* 
 
 
 American Board 
 
 of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 
 i 
 
 Survey of the Fields 
 
 1914-1915 
 
 By James L. Barton 
 
 Foreign Secretary 
 
 Boston 
 
 Congregational House, 1915 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/surveyoffields1900bart_0 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS, 1914-1915 
 
 By JAMES L. BARTON, Foreign Secretary 
 
 THE FIELD 
 
 It is not out of place in a survey 
 of the work of the American Board 
 to pause a moment for a comprehen¬ 
 sive glance over the field occupied. It 
 has often been said that the sun never 
 sets upon its work and workers; we 
 can even say that at some point in 
 the great work there is never a time 
 when it is not within two hours of 
 high noon. In other words, our work 
 reaches around the world and has a 
 hold upon every continent. From 
 north to south it covers 80° of lati¬ 
 tude, from 30° South to 50° North. 
 And yet in this outreaching work, in 
 normal times, there are but few of 
 the more than 600 missionaries who 
 cannot be reached by cable in a few 
 hours. This gives a sense of com¬ 
 pactness and accessibility to the work 
 that was greatly lacking even a gen¬ 
 eration ago. This has made possible 
 closer cooperative action between the 
 Prudential Committee at home and 
 the missions abroad. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS 
 
 The departments of missionary ac¬ 
 tivities have often been mentioned, 
 and yet these are so vast and varied 
 that we are in danger of losing sight 
 of them or of thinking of them con¬ 
 fusedly. In speaking of departments 
 let no one think of water-tight com¬ 
 partments. Few missionaries give 
 themselves exclusively to any one de¬ 
 partment, and not infrequently every 
 phase of action is found in a single 
 station. 
 
 The evangelistic work is found ev¬ 
 erywhere. It stands by itself and is 
 interlocked with every other depart¬ 
 ment. Every missionary is regarded 
 an evangelist, and the entire work 
 points to the creation and perfection 
 of the church as the dominant moral 
 and spiritual force in every country. 
 
 The educational work includes all 
 kinds of teaching in every form and 
 grade. It looks to the training of na¬ 
 tive Christian leaders to be teachers, 
 preachers, pastors, Bible readers, and 
 Christian workers of every kind. It 
 also aims at developing a lay Chris¬ 
 tian leadership in every community. 
 From the pupils in the schools there 
 come the largest permanent acces¬ 
 sions to the churches. The school 
 with its permanent, eager, intelligent 
 audience is an inspiring field for the 
 Christian teacher. 
 
 The literary department has charge 
 of the printing presses, the making 
 of spiritual and educational books, 
 the publication of periodicals for 
 children and adults, and in fact it 
 is here that Christian instruction is 
 put into permanent form for all 
 classes of society. It requires no 
 stretch of imagination to see the per¬ 
 manent evangelizing value of the lit¬ 
 erary output. 
 
 Industrial operations are varied but 
 effective. In some countries, like In¬ 
 dia and Africa, to learn to do some¬ 
 thing or make something well with 
 the hands is to enter upon an entirely 
 new career. Many intellects are 
 awakened in this way that otherwise 
 would always have remained slug¬ 
 gish. The Christian communities are 
 and should be the most constructively 
 industrious and so the most prosper¬ 
 ous of all. In this department the 
 pupils come to learn that in the 
 Christian church and community 
 there is little place for the sluggard, 
 and that he who will not work neither 
 shall he eat. Here true strength of 
 character and real self-respecting 
 manhood and womanhood are created. 
 
 The medical work needs no explana¬ 
 tion. It carries comfort, blessing, 
 and a demonstration of the value of 
 human life to every land it enters, 
 and, under the hand of the Christian 
 
4 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 physician and nurse, preaches the 
 compassionate Christ in a language 
 that cannot be misunderstood. It is a 
 powerful arm of the service that 
 reaches beyond the parish of the 
 preacher, penetrates beneath the slug¬ 
 gish intellect of the mentally dull, 
 and appeals to the conscious needs of 
 every class in every land. 
 
 Everything done by the missionaries 
 and the great army of native workers 
 in their daily and even hourly contact 
 with the people with whom they live 
 is a social service rendered in the 
 name of the Christ. The Christian 
 home planted in the midst of pagan¬ 
 ism, the family reared in accordance 
 with the principles of Christian civ¬ 
 ilization, the interchange of visits, the 
 ministrations to the sick in the homes, 
 the enlargement of the industrial 
 horizon, and the awakened conception 
 of neighborliness and brotherhood all 
 are but a part of the social service 
 rendered through this missionary and 
 Christian settlement method of ap¬ 
 proach to the civilizations of the East. 
 
 All that is written or proclaimed in 
 regard to the foreign side of our work 
 comes under one or more of the above 
 six departments, although each is 
 aimed at introducing to the races of 
 Asia and Africa the living Christ. 
 
 THE WAR 
 
 The War has cast a dark shadow 
 over nearly all the fields in which the 
 Board works. Austria, Turkey, South 
 Africa, the Marshall and Gilbert Is¬ 
 lands have been v/renched and torn 
 by the struggle, while Mexico has had 
 troubles of its own, and the Balkans 
 have waited under uncertainties. 
 
 In Austria the missionaries have 
 remained in their places, suffering 
 hardship with their people and carry¬ 
 ing to broken hearts the consolations 
 of the Christ. The call for Testa¬ 
 ments upon the part of the soldiers 
 has been wonderful. There has been 
 no period when the missionaries could 
 not have left, but not a suggestion has 
 come from them that they had ever 
 thought of leaving. 
 
 Of Turkey we speak more at length 
 elsewhere. In the Balkans there has 
 been no actual fighting in the vicinity 
 of our work, and everything has pro¬ 
 ceeded in a fairly normal way. For 
 a considerable period the South Af¬ 
 rica Mission was under martial law 
 and much uncertainty prevailed. The 
 Marshall Islands were captured by the 
 Japanese and our missionaries there, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Maas, who are Germans, 
 were interned until the end of the 
 war. We learn that they are well 
 cared for. The Misses Baldwin and 
 Miss Hoppin were given the privilege 
 of leaving, which they did not care to 
 accept. For a time they were refused 
 the privilege of the mails, but that 
 has now been corrected. 
 
