Untitled article | AdventAI

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

From Troubled China

IN these days we know that our people are watching for news from our workers in China. From Chang-sha, the capital of Hunan, comes a letter, dated November 2, from Elder R. F. Cottrell, superintendent of our South Central China Mission, which he intended as a week of prayer greeting. He writes:—

Greetings to our brethren in America. Though in the midst of revolution and unrest, we are neither dismayed nor discouraged. The consul has ordered all foreigners to remain out of the city, and all women with children to leave the vicinity. We were never more glad for a little refuge away from the storm-center. When the trouble began, we were just moving into our new houses that the $300,000 Fund enabled us to erect. Not only have these homes been a great blessing to us, but we have been sharing them with foreigners of three other missions who have been driven out of the city.

“Our annual meeting was set for October 4, and despite the unrest, about one hundred have been in attendance. During the past summer our work has found foothold in three new places, and a fourth is calling loudly for the living preacher. With famine and revolution, some of our people are having a hard time. Next Sabbath we expect to have a baptismal service for over twenty.

Brother and Sister O. J. Gibson, Brother and Sister Chandler Harris, and Mrs. Cottrell and I are well. We plan to stand by our post as long as the consular authorities will permit, and sincerely trust that it will not be necessary to leave. We know our Leader will direct matters just right.

Writing from Shanghai, November 8, Dr. A. C. Selmon, acting superintendent of the China Union Mission, says:—

A telegram received last night reports that our workers in Honan, with the exception of F. A. Allum, have fled by way of Peking and Tientsin, and will soon arrive in Shanghai. I have had no definite word from Chang-sha, but from reports received to-day, it is very probable that our brethren there are already on their way to Shanghai. All our workers were compelled to flee from Hankow some time ago. So far our only property loss has been the burning of our chapel at Hankow, with all of our literature stored there and a large amount of chapel furniture and dispensary supplies. We are grateful that in these troublous times the lives of all our workers thus far have been spared.

Concerning South China, Dr. Selmon writes in the same communication:—

Word from the south just received is to the effect that S. A. Nagel and his wife and Mrs. J. P. Anderson have left Wai Chau and are now in Canton. Canton passed into the hands of the revolution peaceably, but conditions there are very critical, and it may be that the workers will have to leave.