The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-19
PRovoCATIoNs OF THE CHINESE

A Missionary View of the Causes Of
the Outbreak-Where America Has
Been at Fault
Vermont woman, who has been for
nearly thirty years missionary at Pc
kin, sent out by the American Board,
has summed up for the New York
Evening Post the situation in China,
the provocations which the natives
have suffered, and the attitude of the
missionaries. She says
In these days when so much just in
dignatior is being expressed against
the Chinese for the barbarities of which
they have been guilty, there Is danger
of our doing the Chinese an injustice.
We think only of the wrongs done to
foreigners, and forget all about what
injustice the Chinese have suffered at
the foreigners hands, which has caused
deep-seated hatred, which at last blazed
out In the terrible Boxer outrages.
Let me enumerate few of these
wrongs:
Between two and three hundred years
ago, some Roman Catholic missionaries
came to China. The Romish church
knew the Importance of the work which
they were to perform, and therefore
sent some of their ablest and most
learned men If those missionaries had
contented themselves with their proper
work of preaching Christianity and
teaching the arts and sciences, the his
tory of their church in China would
have been very different But true to
1orinniJo1nG thpU tn a
gain political power. Their plans We're
discovered; they were Immediately dis
missed from the court and banished
from the country; and their followers
were prosecuted, in the hope of putting
down a party which was believed to be
dangerous to the government. A foun-
dalton was thus laid for the distrust
with which the Romish church has
ever since been regarded by the Chi
nese
That first failure did not discourage
the Catholics, but they gradually re-
turned to the country and again took
up their work. Their perseverance has
gained them q million converts; but the
course which has uniformly been fol-
lowed by the church has served to per-
petuate and intensity the distrust with
which it is regarded. The Catholics de-
mand that their bishops and other
church dignitaries shall be allowed the
rank and style Of officials, which will
give them prestige with the people; and
as this demand is pressed by the
French minister, the Chinese govern
ment feels constrained to grant 1t, al
though unwillingly The Romish mis-
.Ir LIT,
to defend themselves against
robbers; but to the Chinese the step
looks like determination to get the
better of their neighbors, and to over
awe any with whom they have dis
putes Cases have often occurred
where quarrels between members of the
church and heather have finally result
ed in the murder of some foreign priest
When the case has been taken up by
the foreign government to which the
priest belonged, such large indemnity
has been demanded, and such numerous
have been gained by that
government, that the Chinese charge
the foreigners with being glad when
such outrages occur Thus it was that
the Germans gained the fine port of
And when the port and the
permission to build railways in the pro-
vince of Shantung had been gained
rom the unwilling but powerless Chi
leSe, the Germans rode rough-shod over
he superstitious, the sensibilities, and
as il seemed to the Chinese the rights
If the people in those regions. It was
ust there, and Just after these occur |
'ences, that the Boxer uprising COM |
nenced. At first the outrages We're !
confined to the Germans and the Cath |
,lics, but after the movement had !
yained Roadway 1t became bitter cru |
ade against all foreigners. For there |
we're other wrongs ranking in the |
hearts of the Chinese
THE OPIUM WAR.
Although the natives We're not well |
informed on all the particulars of the |
plum war with England, the better in
ormed Of them We're aware that their
government, knowing that the opium
abit was the curse of the country, had
rotested against England's sending
ny more OF the drug from India. l