The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-07-17
MISSIONARIES IN cHINA IN rHEIR owM pEFENsE.

MISSIONARIES IN CHINA IN THEIR OWN DEFENSE
statement has been issued from the Office of the
China Missionary Alliance Shanghai in answer to pub
lie criticism and to the charges mpung responsibility for
the Boxer uprising in part the popagandss of Chris
tanity The statement was prepared by committee Of
mission workers and said have obtained the approval
of nineenths Of the body Of Protestant mission
aries in the Fowery Kingdom Moreover it has been en-
dorsed by many of the leading British and American mis-
sOnary societies The statement IS therefore as close
approach TO official utterance as declaration can
be that is made collectively for number Of unofficial
voluntary associations
It is admitted in the statement to be "conceIvable'
that isolated actions Of missionaries may be con
strued having shown lack appreciation Of what s
good in Chinese life and thought or disregard of Chinese
prejudice and etiquette is asserted however that with
regard to the missionary body whole these charges
without foundation Inasmuoh as the SHANGHAI pro
nouncement Acknowledges the probable truthfuness Of
the minor premise the major premise may for the sake
of argument also be granted be assumed that
though deeorous Cinnamon were Mortified by the sight Of
unattended white from the missions racing Up and
down the country in performance Of their chosen work
and by other pecuares Of demeanor on the part Of the
propagandsts that they must have seemed offensive or
eccentric to the celestial consciousness still the conduct Of
the bearers of the gospel in general unexceptonal
from the Occidental point view Particular instances
of western maappropateness being thus eliminated moth
ing remains consider the effectiveness Of the Sbang
hal statement in the ght of what lawyers would call
a general denial
The charge that the irritation produced in China bv the
missionary propaganda the the Boxer uDrs-
ing is met by the enumeration other possible grounds
OF hostility, such the seizure of Port Arthur Wei hav
and KaoehOw the frOcble surveys by foreign engneer
of railways in Shantung and elsewhere and the economic
disturbances occasoned by foreign enterprises Nobody
has asserted that missionary propaganda was the sole
Of the antiforegn feeling China which eliminated
IN the Boxer atrocities but only of several causes OF
Chinese hostility. Indeed the Shanghai statement gives
the whole by admitting that the history Of for
eign relations has ali along been hereditary pref
udjce the hand and force the other; that the
foreigners have been siyen friendly reception in
China. but their presence was resented and tbs govern
ent only grudgngy yielded the few rights Outlined from
the treaty To that te Boxer movement was anti
foreign rather than antChrstan" is make distinction
without difference. With the ethical justification cor
rather with the lack of such ustdcation) Of Chinese
hatred Of the western foreigners and all their ork-Incud
ing their reigon-we not now concerned The facts
however undenbe that this hatred existed and that
st provoked the movement whereby vas intended 10
sweep the redhired barbarisns whether clericas or
laymen. into the sea.
Tie rest Of the Shanghai statement is defense
against the charge that the missionaries manifested an
unchristan spirit by instcncy upon the visitation Of
the guilty Chinese with condign punishment Consider
ing these appeals as coming from men possessed Of