The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-14
MrssIoNs Owe SOURCE OF TROUBLE

on the trouble IN emma. Inc posllOH
taken in most of them is that the missions
and missionaries are in nowise response
BILE for II. II is doubtless true that the
missionaries are as careful as it is pos
sibie for them to be not to give offense
and to comply with the local laws and
with the treaty obligations of their re-
spective governments. But as a matter
Of fact are not the missionaries and mis-
sions one of the causes of the existing
trouble?
In the August number of the North
/ American Review there IS an article by
/ George b. Smyth president Of the Anglo
/ Chinese College at Foo Chow. entitled.
Causes Of Anti-Foreign Feeling in
/ China" In the course of his article he
says: Missions and missionaries. both
/ Catholic and Protestant. have also added
30 the causes Of antagonism. / am aware
that this is denied by many of those who
are interested in missions, but no one
will question it who is acquainted with
| the facts It is not wise TO argue from
the nobility of the missionary motive 10
its ready appreciation by the Chinese peo-
/ pie. The motive. so apparent to US is
not equally apparent to them. They look
at It through the medium of unfortunate
accompaniment Of which we never think.
Apart altogether from the offense to the
national pride in undertaking to teach a
faith claiming to be higher than their
own, the whole missionary movement is
unhappily associated with conquest. and
IFS liberation is the result of successful
war. Noble therefore, though the mo-
lives of the Christian Church are. its
work is tainted by its association with
force and conquest. To thoughtful Chi
nese. familiar with the recent history
of the country. the presence of the mis-
sionary in every province, in country Wiz
lagos as well as in great cities is a re-
minder of national humiliation
Mr.. Smyth has been a resident of China
for seventeen years, and occupies a po-
sition which enables him to know abe real
sentiments of the Chinese people with re-
gard to missionaries. He comics into
contact with the class of people who form
public sentiment His views, therefore,
on the subject of missionaries. as a cause
of trouble in China, are of far more value
than those of the casual or interested OBJ
server. He is not against missions and
missionaries. On the contrary, he is very
much in their favor. He says: 1.-The
Christian Church must preach Christian
ity. To ask it to reject its missionary
commission is to ask IL to commit sui
eide. Nevertheless, it is unwise not to
recognize in the preaching of the new
faith a source of antagonism. and it is
unjust to censure the Chinese too severely
for their opposition to what they do nos
understand. 10 a process which they re-
gard as destructive TO the fundamental
principles of their national life"
Assuming that the foregoing is correct
IL is apparent that the Chinese people are
hostile to missions and missionaries. They
| feel toward them very much as we feel
in this country toward the Mormon mis-
sionaries. How Mormon missionaries are
treated in pretty nearly every state in
this republic is very well known. They
| are driven out of most communities with
threats fof violence. The Chinese toler-
ate the missionaries because they cannot
help themselves. The Powers have bound
/ AHtHA ny tItdlitS ~ tIleiH Ger
tain privileges. They know that if they
violate these treaties. or harm the mis-
sionaries. heavy indemnity will be ex-
acted.
| In fact, the present trouble in China
had its origin directly in the killing of
two German Catholic missionaries These
missionaries were brutally murdered in a
! n Of in
vember 1897. AS an indemnity for that
! act Germany took possession of the i'm
| portant port of Kiao Chow, together with
a big slice of adjacent territory. That
act led to outrages out of which grew the
| Boxer movement.
| 1t is impossible, of course, to point out
in a short article the different ways in
which the missions and missionaries pro-
woke irritation. One or two may be men
toned. The opposition of Christianity TO
ancestral worship is what offends the Chi
nese most for they consider it an attack
on the most sacred of obligations. on the
very foundation of society itself. The
| peculiar political status of the converts is
| another cause of i'll feeling. The treaties
guarantee these converts immunity from
various exactions. These immunities get
the native magistrates, the missionaries
and the foreign ministers and consuls
into trouble, because the converts mislead
the missionaries in making charges that
the treaty guarantees are not respected.
And the face that the converts are re-
leased from certain exactions 10 which
other citizens are subjected makes the
people bitter against the converts and the
missionaries. 1t is hardly probable that
this or any other Christian nation would
submit to such treaty terms in respect
to converts to a religion hostile to Chris
tianty as have been imposed upon China.
What China has had to endure from
Christian nations is not calculated to
cause her to regard with favor mission
aries of the Christian religion. But mis-.
sionaries are not to blame for this They
have done the best they could for the
cause they represent.
-~
In Paris Mrs. Potter Palmer issues
cards stating that she will receive at her
hotel" on such and such days. BY some
means one of these cards got into the