Miseries of Taian: Half Built Church Defiled: Catholic Mission Wholly Cleared Out The following is gri extract from letter to the heat vile the Church of England Mis in Shanghai from ite ce= presentative in Shantung, on the damage to one done by Southern troops.
Taianfu, May 24.
I think you may be interested to hear what has happened, so far, to our Church in Shantung; since the advance of the Southerners began five weeks ago.
Yenchow was taken on April 21, the day General Synod began. We had no foreigners there, Matthews having gone on furlough, and Skues having just got away in time, and thus being able to leave on furlough with his family from Tsingtao. Our two Church com-Pounds were occupied on April 22, the larger one, St. Mary's, by a front lino hospital unit, under a certain notorious Teng Jih-hao. The result was that schools had to be dismissed, services were forbidden in the temporary church, the new half-built church defiled, hospital drugs stolen, and all ' buildings taken, including empty foreigners' houses which wera broken into, and to some extent looted.
Taian was hidden by Chang Chung-chang to hold out, and the nutherners bombarded the city from April 28 to May 2 before the Northerners gave up. Our mission compound is in the west suburb, close to the city wall, in the line of fire from the station, and it sufferced in consequence. Two foreigners, helers, Wellington and Sibley were there, and thanks to the lat ter's experience in the Artillery in the Great War, basements were sandbagged and made pretty safe, and everybody took refuge in them during the bombardment. Services, school work, and indoor games were +\kent going even during the worst times." Happily no ona was hurt, and very little damage was done, except to the belfry windows of the cathedral; otherwise nothing worse than meny broken windows, and a Jarge hole in the roof of the one room in my house which does not normally leak in the summer rains, But it was a time of imminent dan-zor, and rome narrow escapes.
During the firing the wife of Dr. W. T. Hobart of the American Methodist Mission was led by a stray rifle bullet.
The Roman Mission inside the city was completely looted by the Southerners; who gave ax theft reason the fact that the Northen General had hidden his things there.
After the Southern entry, soldiers occupied about a third of our compound, which necessitated the double ing up of our two boys school otherwise all important buildings fare untouched, and work and worship went on as usual. Our senior Chinese master and-others have been the greatest help in all relations with the military, and the foreigners have kept in the background Pro-have spoken our schools, but are said to have been courteous and moderate, (and some of them Christians), Church as 'Troops' Dormitory At Pingyin, after a fow days de sultry fighting on the surrounding the Southerners were victoria and parties of soldiers have used our church compound for a sleeping place on seven separate occasions, occupying the church ite self once. A Chinese priest was in charge, schools were not disturbed, No certain news has been received from stations, in the charge of Chinese priests, except. that in one place soldiers treated 9 village church with grent disrespect, At Tsinan, where we have only our Anglican hostel and chapel in the University, the main events are too well known to need repetition, The students all fled, seared by a igor reh of the campus by the Japenese for firearms said bon used against them, The hospital kept open, and most of its staff stayed on, and the rest, (i the medical women), who had been temporarily evacuated to Tsingtao, ave now returned. The University. itself has of necessity closed. Wives and children are at Tsingtao,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.