6) [3e} (se) (al v2 (a) er) nya 3 rz) va raz) (a2) Gaal (oe) (Gaz) cn rar) (32) Ge) Zz) rz) a) 7S) CA] uy hay () CA tay ead m3 OR) gts ny capris ta ra uy SESS RA SS SSE ES CT SA NET a SET TE ET a Se a a Se a t 2) a) GS) mist cz (*) FG Be GO) Oe ee Oe Oe 9 BG eB BB OB (e7) 4 6 Be Be Bd ee ee eee Gur: Unfinished Task in Burma By RAYMOND P. CURRIER ed (a RVAREYRE ETS aT2. C32) Cae) Cae Gl C2) a2) 2) fae) Ca KYA Cae) CSc) (ae) Ce (a2) (a2) (32) (82) Ce) Ga Ga) a 5] cvapera 7 Ga Ga Ge Ga esfespeapuspetfeafesfeafespespespespeapespespeajeapeapeafeapeapespespesjesfeatcapeapeapespespeaespespeapea|eapeaye.g espespesfeapespespespespeafes| x American Baptist Foreign Mission Society Ford Building, Boston,- Mass. BF] G8 BA) BE BA BH Le i ce) i) ce @ se 3 Myitkyinae © >% Bs 'f aril Pl ed ee a) Cc ©) x< > Our Unfinished Task ‘in. Burma BY RAYMOND P. CURRIER bi-plane hangs over the Gulf of Martaban, 100 miles south of Rangoon; and the coast line of Burma twists before and about you like the right side of a script capital G. Pegu is near the upper right hand point, from which the Tenasserim coast, long and slender, reaches far to your rear. Ahead of you the wide Irrawaddy delta, rounding from east to west, almost in a semi-circle, forms the nearly horizontal curve of the G, ending on the west near Bassein. The west. coast is the right hand line of the loop; but the rest — the left side of the loop and the little projecting stroke of the G — are lost in the Bay of Bengal. In the distance ahead, stretching off north, you can with your best field glass just make out the six — long parallel sections which make up the province, — _ three yomas (that is, literally, ‘main bones”) and three river valleys. On the west, from near Bassein, begins the Arakan yoma which extends north 400 miles into the Chin Hills that broaden out till they lose themselves in Assam on the northwest and China on the northeast. Just east of this section 1 Or you see it — this old Pagoda Land? Your and flanking it all the way to China, isthe Irrawaddy valley. Then comes the Pegu yoma, mere play- mountains compared with those of the north and less than 300 miles long, and alongside them on the right is the Sittang river and valley. Next — the fifth section — lies the great eastern yoma, a huge bone indeed. From far south in Tenasserim it runs, — at first narrow, then an enormous mountain-wall, — reaching breadthwise into Siam and China on the ~ east, and in the north joining the headwaters of the — Irrawaddy and the spreading flank of the western — yomas. The last of the parallel sections is the Sal- ween river, sometimes splitting this eastern wall lengthwise and sometimes lying, as indeed does much of the yoma itself, in shadowy territory cutee a British jurisdiction. cee Now look again from your vantage point 100 niles south of Rangoon. If you float slowly up over the — delta, with your eyes open for Christian work, you na will say ‘Ah ha! just as I thought. These Burma — missionaries have made a deal of noise over nothing. _ Undermanned! Why, here in a space not 200 miles square are fourteen Baptist stations, not to mention ae (a Methodist, Anglican and Catholic. Beside China, ae this is crowded.” x Hold on. Here’s the very reason I’m weihe t article. Just let me have a seat in you ‘plane for few hours and we'll see. Because Burma has be worked for 100 years and can show fourteen statio in 40,000 square miles, is it therefore ‘‘ crowded with missionaries? ”’ Suppose we start from Rangoon up the main railroad line in the fourth of those parallel sections. In the first political division, about the size of Maine, we shall find a million and a half Burman Buddhists. With all allowance for what is being done by native evangelists and the Burman Christian church one can not blame a missionary of this region for feeling that the Burmans are unevangelized, when he realizes that he is one of only four missionaries for the million and a half. And in the whole province there are still 7,400,000 Burmans reached just as imperfectly. But if you think the Burmans are the only prob- lem in the country, you must use that field glass more carefully yet. In those crowded towns and villages along the railroad and the river, you can find in large numbers, besides the Burmans, three entirely differ- ent races. You can have forty Burmese-speaking missionaries in that division instead of four and yet leave these three races absolutely untouched. First there are the Karens, 850,000 of them and not over 100,000 are Christians. Then there are the Chinese, in all the province some 120,000; two regular Methodist workers for them in Rangoon; some Baptist work sustained by the Rangoon City Mission Society; as much effort as possible through the imperfect channel of the Burmese language by 3 our own “ shepherds of the 7, 000, 000”: some olic work; but that is all. And, most neglected of there are the Indian immigrants. Yes, the A and Catholic churches are bathe for. them; ‘3 These four races, scattered everywhere ia rh ae big towns and remote villages alike, are in a <7 not unevangelized. But it is plain that the me | presence of four Burmese mission stations 40,000 square miles, even if they were adequat the Burmese work, could have nothing whatever t do with the evangelizing of this remaining niillio and a half of the population. : But this is only the beginning. The big nGthe lies in the hills, whither we shall now fly, — 10 cere miles north, up the Sittang valley. Turn the ‘plan Selo off to the right here at Toungoo and, striking out over the first ridge of the eastern yomas, go as far the Salween River —the last of the six para sections. You will have to fly high, for you m clear a 5000 foot peak. The distance across is} much over fifty miles, as we fly, but below, you” see the way the missionary goes: motor road — twenty-five miles, then bad cart roads, and fi the most tortuous mountain foot-paths, aie ) and down gorge, a journey of days. on the spot. The same punishment they dealt out ' to an offender against marriage customs. Here is an entire tribe, — their numbers unknown but large, who would make a signal addition to Christ’s Kingdom. In Him their stern morality would find gentler fulfillment and their unhewn barbarity become nobility and efficiency. A man in Loikaw could reach these people, but there is no man. (2) About halfway between Loikaw and Taung- gyi, which is 60 bi-plane miles away, you will find a small lake. On its shores are 50,000 Inthas, that is— “sons of the lake.” ‘They are in many ways a splendid lot, of good physique and kindly nature; rather well-to-do; hospitable and eager to read, even their monks asking for tracts, and all listening attentively. But they are wholly unlike the Karen tribes to the south. Racially they are Burman hybrids of some sort and speak a hybrid Burmese, | Religiously they are Buddhists. The missionaries in Loikaw and Taunggyi—the one a Karen, the other a Shan station— can only pass by these people as they go about their own work, and even in passing can get only an indirect and imperfect language communication. But there is no male missionary at either of these stations. (3) Close to Taunggyi itself — indeed, all along the valley of the river and lake up which we have just passed — are 120,000 Toungthus. That means literally, mountain fellows. They are a Karen tribe, 7 who were apparently left here and in the movtiitanelll of Tenasserim when the more progressive Karens oa mes pressed down to the plains; but they, too, have their — ‘