 In Mexico our missionaries have 
 withdrawn from the south and have 
 concentrated, in accordance with the 
 recommendations of the Cincinnati 
 Conference, in the northern states of 
 Chihuahua and Sonora. Politically 
 the outlook has not been clear at any 
 time during the year, but at Chihua¬ 
 hua they have been engaged in erect¬ 
 ing a new girls’ school building, while 
 existing schools have gone on about as 
 usual. For this work times were 
 favorable, as the price of gold was 
 abnormally high. 
 
 Other missions have been little af¬ 
 fected, except that India and Ceylon 
 have maintained a strict censorship 
 of the mails, as has also Turkey. 
 Many missionaries going and coming 
 from India have taken the Pacific 
 route to avoid the war zone, and no 
 missionaries at all have been sent to 
 Turkey. We now have three new mis¬ 
 sionaries appointed to Turkey study¬ 
 ing Turkish and Islam in Egypt, wait¬ 
 ing to enter the country as soon as 
 the door opens. In Switzerland there 
 are four Turkish missionaries, who 
 have been sent out of the country, 
 waiting to go back, and also one fam¬ 
 ily in Salonica. There are six mis¬ 
 sionaries to Turkey in England ready 
 to move upon short notice. 
 
 The political agitations in China 
 have not interfered with the work, 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 5 
 
 while West Africa has pushed on in 
 peace and quiet in the reorganization 
 of the mission, with its central station 
 at Dondi. 
 
 TURKEY 
 
 It is upon Turkey and the Arme¬ 
 nians that the heaviest and most de¬ 
 structive blow of the year has fallen. 
 At this hour of writing no one can 
 predict what the outcome for the race 
 is to be. Many have escaped to Per¬ 
 sia, Russia, Egypt, and elsewhere; but 
 we know that hundreds of thousands 
 of them, including professors and 
 teachers in our schools, pastors and 
 preachers, pupils, and all other classes, 
 have miserably perished at home, or 
 have died of exposure upon the 
 road towards Northern Arabia or 
 elsewhere, where vast multitudes have 
 been exiled. Everything possible that 
 the missionaries, the United States 
 Consuls, and the Ambassador could do 
 to save this people from their terrible 
 fate was done, but to little avail. 
 
 Probably in all of the history of 
 missions, two hundred missionaries 
 have never been called to pass through 
 more terrible experiences than have 
 our missionaries in Turkey during 
 the last nine or ten months, and the 
 end is not yet. Not only have they 
 seen their schools and the churches 
 broken up and those for whom and 
 with whom they have labored for a 
 lifetime miserably and cruelly dealt 
 with, but at the same time they 
 have often been personally mal¬ 
 treated, with their lives in jeopardy. 
 There has never been a period when 
 these heroes and heroines of Moslem 
 missions so needed the assurance of 
 sympathetic support from all of the 
 constituency of the Board and their 
 constant prayers for personal protec¬ 
 tion and for spiritual fortitude and 
 power. 
 
 KEYNOTE: EVANGELISM 
 
 In the direct work the keynote of 
 the year in practically every field of 
 the Board has been “evangelism.” 
 This has seemed to come about in the 
 
 most natural way in each mission area 
 with little reference to what was go¬ 
 ing on in other areas.' While there 
 has been no deterioration in the other 
 great departments of action, all the 
 forces of most missions have with 
 special emphasis directed effort to 
 reaching men and masses with the 
 positive message of the Gospel. 
 
 In Japan our mission has united 
 with the great majority of the Chris¬ 
 tian body in promoting a three-year 
 evangelistic campaign. That effort is 
 now at its height. The work was in¬ 
 augurated by the observance through¬ 
 out the empire of a day of special 
 prayer. Prominent laymen not only 
 gave liberally for the support of the 
 campaign, but many in person joined 
 the bands and upon the platform and 
 in personal approach gave powerful 
 testimony to the transforming power 
 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wher¬ 
 ever the leaders have gone they have 
 been met with packed houses and 
 their message accorded thoughtful 
 hearing. 
 
 Important centers in three of the 
 main islands have been reached, large 
 audiences have been attracted, and 
 thousands of inquirers have been en¬ 
 rolled. In some cases already the 
 churches have reported large ingath¬ 
 erings. The plan contemplates reach¬ 
 ing every town in the empire in a 
 way to give all an opportunity to hear 
 the Gospel in simplicity and power. 
 In this united endeavor the mission¬ 
 aries and the Japanese leaders of all 
 Protestant communions join. The 
 meetings were generally held in 
 churches; but also theaters and public 
 halls are used for gatherings too large 
 for the churches. Even Government 
 school buildings have been frequently 
 occupied at the request of the school. 
 Government officers and persons of 
 influence in the community in most 
 places arranged for a public welcome 
 meeting for the evangelistic band. 
 The leaders feel certain that the large 
 results already achieved are but a 
 forecast of what may reasonably be 
 expected during the year to come. 
 
6 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 There is a spirit of anticipation and 
 expectancy within and without the 
 church that speaks well for the second 
 year of the campaign. 
 
