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

take their protection at the beginning of
the outbreak.
"All the survivors of our churches were
reduced to absolute poverty They were
harmless, inoffensive people who had no
feuds with their neighbors and had not
intruded their religion upon any one. This
was at least true of the Protestant Chris
tians.
IF a missionary by means of his per-
sonal influence and by the assistance Of
the local official who might be friendly
to him could bring the neighbors of his
prosecuted people to see the errors of
their ways, and persuade them to con-
tribute money for the rebuilding of the
destroyed houses, and for the support OF
the survivors of the families, l think he
is justified in so doing. 1t seems to me
he would be hardEhearted to do other
wise"
We do not impute to the Rev. Dr..
Ament any conscious lack of candor in
this manner of describing his tour Of
systematic assessment and collection at
the. rate of 500 taels for each convert
slain. If in the course of his month 8
hard work at assessment and collection
in Wenah, Paoting-hSien, Pachow, Ping
ting, Chochow, Liang- ksiang, Shuni, and
the other towns of his district, he found
everywhere charitable uncovered Chi
nese villagers ready to subscribe volun-
tarily a total of many thousands of dol
lars as a relief fund for destitute Chris
tan converts, we can only say that
there are parts of the world where Chris
tan missionaries are more urgently
needed than in that part of China.
How far coercion, direct or implied
how far terrorism and the fear of conse-
quences entered into the process Of
bringing the neighbors of the prosecuted
people Ito see the errors of their ways"
and to hand over their taels to the Rev.
DR.. Ament, will be known only after his
arrival in this country and a careful in
vestigation of all the circumstances at
tending his tour of assessment and col
lection. He says now that no harsh
measures were resorted to. He said a
month ago in a letter to the Rev. Dr.
Judson Smith Jhat he had made no use
of foreign soldiers and brought no ex-
ternal pressure to bear, relying in all
cases upon the justice of our claims.
But what does DR.. Ament mean when
in his Picking interview describing the
voluntary contributions of the unconvert-
ed villages he goes on to say:
Not to have taken some such meas
ures would have indicated to the Boxer
sympathizers an abnormal weakness ana
indifference to the sufferings Of our ma
tive Christians that would have tended
to increase the latter's troubles by rails
ing the courage of their enemies?"
And what does he mean when he adds
in the very next paragraph:
In all cases, so far as 1 know, the
missionaries have yielded on the side OF
generosity and charity in the collection
OF this indemnity?'
1t is hard to understand the psychologist
relations between the collector of indem-
nifty for the despised converts and the
unconverted who are voluntarily paying
! that indemnity on the strength
of the collectors unsupported ap-
peals, when it is the collector and not
the donor that assumes credit Tor
yielding on the side of generosity ana
charity" And DR.. Ament has just gwen
US this description of the people 70
whose generosity and sense of justice he
says he appealed successfully wherever
he carried his subscription book:
Experience in China proves that seem
ing weakness in dealing with the chi
nese only increases their spirit OF dis
trust and their desire to continue In
crime. Excessive kindness they will at
tribute to fear; the spirit OF aitrulsin
| is entirely alien to their natures.
We fear that there is something yet TO
be cleared UP concerning the methods
and details of the systematic exaction OF
indemnity Meanwhile, DR.. Aments
statement establishes the fact OF tnat
systematic collection of indemnity by
self-constituted Court of Equity or
Claims Commission consisting of the
missionaries themselves, responsible 10
no lawful authority and acting under no
| legal warrant The interference was not
even in behalf of American citizens. II
was between Chinese and Chinese mere
is nothing in our treaties with CHINA
comforting upon the missionaries tne
functions they admit having exercised III
this respect.
| Secondly, as to the infiiction on the VII
| layers of an additional penalty, over ana
above the indemnity assessed, to go into