The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the Christian Literature Society for China was held at the offices, 143 North Szechuen Road, on Thursday, Sir. Sidney Barton, c.m.¢., H.M. Consul-General, presided, supported by Dr. D. Mac-Gillivray, Dr. F. L, Hawks Pott and Dr. Henry Hodgkin, and there were a large number of members and friends present.
The Chairman said that the most striking thing about the annual report was its note of hopefulness and its tale of progress. The authors began as usual with a survey of the field in which the work of the Society was carried on and that survey, whilst admitting certain indisputable facts, took a very hopeful view of China and the work of the Society. He received a copy of it' at Namking as he was returning from a trip to Chungking. In the course of that trip he passed through a good deal of China and he could not help feeling that the survey was justified in its hopefulness, in spite of the conditions which appear on the surface.
"J saw a good deal of the actual state of chaos and civil war now prevailing," said Mr. Barton, "but in spite of that I think the hopeful view is justified, because, if you look even cursorily at the country in which all these upheavals are taking place, you cannot help being
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.