May it please your Lordship, The Directors of the National Bible Society of Scotland desire to call your attention to matters in China which seriously affect the interests of the} Society and the safety of its agents.
For some year as your Lordship is aware, Central China has been disturbed and excited through the wide publication of pamphlets and placards, in which foreign residents are shuunefully vilified and the people incited to riot and bloodshed, with a view to the expulsion of foreigners from the country. No punishment sufficient to stop such conduct has followed the chief agents in this crusade, It fact the Imperial Government itself permits the circulation of similar calumnies, contained in the Chinese Blue Books.
The murder of Messrs. Argent and Green at Wusueh in the early summer of 1891 was a natural result of this propaganda. It was succeeded at brief intervals, as at Ichang a few months ago, by insults and riots, and the destruction of valuable property; and worse has now followed. On Ist July last, two Swedish missionaries resident near the town of Sungpu, about sixty miles from Hankow, were murdered in circumstances of peculiar brutality, by a mob organised and brought into Sungpa under known leaders, in what appears to have been the intentional absence of the chief local magistrate and so far from any steps being taken to punish the offenders, it is alleed that the village in which the murders took place is being depopulated through fear of the officials: not because the inhabitants had joined in the riot, but because they had allowed the missionaries to live among them in peace Closely following the Sangpn tragedy has come the destruction of the Roman Catholic Mission at Mien Yang. What further may ensue remains to be seen but those best acquainted with China dread no common calamity.
This Society is represented in China by eight agents, stationed at Peking, vit Hankow, Changking, Chinand Foochow. It owns extensive buildings at Hankow, and has property atoll the places named. During the thirty years in which it has been at work i China no complaint has been brought against its agents by any local or Imperial authority, touching their residence in the above cities or their conduct in their journeys throughout the empire. the words of the Imperial Edict of 13th June, 1891, "There is no reason why there should not be harmony between the ordinary people and the adherents of (foreign) religions, and the whole trouble arises from lawless ruffians fabricating baseless stories." Unfortunately some among the lawful leaders of the peuple, who: ought to stamp out this evil, appear to be themselves the fabricators and circulators of the publications thus condemned.
Though the Society has not suffered in goods, or to any serious extent in the person of its agents, the Directors view with great apprehension the danger in which their representatives are placed. They are British subjects resident in China in accordance with treaty rights, and entitled to the protection of the Chinese authorities. But this protection is at present practically in abeyance; and apparently with the connivance of the higher authorities, British subjects in China, merchant or missionary, are so far at the mercy of the anti-foreign literati and the basest of the people, among whom they find their tools.
The Directors are red by those who, from their residence in China, are entitled to speak with authority, that firm remonstrance from the British Government would suffice to recall the Imperial Government to a sense of its obligations to see that the treaty rights of foreigners resident in China are respected by its subordinates, In these circumstances the Directors appeal to your Lordship, and to her Majesty's Government, to-take such steps as may seem to them fitting for the protection of the lives and property of British subjects in China.
We have the honour to be, Your Lordship's most obedient servants, In name and by authority of the Board of Directors, (Siqued by Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretaries.)
The Scotch Missionary Societies interested in-China were, according to the latest news received, arranging for a deputation to wait on Lord Rosebery, and represent to him what is the real state of affairs in Hupeh, while from Sweden the news comes that the Swedish Government were in communication with the other Powers with regard to obtaining their support in the Sungpu matter. Meanwhile, it does not appear that the Viceroy, H.E. Chang Chih-ting, is taking any steps to get the real culprits punished, He is reported to be very angry with the officials et Huang-chow for allowing their prisoners to be seen and questioned by the foreigners, while the Macheng Magistrate has nearly depopulated and destroyed the village of Sungpu as a punishment to it, not for allowing, the murders to take place but. for allowing the foreign missionaries to take up their residence there, It is of course merely an. incident that the small economies of the. Sungpuites have in the course of these penal operations fallen into the Macheng Magistrate's treasury. 'I'he three members of the Ho family who treated the missionaries kindly are still in gaol though no other crime has been laid to their charge. Mr. Consul lhyen lins done his best, by offers to give substantial bail for them, to get them released, but without success. But Mr. Li' Kia-chang, the ex-military oficial and bally who organised the murder of Messrs. Wikholm and Johan-son, has been released. 'I'he Wuchang Viceroy is fighting single-handed against the Foreign Ministers, but his hands are free, while theirs are tied, as we know; and it is to be feared that unless the Home Governments are determined to see justice done, and make the 'I'snngli Yamen understand this, there will be.no proper reparation made for the Sungpu massacre, and there will beno more security for the fature than there was before.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.