B W\ 
 
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 =«■ JIO 
 
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 Enhanced Significance 
 
 of the 
 
 Presbyterian Foreign 
 Missions’ Enterprise 
 in the Light of 
 the War 
 
 ABRAM WOODRUFF HALSEY 
 
 Address at the 
 
 LAKE GENEVA CONFERENCE 
 
 September, 1919 
 
 The Board of Foreign Missions 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/enhancedsignificOOhals 
 
THE ENHANCED SIGNIFICANCE 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS’ EN- 
 TERPRISE IN THE 
 LIGHT OF THE 
 WAR 
 
 The World War directly affected eighteen 
 of the twenty-seven missionary enterprises 
 under the care of the Presbyterian Board 
 of Foreign Missions, U. S. A. Japan, Siam, 
 China and Guatemala were our Allies in 
 the war. .Africa, Chosen, India and Syria 
 were directly affiliated with nations in the 
 war, while Persia, one of the great mission 
 fields of the Presbyterian Church, suffered 
 enormous losses on account of the war. 
 The destructive forces at work during the 
 war period affected mission lands as well 
 as all other lands. It will take a generation 
 or more to recover the losses, material, 
 moral and physical, caused by the war. 
 
 On the other hand, the war brought 
 into special prominence the philanthropic, 
 humanitarian and social aspects of the mis- 
 sionary enterprise. It placed foreign mis- 
 sions on the map of the politician, the 
 statesman, the merchant in Occidental 
 lands, and brought vividly to the attention 
 of the rulers and common people of Ori- 
 ental lands the work and the worth of the 
 missionary. 
 
 The missionary, as a temporary govern- 
 ment official, as an agent of the Red Cross, 
 as a distributor of relief funds, as a trans- 
 lator and interpreter, and in many other 
 capacities, was no inconsiderable asset. The 
 Presbyterian missionary did his full bit. 
 
 The enhanced significance of the Presby- 
 terian Foreign Missions’ enterprise is seen 
 in the light of the war. 
 
 I 
 
I. 
 
 THE TWELVE YEAR OLD 
 PROGRAM 
 
 The war has awakened in the Church at 
 home a sense of responsibility that makes 
 possible the carrying out of a twelve-year- 
 old world-embracing program. At the re- 
 quest of the New Era Movement, the Board 
 of Foreign Missions presented in July, 1919, 
 a five-year program. TKe amount asked for 
 at the end of the fifth year, 1924, was $8,500,- 
 000. This program is almost identical, 
 making allowances for the growth and 
 membership of the Church, with that de- 
 signed and presented by the far-visioned 
 men of the Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions in 1907. It is well to recall a bit 
 of history. On July 18, 1906, the Presby- 
 terian Foreign Board sent a questionnaire 
 to all the missions under its care. Each 
 mission was asked to state its distinct mis- 
 sionary responsibility. A year was con- 
 sumed in receiving and tabulating the re- 
 plies. In February, 1907, a remarkable con- 
 ference was held at Omaha, Nebraska, 
 known as the Omaha Conference. The ad- 
 dresses delivered at this Conference were 
 embodied in a volume entitled— -“Men and 
 the Modern Missionary Enterprise.” 
 
 This volume contains an address by Mr. 
 David McConaughy, in which is the gist of 
 the present stewardship campaign of the 
 New 1 Era Movement; also an address by 
 the Rev. W. S. Marquis, D.D., on “Mission- 
 ary Methods for Men in the Local Church ; 
 suggestive of much which is now being pre- 
 sented as a part cf the New Era Pro- 
 srrs m; also a scholarly paoer by Dr. T. 
 H. P. Sailer on the “?4eed of Systematic 
 Missionary Education.” Mission s.udy 
 classes throughout the country to-day are 
 
following almost literally the plans and 
 methods presented by Dr. Sailer. Secretary 
 Robert E”. Speer delivered an address on the 
 “Distinct Missionary Responsibility of the 
 Presbyterian Church.” This address was 
 based on data gathered by the Board in the 
 questionnaire. Mr. Speer stated that with a 
 yearly contribution by the members at home 
 of a minimum of $6,000,000 the Church in a 
 generation could hope to make Jesus Christ 
 known to the people for whom the Presby- 
 terian Church was responsible on the mis- 
 sion fields. 
 