 In China all report a field peculiarly 
 ripe. Those who have followed the 
 story of the China missions for the 
 last two years recall the evangelistic 
 campaign conducted there a little 
 more than a year ago by Dr. Mott and 
 Mr. Sherwood Eddy. The response 
 then was phenomenal, as tens of 
 thousands came to hear the message, 
 while thousands signed cards express¬ 
 ing the desire and purpose to search 
 into the content of Christianity. The 
 missionaries, in spite of the prepara¬ 
 tion made in advance, were taxed to 
 the utmost to find suitable teachers 
 to guide and to train this mass of in¬ 
 quirers. Among these seekers after 
 the truth were men of official rank, 
 students in large numbers, and others. 
 This awakening reached throughout 
 the country, and the force of the mis¬ 
 sionary organization was directed to 
 meeting this supreme call for Chris¬ 
 tian instruction. The correspondence 
 with all the missions throughout the 
 year has dwelt upon the opportunities 
 opening everywhere to meet the 
 earnest inquiry of the Chinese as to 
 what is true in relation to God, to 
 Christ, to sin, and to redemption, and 
 the inadequacy of the force upon the 
 field to meet that opportunity. 
 
 A plan was contemplated this fall 
 and winter for the Eddy brothers, 
 Sherwood and our own Brewer, to 
 visit Japan, China, and India upon a 
 purely evangelistic tour. The mis¬ 
 sionaries in China entered an almost 
 united protest upon the sole ground 
 that with their present missionary 
 and native forces they would be 
 wholly unable to care for more in¬ 
 quirers. Already for China the win¬ 
 dows of heaven had been opened and 
 a blessing poured out that the church 
 and its working force were not able 
 fully to receive. Chapters only could 
 give a fair estimate of the desire for 
 Bible study, eagerness to hear the 
 preacher of righteousness, readiness 
 
 to unite with the church. The story 
 reads like a modern Acts of the Apos¬ 
 tles, as it really is, where great multi¬ 
 tudes of such as are being saved are 
 proclaiming themselves followers of 
 Christ. If we could double the num¬ 
 ber of our missionaries in China to¬ 
 day and quadruple the Chinese preach¬ 
 ing force, we would not in the least 
 degree overstaff the work, but would 
 be more adequately ready to gather in 
 the waving harvest. 
 
 An evangelistic campaign is now 
 commanding the attention of the mis¬ 
 sionaries in Southern India and Cey¬ 
 lon. To use the language of Mr. Ban- 
 ninga, of the Madura Mission, “There 
 has been an earnest desire growing in 
 the hearts of many for a revival of 
 religion that should reveal itself in 
 increased righteousness and faith 
 among Christians and in a great in¬ 
 gathering of those at present outside 
 the fold.” This desire was expressed 
 in the convention meetings in Sep¬ 
 tember, 1914, and finally, under the 
 leadership of the President of the 
 General Assembly of the United 
 Church of South India, the campaign 
 was launched. The plan differs but 
 little from that in operation in Japan, 
 except that in India a longer period 
 of preparation is contemplated. A 
 special literature for the purposes of 
 the movement has been printed, and a 
 special pledge card is circulated 
 among the Christians, pledging the 
 signer to the setting apart of a defi¬ 
 nite portion of each day for interces¬ 
 sion, also pledging him to definite 
 Christian service. Prayer circles are 
 widely organized, and Dr. Tracy has 
 been released to visit the centers and 
 aid the churches and leaders in a 
 careful and thorough work of prepa¬ 
 ration. Already in these preparative 
 meetings, in many places, large in¬ 
 gatherings from the non-Christians 
 have been experienced, in addition to 
 a quickening of the Christian life and 
 faith of the members of the churches. 
 Here too in India, as in Japan and 
 China, the missionaries and the native 
 forces unite in prayer and endeavor. 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 7 
 
 The United Church of South India 
 represents a Christian community of 
 some 140,000 individuals, including 
 several different communions. What 
 may we not expect when these differ¬ 
 ent missions and native leaders, with 
 one heart and purpose, unite in a sin¬ 
 gle endeavor for all that great, needy 
 country? This Indian movement 
 demonstrates the value and power of 
 a great body of Christians, represent¬ 
 ing different missions, acting together 
 as a unit and presenting not only to 
 the church but to the non-Christian 
 community the evidence of fraternal 
 fellowship and cooperation. The pre¬ 
 parative work is now well under way, 
 but the results even at this stage are 
 richly encouraging. 
 
 In Turkey when the war broke out, 
 and even since, there was a strong 
 movement looking towards the non- 
 Christians of that country. Oppor¬ 
 tunities of approach both in the class 
 room and outside were unprecedented 
 in all our long experience there. A 
 growing spirit of daring upon the 
 part of the missionaries and of open 
 inquiry upon the part of the others 
 opened the way for the Christian ap¬ 
 proach. Conversions were reported 
 since the war began, while opportuni¬ 
 ties for personal conversation were 
 multiplying far more rapidly than at 
 any previous period in the history of 
 our work in Turkey. It may be that 
 when this storm of destruction has 
 spent its fury, we shall find a new 
 door opening for a new Christian en¬ 
 deavor among those hitherto largely 
 unreached. 
 
 Space will not permit our mention¬ 
 ing the various evangelistic move¬ 
 ments in the three missions in Africa, 
 the wonderful awakening among the 
 tribes in Northern Mindanao, and the 
 hew consciousness of spiritual respon¬ 
 sibility among the churches in Spain. 
 Probably in the entire century of our 
 work there has never been a period 
 when there seemed to be such a uni¬ 
 versal turning to Jesus Christ and 
 such a consciousness of responsibility 
 for the unevangelized upon the part of 
 
 the churches. Perhaps this is one of 
 God’s compensations to the world for 
 the awful sacrifice caused by the war. 
 
 BLEEDING TURKEY 
 
 At the time of the entrance of Tur¬ 
 key into the war, mission work there 
 in all its diversified departments was 
 never more full of promise. It is true 
 that for three or four years the cen¬ 
 tral government had been insufferably 
 weak, but the relations of the mis¬ 
 sionaries with the local official author¬ 
 ities were, in nearly every instance, 
 friendly and even cordial. Large au¬ 
 thority was given the responsible 
 governors of the provinces, and as a 
 consequence mission institutions suf¬ 
 fered little from the lack of a central¬ 
 ized government. 
 
