1 ? 
 
 3 W) . WitgjO.. 
 
The Embarrassment of 
 
 Success 
 
 AkVliat the Missions Ashed and Why 
 -—What the Church Gave 
 
 * 
 
 THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
Concluding Paragraph from Secretary Leonard s Report to 
 the General Committee of Foreign Missions 
 Saint Louis, November, 1908 
 
 From every field and from every department of our work there comes the 
 cry for more money and more missionaries. If the church will furnish the 
 money we will find the men and women who will gladly go. O, that the Meth¬ 
 odist Episcopal Church would respond to the call of the General Conference 
 sent forth last May: 1909, $3,000,000; 1910, $4,000,000; 1911, $5,000,000; 1912, 
 $6,000,000. These sums are entirely practicable. If our three million Meth¬ 
 odists would average five cents a week each for foreign missions it would 
 place at the disposal of the General Committee annually $7,800,000. This 
 ought to be done. It can be done. It will be done in the not distant future. 
 
 Resolution Adopted by tbe General Committee 
 
 Resolved , That this General Committee is impressed that the ministry 
 and membership of our church need and desire to know, in addition to the 
 figures which state the Committee’s convictions concerning the urgency of 
 our opportunities in foreign fields, the specific facts which support that esti¬ 
 mate. We, therefore, request the Board of Managers to issue at the earliest 
 date practicable, a brief descriptive leaflet for wide circulation, in which shall 
 be set forth in concrete form the condition of our work in the several fields 
 and in as great detail as practicable the peculiar emergencies which this year 
 require the expenditure of the various sums included in the total estimate. 
 
 Printed February, 190© 
 2 
 
EASTERN ASIA 
 
 FOOCHOW CONFERENCE 
 
 Teackers, Evangelistic Workers, New Buildings for Kutien 
 Academy, for Boys’ Boarding Sckool at Foockow, 
 for Wiley General Hospital 
 
 James E. Skinner, M.D.: 
 
 “The estimates of the Foochow Conference for 1909 are essentially con¬ 
 servative—not one whit less than we need today to man the work already 
 undertaken. 
 
 “There are at present five men giving part of their time to evangelistic 
 work. We ask for five more, and there is heavy work waiting for all these 
 men on the eight districts of the Conference. No missionary can make his 
 influence strongly felt when he visits a circuit only once or twice or, maybe, 
 three times a year, and then only for a few hours, or, at most, for a day or 
 two, We must have more men for evangelistic work if we wish to inspire 
 the Chinese preachers to do their best work. 
 
 “We need four men for educational work and we need them now. Five 
 years hence will be too late. We now have five boarding schools for boys, 
 Practically all the preachers and teachers come from these schools. How 
 essential it is that each school should be given the entire time and influence 
 of at least one man instead of receiving only a part of the time and energy 
 of the missionary in charge of the district! 
 
 “Is it wise or right to ask four families to live in two houses intended for 
 only one family each? Is it too much to ask for a third residence for 
 Yenping? 
 
 “The Kutien Academy has outgrown its building. Boys are waiting to 
 enter and there is no place for them. Some of our strongest men are from 
 this school. They need more room. The Wiley General Hospital at Kutien 
 has needed for years an additional building for a chapel, dispensary, and 
 operating room. The old building, at present used for this purpose, is falling 
 down as the result of an earthquake and cannot be economically repaired. 
 
 “The only boys’ boarding school without a building is the one in Foochow. 
 They are now crowded in with the normal school. They ask for a home of 
 their own. 
 
 “The normal school should have a mission residence in connection with 
 it. The missionary in charge must now live half a mile away in the 
 Methodist compound, where already there are not enough houses to go 
 around.” 
 
