The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-02

the mission funds. This extra fine of
thirty-three and one-third per cent is
distinctly admitted by DIR. Ament
In general the process has been as
follows: To demand the rebuilding of
houses, or an equivalent in money, to de-
mand payment for tools and grains car
ried off, or for animals stolen; in case the
head of family had been murdered, or
one who was the provider. the sum of
500 taels is demanded for the support of
widows and orphans who have no other
visible means of support
No comment is needed here. However,
satisfactory to the Rev. Dr. Ament's con-
science was the motive of his demands
upon the villages, the collection of the
indemnity and the collection of the aodi-
tional exactian for the mission funds
was conceived and carried out in the
spirit of lynch law; and in many if not
most cases the penalty imposed by Rev.
DR.. Ament must have fallen not upon
the persons guilty of the original out
rage, but upon those innocent of partici-
patton in it.
AS to the general attitude of the Rev.
DR. Ament toward the Chinese who have
not accepted the gospel he went forth to
preach his statement is Illuminating.
There is mo word from beginning to end
that is in sympathy with the spirit of
brotherhood and mercy and forgiveness
Christ taught to mankind. The reverend
doctor is missionary of the Church
militant. He is 8, practical man. He be-
Heyes in making examples of the wick
ed. In questions of punishment for
crimes committed against the native
Christians, he seems at every point dis
posed to demand an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth We quote his criti-
cism of the lenity of an expedition de-
spatched by General Wilson into the re-
gion east of Picking to rescue certain
Christian families who were surrounded
BIZ Boxers General Wilson's orders were
that no soldier should fire a gun unless
fred upon Of this expedition the Rev.
DR.. Ament remarks with some show of
exasperation:
1.-THE Chinese could not understand
such Ieniency. a well-equipped body of
265 cavalrymen under able officers, pass
ed through a region filed with blood
thirsty Boxers, whose hands were red
with the blood of more than a hundred
Christians, where thousands of dollars
worth of property had been destroyed
and many chapels burned, and not one
man was called to account for this ter
rible lawlessnessn'
And a little further. on he contrasts the
swift retribution that fell upon any COM
munity that fired upon the invading mill
tary with the forbearance shown to vii
lagos where the missionaries and their
hocks had suffered:
zone gun fired at a troop of foreign
soldiers would easily result in the de-
struction of a village or villages and the
loss of many lives. That was considered
justice or the necessities of warfare. But
in a village where scores of native Chris
tians have persisted by the hands of the
Boxers, and missionaries have been driv-
en- out and vilified, for the latter to de-
mand the punishment of a few notorious
leaders is considered by some contrary
to the professions they make.
Is not this an extraordinary complaint
Does it not read as If it came from an
Old Testament Christian?
The fourth charge has been that OF
looting. The Rev. DR.. Ament says:
''In explanation of anything that mis-
sionaries may have done in the line OF
footing, it is only right to say that a
famine was predicted for the coming
winter. that they had hundreds of people |
in their charge who were in Immediate
need of food, clothing and shelter and
who looked to the missionaries for assist
ance. It is but justice to them TO say
that If in the ardor of their desire 10
provide for their people they did some
things that attracted criticism they did
it with the best of intentions and honest
desire to provide for t.e people for whom |
they felt more or less responsible"
Dr. Ament himself took possession Of /
the palace from which Mongol prince |
had fed at the approach of the relief ex-
petition. The reverend doctor does not
deny that he appropriated and sold off
the vaIuables belonging to the Mongol
prince whose house he occupied but
urges as an excuse that this same prince
had been active in the persecution of the
mission people, and in the destruction of
their property: and he adds:
1.-THE question may be asked as to the
right or propriety of the missionary SELL
ing off the stuff which he found In the