The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-07
Chinese Opinion About Missionaries

For more than a decade the idea has
been held in certain quarters that much
of the trouble experienced by foreign
residents in China could be traced to the
misdirected energy and excessive zeal
| Of missionary workers there. So much
has been written and spoken concerning
the disregard of missionaries for what
the Chinese reverence that many level
headed Americans seriously doubt the
wisdom of maintaining in China stations
for the propagation Of the principles Of
Christianity. In the current number Of
the Atlantic Monthly CHESTER HoL-
CoMBE tells what he knows Of the mis-
sionary enterprise in China after having
studied it intimately for more than
thirty years.
Mr.. HoLcoMBE, an American who
has held important diplomatic Office in
China and has enjoyed the confidence Of
the Chinese Government, says without
reservation that the lamentable Boxer
movement, instead Of being an effort to
throw off a hateful missionary incubus
was an abortive effort to drive all for
eigners OF every class out of China and
thus save the empire from partition and
distribution among the great Powers Of
Europe, a division which was believed
to be the inevitable result OF the con-
tinued presence Of foreigners there.
He asserts, furthermore, that as a mat
ter Of fact the missionaries were the
only class Of alien residents that had no
part in the development Of such a fear
and frenzy. They suffered most from
the mobs Of ignorant Chinese simply
because so many Of them were living
with the common people, far in the inte-
rior, removed from warship or other
place of refuge.
China gained her first knowledge OF
the Western world through buccaneering
expeditions, Dutch, Portuguese, Span
ish, French, that descended upon her
coasts. Then came the military power of
Great Britain, whereby the doors of China
we're forced open in order to provide a
market for the opium Of India, in which
trade "that Christian Government held a
monopoly" Then came a half century
and more Of diplomatic intrigue, the vir-
tual seizure OF concessions and territory
to satisfy the greed Of great European
Powers, and more reCently, knowledge
that those same Powers had grasped by
bayonet and warship and had divided
among themselves practically all the
rest Of the world, barring nations strong
enough to protect themselves. Such,
in brief, is the knowledge held by the
masses of Chinese in regard to foreign
ers, as Mr.. HoLcOMBE l%nterprets it. For
the Christian missionaries, he says, the
Chinese Government and the people at
large have respect, admiration, faith
and friendship. 1t is good to learn this
from an authority whose knowledge at
first hand car hardly be questioned. He
does not attempt to deny that in par
ticular missionary cases" serious friction
has arisen between natives and Chris
tian teachers, but he adds that by far
the largest proportion Of such unfortu-
nate conflicts has been caused by the
unwise and improper interference Of
missionaries between native converts
and the Chinese authorities, or by the
assumption of civil rank and authority
by missionaries. Such conflicts are Of
less frequent occurrence now than in the
past, and we gather from what he says
that 80 long as missionaries attend to
their own business, Of acting as evangel-
lists Of the Christian religion, there ia no
reason to apprehend friction, much less
conflict. That the more intelligent Chi
3 understand the situation Is proved
by the large gifts they have made to
mission hospitals and schools, as well
as by the fact that the governing officials