p. 15 | Burma, India

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 2, 1911

Burma, India

At the last General Conference, Brother H. H. Votaw, in giving his report on Burma, told some interesting things which were not published in the General Conference Bulletin. He said:—

“Many questions have been asked me, and I will just state briefly some points in regard to Burma. Perhaps the first question is, ‘What kind of climate do you have?’ We generally reply by saying that we have two seasons, a hot season and a hotter one; and that is telling the truth. The hottest days that we have had during this conference are as cool as any we have ever seen in Burma. But you can appreciate it better if you will try it, and we are here to invite you over. The rainfall is very heavy. In Rangoon it amounts to about one hundred inches a year, at Moulmein two hundred, and at some places along the coast to almost three hundred. If you can imagine twenty-five feet of water falling in about five months, you will know something about it. You can understand it better when I tell you that during the night your boots will gather a coat of mold from the dampness.

“The principal product of the country is rice. Burma has a series of parallel mountain ranges not so high as the Himalayas. All the delta and the valleys are given over to the growing of rice. About the first or middle of December the ships come in from Europe and America to the harbors of Rangoon and Moulmein, and thousands of tons of rice are carried away.

“Teak timber, the best timber in the world, perhaps, is also largely exported. Teak is used principally for ship-building. Teak timber may lie in water for years and not rot. It is very valuable.

“In Burma the people speak a variety of tongues. Men are here from all over Europe, with all sorts of costumes. Meeting them and not being able to

speak to them and tell them that Jesus Christ is soon coming, always causes us to go home with heavy hearts. We have wished a thousand times since we have been there that we could just have the Seventh-day Adventist people come to Rangoon for one day. There is need of our studying the language. We were bidden, when we first went there, to foster the little English work that had been started, and we have never been able to perfect our knowledge of the language; but it is absolutely essential to learn the languages of these people. As we were returning home, I saw a Burmese gentleman standing by a wax statue in one of the museums in England. I said to him in his own language, ‘Man, are you all right?’ Quickly turning around at the sound of his native tongue, he said, ‘I am well, sir, very well.’ You remember one time when Paul addressed the man who had him in charge, the man said, ‘Canst thou speak Greek?’ And when Paul, standing on the stairs, addressed the multitude, we read that ‘when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence.’ It is not easy to acquire these languages. Some one should be there making a beginning and the sooner the better.”