SHOULD THERE BE WAR WITH TURKEY?
By Editor
AFTER five years' dallying, the Sublime Porte had admitted the claims of damage to the property of American missions to the extent of $90,000, but Turkey does not pay. There is talk of war, and, sad to say, professed Christians are urging it. To all such we commend the words of a secular paper, the Springfield Republican, and also the remarks of President Angell, quoted by the Republican.— "While the foreign missionaries may rightly claim their full privileges as citizens in such matters, it is just as well for the cause of missionary work and for the peace of the world that our American missionary societies stop short of actual war in pressing for indemnification for their losses. If President Angell, of the University of Michigan, may be accepted as their mouthpiece, no resort to war against the Turk would be likely to occur under any circumstances. In his address the other evening before the ecumenical council in New York, Dr. Angell wisely recognized the fact that missionaries of the Christian religion really possess attributes not characteristic of other men. War in behalf of missionaries would not only be inconsistent with the Gospel of peace and love, it would surely be interpreted by the people of the foreign nation concerned as used for the propagation of an alien religion that had failed to win its way by gentler means. Therefore, Dr. Angell was led to say:— 'So far as the missionary interests are concerned, we could not desire a war to be waged avowedly in defense of them alone. Not only would it seem to us all out of keeping with the spirit of Christianity, but it might destroy all prospect of subsequently disseminating Christianity among the people with whom we should be at war. If our missionaries can remain in a foreign country only on condition that we extort from the government of that country permission for them to remain by covering them with a battery of artillery so far as they alone are concerned, then we might better obey the injunction of our Lord to His disciples to shake the dust from their feet at the gates of hostile cities, and move on.'"