 The hospitals were crowded with 
 patients; the schools were never so 
 well attended; new buildings were in 
 process of erection, or were contem¬ 
 plated, at Van, Sivas, Marsovan, 
 Oorfa, Adana, Smyrna, Hadjin, Ain- 
 tab and Diarbekir; loud and persist¬ 
 ent calls came from all parts of the 
 empire for reenforcements to meet 
 the needs and opportunities of the ex¬ 
 panding work. 
 
 There had never been so many 
 Moslem pupils in Christian schools, 
 and the general relations between the 
 Mohammedans and Armenians had 
 not been so satisfactory for a genera¬ 
 tion, although the relations with the 
 Greeks upon the west were more 
 strained. A score or so of new re¬ 
 cruits for various positions in the 
 three Asiatic Turkey Missions had 
 been appointed and were about to sail 
 for their field of labor when the storm 
 broke and Turkey became one of the 
 belligerents upon the side of the Cen¬ 
 tral Powers. 
 
 CANADIAN MISSIONARIES 
 
 Some thirty-six missionaries and 
 assistant missionaries of our Board 
 in Turkey at the time were British 
 subjects, mostly Canadians. The 
 Board provided each, through our 
 
8 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 Ambassador, with a formidably sealed 
 and executed document declaring that 
 the party named therein was a mis¬ 
 sionary of the American Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
 an American Corporation, and there¬ 
 fore entitled to all the rights and pro¬ 
 tection belonging to such. Barring 
 two or three exceptions, these British 
 subjects have been little disturbed, 
 the Ambassador at Constantinople 
 having secured from Turkish authori¬ 
 ties formal permission for them to re¬ 
 main at their posts. Three families 
 of British missionaries have come out 
 of the country for one reason or an¬ 
 other, but only one of these was prac¬ 
 tically forced to do so. 
 
 TREATY RIGHTS ABROGATED 
 
 The abrogation of the capitulations 
 by decree, in September of last year, 
 threatened for a time to close up all 
 foreign schools in the country. Mr. 
 Morgenthau, the Ambassador, took 
 up the matter with vigor and was able 
 to secure the postponement of the ex¬ 
 ecution of the order until last Sep¬ 
 tember. The original decree has been 
 considerably modified, so that schools 
 have been given permission to open 
 this fall under condition that, while 
 Christian studies and exercises and 
 instruction may be made obligatory 
 for Christians, they must be optional 
 for non-Christians, and that Turkish 
 must be taught to Ottomans. It has 
 seemed wise, under the circumstances, 
 to accept these conditions for the 
 present. 
 
 WAR AND DISEASE 
 
 Only the northeastern and south¬ 
 eastern parts of Turkey were seri¬ 
 ously affected by the war until Galli¬ 
 poli was attacked in April. Trebi- 
 zond, Erzroom, Van, and Bitlis, being 
 near the border of Russia, fell within 
 the zone of the conflict with the Cau¬ 
 casus division of the Russian army. 
 Harpoot was also considerably af¬ 
 fected, since it is on the line of march 
 of the troops passing from the south 
 to the northeast. 
 
 At first there was no actual fighting 
 in any one of these places, except 
 sporadic bombardment of Trebizond, 
 yet into Erzroom and Van many of 
 the wounded were brought from bat¬ 
 tle fields not far away. At the same 
 time, owing to the assembling of 
 large numbers of troops under unsani¬ 
 tary conditions, typhus broke out with 
 great virulence in Erzroom and Har¬ 
 poot. In the former place in the au¬ 
 tumn and winter there were over 300 
 deaths a day, and at Harpoot some 
 60. The missionaries threw them¬ 
 selves into the work of ministering to 
 the needs of the suffering. Dr. Clark, 
 Miss Graffam, Dr. and Mrs. Sewny, 
 and Miss Zenger went from Sivas to 
 Erzroom to render aid. Dr. Sewny 
 and Miss Zenger died there of typhus, 
 and Dr. Case and Mr. and Mrs. Staple- 
 ton contracted the dread disease but 
 recovered. Several missionaries at 
 Harpoot also came near to death’s 
 door through the same disease. 
 Wounded and sick soldiers were cared 
 for also at Mardin and Van. 
 
 PROPERTY TAKEN 
 
 In the spring, when Harpoot was 
 made a military center of considerable 
 importance, several of the buildings 
 of Euphrates College were voluntarily 
 given over to the authorities for the 
 use of the army. Fearing that the 
 large dormitory might be taken, the 
 United States Consul, Mr. Davis, put 
 his official seal upon its locked door. 
 This seal was ostentatiously broken 
 by the Kaimakam of Harpoot, and so 
 since March the college has discon¬ 
 tinued its work altogether because its 
 buildings were occupied by the mili¬ 
 tary. Although the soldiers were 
 withdrawn in July, the buildings have 
 been retained in the possession of the 
 government. 
 
 The mission buildings at Afion 
 Kara Hissar were early taken posses¬ 
 sion of by the government, as was the 
 school building at Adabazar. The 
 new hospital at Marsovan was offered 
 to the military, who occupied it one 
 month, when it was vacated. 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 9 
 
 In its dealing with Americans the 
 othcials have assumed that the decree 
 of abrogation of the capitulations has 
 put all foreigners under local official 
 control. As a result their houses as 
 well as their persons have been 
 searched repeatedly, their communi¬ 
 cations with the United States Con¬ 
 suls and even with the Ambassador 
 have often been suppressed, their 
 movements seriously obstructed, and 
 in one instance, that of ‘Dr. and Mrs. 
 Smith at Diarbekir, they were ar¬ 
 rested and sent out of the country by 
 court-martial. No charges worthy of 
 consideration against Dr. and Mrs. 
 Smith were preferred. Several mis¬ 
 sionaries have suffered brief periods 
 of imprisonment. 
 
