/35-t' OUR FOREIGN FIELDS MALAYSIA BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH NOVEMBER, 19H AT THE CORNER OF ASIA That region at the southeastern edge of Asia which is loosely called Malaysia comprises a land area of some 700,000 square miles, the equivalent of about one fifth of the area of the United States. This includes Java, an island the size of New York State, and Borneo, which is nearly four times as large as the State of Illinois. On these islands and on the Malay Peninsula, fifty American Methodists are asso¬ ciated with the missionaries of other Boards in the task of making Christ known in a territory whose population is said to be 70,000,000. The Malaysia Conference has been called a “Polyglot Mission,” as its work is among the people of many nations and races. On the staff of one of its institutions there are found Ameri¬ cans, English, Eurasians, Tamils, Malabars, Malays, Foochow Chinese, Baba Chinese (Chi¬ nese born in the Straits Settlements), a Cocos Is¬ lander, Amoy Chinese, a native of Borneo, and a Sikh. On the streets of Singapore may be heard more than fifty languages, the majority of which are spoken by pupils in Methodist schools. The Methodist Church in Malaysia is now doing evangelistic work in nine languages—^English, Tamil, Malay, Hokkien, Foochow, Hakka, Cantonese, Hinghwa, and Tiu Chiew. Many forms of religious belief are found in Malaysia, from the most primitive spirit-worship and fetish-worship to the complex systems of India and China. There are said to be 35,000,- 000 of Mohammedans. Methodism is securing converts from among the Chinese, the Hindus, and the Mohammedan Malays, at the same time fulfilling its responsibility toward Europeans for whom there are preaching services in the Meth¬ odist churches of four of the most important cities on or near the Malay Peninsula. SUCCESSFUL EVANGELISM When the first quarter of a century of Meth¬ odist mission work closed in 1910 there were 3,120 members and probationers in the Malay¬ sia Conference, the mission was baptizing 275 converts in a single year, there were 1,662 on the rolls of the forty-four Sabbath schools, and there were twenty-five church and chapel build¬ ings besides fourteen other halls or places of worship. In that year the churches on the field contributed nearly $12,000 for all phases of the work of the denomination. Malaysia has become a Canaan for the poverty-stricken people of Southern China. The colonists from Foochow who settled in Sarawak, British Borneo, in 1903, have in eight years reached the threshold of what their friends in China would consider wealth. The 2,000 set¬ tlers of this type in Borneo have been reached by Methodist missionaries with such success that they constitute what may fairly be called a Chris¬ tian community. Within three years from the beginning of Methodist mission work in Java there were a score of baptized converts from Mohammedan¬ ism, two of them in the Training School pre¬ paring to preach the gospel. At one Sunday service in a Malay village, nine adult Moham¬ medans were baptized. The city of Batavia, with a population of 140,000, has 30,000 Chi¬ nese. Six years after the entrance of Methodist missionaries there were three regularly consti¬ tuted churches among the Malay and Chinese people, with two other preaching places in out¬ lying sections. In addition to this, there were churches and schools in villages twelve, fifteen, and eighteen miles from Batavia, these village churches being made up of Mala-ys. HIGH-GRADE SCHOOL WORK In several of the cities of the Straits Settle¬ ments and the Federated Malay States the Methodist missionaries are conducting large Anglo-Chinese and Anglo-Tamil schools for boys and girls. The Anglo-Chinese Boys’ School in Singapore is the largest foreign mission school in Methodism, having an average enroll¬ ment of 1,1 62 with 40 teachers. The school in Penang has 1,032 on its rolls, with 32 teachers. None of these schools draw any money from the regular funds of the Board of Foreign Missions, being supported by school fees, government grants, and special gifts. In 1910 one of the boys in the Anglo- Chinese School at Penang won great distinction in the Cambridge Local Examinations, passing with first-class honors and six distinctions, at the same time taking the Pitman’s Silver Medal for shorthand, being placed first in all the list, both in the British Isles and the Colonies, and being third in the whole junior list. A Chinese educational association in Java, which supports many schools for the study of English and of Mandarin Chinese, has turned to the Methodist missionaries as the best qualified to supervise and, indeed, to conduct their schools. Early in 1910 they signed a contract with the Rev. J. R. Denyes by which he agreed to furnish a missionary to teach English in the Batavia school, while they bore the entire financial burden, the agreement granting the mis¬ sionary the privilege of doing distinctively Chris¬ tian work outside of school hours. In February, 191 I, a delegation of Chinese traveled from Java to Singapore for the purpose of proposing to the Malaysia Conference, then in session, that the Methodist missionaries should take charge of a eentr.al “middle school” to be located at Buiteo- zorg, the summer capital of the Dutch Indies. The Chinese agreed to provide the building and endowment for a principalship. One of our missionaries who is supported by this association, making use of his hours of freedom from school duties, has opened five outstations and has had several baptisms in the territory of which his school is the center. In May, 1908, a Christian man from British India was sent by the Malaysia Mission authori¬ ties to open an Anglo-Chinese school in Palem- bang, on the island of Sumatra. The school prospered from the beginning, and in less than three years not only paid its way but cleared a profit which was put aside for the day when it should be possible to erect a school building. From the day and night classes which were begun there has developed in addition a school for Arabs and promising evangelistic work At the Jean Hamilton Training School, Sin¬ gapore, there were in training for the ministry in 1910-11, sixteen students: 7 Chinese (1 Foo¬ chow, 1 Cantonese, 2 Hakkas, and 3 Hok- kiens), and 9 Malays (2 from Java and 7 from Battakland, Sumatra). FOR LACK OF FUNDS The Malaysia Conference is as fully manned as it can be with the financial outlay that the Board of Foreign Missions is able to make in that one of its many great and needy fields. And yet one of the missionaries is pastor of a church of English-speaking people, joint pastor of a Chinese church and principal of an Anglo-Chi¬ nese school where over 500 students are taught by 19 teachers. Another is superintendent of a district in which there is work for English- speaking people, Tamils, and Chinese, and at the same time supervises 32 teachers in the run¬ ning of an Anglo-Chinese school with an en¬ rollment of over 1,000—a school whose students have taken amazingly high rank in the Cambridge Local Examinations. Another missionary is superintendent of a district, the executive head of a great publishing house, and editor of the Malaysia Message. Early in 1910 seven rajahs in Battakland, in Northern Sumatra, petitioned the Rev. John R. Denyes to arrange for opening mission work among their people. The messenger whom they sent assured him that within two years a mission¬ ary with a few native workers might gather a Christian community of at least 2,000 people. These people, who were heathen, said that if the missionaries did not help them they would send for the Mohammedans. But no missionary could be sent unless the church in America should provide more liberal support for the work. PROFITABLE INVESTMENTS $30 to $50 will support a student in an Anglo- Tamil School or an Anglo-Chinese School or in the Bible Training School for one year. $40 to $60 will maintain a native teacher for a year. $50 to $100 will support a native pastor for a year. $100 to $300 will build a native school. $250 to $500 will build a native church. $25 to $ 1,000 will aid in establishing medical work in Java. $25 to $10,000 will aid in establishing the much needed Endowment Fund of the Anglo-Chinese College at Singapore. Send the money to the Missionary Secretaries, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City.