The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-29

Dr. J. M Gaston has returned from
 period of 11 years of work in China. He is a physician and surgeon, in
 charge of the Baptist hospital units
 in Laichow, Shantung. He was born in Georgia, but raised in Alabama. With Mrs. Gaston he has been spending week with MT. and Mrs. N. B. Gay, 2500 Avenue D, Ensley, relatives of Mrs. Gaston. Monday he went to Atlanta to visit his sisters, Mrs. NE. N Shaw and Mrs. J. B. kolb.
 whom he had not seen for'23 years For many years. .Dr. Gaston has had charge of the Mayfield Tyzer hospi- tai in Laichow. The building was the | gift of pr. W. II. Mayfield, a Mis- souri specialist and Dr. w. G. Tyzer of St. Louis. It is supported by the southern Baptists.
 4 Within the last year hospital for women, built and supported by south ern Baptists, has been added to the hospital compound at Laichow. It
 was named in honor of Miss Kathleen
 Mallory of Selma, corresponding sec
 retary of the Baptist Missionary ] union Miss Mallory will visit the hospital this fall
 pr. Gaston Is optimistic about the future of China, despite it's many
 troubles of the past few years He says China is passing through transition period similar-to that ex- perienced by the United States in and | after Revolutionary times. The peo- pie of today, he said, because of the l many publications and facilities Tor communication, hear more of China and 1t is fresher in their minds than
 was the case. in America in the Revo- lutionary period. Eventually, he said, China will straighten out the tangles and go forward to a, great future. Says Japs Acting Wisely. Of the Japanese in Shantung, Dr.. Gaston said they have scrupulously carried out their word In regard to the evacuation of the peninsula and
 have won much confidence of the Chinese population. In Manchuria. too.yDr. Gaston said the Japanese are fulfilling their
 promises and handling the situation wisely. In Korea, also, reports reach ing Shantung are to the effect that
 the Japanese are handling a diff cult situation judiciously, and seem to realize that Japanese absorption of China is quite an impossibility, and their greatest benefits rest in estab- fishing friendly relations with China instead of taking any other course. pr. Gaston is, perhaps, the only
 missionary to China who has re-
 turned to the United States without
 having the complete and proper so-
 lution of political affairs at his i'm
 ger tips. He says, very frankly, that
 the situation there Is too complicated
 for any one man to even approximate
 an analysis, much less a cure for
 China's troubles, and that he has read
 more informative and reasonable
 sounding explanations of the situa-
 tion in dispatches from the Orient
 since his return than he got In per
 sonel, intimate contact with the land
 itself.
 The doctor was very reticent about
 his experiences in Shantung during
 the Nipponese occupation. Very prob
 ably, he said, experiences of all were
 similar to those of the south during
 the mortimer invasion in the War Be-
 tween the States. There was pro-
 rniscous shooting, and 1t was wiser to
 stay indoors, but the Chinese have
 forgiven the Japanese in about the
 same measure the south has forgiven
 the north for depre dations.
 Pressed for information about
 decoration showing in a kodak pie ture, Dr. Gaston stated briefly that