 The Rev. Charles E. Bradt, D.D., whose 
 active mind and tireless brain conceived and 
 carried out the great Conference summed up 
 the matter by declaring that “our present 
 enterprise costs about $1,200,000 a year. 
 The membership in the Presbyterian Church 
 is 1,200,000. If we could secure an average 
 of five dollars per member we could in 
 some measure meet our missionary respon- 
 sibility.” 
 
 The membership of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the year 1919 is in round num- 
 bers, 1,600,000. Allowing for a reasonable 
 increase in the next four years, an average 
 gift of $5 a member will not much exceed 
 the ratio asked for in 1S07. 
 
 The appeals of 1S07 and 1919 are both 
 based on definite data. In the light of the 
 war the enhanced significance of the mis- 
 sionary enterprise makes it possible if not 
 orcbable that this entire sum can be reached 
 by 1324. 
 
 II. 
 
 STRATEGIC POSITIONS 
 
 The enhanced significance of the Presby- 
 terian Foreign Missions enterprise is also 
 '■een in the strategic position occupied by 
 ' o missions of the Board in the light of the 
 war. 
 
 3 
 
1. No one country is more discussed at 
 the present moment than Mexico. It is at 
 our doors, and it is at our doors better 
 equipped from a mission point of view than 
 ever before in the history of Protestant mis- 
 sions in Mexico. In 1914, there was held at 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, a Conference of represen- 
 tatives of practically all the Mission Boards 
 at work in Mexico. At this Conference a 
 plan of co-operation looking for the reor- 
 ganization of the work in that Republic, 
 the diminishing of missionary competition, 
 the occupation of the entire country, was 
 adopted after careful and prayerful discus- 
 sion. At a Conference held in the City of 
 Mexico in February, 1919, the final adjust- 
 ments of this plan were completed, so that 
 practically, in its great broad outlines, the 
 work in Mexico has been established on a 
 great co-operative basis. The Presbyterian 
 Church, North, has given up its work in the 
 north at Aguascalientes, and Saltillo, San 
 Luis Potosi and Monterey, and taken up new 
 work in Vera Cruz, in Oaxaca, in Yucatan, 
 Campeche and Tabasco. The new work in 
 these countries has made rapid progress. 
 The change effected by the Board, in the 
 willingness to give up long established mis- 
 sion work and co-operate with other Boards, 
 has opened up large vistas of opportunity in 
 a country that is struggling for a new na- 
 tional life. The hope of the Mexican is in 
 an intelligent constituency, educated along 
 the line of Protestant Christianity. 
 
 The Union Seminary, in which the North- 
 ern, Southern and Associate Reformed Pres- 
 byterians, Northern and Southern Method- 
 ists, Northern Baptists, Congregationalists, 
 Disciples and Friends are united, has now 
 become a reality, and has already proved 
 the wisdom of this splendid bit of co-opera- 
 tive missionary effort. The mission presses 
 of the Methodist Church and of the Presby- 
 terian North, have been united, and we 
 
 4 
 
iiave now one great mission press. While 
 some adjustments are yet to be made, still 
 the plan so long contemplated is in actual 
 operation. The weekly papers published re- 
 spectively by the Methodist and Presby- 
 terian Missions have been united in one 
 weekly religious paper, thus meeting the 
 needs of a large constituency, and promot- 
 ing in a practical way the spirit of co-opera- 
 tion which found its expression in the Cin- 
 cinnati Conference. The Mission has the 
 good will of the Mexican people and the 
 good will of the Government. 
 
 Little damage has been done to mission 
 property during these years of revolution. 
 While the condition of the country is still 
 unsettled and there are many serious civil 
 and social problems, yet the war has re- 
 vealed the good will of the Government and 
 of the people toward the Protestant mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 2. One of the large problems before the 
 Peace Conference is what shall be done 
 with the million square miles in Africa, 
 formerly under the supervision of Germany, 
 and now to be controlled by the Allies. 
 It is well to remember that 200,000 square 
 miles of this territory is in Cameroun, where 
 are located the principal stations of the 
 West Africa Mission. 
 
