Evening star., 1942-07-29
Missionaries Proved
Heroism in Wartime
Writer Says Church Workers
Remained at Posts of Duty
While Bombs Fell From Skies
BIZ Thomas F. Doule.

In remote corners of the Far East
strange languages, primitive standards
of living, even open hostility. had test
ed the missionarys fortitude in times of
peace. With the advent of war these
obstacles have become minor ones. Many
missions, especially in China, have been
destroyed by bombing planes. Some mis-
sionaries have been killed. great
many have been interned. Thousands
of their followers have been swallowed
up in the flood of refugees migrating to
zones of safety.
In most cases, missionaries are able
to carry on their work on satisfactory,
If sometimes limited, basis Regarded
as enemy aliens or as civilian prisoners
of war, missionaries in war areas are
encouraged, however. by the reflection
that Paul the prisoner was more ef-
fective missionary than Paul the preach
er.
Along the war routes, the missionary
shares the risks and privations of popu-
lations trapped between contending
armies
Remaining at their posts until fur
ther resistance by Singapore's defenders
proved impossible against the sudden
overpowering onslaught of japanese air
and land forces, Methodist missionaries
and their families have carried back to
the homeland many tales of heroism
under fire.
The attack on the city began on the
morning of December s, when Methodist
women from all over Malaga were to
meet for their annual conference. What
happened was told in an interview by
Mrs. Edwin F.. Lee, wife of the Bishop
of Malaga, Sumatra, Java and the Philip
pines.
1t was not yet day as bombs began to
drop in the heart of the city. Singa-
pore residents at first believed that the
sound came from the big guns on the
shore. But the swarms of japanese
bombers silhouetted against the morn
feared attack had opened.
That was the start of the time of ter
ror through which all of us in Singa-
pore lived in those first weeks" said
Mrs. Lee, who is now with Bishop Lee
in their Chicago home after 48-day
journey by ship from Singapore by way
OF Java and Australia.
If there wasn't anything to do but
stay in bomb shelter all day." the
slight, grey-haired woman declared, Il
suppose one would go crazy with nervous
ness and fear. But there was plenty to
do-even though there was not much
time to do it.
AS soon as we learned that the war
was really on, the missionaries plunged
into the work of assisting the overworked
doctors and nurses. Bishop Lee and I
took our places in the ranks of volunteer
helpers, he with rescue SQUADS and I
with the nurses in the receiving ward
l gathered up all of the missionaries I
could find and we worked, day after
day, caring for the wounded until the
doctors could get to them"
Reminded of the conference that was
to be held in the stricken city, Mrs. Lee,
her expression Frightening, explained:
oh yes, We held it in the midst of
air raids-and it was really a good con-
terence. We made plans as if we were
certain that we would be alive a year
from that time. when actually it looked
as If there would be nothing left in the
next few days.
Ihose women were magnificent. They
were one reason why / am not afraid
for the future of the church In, Malaya."
Not until January 30 IS days after
the initial attack on Singapore, did the
missionaries at last depart Even as
the party of Americans boarded the
steamer, the ships ahead and astern
of them were hit by bombs and seven
large warehouses set on fire. Within a
few days Singapore had fallen.
Missionaries in the Dutch East Indies,
one OF the most promising evangelistic
fields, have been interned in large num-
bers. Java and the Malay Peninsula are
now in japanese hands. Sumatra, Bor-
neo and New Guinea have been invad-
ed, as we'll as some of the islands east
of New Guinea.
One Of these islands is Celebes, where
the Rev. Mr.. Dallas S. Kline, American
Seventh-Day Adventist, and his wife, in
charge OF ST churches in the Minahassa
district, managed to escape. The Kimes
saw their first Japanese planes on De-
cember Is during an attack on an Amer
ican destroyer in the bay. Twelve days
later seven planes appeared and ma
chine ganned a seaplane in which
Dutch woman and her child were about
to fly.
On December 20, the Kimes and their
6-yearold son, fearing internment, de-
cided to evacuate. They started over
land by automobile to Macassar 500
miles at the other end of the island. The
next stages were by oxcart, then by
canoe.
Finally on January g. the Kimes made
Posse and later Macassar, where they
took a plane to Bandung, Java. From
this point they sailed to the United
States.
American newspapers have recounted
the bravery of group of Catholic mis-
sionaries on the Solomon Islands which,
until last January, were British posses
sions. Even when the British authori-
ties deemed it advisable to take refuge
at Port Moresby, Australia, Bishop
Thomas J. Wade, together with his 81
priests and nuns, determined to observe
to the letter the strict mission code. The
japanese held little terror for men and
women who for 18 years had labored