The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-05-03
DR., AMENT'S
TROUBLES

the Rev Or Judaun Smith, secretary ~
the American Board
ITO the Editor OF the sun-siri have
read with the greatest Interest the article
in your issue OF last Sunday. March y.
on the sixth page, entitled Missionaries
Defended, In which by your courtesy our
missionary, Rev. Dr. Ament, has had the
opportunity to explain himself In full be-
fore your readers. ! beg TO assure you
Of the great satisfaction with which
and my associates IN these Rooms note
the courtesy on your part. Nothing could
be a more clear or complete answer 10
those numerous criticisms which have
been abroad for many weeks than this
frank manly, comprehensive and salts
factory statement by Or. Ament. In Civ
ing to your readers and the public at
large this statement you have won de-
served credit to your paper, and nave
done a great service to the cause OF
truth. This interview shows Dr. Ament
to be exactly what I have known him
to be for these twenty years and more
n clear-headed, sound-hearted, coura-
geous. capable man and missionary. l
am. very truly yours,
"JUDSON SMITH,
American Board Of Commissioners Tor
Foreign Missions, Boston, March r.
We value the Rev. DR.. Judson Smiths
perception of the Suns desire to be fa!r
to all men and to serve the cause or
truth That is what we are here for. In
cidentally, the long interview with Or.
Ament at Picking which we published last
Sunday possessed great interest to all
who are studying the persons and the
motives operating in contemporaneous
human events in that part of the world.
For the statement in question was an ao-
solutely authentic, unrestrained unedited
revelation of the spirit and attitude-we
shall not say of the missionaries In CHINA
but at least of one American missionary
who has labored long and prominently m
that field, and has been recently the sub
ject of bitter criticism, to specific ex-
tent unjust, as we are presently going TO
show.
The particular instance in which criti-
cism has manifestly wronged the Kew.
Dr. Ament relates to the size of his ex-
actions from the people of the chinese
villages wherein native Christians had
suffered by Boxer outrages. Previously
to DR.. Ament's arrest at Tung Chow by
French troops on the charge of leading
the native Christians in Matchmaking
the villages, he had been engaged In
assessing and collecting damages Claimed
by the converts under his care. A dis
patch printed in the Sun of December "a
represented him as demanding and re-
ceiving from the local authorities, in ad-
fine amounting to thirteen times the in
demnity. The fact is that the additional
fine imposed by DR.. Ament was scaled
at one-third In excess of the indemnity,
not at thirteen times the amount. inc
error occurred in transmission over the
Chinese telegraph lines by an operators
confusion of 1-3 with ID. This mistake
was corrected in our Picking dispatches
as soon as it had been ascertained and
traced.
The secretary of the American Board
regards Dr. Ament's statement of the
reasons influencing his acts, and his gen
eral views of missionary duty under such
conditions as have existed since the re-
lief of Picking, as frank and comprehen-
sive. We are inclined to agree with me
Rev, DR., Judson Smith thus far. Wheth-
err we can go further and, like him, ac
cept DIR. Aments statement as "a clear
and complete answer to those numerous
criticisms which have been abroad Tor
many weeks" is a question to be deter
mined by impartial analysis rather than
by friendly prejudice.
The numerous criticisms which have
been abroad for MANY weeks" resolve
into these four charges
against DIR. Ament and perhaps other
missionaries, but not necessarily against
all the American missionaries In China,
or even a majority of them.
l. Systematic eXaction or eXtortion
from the village authorities of indemni-
ties for the losses of life or property sur
fered by the mission converts during me
Boxer disorders: these indemnities being
assessed and collected extraordinarily by
the missionaries themselves, that Is TO
say. by no process authorized by Chinese
local law or by our treaty arrangements
with China.
@ Mulcting the villages in a sum avow-
eddy beyond the amount of direct dam
ages claimed. This is the additional fine
of one-third in excess, transformed by
the telegraphic blunder in the first dis
patch to the Sun into thirteen times In
excess.
8. A vindctive attitude, or at least an
attitude of extreme and un-Christian &C.
verify on the part of some of the mis-
sionaries toward their erring Boxer
brethren, and against the unconverted
Chinese generally.
A. Looting; that is to say the appro-
priation of property belonging to absent
or defenceess Chinese. and the sale Of
the same for the benefit of the missions
and their Christian work.
If there has been in any reputable
quarter criticism of DR.. Ament or other
missionaries which does not fall under
one or another of these heads, we have
not happened to see 1t. We shall now ex-
anime DIR. Ament's statement to see how
far 1t constitutes a clear and complete
answer to the four charges catalogued
above.
First, as to the indemnities imposed on
the villages by the missionaries, without
other authority than that which their
own consciences discovered in the neces-
stiles of the situation, and without check
or restraint save In their personal ideas
OIL what was just This extra-judicial
mulcting of the innocent on account OF
the sins of the guilty Dr. Ament not only
admits but attempts to justly. He says:
There seems very little hope OF native
Christians receiving anything through the
Of their officials, nor did
the foreign Powers think they were call
ed upon to provide indemnity for them.
They We're even very reluctant to under
take their protection at the beginning OF
the outbreak.
IAN the survivors of our churches We're
reduced to absolute poverty. They were