 Mrs. Grow S. Brown: 
 
 “In one town and its surrounding villages, not many miles from Yenping, 
 there are possibly 25,000 people, all of whom are indeed ‘beyond’ the very 
 
 3 
 
outposts of our work, although in the territory set apart for us to evangelize. 
 On a recent journey through this territory we found the people most friendly; 
 they would gladly hear the gospel, but they have not a single person to teach 
 them what you and I have had the privilege of knowing all our lives. In 
 another city where there are 25,000 people who could be reached if workers 
 were located there, we just longed to remain, for the people pleaded so piti¬ 
 fully for the good news of the kingdom. We were far beyond our most 
 distant preaching place, yet in our own territory and where no other church 
 will carry the gospel. We passed through city after city like those we have 
 mentioned.” 
 
 In response to a request for $65,854, tke Foochow Conference received 
 an appropriation of $28,325 for 1909. 
 
 HINGHWA CONFERENCE 
 
 Four New Men, a Hospital, Salaries of Native Preackers, Day 
 
 Sckools, a Sckool Building 
 
 Rev. William N. Brewster, for the Finance Committee: 
 
 “Four new men are needed most imperatively. If we have a man in 
 Yungan at all, we must have two. It is a journey of nearly two weeks from 
 Hinghwa. Dr. Walter W. Williams is now alone at Yungan, serving as both 
 physician and preacher. The rapid growth of the work in Yungchun makes 
 important the sending of a new missionary to this place. Another man is 
 needed for the large Anglo-Chinese High School in Hinghwa City. This 
 school is doing practically the same work in curriculum as the colleges, but 
 under a more modest name. We must do this work for our boys here or they 
 will not get any modern education. The dialect and expense both make a 
 Foochow college education impossible for our young people except in rare 
 cases. The Rev. Ulric R. Jones, our only worker there, greatly needs reen¬ 
 forcement. A medical man is needed at Hankong. No hospital for men in 
 all our Hinghwa-speaking work tells its own story. This is not true of any 
 other Conference in China. We have the site and part of the money for a 
 hospital. ‘We must have a hospital,’ is the unanimous plea of all our Chinese 
 people. They are most importunate and back up pleas with pledges.” 
 
 Rev. Harry G. Dildine: 
 
 “For the salaries of native preachers to carry on evangelistic work we 
 are asking that the allowance be doubled. The missionary has had too much 
 of the salaries of his preachers to find in his own pocket. He must have help, 
 or the preachers must be thinned out and sent home. We are doing what we 
 can at getting special gifts for them, but have not been able thus far to 
 succeed far enough to warrant us in continuing as we have heretofore. 
 
 “We used to have money for our day schools. This year we have none. 
 Not that we have no such schools. The missionary is carrying them himself. 
 But it has been thought best to use what we had to get those schools organized 
 and running well in the Hinghwa region. They seem to be getting upon a 
 firm foundation, and now we are asking that we be given a little help, so 
 that we may get a system started. We could not start many schools with any 
 
 4 
 
profit, but we do have it in our range of possibilities to have six good 
 schools. We are asking that the Society provide five of them. 
 
 “Our school building at Yungchun has a covering of Portland cement on 
 the side next to the heavy typhoon winds and rains. The earth walls under¬ 
 neath have been settling and have left the cement cracked. As the rains come 
 the water can beat into those cracks and, by rushing down behind the cement, 
 wash away the walls, so as to endanger the building and the lives of any 
 people that may happen to be inside. No typhoon has come our way as yet. 
 We have had nothing to do but to sit and wait to see if the wind and rain 
 would come and open a hole whereby we could get enough contingent money 
 to do the repairing. 
 
 “A new residence at Yungchun becomes unavoidably necessary when you 
 think of putting three families in one house. Even with the two families, as 
 now, we need $200 for our present residence, to make it possible for each 
 family to keep house for itself. The house was not originally designed to 
 accommodate two households. But with the new man coming there is no 
 question as to another house being needed.” 
 
 Tkus are described pressing needs of tke Hmgkwp Conference, wkick 
 can ke met only very partially in 1909, for tke request of tke Conference 
 for an appropriation of $32,667 was answered witk an appropriation of 
 
 $ 12 , 200 . 
 
