that the amount of opium smuggled in from all sources is about one hundred tons a year, an amount big enough in itself, seeing that the biggest hospitals in China use only a matter of a few pounds a year. I am not sure of the exact amount used, but it is trifling. Against this hundred tons smuggled in, what is China doing? She is growing fourteen thousand nine hundred tons every year, one hundred and forty-nine times the amount smuggled in. All classes and both soxes are its victims, from officials to coolies. Some might say that Britain forced the habit on China. The habit was started before Indian opium was imported by the East India Company; and Indian opium has never been ira-

ported into some of the provinces where the habit is the worst. So much for the opium question, yet you still get people stirred up by agitators who rave about the sins of Britain over the opium. There is a booklet widely distributed among China’s students by the aid of Soviet money in which Britain’s any and every action which might be or has been inimical to China is set forth. The Nationalists say they want to put down foreign aggression and do ith concessions. All right: do away with them all. But why during the recent attack on the British Concession at Hankow, why, why, were the Japanese and French Concessions left untouched The reason is that the whole thing is engineered by the Russians. Britain is the Russian Soviet’s enemy, not China’s. I hold no brief for the holding of concessions in China, but it has to be remembered that most of these concessions are built by foreign money on what was to the Chinese useless mud-flats. The land is China’s, but the buildings belong to foreigners. The roads were made by foreign enterprise. Foreign trade would be in a better position if it were free and more inland (as the Chinese do in British Dominions) instead of being cooped tip in narrow concessions. It makes one’s blood boil to see in the papers the piffle uttered by men like Mr. Lloyd George, who ought to know better. As missionaries we are unavoidably drawn into this trouble. In many districts work is at a standstill. Some have lost all their worldly goods; others have been driven out of house and home, and told that the buildings belong to China. In some cases the Southerners are using the buildings and in others they have sealed them up and forbidden worship. Hundreds of missionaries who stayed on too long have had to flee to the coast almost empty-handed. The same applies to business people from some of the up-river concessions. Taking the advice of the British Consul and our mission authorities, I sent my wife to the coast just before China New Year (this year, February 2), when all steamers usually stop for a few days. That is over ten days ago, and the steamers for fear of being commandeered have not started again so far. We are practically now under Southern rule, but the real army (led by the Russians) has* not yet arrived. I may have to leave yet, that is if I can get a steamer, but I don’t want to go. Some of the local gentry are urging me to stay. They say they can guarantee my safety. In the next station to the north of us are four ladies and two men gathered there waiting for the steamer. Two stations further north a young New Zealand couple, just married, have had their house " looted. Mr. Anderson comes from Stirling, in Otago, and Mrs. Anderson is from Wellington. Work is at a standstill. We still quietly carry on the regular Sunday services, but that is all. Over all we know the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He is working out His great purpose, glory to His name, with request for prayer on our behalf.