The story of another educational institution which for the Inst twenty-five or six years has had a ood shave in providing a thorough And efficient Middle School (and in ome cases Junior College) edea tion for a great number of Chinese young men more especially of the hoor and struggling class, who Without it would have been hard put to it to have gained any com-pretence at all, will furnish an Interesting addendum to the article of Dr. Fitch and shed some light fon what Is proceeding among, institutions of the kind under the: present regime, About 15 months ago, before the Nationalist Party "had entered Ningpo and while therefore ther' wan no question of political pres.
re at all, the Ningpo Methodist College authorities faded as the forward movement of the day. 'The cipal resigned his posi favour of a Chinese; but, there besuitable man at' the time willing to take the position, he was pressed by the Chinese to hold it {ill such should be found. He was therefore placed in am invidi position, one perfectly clear to his mis at open to abjection from gritien who didn't know all the cts.
The New Aspirations Met However in hearty. ea-operation
tke auch alterations inthe mittee, he and they began to stall andthe. executive government of the institution as woud the necessary to. bring it in Tine "with, the regulations of the party which shortly after came in to power.
There was no need of the election of any board (at that time)
the Chinese had a majority." That was indeed already existence, The College had for the last four years been ron under the dlireetion of the teachers" meeting which worked under the auspices of the Ningpo Meth The foreign mission tryon both these boards were in a minority and as far as the working of the college was concerned claimed more than one vote each in any ance ting that was held.
The chief question lay in regard to the settlement of the religious teaching in the institution, faith" as full of sympathy and hope dare say as that possessed by Dr. Fitch and his board of directors in Hangchow, religions teaching was put on a voluntary basis. notwithstanding that it was fully re-agnized (as Monday's article! suggests) that the students had now a double choice that of coming staying away from the school and that of coming or staying away from the religious meetings of the school. However, for the sake of goodwill one may concede where one does not entirely approve.
Insolent Demands Thus when the Southern party arrived in the spring of 1927 the! Institution was fairly and fally on way to conforming with the regulations as they now stand. Not many days after this arrival there! ame a peremptory note to the school ordering the abolition religious teaching and demandi the full right of entry to Kuomit tang representatives whenever they wished to address the students, oF to call out the student body at will to take part in demonstrations, pr cessions ete, Students were to allowed to have representatives the board of directors, were to obey heir own union before the author ty of their own college, and other absurd demands were made which Deluge impossible to comply with wer simply ignored. From that time onwards, however, discipline began to deteriorate and the student boy became very divided. Tt is quite true to say, however, that the maier portion reniained loyal to the, college 'Authorities, especially (with' one or two exceptions) the Christian bose.
Closure Inevitable Subsequently to the Nanking ident the evacuation of the foreign missionaries took place and shortly after this the foreex of disruption and disorder were so great as to Tead the Chinese authority under which the place wax now working to determine to close. It is only fair to state that advice toward action was given by the foreign missionary in charge, but also. equally fair to make it known that. the resolution was put and carried without any outside pressure at all a meeting of both teachers and students without any foreigner being present, The disbanding took place ina quiet orderly and decent fashion. Students received back such portion their school fees ax was due to them, professed satisfaction at this mode of treatment and returned to their homes with the promise that '88 soon ax the school could re-open again under reasonable conditions it would do $0, What happened?
A Barefaced Theft On May 1 about two weeks after closing, another Chinese school, who for some time had had their eye upon the premises, boldly invaded the place and appropriated it for their own use. There they are to this day notwithstanding that eve: y peaceful and legal means has been tried to obtain their ejection. Negotiations have been carried on directly with the Chinese authorities and also through the British Consul but there has been no result. The jets have sat still. The present writer has heard from the most authentic source that orders have! been sent from Nanking for the restoration of the place but evidently this part of the country intends to set up a claim of self-determina tion and assert the liberty of doing what is right (or wrong) in its own eyes. "Appeals to the Chinese public have been made and there has been much indignation and heartburning: on the matter but public opinion has not been able to articulate itself i any effective way and the wrong has remained unrighted, Gross exaggerations (not to give 'With them a plainer name) have' been ome misgiving but in a "venture of published in the local press to the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.