The Asiatic Field by R. C. PORTER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

The Asiatic Field

By R. C. PORTER

R. C. PORTER

After a brief period of rest following the General Conference, Mrs. Porter and I proceeded to the Pacific Coast, where we attended two camp meetings and visited some of our institutions before sailing for China.

We greatly enjoyed our visit on the coast. The meetings were seasons of refreshing which greatly cheered our hearts as we left for our new field of labor. As we passed out of the Golden Gate and our native shores faded from view, we felt assured that we should be upheld by the earnest prayers and financial support of our faithful brethren and sisters at home.

In our company on the “Shinyu Maru” were Elder J. P. and Mrs. Anderson, returning from their furlough, and six other families for the China field. These are most earnestly and faithfully devoting themselves to the study of the language in preparation for their work. All are making most satisfactory progress. It was planned that on their arrival they would enter the language school at Nanking, but the rebellion was on, and Nanking had been looted and partially burned, and was, at the time, under martial law, with thirty-five thousand soldiers under very little discipline in charge of the city. After a careful investigation by a special committee of four, who made a visit to Nanking, it was decided to conduct a language school at Shanghai.

China is passing through a critical period in her attempt to establish a republican form of government. In a country where people have not been accustomed to self-government, it is quite an undertaking to place a great empire under a republican form of government. In the main, the recent rebellion has been overcome. In places there are still rumblings of discontent, but in all probability the rebellion is over, for the present at least. Other conditions are still bad. Many soldiers having been disbanded have returned home with their uniforms and guns, and in some parts of the interior these form themselves into bands of robbers, and in uniform, approach places as government soldiers, then, like bandits, loot and rob the unprotected people.

An intelligent Chinese brother came to us in Singapore, asking us to join him in prayer for his wife and children and some relatives who had been plundered in southern China by one of these bands of robbers, two of whom had been taken captive and carried away. Two thousand dollars was demanded for their redemption. He said they had offered the robbers eight hundred dollars, but they would not consider it. I tried to console him with the suggestion that when they found they could get no more, they would return them. He very gravely replied, “No, they will take them away and sell them into slavery.” He said that not long since a neighbor of his was robbed, and three of the children were taken captive. The bandits promised to restore them for a certain sum. When the friends said they were unable to pay the amount, they brought one of the children out and killed it in their presence. They then demanded the money, with the threat that if it was not forthcoming they would do the same with the other two children. The redemption money could not be paid, and the other two were likewise brought out and killed.

In central and northern China similar conditions prevail. In one instance even foreign missionaries were taken captive and a price stipulated for their redemption, but they were later recovered by government soldiers. A letter from Elder Westrup, from the province of Honan, says the robbers are coming near the place where our mission headquarters are located. They request prayers for divine protection. The government is endeavoring to establish more settled conditions, but there is so vast a territory where such disorders prevail that it is a slow process.

The following from the Straits Times of December 19 is a sample of the piracies that frequently take place on river steamers to various interior points:— “The waters of Macao, which have for a long time been infested by Chinese pirates of a most desperate order, have been the scene of yet another piracy. Following the recent attack on the Portuguese steamer ‘Americain,’ when loot to the value of $60,000 was stolen by pirates, says the Hongkong Daily Press of the eleventh instant, comes the news that the steamer ‘Kwan Chau Wan,’ belonging to the Shung Hing Steamship Company, whose offices are in Connaught Road, which was flying the Portuguese flag, was attacked by armed robbers on Tuesday night, the master of the vessel, Capt. J. F. X. Jesus, being shot dead in his cabin.”

The pilot, the Chinese comprador, and the quartermaster were also shot, but they may recover. The vessel and passengers were then looted of everything worth looting that could conveniently be carried away. The bandits escaped.

On the river boat plying between Hongkong and Waijou, on which we took passage both going and coming in visiting Waijou, a company of armed soldiers was on board, as a protection against piracy and robbery. While Elders Cottrell and Lee, and I were en route up the river from Hankow to Changsha, a boatload of soldiers fired across the bow of our vessel because the captain did not stop at their signal.

With fires leaving thousands homeless in their crowded cities, and famine and robbery desolating the country, these poor people in their ignorance and superstition prostrate themselves before gods that are deaf to their pleas and helpless in their defense, with a devotion that puts Christians to shame. Many of these downtrodden and misguided people are seeking the light we have to give, and when it is brought to them they welcome it, with throbbing hearts and tearful eyes, as the hope of freedom from distress and darkness.

I have spent nearly ten weeks visiting the various mission stations in central and south China. I find the work well organized, and there is on foot a very successful aggressive movement to plant the standard of the cross in every province in this great field. It is the policy to establish a central station under the supervision of two foreign families in every province, and then with the help of native assistants spread out from that center and establish outstations throughout the field, the whole being under the superintendence of foreign laborers.

As I have looked over the field where our pioneer laborers were obliged to live before the liberality of our faithful brethren and sisters in the home field provided the means to erect comfortable homes, I have thought it was only God’s special protection over them that saved them from fatalities. The sewerage in the cities consists of an open ditch, or a trench, that runs along under the pavement in front of the houses. It is often choked, as the ground is in many places almost a dead level, and there is no water system with which to flush it. The odors arising from these sewers are quite like those from a cesspool. This is constantly contaminating the air that city inhabitants must breathe. There are many city houses where hogs live in the same room with the family. These hogs are kept there with nothing save a fourteen-inch plank set up edgewise to serve as a partition to separate them from the family. I saw in one home in central China nine hogs weighing two hundred and fifty pounds each, and a number of good-sized shoats, kept in the same room with the family. In another home in south China I counted thirty large hogs and sixty-six shoats, which were considered a part of the family; and in still another home, thirteen under similar conditions. Cattle are stalled in the house in some places. I have counted six head of buffalo cows and one calf kept in the home with the family. I was informed that larger herds are accommodated

in the same way. In this instance the cows were in the family sleeping room, the beds being elevated on a platform above the cows’ stalls. I call this intensive stock raising.

I mention this that our brethren in the homeland who have contributed so generously to aid in erecting homes for our workers here may know how much they were needed, and how much they are appreciated by the missionaries who had to face death constantly in the quarters where they were forced to live before the homes were provided. We shall need a few more homes to accommodate others who have recently entered the field, but I am sure that the loyal supporters of our missionaries will say that they must have them.

In my next report I shall give items of the progress of our work. We most gratefully acknowledge God’s care for his work and workers here. During the revolutions, the perils of robbers, and other calamities that have befallen this field, no loss of life or property has marred the advance of our work.

Shanghai.