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Show to develop sufficient patriot leaders, now so conspicuously absent. As the Chinese classics have it, "Let there be men and the government will flourish, but without men government decays and ceases". Meantime commerce languishes. The U. S. usually averages about a million dollars a clay of exports from China, and exports goods to her of about the same value. Trade will continue to be subnormal till unequal treaties and the inferiority complex go to the discard. A British consul of long experience in China said recently: "There is no help for the country except as honest and unselfish men are brought to the front . . . Nothing will save China but Christianity". The Nationalist government has recently passed a regulation promising religious freedom. Church union progresses faster than elsewhere in the world, and the Church of Christ in China, a union of numerous denominations, is a real "going concern". A proverb has it that "there are 72 sects, and each sect has some truth". China changes rapidly, as does also the rest of the civilized world. The main task is to be ready for tomorrow. It's too late to prepare for today. Malt-bie Babcock puts it: "I would not lose the power to comprehend These lessons Thou dost give To teach me how to live; To do, to hear, to get, to share, To work and play and trust ,alway." Chinese to the Fore. As this goes to personal friends we may tell you freely our plans, so far as they are definite. The devolution of mission work to Chinese shoulders has gone on apace the last few years. This has long been the aim in some denominations, and especially in ours. Before we left China in 1926 we advised that even more fully than in the past the Chinese co-workers handle medical matters, even though able Dr. and Mrs. Parsons and Dr. Lois Pendleton were about to take hold, and Miss Sawyer was soon to return to China. For nearly half of 1927, by advice of the U. S. Consular authorities, the foreigners of the force were away. Matters went well, but the Chinese leaders and co-workers urged that they return last fall. Techow now has five mission workers in place of the usual fifteen. Just before we left China the Council of the Mission, by a nig;h unanimous vote, arranged that we return after furlough. "China for the Chinese" became the cry and a year later their feeling was that, as the Council understood matters, we were not needed at Tehchow. However, the medical arm of the work is usually not represented at these sessions and the reaction at Tehchow was immediate and insistent. Besides numerous petitions and letters from the Chinese of the Tehchow region, the following typical cablegrams have reached us: China Cablegrams and Petitions. In November, from the Hospital Staff: "URGENTLY INVITE RETURN AS GENERAL CONSULTANT." A little later came the following from the leading banker, representing the Chamber of Commerce: "OFFICIALS, GENTRY, MERCHANTS, FARMERS, EDUCATIONAL LEADERS, URGE EARLY RETURN FOR ADVANCEMENT OF COMMUNITY WELFARE." Dr. Tswei, representing the Staff Executive Committee, wired |