 The Mission in Cameroun is one of the 
 most successful missions in connection with 
 the work of the Board. The question re- 
 garding Cameroun and all the other terri- 
 tory wrested from the Germans in Africa 
 is. whether Europe is to exploit these peo- 
 ple and to seize the vast, untouched re- 
 sources, or whether there is to be an en- 
 lightened development of the country. The 
 era of exploration has passed, the era of 
 partition has passed, will the new era be a 
 reign of righteousness or of greed? 
 
 5 
 
The Cameroun Mission is strategically lo- 
 cated in the providence of God to aid in the 
 proper answer to this question. In Cam- 
 eroun there are 7 principal stations, 459 
 outstations, and a constituency of not less 
 than 150,000. The zeal and earnestness of 
 the missionary and the evangelistic spirit 
 of the Christians, have won the favor of 
 the French Government, now administering 
 the Colony, and every indication points to a 
 large development of this entire region now 
 under the allied government. Strategy is 
 the word which fittingly expresses the posi- 
 tion of the Cameroun Mission. 
 
 3. Even more prominent and more stra- 
 tegic in the light of the war is the mission 
 work in Chosen. Rev. Arthur Judson 
 Brown, D.D., in his recent volume — “The 
 Mastery of the Far East,” states that 
 Chosen is the pivot on which the Eastern 
 question turns. 
 
 The population of Japan is increasing at 
 the rate of 800,000 yearly. Her country is 
 small. She must expand. Chosen is her 
 natural outlet. Japanese statesmen believe 
 that it is necessary that she should control 
 Chosen. 
 
 Chosen at the present time is a storm 
 centre. The relations of Japan to Chosen 
 and China is agitating the entire world. Re ; 
 call how providentially Chosen was opened. 
 An offer of $5,000 from a member of the 
 Foreign Board was the immediate occasion 
 of the beginning of mission work in Chosen. 
 That is nearly a generation ago. Chosen 
 was then the Hermit Nation. The war has 
 brought Chosen to the attention of the civ- 
 ilized world. The noble moral struggle for 
 independence — no armed force was used — 
 made by the Koreans, has brought Chosen 
 to the attention of all thoughtful men. In 
 Chosen the Board of Foreign Missions cf 
 the Presbyterian Church has 8 stations, 
 
 6 
 
1,200 outstations, 144 missionaries, 1,200 
 churches and groups, and a church member- 
 ship of 53,000; and an attendance on the 
 Lord’s day of more than 100,000. The 
 schools of the Mission are scattered all over 
 the country. The hospitals for many years 
 have been scenes of blessing for thousands 
 of people. Whatever may be the right or 
 wrong of the uprising of the Koreans 
 against the government in Chosen, Chosen 
 is no longer the Hermit Nation. She stands 
 in the lime-light of the world, and it is 
 most significant that one of the strongest 
 missions of the Presbyterian Church is in a 
 land that for months has been the subject 
 of discussion among people throughout the 
 entire world. 
 
 Chosen is not only strategic for Japan, it 
 is strategic for the whole mission world. 
 
 4. The question of Chosen is closely- 
 bound up with the section of the League of 
 Nations which deals with the Province of 
 Shantung. This great province of the Re- 
 public of China is one of the strongholds of 
 Presbyterian mission work. Here are nine 
 mission stations, 500 outstations, 128 mis- 
 sionaries, nearly a thousand native teachers 
 and workers; no less than fifteen high 
 schools and 400 other schools, with one 
 great Christian Union University whose in- 
 fluence has steadily increased until it is 
 possibly the dominating Christian institu- 
 tion in all Shantung, if not in all China. 
 
 The scene of the dispute in the center of 
 Shantung, is Kiaochow Bay, whose port is 
 the City of Tsingtau. The Board has a sta- 
 tion at Tsingtau. Much trouble has been 
 experienced in the last year in connection 
 with the work at this station. Native work- 
 ers have been arrested, indignities have 
 been inflicted on many of the members of 
 the native church. The Mission compound 
 has been surrounded by houses of ill fame. 
 