 DISASTER AT VAN 
 
 Van has been for generations the 
 stronghold of the Armenians of Tur¬ 
 key. In that vilayet Armenians con¬ 
 stitute a larger proportion of the pop¬ 
 ulation than in any other vilayet in 
 the empire. In addition, they are 
 alert, able, many of them well edu¬ 
 cated, and all have had visions of a 
 possible autonomous Armenia. 
 
 Early in the war a large number of 
 Armenians entered the Turkish army, 
 while others fled to Russia and joined 
 the Russian army with their na¬ 
 tionals who occupy the Armenian 
 provinces captured by Russia from 
 Turkey in 1878. 
 
 After the war began the Van Ar¬ 
 menians approached the Governor of 
 Van, Djevdet Bey, and assured him 
 that it was their purpose to be loyal 
 to the Turkish Government. Their 
 assurance was not accepted, and in or¬ 
 der to save themselves from destruc¬ 
 tion they were compelled to resist 
 the Ottoman forces. The missionary 
 premises chanced to be in the Arme¬ 
 nian quarter of the city, and therefore 
 fell within the Armenian fortifica¬ 
 tions. For five weeks the station was 
 under fire, and during the last days of 
 the siege the guns of the Turkish 
 forces were trained upon the mission 
 premises. While the buildings were 
 
 much injured no harm came to the 
 missionary body. Some 10,000 refu¬ 
 gees from the villages were gathered 
 upon and about the station. The 
 siege was followed by an epidemic of 
 dysentery, preceding typhus. This 
 broke out among the 1,000 Moslem 
 refugees for whom the missionaries 
 were caring on the premises. Five of 
 the missionaries were attacked by ty¬ 
 phus. Mrs. Ussher, worn out by the 
 strain of the siege, was unable to 
 rally and she passed away. The 
 others, Miss Rogers, Dr. Ussher, and 
 Mr. and Mrs. Yarrow, were recovering 
 when Van was recaptured by the 
 Turkish forces, and the entire station, 
 ill and without preparation for the 
 journey, was compelled to flee with 
 the retreating Russians to Tiflis. 
 
 Mrs. Raynolds’ leg was broken in 
 the flight. She lingered for a brief 
 period and passed away at Tiflis 
 two days before the arrival of Dr. 
 Raynolds, who had set out for Van 
 when it was known that Russia had 
 captured that part of the country. 
 Owing to the destruction of the mis¬ 
 sion premises at Van and the uncer¬ 
 tainties surrounding the future of 
 that part of the country, the entire 
 Van station came to the United States, 
 arriving October 4. 
 
 OTHER STATIONS 
 
 When Van was captured by the 
 Russians the Turks retreating to¬ 
 wards Bitlis took with them Miss 
 McLaren, who was caring for the 
 wounded in the Turkish hospital. 
 Since the death of Miss Charlotte Ely 
 at Bitlis in July and the departure of 
 the Maynards upon their overdue fur¬ 
 lough, the Bitlis station was made up 
 of Misses Shane and McLaren and 
 Rev. George P. Knapp. In August, 
 the Armenians at Bitlis having been 
 massacred or deported, Mr. Knapp set 
 out for Oorfa to aid Mr. Leslie but 
 was taken ill upon the road and died 
 at Diarbekir. A recent cable dis¬ 
 patch reports Miss McLaren and Miss 
 Shane safe and well at Bitlis. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Stapleton at Erzroom, 
 
io 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 whose furlough was already more 
 than a year overdue, declined to leave 
 the station this summer and have re¬ 
 mained there to minister to the sick 
 and needy. Dr. and Mrs. Case are 
 also there. Dr. and Mrs. Crawford 
 have held the fort alone at Trebizond. 
 
 Space will not permit a complete 
 survey of the work and status of each 
 station during this year of disorder, 
 sorrow, and death. Suffice it to say 
 that the missionaries have stood by 
 their stations with self-forgetful for¬ 
 titude and daring, a few of them leav¬ 
 ing for home only when all of the 
 populations for which they were at 
 work had been killed or deported. The 
 Board has thought it wise to have a 
 considerable number of missionaries 
 well rested and ready to return to 
 Turkey as soon as the way opens. 
 
 BLOODY BAPTISM 
 
 During the last six months each 
 mission station has passed through a 
 baptism of wrath and blood. This 
 was more severe, if possible, in the 
 northern and eastern part of the coun¬ 
 try than in the south, and involved 
 only the Armenians. Without at¬ 
 tempting to go into the gruesome and 
 heart-rending details, it is enough to 
 add that teachers from our schools 
 have been tortured, imprisoned, exe¬ 
 cuted; and others with their pupils, 
 as well as all the rest of the Armenian 
 population of places like Bitlis, Erz- 
 room, Marsovan, Sivas, Harpoot, etc., 
 have been sent, without preparation 
 for the journey, down towards the 
 deserts of Northern Arabia to perish. 
 In some cases, as in that of Miss 
 Graff am at Sivas, and of the Misses 
 Willard and Gage, of Marsovan, the 
 missionaries were permitted to start 
 out with their women and girls, but 
 they were soon turned back by the offi¬ 
 cials. Never has such an attack been 
 made upon a race. The plans seem to 
 be of a generally uniform character, 
 and the officials openly declare that 
 nothing less than the complete de¬ 
 struction of the race is contemplated. 
 At this writing all the facts are yet un¬ 
 
 known. Enough, however, is revealed 
 to show that no reports have been 
 exaggerated, while daily revelations 
 show that the atrocities perpetrated 
 upon defenseless men and innocent 
 women and children surpass anything 
 history has ever recorded. Ambassa¬ 
 dor Morgenthau has done everything 
 in his power to protect the mission¬ 
 aries and their interests; but in the 
 face of the determined purpose of 
 Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, he has 
 not been able to keep the Turks from 
 seizing and holding the American 
 Board property at Afion Kara Hissar, 
 Adabazar, and Harpoot, and perhaps 
 at some other places. The abrogation 
 of the capitulations, or, as they call it, 
 “the withdrawal of the rights of for¬ 
 eigners/’ gave the Turks occasion to 
 declare that neither the Ambassador 
 nor the United States Consuls had any 
 authority over American subjects, al¬ 
 though they did not always consist¬ 
 ently carry out this assumption. 
 
