The daily sentinel., 1910-11-16
INTEREST
IN REPORTS Of
RIOTS IN CHINA

More than usual interest attaches
to the recent reports from China to
the effect that the mission buildings
and establishment at Lien Chou had
been destroyed, for that is the Pres
byterian station in which it is deeply
Interested and to which it devotes its
foreign missionary donations.
The telegraphic dispatches of the
18th indicated serious cond tions ex-
listing in that section of China, and.
in response to many inquiries from
here and elsewhere, the secretary of
the board of foreign missions has
sent out the following letter to in
quirers here and elsewhere.
1--WE are naturally disturbed by
the telegraphic dispatch in this
mornings papers to the effect that
rioters have destroyed our mission
buildings at Lien Chou, China, and
that they attempted to kill the mis-
sionaries, who, however, escaped in
safety to Canton.
THE board has received no ad-
vices from its missionaries. AS they
are instructed to cable the board di-
rect when such disasters occur, we
are encouraged to believe that there
has been some mistake. Our hope is
-
newspaper dispatch states that Lien
Chou is lin kwang 81 province; !;
that, aft"- demolishing the build
ings at the station, the rioters pro
ceeded to TsoiyuenpO, intending to
slay the missionaries, and that
three battalions and a British gun
boat" left Canton to quell the dis
turbances. The Lien Chou where
our missionaries are stationed is not
in the province of Kwang st, but in
the province of Kwang Tung. Our
missionaries are not in Tyoiyuenpo
1t would take at least fortnight for
a military force to go from Canton
to Lien Chou up the rapid and shall
low river, and gunboat drawing
more than Q feet of water could not
get there at all. There is another
city named Lien Chou near the west
coast and southwest of Canton, and
1T may be. the one referred to. 1t
aiso Ia in the province al kwang
Iung, though not far from the
X w4ug 81 line %s1
~ y poesfbr sssot ~ telexraphic
$ s'iRSfsfh SR6sfss !. sso! Ia! %ssis
Pate began to take census upon
,hich an assessment for SCHOOL pur-
oses was to be based. He 4. elected
v a
eived instruction from the viceroy
he people imagined that he was
making an arbitrary inquiry into
heir affairs in order to impose ad-
itional taxes for his own benefit
september Is a mob of villagers en-
cred the city, destroyed the govern
nent schools and the residences of :.
everal officials, and threatened to
urn the magistrate himself. Some y
f. the mob then proposed to loot the
lission compound Mobs in China a
now that the surest way to get p
ated official in trouble with his SUI c
,eriors is to attack foreigners in +
uch way as to bring about inter-
complications. officials in v
uch circumstances are liable to. be
dismissed If not behead- u
ID. Fortunately, however, the mis- T
,ion compound is on the other side of a
he river: the water was high. and =.
he friendly Chinese colonel in COM
nand Of the regiment stationed there
warned the missionaries, sent troops
10 protect them and stopped the ferry 5
,oats So that the rioters could not a
get acl oss the river. The disturb =
lnee soon subsided and the mission /
iries resumed their usual work. 1t c
will be noted that the cause of the e
-iot was not dislike of the mission t
aries. Since the rebuilding of our c
htspitals and schools and the re-
sumption of work after the massacre Z"
7 1905. the Chinese have been as f
endl as Chinese in the average i
V OF China are i
1--WE unite with the whole church
sped ial prayer that God may watch 7
Ter til devoted missionaries who so !
urag sously opened the station after
ke missacre of 1905, and who, at
&st accounts. were going quietly
pun heir medical. educational and
hngeifstic work in the kindly and |
ilpful spS-S which has always thar l
Yerized the