 7 
 
It is stated in a Canton paper that the 
 profits of the smuggling of opium into 
 Tsingtau in 1918 amounted to more than 
 $10,000,000. . In an article published in 
 “Asia” for September, 1919, facts and inci- 
 dents are given showing that Tsingtau is 
 certainly greatly needing the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. No question that opium and 
 morphine and liquor are being allowed to 
 enter into Tsingtau and Shantung. No one 
 section in the Peace Treaty has been more 
 discussed than the relation of Shantung to 
 the world peace, and to the League of Na- 
 tions. 
 
 The coolie in Shantung, the jinricksha 
 man in Osaka, the Sikh in Lahore, the Arab 
 in the desert — the statesmen in London, in 
 Persia, in Washington, in Rome, in Berlin, 
 in Tokyo — and thoughtful men throughout 
 the world, are discussing the question 
 whether Japan has a right to occupy Shan- 
 tung, wrested from the Germans, the Ger- 
 mans having taken it from the Chinese 
 without due process of law. .Shantung is 
 one of the great assets of the Board, and 
 in the light of the war the enhanced sig- 
 nificance of the work in Shantung is very 
 manifest. 
 
 5. Only a few weeks after Dewey had 
 won the battle in Manila Bay, the pastor of 
 a Presbyterian Church in Yonkers, N. Y., 
 wrote the Board — “We have a thousand dol- 
 lars to give you if you will enter the Phil- 
 ippine Islands.” The first missionary who 
 went out is there to-day doing magnificent 
 service. This far-reaching possession of 
 Uncle Sam, with its great Ellinwood Bible 
 Training Station, its wonderful Silliman In- 
 stitute, with its stations scattered through- 
 out the Islands, working in the most splen- 
 did co-operation of any mission in the 
 world, and its growing constituency, is a 
 place of vantage in the best colonial ex- 
 
 8 
 
periment the world has ever known, under 
 the American flag. Strategic is the only 
 word that will rightly express the place and 
 position of our Philippine Mission. 
 
 In the brief period since the close of the 
 Spanish war, the Philippine Mission has 
 grown so that there are 11 stations, 173 
 outstations, 17,000 communicants, 10 hos- 
 pitals, and an aggressive evangelistic work 
 that bids fair to bring very large results in 
 the near future. In view of America’s re- 
 sponsibility to the whole eastern world, the 
 position of the Philippine Mission under 
 American control gives it a coign of vantage 
 that rightly occupied will mean large things 
 for the future. 
 
 The strategic positions of the Missions of 
 the Board at the close of the war, shows 
 the enhanced value of the Foreign Missions 
 enterprise. 
 
 III. 
 
 MISSION MANDATORIES 
 
 The enhanced significance of the Presby- 
 terian Foreign Missions enterprise in the 
 light of the war is evident because of the 
 mission mandatories which in the provi- 
 dence of God the Church must assume. 
 Thoughtful men are considering with much 
 concern what nation will have the manda- 
 tory for Constantinople, for Armenia, for 
 Africa, for Syria. This is a matter of politi- 
 cal concern, but there are mandatories re- 
 ligious which the Presbyterian Church can- 
 not escape. 
 
 A “mandatory” is “that which is of the 
 nature of, pertaining to, or conveying a 
 command, a mandate,” and there are cer- 
 tain mission mandatories which are laid up- 
 on the Presbyterian Church at the present 
 hour. 
 
 9 
 
1. The new work in Manchuria. Only a 
 few years ago, Koreans, driven it may be 
 by persecution, or listening to the call of 
 the West, moved into Manchuria, thousands 
 of them. Readers of mission literature will 
 recall that John Ross, the pioneer mission- 
 ary to Manchuria, found there a few 
 Koreans when he was opening up the 
 work for the Scotch Mission about 1872. 
 This was the real beginning of mission 
 work in Chosen. After the Japanese occu- 
 pation, thousands of Christian Koreans mi- 
 grated to Manchuria. They took the Gospel 
 with them. The Korean Church sent its 
 own evangelist to minister to the emigrants. 
 By 1917 the Korean church in Manchuria, 
 then only four years old, had a member- 
 ship of 3,500 — two-thirds of this number 
 having been brought to Christ since mi- 
 grating to Manchuria. At the town of Sin 
 Chin Fu, on the main road between Mukden 
 and Tunghua, is the center of the work. 
 