 At this writing, the situation 
 throughout the Ottoman Empire is 
 in chaos. Only the station at Van has 
 been abandoned, but all work is at a 
 standstill. Relief measures are the 
 order of the day, but to these the Gov¬ 
 ernment presents many obstacles. 
 The way in which the missionaries 
 have carried themselves during these 
 many months of almost unendurable 
 agony and suspense has commended 
 their religion to the persecuting 
 forces and in many instances has 
 opened the minds of the Moslems to 
 a more favorable consideration of 
 Christianity. 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 When the conflict over Turkey 
 ceases, there must begin the work of 
 reconstruction. We have reason to 
 believe that a future of marvelous 
 possibilities lies before our work in 
 Turkey. Many and startling changes 
 are inevitable, to meet which we must 
 be prepared. Even greater trials 
 may perforce be endured before the 
 blessed day of readjustment and re¬ 
 construction begins, and yet as surely 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 I I 
 
 as day follows the darkest night, so 
 may we confidently expect light will 
 break through the midnight darkness 
 of Turkey’s awful gloom. 
 
 That the work is to be reor¬ 
 ganized and reestablished we do not 
 for a moment doubt. To do this we 
 will need the best wisdom and 
 strength of the experienced force as 
 well as the aid of the new missionaries 
 now ready to move when the door 
 opens. There are probably many Ar¬ 
 menians also now out of the country 
 who will be ready to go to the aid of 
 their stricken people. The American 
 Board is already planning and prepar¬ 
 ing for the new day that will yet dawn 
 for Turkey. 
 
 AMERICAN INTERESTS IN 
 TURKEY 
 
 Measured by the amount of money 
 invested in Turkey and by the number 
 of Americans devoting their lives, 
 through religious, educational, and 
 charitable institutions, in that coun¬ 
 try, America’s interest in the Turkish 
 Empire surpasses that of any other 
 country in the world. A careful esti¬ 
 mate, based on reports from the vari¬ 
 ous organizations, societies, and col¬ 
 leges carrying on work in that coun¬ 
 try, reveals the fact that during 
 nearly a century of benevolent work 
 in and for Turkey Americans have 
 expended nearly $40,000,000, about 
 $8,000,000 of which represent the 
 value of present investments in real 
 estate, buildings, and equipment. The 
 expenditure of these various organ¬ 
 izations and societies amounted last 
 year to something over $1,000,000, 
 and the institutions established in 
 that country by American benevo¬ 
 lence have endowments of nearly- 
 $3,500,000. 
 
 At the outbreak of the war there 
 were something more than four hun¬ 
 dred Americans connected with these 
 various institutions and work. The 
 American Board’s, including of course 
 the Woman’s Boards, investments in 
 that country have amounted, in the 
 ninety-six years since it began work 
 
 there, to more than $20,000,000; its 
 present investments, in the form of 
 land, buildings, equipment, are valued 
 at not less than $2,000,000, and its an¬ 
 nual appropriation for the direct sup¬ 
 port of its work there was last year 
 $380,000. It is perfectly natural, 
 therefore, for America to be inter¬ 
 ested in the situation in Turkey quite 
 apart from its human interest in the 
 sufferings of a race. 
 
 These figures do not by any means 
 measure the extent of America’s in¬ 
 terest in the people of Turkey. We 
 are mentioning here only the material 
 things; but when we pass beyond 
 these to the higher things of the spirit 
 our interest is increased a hundred 
 fold and more. 
 
 It is quite fitting that the United 
 States Government should take special 
 steps for the protection of American 
 interests in that country, and the 
 right to do so would be unquestion¬ 
 ably recognized by the Allies, at least 
 if it should be necessary for our Gov¬ 
 ernment to make strong demands 
 upon Turkey for adequate protection. 
 
 AN HONOR ROLL 
 
 In view of the unprecedented up¬ 
 heaval in Turkey at this time it is in¬ 
 teresting to note the large number of 
 veteran missionaries either in active 
 service in Turkey or retired. The 
 following are now among the active 
 forces in the field or temporarily 
 home, arranged in the order of years 
 of service:— 
 
 Appointed 
 
 Rev. James F. Clarke, D.D. 1859 
 
 Mrs. Margaret R, Trowbridge 1861 
 
 Rev. Henry S. Barnum, D.D. 1867 
 
 Rev. Alpheus N. Andrus, D.D. 1868 
 
 Mrs. Olive L. Andrus “ 
 
 Miss Harriet G. Powers 
 Mrs. Ursula C. Marsh 
 Mrs. Sarah D. Riggs 1869 
 
 Rev. George C. Raynolds, M.D., 
 
 D.D. 1869 
 
 Miss Mary M. Patrick, Ph.D. 1871 
 
 Rev. John W. Baird 1872 
 
 Mrs. Ellen R. Baird 1870 
 
 Daniel M. B. Thom, M.D. 1874 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 I 2 
 
 The following have retired from 
 active service: 
 
 Appointed 
 
 Rev. Orson P. Allen 1855 
 
 Rev. Joseph K. Greene, D.D. 1859 
 
 Rev. George F. Herrick, D.D. 1859 
 
 Mrs. Helen M. Herrick 1860 
 
 Mrs. Henrietta Washburn 1864 
 
 Rev. Henry T. Perry, D.D. 1866 
 
 Rev. Theodore A. Baldwin 1867 
 
 Mrs. Matilda J. Baldwin 1867 
 
 Rev. Charles C. Tracy, D.D. 1867 
 
 Mrs. Myra P. Tracy 1867 
 
 Miss Esther T. Maltbie 1870 
 
 THE NOBLE DEAD 
 
 It is a startling and significant fact 
 that of the six deaths among the ac¬ 
 tive missionary forces of the year, five 
 were missionaries in Turkey. The 
 strain and shock of the tragedies of 
 the year have been unsurpassed in 
 mission history in duration, extent, 
 and savagery. The cumulative effect 
 of the tension is seen in the fact that 
 all of these deaths have occurred 
 since the first of May of this year. 
 
