The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-15
IT COSTS
A MILLION
Expense of Missionary
Safeguards.
A HEAVY BILL FOR UNCLE
Nearly Fifty Per Cent Of State De-
partment Correspondence Re-
lates to Missionaries.

WASHINGTON, May 4.-Never a day
passes at the State Department but that
some protest is filed, by mail or other
wise, regarding alleged outrages on mis-
slcnarles in foreign lands. Nearly so per
cent of the letters received at the Consul
lar Bureau of the Department relate to
protests OF treatment accorded Chris
tlans Whe are trying to spread the Cos
pei among the heather. In looking after
the welfare of these representatives of
the church who go to distant countries
TO convert natives to Christianity it is
estimated that the Government spends at
least Sl,0O0OOO year. This represents the
value of the time of Consuls in looking
after United States missionaries the
time of clerks here at Washington col
lectlng and filing data, the cost of pros
ecutlng claims for damages and in many
cases the cost of maintaining and trans
portns nome missionaries whose houses
nave been burned or whose goods have
been seized by lawless heather.
1his estimate of s1,0OO,0O0 is not excess
| we 1t was made by Chief Clerk VIII
nam H. Michael of the State Depart
nieht, and was ELECTED in connection with
the demand just made by this Govern
ment on the Sublime Porte for the paw
ment of the $4,000 indemnity for do
struction of the buildings of missionar
les near Smyrna. This claim has been
pending more than five years. Three sue
cesslve United States Ministers have
prosecuted the claim, and in each case
| the Sublime Porte has promised to nav
Ihe last promise was made eighteen
months. ago, and now the demand has
been made for cash settlement at once
! When the United States finally gets this
10000 to turn it over to those who suf-
| Iered financial injury as result of the
| depredations of the Turks the expense
| OF collection will have almost eulIalled
the sum of the indemnity. Yet the Unit
| ed states cannot deduct expenses, for it
maintains representatives abroad and
! pays them salaries, in addition to the
/ salaries of clerks here in Washington to
perform just such duties as arose in con-
nection with the Turkish claim
Nearly one-half of the letters which
| are opened in this Office said one of the
clerks in the Bureau of Archives and In
| de>es, which has charge of the opening
| and asserting of all correspondence of
the State Department excepting that of
! Ambassadors and Ministers, come either
| from missionaries in foreign lands Con-
/ SulS VINO report case of outrage of in
justice against missionary, or from
! home secretaries of missionary societies
making their protests directly to Wash
| iEgton. These letters come in every
mail. Sometimes they are long indct-
ments of the Ameer of Afghanistan or
the Mandarin Of Chingkow. Sometimes
Z
! negligence in looking after their inter
! ests In nine times out of ten-and l
say this absolutely without prejudice
/ the protests filed with the State Depart
ment are unjustified, almost puerile, re-
| lating to trivial incidents which are not
worth the trouble of even investigating.
! An outrage, to merit investigation in an
! official sense, must be sufficiently fla
grant and tangible to insure some return
! for the time, trouble and expense the
! State Department will be put to- For
| instance, the mere fact that a United
! States missionary has been robbed of a
! few dollars by sneak thief is not sub
/ Ject for attention on the part of the Gov
ernment, whether the robbery took place
| in Pekin, Hongkong or Basutoland. 1t
was merely misdemeanor, properly
! punishable by the local authorities But
| If missionary is assaulted by half a
dozen toughs or brigands in any spot
where it seems that police protection
should have been afforded him. then the
nearest Consul may properly be directed
to investigate the case, and if it appears
that the local constabulary was either in
silent partnership with the brigands
neglectful of duty, then a claim for dam
ages might be warranted The policy of
the State Department, l need hardly add,
is never to make any definite forward
move until it is absolutely convinced that
it has some reasonable grounds upon
which to base protest. When it knows
that it is right, it goes ahead and gets
what it desires, even if it takes several
years and a warship or two, as it seems
to be the case with Turkey and the Sub
lime Porte.
"A great many protests from mission
aries reach the Department utterly un-
warranted and in many cases absurd.
don't know of more ridiculous protest
than one which was contained in a let
ter / opened last week. 1t was from a
missionary in Seoul, Corea, and the ale
cation set forth was that the missionary,
while in his legitimate occupation OF
saving souls, had invented a crude kind
of spinning wheel which he was trying 10
introduce among the natives. Accord-ag
to his statement, he was building up 1t
lucrative business, and the natives Were
beginning to become adopts in operating
the wheel, when a native Corean, one
who had been converted to Christianity
and had made one visit to the United
States to address Sunday schools and
a spinning wheel on exactly the same
principles as the original wheel of the
missionary. The missionary gentleman
asked that the State Department direct
its Consul General in Corea to file a pro-
test against the introduction of the ma
tive spinning wheels, as their use would
greatly interfere with the trade of the
American make, because the wheels could
be sold so much cheaper by the Corean.
The minister asserted that all of his prof
its went to spread the Gospel among the
heather and that his mission would be
deprived of considerable source of rev.
enue if the native wheel was sold in op-
position to his own invention. The De-
rartment has replied to this protest with
a very brief note, saying that the matter
is outside of it's jurisdiction. Yet that
mis- sionary will doubtless feel very much
hurt when he finds that he cannot pre-
vent the Corean from going into busi-
ness in his own country.
China and Corea are the countries in