 This town has a population of from 
 15,000 to 20,000. No other denomination 
 but our own is working there save the 
 Scotch Church and the Danish Lutheran 
 which is ministering to the Chinese. Thou- 
 sands more of the Koreans will naturally 
 migrate to Manchuria. It is the “Golden 
 West” to the Korean, with vast undevel- 
 oped resources. 
 
 The Korean is readily accessible to the 
 Gospel. The Korean Church because of 
 the oppression to which it has been sub- 
 jected on account of the independence 
 movement, v/ill not be able to carry on 
 this new missionary enterprise as it has 
 practically done the past four years. The 
 Church in the home land must recognize 
 this as a mandatory growing out of the war 
 conditions which it is her duty and privilege 
 to undertake. 
 
 io 
 
2. In January, 1317, a group of mission- 
 aries and Siamese Christians started iron 
 Chieng Mai, Siam, to Yunnan, China. A 
 new station was opened at Chieng Hung. 
 Here are thousands of people without the 
 Gospel, whose language is akin to that of 
 the Laos in north Siam. On Sunday, Janu- 
 ary 19, ISIS, a communion service was cele- 
 brated at Chieng Rung, the beginning of the 
 fruitage of this large unevangelized terri- 
 tory extending from Indo-China and Yun- 
 nan to the Canton Mission in Kwangtung. 
 It was “No Man’s Land” until a little group 
 of Presbyterian missionaries began their 
 work in 1817. 
 
 On December 20, 1313, Rev. W. C. Dodd 
 writes from Chieng Rung to a fellow mis- 
 sionary : — 
 
 “There are 8 cities or large towns 
 where I think we should have Tai workers 
 — Hanoi and Langson in Indo-China on 
 the railway; Poseting on the south fork of 
 the West River (Canton is on this river) ; 
 Hsing-fu on the north fork of the West 
 River; Lungchow, north of Langson; Ship- 
 ing and Lingan-fu, about 200 miles north- 
 east of Chieng-Rung; Nanning-fu, on the 
 main branch of the West River. These, 
 with Kwangnan-fu make nine places where 
 we ought to be at work to-day. We hope 
 that now the war is over France will lift 
 the ban she has put on our working among 
 the Tai of Indo-China, and that we may 
 have the privilege of continuing the work 
 of Drs. McGilvary and Peoples, begun 
 twenty-two years ago in Luang Pra Bang.” 
 
 If, as Dr. Dodd indicates, the French 
 Government is willing to lift the ban she 
 has so long placed on the work among the 
 Tai of Indo-China, this large field, with that 
 of Yunnan, opens an opportunity for the 
 Board of Foreign Missions which is clearly 
 mandatory. 
 
 ii 
 
3. In July, 1914, there was a conference 
 held at Batanga, West Africa, attended by 
 representatives of all the Protestant Mission 
 Boards at work in Cameroun. A definite 
 agreement was arrived at as to the country 
 to be occupied in southern Cameroun by the 
 Presbyterian Church, and in northern Cam- 
 eroun by the Baptist, Basle and Gossner 
 Missions. In August, 1914, war was de- 
 clared. The Baptist, Basle and Gossner 
 missions are no more. They will not be 
 permitted for years to go on with their 
 work. The French Evangelistic Society, 
 although weakened by the war, will gladly 
 co-operate with the Presbyterian Board of 
 Foreign Missions in this fruitful field. The 
 French Society will furnish some valuable 
 missionaries, but we must furnish the sinews 
 of war and bear the brunt of the burden. 
 
