15th September.
Some time since we expressed the opinion that, however important it was to arrange regulations for a satisfactory settlement of the Missionary Question, the Commercial Commissioners were not the most suitable ones to take the matter in hand, Che British Commissioners, Sir James Mackay and his associates, seem to have come to the same view. In the proposed Commercial Treaty, Article XIII, it is simply stipulated that Great Britain agrees to join a joint Commission that may hereafter be appointed to investigate the missionary question, with the purpose, if possible, of devising means for securing permanent peace between converts and non-converts. The Chinese Commissioners, and especially Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, have all along been keen on introducing into a treaty of commerce the question of Missions, and of establishing once and forever regulations of control, and most probably of res-friction. The article which the British Commissioners have adopted is a safe, general, and preliminary proposition, and is fair to all British subjects engaged in furthering the jon ary interests of this country.
Vie ing the matter from a business or politi point, the interes's of missions have as much right to be aided as the interests of commerce, and foreigners in China engaged in the one occupation have as much claim for protection as those engaged the other occupation, There should be sought no special privileges for the merchant, and none for the missionary. If men are appointed by the British Government to confer with men appointed by the Chinese Government on ways to remove obstacles to trade, it is just as rexsonnecessary to have a Commission to confer on ways to remove obstacles to missions. Opposition to the one, considered as a foreign enterprise, is apt to extend to the other. The foreign merchant and the foreign missionary, in the larger consideration of introducing new ideas and methods of civi isation, succeed or suffer together. Insult to the one will soamer or Inter mean insult to the other. Rengnition of the one means recognition of the other. Hence it is that if a political commission to consider the various issues and relations of commerce is deemed necessary, a political commission to consider the issues and relations of missions is equally necessary. The Chinese officials, knowing ull well the existing problems in thefcase of missions as in the case of trade, have been eager to come to some official decision that would be binding in both cases. If anything, the Chinese have laid more emphasis on the widely-extended interests of missionaries than have those who represent Foreign Governments. The Church, Roman Catholic or Protestant, appears to the Chinese officials, and rightfully so, as a great organisi tion to be reckoned with, The foreign plenipotentiaries who drew up the Protocol shrank from facing the political aspects of missions, and from even considering the rights of missionaries and the mutual obligations which accompany those rights. The Chinese Commissioners at that time, Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang, did their best to introduce into the Protocol a clause relating to missions, but failed. The Chinese Commissioners on the new commercial treaty have been making a similar attempt, and the result is a general postponement to a new commission in the future, It is, however, time to begin to realise that if some understanding is not reached between China and other countries with respect to the missionary organisations and the relations of converts and non-converts, storm will soon be brewing again which will affect the interests of commerce as did the uprising in 1900, If it is true that Chinese officials are often to blame in their management of Church affairs, it is none the tess trae that Chinese officials are being annoyed and bewildered and sometimes forced into action much against their will by Church questions, Relief is wanted, and relief ought to be given, ''v clos? our eyes the threatening collisions is not political wisdom, if we take into ace count all the problems that perplex China at present, An official treaty on the missionary question may be postponed, but it is desirable, and, sooner or later, must be wrought out by competent and duly authorise ed Commissioners. The device of the Chinese government, to approach the missionary body direct, and to recognise by Imperial Edict such-and-such missionaries as empowered to settle off-hand all the troubles, is a mere make-shift, though indicating the direction in which a real and full settlement must move. According to the proposition in the new Commercial Treaty, Great Britain agrees to join a joins Commission to consider this special business of mi enterprise in China, If Great Britain should take the lead by appointing a Commissioner as competent as Sir James Mackay has been, and one having the confidence of the missionary
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.