Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-28
ON THE TRAIL OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY

against foreign interference by deciding
against the missionary's SIDE even though
he be in the right. spirited young man
DARN told me how. when he was sitting at
Mukden, a litigant brought in his card
Church" (And, In passing. 1t may be men
toned that every missionary keeps his
personal cards carefully locked up for
Chinese can work wonders with the pres
tige Of a foreigners cardD ! said to him:
"Are you Chinese subject a British
subject? If you are a Chinese subject l
do not care anything about your religion
And before l through with him that
man learned that it does not pay to try
to hide behind the foreigners church in
some Chinese courts
In an endeavor to be perfectly fair I may
have given undue prominence to the fact,
frequently denied at home, that some
American and British missionaries do oc
casionally interfere with Chinese civil and
criminal cases, although apparently, judS-
ing from the interviews which follow, they
do in minor ways which do not reach
Picking. Ny pronounced conviction is that
they should not do so, under any circum-
stances. even to save their converts from
persecution. 1t is only just to add how
ever, that the entire missionary body IS
suffering from the odum of this sort of
thing chiefly because of the monstrous be-
havlor of the French and German priests.
The American minister at Picking, VIII
liam Rockwell has vigorous opinions about
missiona ries. What about the missionary
question: 1 casually remarked, at the end
of a rather extended interview. What
missionary question? There is no mission
airy question that l know Of he quickly
and almost sharply rejoined. Il have been
minister here for two years and during that
time there has been no missionary question
before me- except that unfortunate massa-
ere last spring down in Lien Chow. which
was purely a local matter and might have
happened anywhere. So far as | know, the
American missionaries are living in delight
full relations with the Chinese Their work
here in Picking is beyond praise; any one
who goes to it with unbiased mind must
admit that I spent two years in Interior
China and I saw missionaries of all bodies;
and I found them most delightful people,
whose work for the Chinese is simply be-
yond estimate. The missionary is doing
more for the cause of shall not say civ
iization, for that has become cheap word;
but for the cause of progress, of enlighten-
ment. than any other person or agency.
Not to speak of the purely preaching or
doctrinal side of the missionary's activities,
for that is beyond my province. his med
ical and school work are an unquestioned,
an inestimable good. l cannot imagine why
the people in the treaty ports criticise the
missiona ries. l cannot any real basis or
reason for 1t. They simply do not know
missionaries Nobody can look into the sit
uation, except he has an a priori' convic-
ton and prejudice. and sees only what he is
determined to see, without praislng the mis-
sionaries most highly
The opinion of Minister Rockhill covered
the broad question of the usefulness and
worth of missionaries; when 1 talked with
Sir John Jordan, the newly appointed Brit
ish minister, who is back in Picking after a
residence in Korea, 1t was upon the partic-
dealing. The legation had shortly before
reissued a paper advising British mission
aries not to NEEDLE with civil matters. 1t
was freely said in the port cities that this
paper was conclusive evidence that the con-
duct of the British missionaries had become
SO Objectionable that the government was
obliged to admonish them publicly. So I
took the bull by the horns.
Sir John, do you mind telling what
specific action the part of British mis-
sionarieS caused the issuance of that pa
PERI"
"There was none at all, sir none at ALL
There is not single missionary case in the
legation. We have criticism whatever
to make of our missionaries; they are a fine
lot of men and women, doing noble work"
Then he proceeded to tell me the real rea-
son for the publication of the paper, but as
that verges on a delicate phase of interna-
tional politics do not feel free to quote his
utterance 1t must suffice to say that by
words and manner and by the fact that he
had that very day a reception at the lega-
ton in honor of Rev. Timothy Richards
the well-known English missionary, the
British minister expressed the most cordial
Endorsement of Anglo-SaXon missions and
missionaries.