 Here is a vast territory north and east 
 of our present Mission with possibly 1,000,- 
 000 inhabitants, which we must enter or it 
 will be neglected. Instead of ministering 
 to 1,000,000 people as we do now in south- 
 ern Cameroun, our definite responsibility 
 will reach 2,000,000. The people are in 
 a plastic state, they are ready to receive the 
 Gospel. Our Swiss and German brethren 
 carried on an excellent missionary enter- 
 prise. We will have to purchase their prop- 
 erty, involving an expenditure of many 
 thousands of dollars, and it will be neces- 
 sary to open a main station at Yaounde, and 
 possibly 8 or 9 outstations if the field is to 
 be adequately occupied. It is probable that 
 the French Government will have the mand- 
 atory for Cameroun. Our missionaries are 
 working in most harmonious co-operation 
 with the French missionaries. They have 
 asked us to undertake this work. It belongs 
 to us in the Providence of God. If the 
 Presbyterian Church does not enter upon 
 his work, it will prove itself recreant to a 
 sacred trust. 
 
 12 
 
4. The world is watching to see who will 
 be mandatory for Syria. The National 
 Bulletin, representing the Syrian National 
 Society, pleads for “Syria for Syrians, under 
 the guardianship of the United States.” 
 Whoever undertakes the mandatory for 
 Syria, there can be no question that the 
 Presbyterian Church has a mission manda- 
 tory in that land. In the light of the war, 
 the self-sacrificing service rendered by the 
 missionaries during the days of famine, of 
 pestilence, of suffering and of sorrow, the 
 large sums sent through the Board from 
 Syrians in this country and distributed to 
 starving Syrians in Syria, and the very 
 efficient service rendered since the war by 
 the missionaries in carrying out the plans of 
 the “Near East Relief” — give the Presby- 
 terian Mission a place of prominence in 
 Syria that no other Board enjoys. But, in 
 addition, there is a call to open a new mis- 
 sion at Aleppo. The world waited eagerly 
 for the cavalry of Allenby to reach Aleppo. 
 The mission world now calls on the Presby- 
 terian Church to occupy this field. Here is 
 a city with its adjacent territory of 250,000 
 inhabitants. It is situated at the junction 
 of the Syrian railway and the Bagdad-Con- 
 stantinople line, is most strategic, is the 
 northern center of Arabic-speaking people, 
 and is practically unoccupied. The Syria 
 Mission at a meeting held in July, 1919, 
 adopted the following resolution: — 
 
 “That the Mission lay before the Board 
 the absolute necessity in loyalty to our 
 Divine commission, of securing the prompt 
 and effective occupation of Aleppo by some 
 Society or combination of Societies. It 
 rests upon our Mission as the leading or- 
 ganization in north Syria to take the initia- 
 tive in this matter.” This is mandatory. 
 
 Aleppo is north of our Syria Mission. It 
 will connect us with the American Board 
 
 13 
 
Mission in Asia Minor. It belongs to us. 
 The enhancement of the Presbyterian For- 
 eign Missions enterprise in the light of the 
 war is nowhere more apparent than in 
 Syria. 
 
 5. Afghanistan has long been a closed 
 land to the missionary. The gateway to 
 Afghanistan is Meshed. Twenty years ago 
 the Rev. Lewis F. Esselstyn attempted to 
 open a station at Meshed. Ke was driven 
 out. In 1911 he returned and again essayed 
 the task of occupying Meshed with the 
 thought of reaching Afghanistan. Ke died 
 in 1918 at Meshed, having ministered to 
 thousands of famine-striken Persians and 
 preached the Gospel to many thousands of 
 Moslems. He died a martyr, but he and 
 other workers have made possible the open- 
 ing of the road to Afghanistan. 
 
 The hospital at Meshed in 1917-18 did an 
 extraordinary work. In this single year 
 thousands of patients were treated who 
 came from Herat, Baku, Bokhara, Tash- 
 kend, Kabul and Khandahar. The physi- 
 cian’s lancet has opened the way into 
 Afghanistan. Prejudices have been broken 
 down, and superstition driven out by the 
 unselfish, scientific, spiritual service ren- 
 dered by the missionaries from far-away 
 America, and by the generous gifts of 
 Americans for the relief of famine-stricken 
 Persians. There never was a clearer call 
 or one more mandatory than that which 
 comes from Meshed to the Presbyterian 
 Church, to make a beginning towards reach- 
 ing the 6,000,000 of people in Afghanistan. 
 A road to India has been opened through 
 Afghanistan by the British Government. 
 A new Gospel road to Afghanistan has been 
 opened through patients in the hospital who 
 have learned something of the spirit of 
 Christ, through his servants. 
 