 Mrs. Mary E. Barnum died at Har- 
 poot, May 9, 1915, after 56 years of 
 consecutive service. She was the 
 daughter of Dr. Goodell, one of the 
 pioneer missionaries in Turkey, and 
 her daughter, Mrs. Henry Riggs, is a 
 missionary at Harpoot. 
 
 July 11, 1915, Miss Charlotte E. Ely 
 died at Bitlis, Turkey, after 47 years 
 of consecutive service there. 
 
 July 14, 1915, Mrs. Elizabeth B. 
 Ussher died at Van, Turkey, of ty¬ 
 phus, after 16 years of service. 
 
 August 9, 1915, Miss H. Grace 
 Wyckoff died at San Gabriel, Cal., 
 after 28 years of service at Pang- 
 chwang, North China. 
 
 August 10, 1915, Rev. George P. 
 Knapp died at Diarbekir, Turkey, 
 upon his way out from Bitlis, after 25 
 years of service at Harpoot and Bitlis. 
 
 August 27, 1915, Mrs. Martha W. 
 Raynolds died at Tiflis, Russia, fol¬ 
 lowing the flight of the station from 
 Van, after 46 years of service, 43 of 
 which were given to Van. 
 
 The total years of service given to 
 
 the cause of the Kingdom by these six 
 disciples was 215, or an average of 36 
 years for each. The five Turkey mis¬ 
 sionaries give a total of 187 years of 
 service, or an average of 37 1-2 years 
 per missionary. Who will attempt to 
 estimate the permanent spiritual 
 values these consecrated years have 
 created and perpetuated? 
 
 In addition to the number of mis¬ 
 sionaries who fell in the midst of the 
 conflict there, eight others who had 
 served in the field for a period but 
 who for one reason or another had re¬ 
 tired have been called to a higher 
 service:— 
 
 October 11, 1914, Rev. William E. 
 Locke, D.D., at Wellesley, Mass. In 
 Bulgaria 24 years. 
 
 November 22, 1914, Mrs. Sarah F. 
 Blodgett, at Bridgeport, Conn. In 
 North China 38 years. 
 
 February 8, 1915, Rev. W. H. 
 
 Shaw, at Braintree, Mass. In North 
 China 4 years. 
 
 February 15, 1915, George Wash¬ 
 burn, D.D., in Boston, Mass. Dr. 
 Washburn was a missionary of the 
 Board for 10 years at Constantinople, 
 Turkey, followed by 40 years’ service 
 as president, professor, and officer of 
 Robert College. 
 
 March 10, 1915, Mrs. Fannie M. 
 Newell, at Wolfboro, N. H. For 17 
 years in Western Turkey. 
 
 April 7, 1915, Rev. Walter T. Cur¬ 
 rie, D.D., at New Victoria, B. C. For 
 25 years in West Central Africa. 
 
 April 2, 1915, Capt. Isaiah Bray, at 
 Honolulu, H. I. For 9 years captain 
 of the third and fourth Morning 
 Stars in Micronesia. 
 
 April 12, 1915, Mrs. Harriet A. 
 Lotta (Miss Sheldon), at Fargo, 
 N. Dak. Worked among the Cherokee 
 Indians for a brief period in 1856. 
 
 A glorious company who counted 
 not their lives dear unto themselves. 
 
 WHAT NEXT IN TURKEY? 
 
 Fifteen years ago the entire world 
 stood aghast at the desperate situa¬ 
 tion presented by the uprising of 
 China against everything Western 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 13 
 
 and Christian. Over 100 missionaries 
 and thousands of Chinese Christians 
 were cruelly killed, or hunted like 
 wild beasts. Mission stations were 
 uprooted, and for weeks the mission¬ 
 aries and foreign embassies in Pe¬ 
 king were under fire from the Boxers 
 and the regular troops of the Empress 
 Dowager. 
 
 Protests appeared in the press and 
 were presented to the Board against 
 making any further sacrifice in a 
 fruitless attempt to carry Christian¬ 
 ity to a nation that thus unequivocally 
 declared that it would have none of it. 
 Letters poured in upon the officers of 
 the Board pleading that reason and 
 common sense and not blind fanati¬ 
 cism be given place in its counsels, 
 urging at the same time that we as a 
 Board withdraw all our missionaries 
 from the country and leave China to 
 her ancestral religion. Other counsels 
 prevailed. The destroyed stations 
 were rebuilt and more substantial and 
 larger than before. In the place of 
 the martyred dead new recruits of¬ 
 fered themselves and were appointed. 
 In two years outward reconstruction 
 was about completed and the inner 
 heart of the Chinese began to open 
 in astonishing response to the Chris¬ 
 tian message. Today the readiness 
 and even eagerness of that Empire, 
 mighty in numbers and opportunity, 
 presents a field for the promotion of 
 missions in all their varied activities 
 never before experienced in the his¬ 
 tory of the missionary enterprise. 
 
 We must remember at this time 
 when we face the situation in Turkey 
 that the hate and power of Rome with 
 all its bloody onslaught was not pow¬ 
 erful enough to crush the early 
 Church. The ambitious and hard¬ 
 hearted Queen of Madagascar was 
 unable to prevent the perpetuation of 
 the faith of Jesus Christ among her 
 persecuted people. Uganda suffered 
 and bled, but the Church continued to 
 thrive. The martyr graves with 
 cruel rapidity multiplied in China and 
 became the foundation of the most 
 striking turning towards Christianity 
 
 witnessed in all history, not except¬ 
 ing the days of the Apostles. 
 
