more than five thousand baptized Chinese members. The Russian revolution of 1917, however, and especially the Bolshevist régime, nearly wrought the ruin of the mission. Financial support from home was cut off, and, except in Peking, work among the Chinese was terminated. Many converts fell away. The property in Peking was retained, although threatened with confiscation by the anti-Christian Bolshevist Government, and around it about three hundred members still clustered. For the White Russians, refugees in large numbers in some of the main cities, a little spiritual ministration was maintained. Unless sweeping changes should occur in Russia, however, this two centuries old mission seemed doomed." 285 285 The Christian Occupation of China, p. 464; China Year Book, 1924-1925. p. 1197; Planchet, op. cit., 1927, Part 2, p. 194; Y. Y. Tsu in China Christian Year Book, 1926, pp. 92, 93. CHAPTER XXIX CHINA IN A TIME OF REORGANIZATION (1901-1926) THE IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF THE WAR THE World War affected the missions of Protestants less than those of Roman Catholics. This was to be expected, for the sources of most of the Protestant missionaries and funds, North America and Great Britain, were not as nearly exhausted as were the lands from which the major part of Roman Catholic support came. Protestant missions, however, could not be expected to pass unharmed through so great a cataclysm. Missionaries from Germany were, naturally, greater sufferers than those from other lands. In Kwangtung, the most important China field of German. Protestants, many of the schools could not be opened, salaries were reduced, projected building was postponed, some younger missionaries were called to the colors, and the number of baptisms declined.' The British Government early ordered out of Hongkong all German missionaries except three sisters in charge of the home for the blind.' In Tsingtau some of the missionaries were interned by the Japanese and two were taken as prisoners to Japan. Only four of the foreign staff remained in Shantung, the work of these was restricted, and the number of Christians in charge of the Berlin Society declined nearly one-fifth. While the presidential mandate of January, 1919, which ordered the repatriation of all enemy subjects and the sequestration of enemy property, led to the exclusion of only a minority of German missionaries, those who remained feared that their future was precarious. 5 However, German Protestant missions were by no means de 1 China Mission Year Book, 1915, p. 250, 1916, pp. 86, 90, 97. 2 Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift, Vol. 42, pp. 70, 71. 3 Ibid. Richter, Geschichte der Berliner Missionsgesellschaft, pp. 626-631. stroyed. Among some British and American missionaries antiTeutonic feeling was strong, but funds were raised by the China Continuation Committee to aid the German societies, the American missionaries in Canton helped financially, and in the stringency after the war American Lutherans came to the rescue.* In Shanghai, too, in 1916 a German association was formed which was of some assistance." The China Inland Mission, in spite of its own grave problems, aided the affiliated Liebenzell Mission with men and money.1o In spite of the 1919 mandate, moreover, regulations were eventually made by which it was possible for Germans to continue in China.11 13 12 While among Protestants the Germans were the chief sufferers from the war, other nationalities were not immune. Japanese military operations in Shantung embarrassed American and British as well as German societies." Many missionaries, especially physicians, went into war service, one incomplete list made in 1919 giving a total of seventy-three British who were so engaged. The number of new missionaries from Great Britain declined, although increases from the United States were so large that the accessions to the missionary staff did not fall sharply and in 1916 even rose. Because of the entrance of the United States into the struggle, the numbers dropped again in 1917, but within a little over a year the armistice had been signed and the total of new recruits speedily reached unprecedented levels.** Financially the situation was complicated by a rapid rise in the price of silver, so that in 1919 it took two and a half times as much gold, in which contributions came, to purchase a Mexican dollar, in which mission expenditures were made, as before Mex. $28,933.52 was raised in 1915 and Mex. $25,414.21 in 1916, and this in spite of the other heavy loads on mission budgets caused by the war.-China Mission Year Book, 1916, pp. 11-21. 7 Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift, Vol. 42, p. 168. 8 9 10 Richter, Geschichte der Berliner Missionsgesellschaft, pp. 586 et seq. Beyer, China als Missionsfeld, Chapter 6, p. 18. Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift, Vol. 45, p. 294. 11 Oldham, The Missionary Situation after the War, p. 16. 12 China Mission Year Book, 1915, p. i. 13 Ibid., 1918, p. 409. See also Emery, A Century of Endeavor, p. 308. 14 The Christian Occupation of China, pp. 287, 345. One set of figures for Protestant missionaries gives 3,235 women missionaries in 1915 and 3,637 in 1917, and 2,103 men missionaries in 1915 and 2,263 in 1917.-W. R. Wheeler and J. E. Williams in The Missionary Outlook in the Light of the War, p. 97. These totals, however, are incomplete as there were on the rolls at least 5,978 Protestant missionaries in China in 1914 (of whom part were on furlough).