Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-06
THE CARE OF LEPERs IN INDIA.
Report Just Issued Shows That There
 Are 65 Stations ill Asia

Are 65 Stations i'll Asia. The annual meeting in connection
 with the mission to lepers was held at
 Exeter hall, London, the other day, Sir
 A. Wingate presiding. This mission
 aims not only at converting lepers to
 Christianity, but at relieving their suf-
 ferings and providing for their simple
 wants. The 18th annual report, which
 was presented by Wellesley B. Bailey | shows that the work is carried on in connection with, numerous denomina- tional societies at 54 stations in India, Burma and Ceylon, and II in China, Japan and ~Sumatra. Nearly half of these hospitals or asylums, are wholly maintained by this mission, and the to- tai includes 29 homes for the untainted children of lepers, while, in addition, l5 government or municipal asylums are open to the mission for religious teaching. The inmates of the society s | institutions, and of those aided by it, number about 6,42O, including 57O un- tainted and leper children. About 2,5OO are baptized Christians. Accord. ing to the committee there is great need for a central homo for European lepers in some healthy location in India. The society's income last year was f21 1895, the increase of f27,297 being chiefly. caused by legacies. The expenditure was f15,522 Many of the provincial governments now aid the work, and the committee hope that be- fore long all the missions institutions will be receiving substantial help from such sources. The Bengal authorities now propose to add a government side to the society's Purulia asylum, and to place the whole under the missionary's s superintendence The Manaraja Sind ha of Gwalior intends to erect and maintain a leper's hospital and to put it entirely into the hands of this mis- sion.
 A letter was read from Bishop Well don, who in promising to speak on this occasion had said: q would glad ly do anything for your noble and sacred work" The bishop now wrote that he was just getting over serious operation, and the doctor allowed him to do only the absolutely necessary work in his office He would, however, repeat that if there was any sacred or blessed cause in India it was the mis- sion to lepers.
 Sir Andrew Wingate said that lep- rosy had appalled, mankind in every generation, and it should be remember. ed that this plague was not banished from Great Britain till about 15O years ago. Now that railways and steam CTS were knitting us in closer com1nuni- cation with the east, it was the bound en duty of Europeans. if only in self protection to aid in ridding Asia of the Tva +ysoo oP isolation was absolutely necessary, but the segregation must be as far as pos sible voluntary. Tn this country, where people have been educated to understand the requirements of medi- cal science, it was possible to adopt compulsory method; but in the east compulsion was almost sure to lead to concealment, and, therefore, it would become dangerous. This society, com ing to the aid of the government was successful in placing lepers and their children under the best sanitary ad- ministration without any compu1sion whatever. It was no wonder, there fore, that the Indian government fully appreciated the society's value, and felt that lepers could not be treated better than by putting them under the care of the missionaries.
 The action taken by the Maharaja Sindhia of Gwalior was only another proof that our government was more afraid of Christianity than the natives were themselves This mission did far more than alleviate the leper's physi- cal suffering-it raised him from the sense of being under the ban of an angry God and it relieved him from the crushing feeling that he was the outcast of humanity. He desired, in conclusion to express the earnest thanks of the mission to our brethren and kinsfolk in Canada and the United States, whose contributions to the work last year amounted to f1,672. No alliance between nations, he said, was so strong or so likely to be permanent as when the nations united in effort to relieve the burden of human suffering and extend the Kingdom of Christ
 The mission to lepers, as its secre- tary announced last week, received last year over E6OO from the Missionary Pence association, which aims at ren- dering available for various mission organizations the contributions of those who can only give penny a week. The annual meeting of this so- ciety was held at Exeter hall, under the presidency of Sir William Godsell, last evening, when it was reported that the f2, ,694 had been raised in pence dur ing the year for specified missions, as we'll as E34O for home work and office expenses.-London Times.
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