 14 
 
IV. 
 
 “CHRISTIANITY AND HUMAN 
 CONSERVATION” 
 
 The enhanced significance of the mis- 
 sionary enterprise is seen in the new re- 
 lation, shown in the light of the war, be- 
 tween Christianity and human conserva- 
 tion. 
 
 The missionary study topic for this year, 
 which thousands will study, is “Christianity 
 and Human Conservation.” Through the 
 long years of the war, the missionaries of 
 the Board in non-Christian lands have been 
 making clear how close is that co-operation. 
 The immediate physical relief which must 
 be ministered in the course of the coming 
 months by the missionary in such lands as 
 Syria and Persia, following the splendid 
 service during the years of the war, en- 
 hances the significance of the missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
 In the report of the Near East Relief it 
 is stated that in one fortnight in Aleppo, 
 'kOQO refugees were repatriated, that in 
 Beirut 26,000 garments a month were dis- 
 tributed in the villages, and in Tripoli, 
 11,000, But by whom was this distribution 
 made? By the missionary. 
 
 In Aleppo alone there are 1,800 refugees, 
 and the number of orphans, and children 
 cf our fellow Christians in Syria, the num- 
 ber of aged and infirm who must be cared 
 for, are legion. The work of human con- 
 servation in Syria laid upon the Board of 
 Foreign Missions involves not only enor- 
 mous expenditures for immediate relief, but 
 larger expenditure of conserving what is 
 left, not only of things material, but of 
 human life, so that Syria may become a 
 strong nation. 
 
 15 
 
Some idea of the vastness of the recon- 
 struction needed can be seen from a single 
 instance. In Urumia, Persia, practically 
 everything connected with the Mission has 
 been destroyed. The American School for 
 Boys, the Fiske Seminary for Girls — that 
 splendid institution which has done such 
 valiant service for Persia — the 29 churches, 
 the Westminster Hospital fragrant with 
 the memory of Dr. Joseph P. Cochran, 
 the great Urumia Press dating back to 
 1839, probably all of these splendid mis- 
 sionary landmarks are completely wiped 
 out. The country has been tramped over 
 by hostile armies, rent and torn, yet for a 
 large section of Persia the only human con- 
 servation that the Persian can look to is 
 to be found in the service of the members 
 of the American Presbyterian Mission. It 
 is estimated that we will need at least 
 $1,000,000 to reconstruct Persia, so that the 
 work can be carried on as it was before the 
 war. 
 
 It is suggestive that during the year end- 
 ing June, 1919, at Meshed, Persia, only one 
 case of smallpox was found. This was due 
 to the wonderful vaccination system intro- 
 duced by the Missionary to combat this and 
 other diseases. By the aid of the mission- 
 ary, laws were enacted forbidding the ex- 
 posure of meat, authorizing the destruction 
 of decayed fruit, disposing of garbage; and 
 printed directions were distributed for fight- 
 ing cholera, typhoid, and typhus fevers- 
 “If,” said the missionary at Meshed, “we 
 had six doctors instead of one, we could 
 reach and touch men in each of the ten 
 great districts of Khorosans, in centers of 
 from 50,000 to 250,000 each.” 
 
 Unless the Presbyterian Church under 
 takes this work, it will not be done. 
 
 One of the large fruits of the war was 
 the value of preventive medicine. During 
 
 16 
 
the war period negotiations were completed 
 with the Rockefeller Foundation, by which 
 a great movement was inaugurated in China 
 in the cause of preventive medicine. Under 
 this arrangement the Presbyterian Board of 
 Foreign Missions co-operated with the 
 Rockefeller Foundation in the hospitals at 
 Paotingfu, at Changteh, in the Union Col- 
 lege at Tsinanfu, in the union hospital at 
 Chefoo, and the great Peking University 
 where is the largest medical institute in 
 China. 
 