 Shall we then falter at the blow 
 struck our Armenian brethren in the 
 Turkish Empire? Is this a time to 
 discuss whether we shall advance or 
 retreat? Not a missionary among the 
 hundred and fifty and more today 
 dwelling amid the horrors of count¬ 
 less graves and desolated homes and 
 face to face with the perils of dread 
 diseases but would plead with us not 
 to desert their people now. Those with 
 us who have come out of great tribula¬ 
 tion, bearing in their bodies the 
 marks of the perils through which 
 they have passed and the suffering 
 they have borne, would rebuke our 
 faith and shame our courage if we 
 plan aught less than a courageous ad¬ 
 vance as soon as the door of that 
 closed country opens to the world. 
 
 Then with Christian fortitude and 
 daring let us tell our brethren here 
 and over there that we are ready to 
 stand with them and sacrifice with 
 them and suffer with them, assured 
 - that 
 
 “Behind the dim unknown, 
 
 Standeth God within the shadow, 
 
 Keeping watch above his own.” 
 
 We shall nqed young men and 
 women to fill up the ranks and lead in 
 the greater work yet to be. We must 
 have support in rebuilding where sta¬ 
 tions have been injured or destroyed 
 as well as in the construction of new 
 and larger facilities for meeting the 
 demands of the years right before us. 
 Now is the time to prepare for the 
 orders to go forward that are sure to 
 come in the near future. 
 
 NO RETREAT ANYWHERE 
 
 Now and then some one says, “Why 
 not let the powers of death and de¬ 
 struction have the field and we with¬ 
 draw from the fray?” “What’s the 
 use?” says another, and “Why press 
 the claims of Christian missions now 
 when the world is war mad?” Is that 
 a sentiment to which we can for a mo- 
 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 ment give place? Where is our 
 Christian daring, where our faith 
 and fortitude, if we cringe before the 
 forces of evil because they are mighty 
 and because the conflict promises to 
 be long and deadly! Had the disciples 
 used that argument there would have 
 been no church at Antioch, no mis¬ 
 sionaries ordained there for world 
 conquest, no response to the call of 
 the man of Macedonia for spiritual 
 help. Had Jesus Christ shaped his 
 life by such a policy, there would have 
 been no flight from Nazareth, no be¬ 
 trayal in Gethsemane, no crown of 
 thorps, no scourging, no Calvary. 
 Under the impulse of such a program 
 for the Christian Church, Jesus would 
 have yielded in the desert to the 
 tempter and the powers of evil would 
 have dominated him and the world. 
 
 If there was ever a time when ev¬ 
 ery one who bears the name Christian 
 needed to take up his cross and follow 
 his Lord into the thick of the battle 
 of passion against the spirit of the 
 Christ, it is here and now. If there 
 was ever a time when the entire world 
 called for Christian daring and sacri¬ 
 fice, a daring that halts at no task, 
 a sacrifice that falters at nothing, 
 it is now. Hatred and evil passions 
 must be met and overcome by love that 
 believeth, hopeth, endureth, all things. 
 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and 
 in the strength of his might. Put on 
 the whole armor of God, that ye may 
 
 be able to stand against the wiles of 
 the devil. For our wrestling is not 
 against flesh and blood, but against 
 the principalities, against the powers, 
 against the world rulers of this dark¬ 
 ness, against the spiritual hosts of 
 wickedness in the heavenly places. 
 Wherefore take up the whole armor 
 of God, that ye may be able to with¬ 
 stand in the evil day, and having done 
 all to stand.” 
 
 STATISTICS 
 
 The statistics added hereto, owing 
 to war conditions affecting so large 
 a portion of our mission fields, are 
 most unsatisfactory. Of course, no 
 returns could be obtained from the 
 three missions in Turkey, the Bal¬ 
 kans, Austria, the Micronesian Is¬ 
 lands, and Mexico. The following 
 table is made up by using the returns 
 of a year ago in the case of missions 
 not reporting. Statistics give only a 
 small part of the story of the volume 
 and force of the work connected with 
 the missions of the Board around the 
 world. Perhaps in the number of the 
 trained native Christian leaders .and 
 in the contributions made by the na¬ 
 tive Christians themselves for the 
 support of the work is to be found 
 the clearest demonstration of the vol¬ 
 ume of the working force and the self- 
 sacrificing devotion of those who 
 make up the Christian communities. 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 15 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY, 1914-1915 
 Missions 
 
 Number of Missions. 19 
 
 Number of Stations. 103 
 
 Number of Outstations.1,458 
 
 Places for stated preaching.2,006 
 
 Laborers Employed 
 
 Number of ordained Missionaries (8 being Physicians). 175 
 
 Number of Male Physicians not ordained (besides 16 women) .... 28 
 
 Number of other Male Assistants. 28 
 
 Number of Women (16 of them Physicians) (wives 208, unmarried 218) . . 426 
 
 Whole number of Laborers sent from this country *. 657 
 
 Number of Native Pastors. 336 
 
 Number of Native Preachers and Catechists. 412 
 
 Number of Native School-teachers.* . . 2,464 
 
 Number of other Native Laborers ........ 1,565 
 
 Total of Native Laborers.4,777 
 
 Total of American and Native Laborers.5,438 
 
 The Churches 
 
 Number of Churches. 676 
 
 Number of Church Members. 80,844 
 
 Added during the year.5,834 
 
 Whole number from the first, as nearly as can be learned. 235,207 
 
 Number of Sunday Schools.1,452 
 
 Sunday School membership. 85,769 
 
 Educational Department 
 
 Number of Theological Seminaries and Training Classes. 14 
 
 Students for the Ministry. 295 
 
 Students in Collegiate Training.3,036 
 
 Boarding and High Schools. 122 
 
 Number of Pupils in these Schools.12,527 
 
 Number of Common Schools . .1,432 
 
 Number of Pupils in Common School. 67,824 
 
 Whole number under instruction. 83,591 
 
 Native Contributions, so far as reported.$367,391 
 
 * Including 14 detained by the war.