Words of Appreciation and Interesting Facts

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 9, 1915

Words of Appreciation and Interesting Facts

NOT every report from a foreign field that is printed in the REVIEW elicits a response from readers in the homeland; but the fact that occasionally one does, shows how closely these reports are watched, and with what deep interest they are read.

Touching a recent report from India, Brother W. S. Chapman, writing from St. Petersburg, Fla., says:—

“It was a delight to me to read the letter from Mrs. Myrtle Leech in your issue of November 4, describing the journey into Kashmir, India.

“For years I have watched the advance upward in India, and often speculated as to the possibility of present truth's ever being carried personally by the American missionary into Kashmir, over the Himalayas to the east and north, over the government road up to the desert wastes toward Gilgit, the ‘roof of the world,’ where the three greatest empires of the world meet,—Great Britain, India, and China.

“Often as I have looked at maps and read in books and papers about that northern region, and recalled what explorers and travelers have said about its peoples, I have wondered if ever a missionary would, in person, be located among them, acquire the languages, and present the last gospel message to those barbaric people, who are a link, as it were, between savages and civilized beings. They differ widely, the northernmost nationalities especially, from ordinary heathen, like Chinese or Africans, for instance, and speak many mongrel dialects. But God must have jewels among them, and it is a cause of rejoicing that he has begun to reach after them.

“No doubt there are some among your readers who would like to know more about Kashmir and this wonderful north country, ahead of the reports from our brethren in the field. This would prepare them to appreciate more fully the descriptive matter those workers may send home. To such I wish to recommend a little book entitled “Where Three Empires Meet,” by E. F. Knight, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1911. Its author entered Kashmir over the same route from Bombay as did Sister Leech and her party, across the Punjab to Rawalpindi, up to Murree, and then to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. From there this author’s route was through the Sind valley and across the Himalaya range of mountains to Kargil, Kharmang, Rondu, and Gilgit, then upward to Nagar and Misgah, at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains, coming back to Srinagar by way of Gilgit and Astor, across the Wulur Lake. A glance at the map will show that he saw practically all that weirdly wonderful region of India, and mingled and lived with representatives of all its people, so tells of it all as before the inventions of modern times robbed it of much of its primitive beauty and quaint originality. This makes his writing a textbook, and representative in a broad sense, while his agility as a writer renders his description unusually interesting.

“However, his description of the country and its peoples is as he saw it and them some fifteen years ago. Great changes have occurred since then. One of these is passable roads. Another is the employment of automobiles where formerly baggage was carried in slow-going ekkas, while the traveler journeyed in the little two-horse tonga. To appreciate these changes and to be able to compare the country and peoples as they were and as they now are, it will be exceedingly interesting to read the reports of Consul Henry D. Baker, of India, as given in the Daily and Consular Reports, No. 295, for Thursday, Dec. 18, 1913, to be obtained of the Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C.

“In 1914 there was to have been begun a great aerial railway between Rawalpindi, the entrance into Kashmir from the Punjab, and Srinagar, the capital. This is described in Mr. Baker’s report for Oct. 17, 1913. No doubt the breaking out of war has stopped the whole enterprise, and it may never be resumed. The report, however, contains much that is exceedingly interesting in connection with Mr. Knight’s book.”