 This institution gives a four-year course 
 in medicine, and a year of special work in 
 the laboratory. It has a medical college 
 for women, and a training school for nurses. 
 A single gift of $800,000 was made by the 
 China Medical Board (the organization of 
 the Rockefeller Foundation) for the pur- 
 chase of land for this hospital. During the 
 war years these plans were worked out, 
 and are now in active operation. 
 
 During the war a government official in 
 Siam was disturbed because his soldiers 
 seemed so weak and unable to do effective 
 service. He asked one of the missionary 
 physicians to examine one hundred of the 
 soldiers in the barracks at Nan. The ex- 
 amination showed 100 per cent of hook- 
 worm. To-day an extensive effort in co- 
 operation with the Government is being car- 
 ried on in Siam to drive out the hookworm. 
 
 In Africa the missionaries are asking for 
 a $50,000 hospital largely in order that they 
 may have facilities for studying native 
 diseases, and doing laboratory work that 
 will result in the prevention of disease. 
 The Board with its 175 hospitals and dis- 
 pensaries has ample opportunity for this 
 work of prevention. 
 
 Human conservation is also economic. 
 In the University of Nanking, with which 
 
 17 
 
the Board is affiliated, there is a College of 
 Agriculture which provides a full five-year 
 course in agriculture and forestry. The 
 students in this University come from four- 
 teen out of the eighteen provinces in China 
 and the government has given efficient sup- 
 port to this institution. It is estimated 
 that 85 per cent, of the population of 
 China is agricultural. Millions of Chinese 
 will be better fed, clothed and supported be- 
 cause of the work carried on by this and 
 kindred institutions. 
 
 In India one of the missionaries of the 
 Board served on a committee of the Gov- 
 ernment having special reference to the 
 food supplies of the country and of the 
 Indian army. One missionary of the Board 
 invented a plow now in use in India, which 
 because of its adaptiveness, its availability, 
 the fact that it can be easily repaired, is help- 
 ing to change the whole system of agricul- 
 ture in India. The work done by the mis- 
 sionaries of the Board in furnishing in- 
 creased supplies of food and in enlisting 
 Government cooperation, is only the begin- 
 ning of what promises to be a large work of 
 human conservation in India. 
 
 The mass movement in India is turning 
 thousands of the poorer classes to the Gos- 
 pel. The missionary is providing an ade- 
 quate means of support by which these 
 people with their new ideas and new ideals 
 can obtain sustenance and become citizens 
 of the new India which is sure to be devel- 
 oped as one of the great results of the war. 
 
 The great work of human conservation, 
 however, is what one of the missionaries 
 from China designates as “The stiffening of 
 the moral sense of the nation.” This the 
 missionary is doing throughout the Oriental 
 world. 
 
 18 
 
In China the fight for opium is not over. 
 Enormous quantities of opium and morphia 
 are being smuggled into China. In Syria 
 the most distressing sight which the Secre- 
 tary of the Board who visited Syria during 
 the present year saw, was the profiteers 
 who rode around in automobiles with a 
 vulgar display of wealth made by holding 
 grain from their fellow countrymen who 
 were dying of famine. The saddest thing 
 about the work in Persia was, not the 
 famine stricken people who had to be fed, 
 but the lack of gratitude and inhumanity 
 of Kurds and Persians alike. The attempted 
 kidnapping of a noble missionary woman 
 and the death of a brave missionary who 
 defended her, as told in the September num- 
 ber of “The Atlantic Monthly” (under the 
 title of “And Can These Things Be?”) is 
 a story of which every lover of missions 
 should be proud. 
 
 The work of human conservation is some- 
 thing more than furnishing food and 
 raiment to starving Syrians or dying Per- 
 sians or suffering Chinese or influenza in- 
 fected Indians or persecuted Koreans, it is 
 to bring home to men, weary and worn with 
 oppression and poverty, the larger things of 
 life which come through a right conception 
 of God in Jesus Christ. 
 
 THE ENHANCED SIGNIFICANCE 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS’ ENTERPRISE IN THE 
 LIGHT OF THE WAR, SHOULD SPUR 
 US TO THE LARGEST ENDEAVOR IN 
 THIS DAY OF GRACIOUS OPPOR- 
 TUNITY. 
 
 Abram Woodruff Halsey. 
 
 November 1919 
 
 Form 2687