Dec. 7.
THERE never was a time within our memory when the) Chinese people were so much) in need of sympathy as they) are at the present moment. We) cannot be accused of being, sentimentally tender towards the Chinese soldier and yet when that General Kuo Sung-ling's army are scantily clothed and find difficulty in advancing] during this bitterly cold spell we cannot help pitying them,—Situated, as we are, in Shanghai where we have all the convenien-coa of civilization to mitigate the northwest wind of winter, we yet dislike the cold blasts we have been having these last few days. But when we visualize the arm-Jes fighting on the plains north] of the Great Wall and think the hapless lot of the wounded] lying on the frozen ground, Sherman's oft repeated objurgation "War is hell" leaps to the mind, The civilian population is almost as much to.be pitied as the soldier We know that numbers] of coolies were seized by the! press gangs here, roped together like cattle and sent off to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the fighting men. larly them will never return and their] fate will remain a matter for direful conjecture. Wherever the! armies pass they leave a long trail of misery in their wake. The farmer's crops are trodden down; his scanty store of food la eaten up by the hungry men, his cattle are commandeered for! transport and the other evils that! may happen to his family are better left unsaid. A quotation from an up-country station may} help us to realize a little more fully the calamities that fall on those who have the misfortune to live in or near the theatre war:—
"I wonder if you have heard} that Chenchow was looted on the 24th instant. Mr. B—was captured and was a whole day in the.hands of the bandits.
The yamen has been burned] and many of the shops. All the animals in the city were carried off. They have taken} many captives and are holding] them for ransom. The riffraff of the city followed the, brigands and did more harm than the ruffians themselves.
Pastor Liu carried off al short time since and was ransomed for $270. The city wall is manned every night and the men are doing their best to] keep the robbers out. I hope they will be successful but it is trying to be so helpless with those wicked men prowling around."
This gives us a picture of life} in an interior city, not actually, in the seat of war, but in the wake of an army that has passed) by and unloosed the bonds of law and order, Two lady missionaries are in thatreity. They were once captured by brigands and aby day thay repest the experience! for them." Front their bedroom windows they can see the men with lanterns: patrolling the walls'and have an "ever ' present fear thatisohte of the: with the blfy.migy "ti Around the foreigner there still exists a certain halo of prestige. One well-to-do woman, a non-Christian, wanted to rent a room in the Mission premises where she might lodge with her boy. The ladies refused as, to do as she wished, would be to open the door and they. would be swamped with similar applications. from many others in the] same predicament. The woman's ison was captured and held Fansom; some of her husband's relatives being.amongst [the captors. After some weeks ithe woman raised money to ransom her son. She was told to serid someone for the boy and the messenger brought back] his lifeless body. His share of the paternal inheritance will now] Tapse to the clan and the woman lives in terror that her own life will be taken. Incidents of this Kind are only occasionally reported in the press but they are taking place daily in some part of this vast country. A _mission station is a little oasis of extraterritoriality which the people in beleaguered city look on asa coven-sent defence from their foes. In time of peace-they—at} east a section of them—clamour for China's sovereigns rights to be respected. When the brigands are circling the walls they' thank whatever gods there be that there is one compound which! even a brigand hesitates to tack, Now a number of missionaries, themselves, for the most part, safe in the open ports, are clam-Jouring for the toleration clauses in the treaty to be revoked. They' know that by so doing they are exposing their ce-workers in the interior to the terrors which we have faintly outlined in this ar-tide, But, with "an assumption of abnegation, they say, "Why should not the foreign missionary share the dangers of the people he comes to preach to?" He should and he does, but he is much more exposed to the fury of thei mob than are the Chinese. They may disguise themselves; cannot. They know—bypaths and hiding places of which hel ie ignorant. And lastly, agitation is an attempt drag the foreigner down the level of this down-trodden people, whereas, if we insisted on extraterritorial rights being maintained until China has a goverment that could really guarantee law and order we would raise the Chinese to the level of other civilized countries. As Mr. Tong Shao-yi wisely said," No law that is not good enough for the foreigner is good enough for the Chinese."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.