—China Mission Year Book, 1915, statistical tables, p. iv. 15 1915. Fortunately, for the most part, incomes increased, even if not in proportion to the rise in exchange, and in the latter years of the war those in Great Britain, usually after an initial decline in 1914 and 1915, partially or entirely recovered. The China Inland Mission, with a larger force in China than any other society, and at the outbreak of the war chiefly British in its support, had an interesting record. In 1914 the income from Great Britain fell off sharply, but it recovered fairly steadily as the war progressed, and the increase from the United States was so great that the total about kept pace with the rise of exchange and no serious retrenchment of activities was made.** In 1914, for the first time in the Mission's history, a decline in the staff of foreign workers was recorded. An increase was reported for 1915, but 1916 and 1917 each showed a slight decrease." Both 1917 and 1918, however, witnessed larger numbers of baptisms than had any preceding year. Two of the leading Canadian societies showed an encouraging record of income and augmented staffs, the English Friends found that in 1915 more recruits had sailed for their mission than in any previous year, and no British society of importance seems to have been driven to any great curtailment of its program. The chief immediate effect of the war upon non-German Protestant missions was a suspension of some building projects and of plans for new enterprises.** 18 Until well after its close the war seemed not to have wrought any marked change in the attitude of the Chinese toward the 15 The Missionary Outlook in the Light of the War, p. 98; Speer, The Gospel and the New World, p. 52. 10 In 1911 the China Inland Mission received from Great Britain £47,640, in 1912 £36,549, in 1913 £51,089, in 1914 £36,872.-China's Millions, 1915, p. 24. In 1916 £37,608 was received from Great Britain (ibid., 1917, p. 64), in 1917 £40,344 (ibid., 1918, p. 64), and in 1918 £42,931 (ibid., 1919, p. 64). In 1914 £19,609 was received from North America and Australia (ibid., 1915, p. 85), in 1916 £30,025 from North America (ibid., 1917, p. 64), in 1917 £35,916 (ibid., 1918, p. 64), and in 1918 from North America £31,133 (ibid., 1919, p. 64). The average annual income of the Church Missionary Society in the five years before the war was £402,681. During the four years of the war the average annual income was £372,510.-China Mission Year Book, 1923, pp. 102-111. 17 China's Millions, 1915, p. 85; 1916, p. 72; 1917, p. 64; 1918, p. 64. The net reduction in staff in 1914 was thirteen, the increase in 1915 was fourteen, bringing the total foreign staff to 1,077, one higher than at any other time. In 1916 the net loss in staff was eighteen and in 1917 eight. 18 The number of baptisms in 1917 was 5,064 (China's Millions, 1918, p. 64) and the number for 1918 was about a thousand more (ibid., 1919, p. 64). 19 China Mission Year Book, 1916, pp. 105, 119, 122, 156; J. H. Oldham in International Review of Missions, Vol. 5, p. 17; China Mission Year Book, 1915, p. i.; International Review of Missions, Vol. 4, p. 16. Christian message. Here and there were comments on the inconsistency between the slaughter in Europe and the principles preached by the Christian messengers from the West," and when the coolies who had served in the labor battalions in France returned they occasionally told of the wickedness they had seen in the Occident." For the most part, however, the spectacle of so-called Christendom at war appears to have wrought little if any diminution in the willingness of the Chinese to hear the missionary. Indeed, in 1917, a series of statements of the situation reflected in general an attitude of hope and indicated that the open-mindedness of the Chinese toward the Gospel was increasing rather than diminishing.* 22 NEW SOCIETIES In spite of the war a few new Protestant agencies entered China. In 1912, shortly before his death, the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, pledged his successor, General Bramwell Booth, to begin operations there at an early date. The outbreak of the war brought delay, but in 1916 a group of officers came to Peking and by 1919 corps were in existence in Peking, Tientsin, and eleven other centers in North China. Evangelism was the main form of activity first attempted, but the social work for which the Army was famous was projected and during the floods of 1917 some assistance was given in the distribution of relief.23 During the war years the Stewart Evangelistic Fund, a large sum set aside by Milton Stewart of Los Angeles to assist missions in the Orient, first became available. The plan was chiefly to aid existing agencies to strengthen their evangelistic efforts. Under the direction of one of the trustees, J. H. Blackstone, subsidies were given to Bible schools, especially to the Union Theological Seminary in Nanking. Bible class helps were issued, institutes were held for pastors and other church workers, at Kuling and Peitaiho grounds were acquired and buildings erected for summer conferences, and a hundred or more new Lipphard, The Second Century of Baptist Foreign Missions, p. 25. Keyte, In China Now, p. 64. 20 21 22 China Mission Year Book, 1917, pp. 63-283. Officials did not hesitate to come out publicly in praise of Christianity. We have, for example, such commendation from a Minister of Education.-The Eastern Miscellany, March, 1917. 23 C. H. Jeffries (Commissioner for China of the Salvation Army) in China Mission Year Book, 1918, pp. 301-310; Millard's Review, Vol. 12, pp. 418, 419. |