 CENTRAL CHINA 
 
 More Missionaries, More Mission Residences 
 
 Finance Committee Statement: 
 
 “We must have more men. Bishop Bashford recognizes that our problem 
 in Central China is largely that we have too great a field for our force. The 
 region included in the Chinkiang District, and north of the river in a section 
 where we once did pioneer work but where we now have nothing, contains 
 11,000,000 people. We have one missionary appointed to that field. Wuhu is 
 our only station in Anhwei Province in which missionaries reside, and it 
 is now without an evangelist. This province has one fourth the population of 
 the United States, and we shall not be able to send a missionary to the 
 evangelistic work there until one of our long-1 ooked-for reenforcements has 
 learned the language. One evangelist for 22,000,000 people! 
 
 “At Nanking, a city of 400,000 people and with four stations outside the 
 city, we do not have the time of one man for evangelistic work. Nanking 
 furnishes in our institutions and in the Central Church an opportunity which 
 would satisfy any man’s ambition for work. A small part of one man’s time 
 is now given to it. 
 
 “At Kiukiang, the oldest work in the mission, the largest in membership, 
 and one of the largest districts, there is no foreign evangelist. The work is 
 entirely in charge of a Chinese district superintendent. This must not and 
 cannot continue. 
 
 “Because of our past history in Kiangsi we have an obligation there which 
 is in addition to the ordinary calls of duty and opportunity. We once entered 
 many places in which we now have only property. The people have an 
 
 5 
 
entirely erroneous idea of the purpose of the church. We owe it to them in 
 all these places to preach the pure gospel. But that field is vast, thickly 
 populated, almost unentered, uncontaminated by contact with non-Christian 
 foreigners, and altogether a magnificent opportunity. Confessedly, we must 
 reenforce our work there. A new station for foreign missionaries should in 
 the near future be opened at Fuchow, with two families in residence. 
 
 “The three provinces in which we have work have a total population of 
 75,000,000 people. We venture the assertion that few fields under the 
 direction of the Society have so large a population to which so small a force 
 is assigned. We have, in consideration of the needs briefly stated, asked for 
 five reenforcements for 1909. We should have them in addition to our present 
 and prospective force. Our force now is smaller than it has been for years, 
 and this year’s reenforcements hardly serve to bring it up to the standard of 
 a few years ago. With a force adequate to properly oversee our already vast 
 field and to reenter fields once occupied, we are confident that no field in China 
 would give greater results.” 
 
 In addition to the need for new men, there is pressing need in Central 
 China for new residences. Both in Nanking and Nanchang there are more 
 missionary families than homes, and it is necessary either to rent, which is 
 very expensive, or to require two families to occupy the same house. 
 
 Xo meet the situation, according to the estimates of the Finance Com¬ 
 mittee, an appropriation of $55,196 was needed. An appropriation of 
 $40,635 was made. 
 
 NORTH CHINA 
 
 More ^/orkers, New Residences and Chapels, a Hospital and 
 
 a Boys' School 
 
 Pamphlet, “Summary of the Year's Work": 
 
 “The theoretical limits of the North China Conference include an area 
 about equal to the part of the United States east of the Mississippi River. 
 This northeastern section of the Chinese empire has a population several 
 millions greater than that of the entire North American continent. Our 
 mission is actually working in a territory equal to that of New York and 
 Pennsylvania combined. By the rules of comity the Methodist Church is 
 responsible in this territory for more people than live west of the Missouri 
 River. 
 
 “During the past Conference year we have had actually at work ten 
 ordained missionaries, seven unordained missionaries, and twelve single 
 ladies. There have also been twenty-six ordained Chinese preachers and 
 sixty-three unordained preachers. These figures mean that in a territory and 
 population which in the United States has eight Annual Conferences, the total 
 number of ordained and unordained people giving their whole time to the work 
 of the church is little if any greater than those in the New York District of the 
 New York Conference. It should strengthen our faith to study how the Lord 
 can use so small a force to accomplish his work. It should also lead us to 
 pray that he send more laborers into the harvest.” 
 
 6 
 
Bishop J. W. Bashford: 
 
 “The recent extension of the work of the North China Conference south¬ 
 ward in the Province of Shantung makes more imperative the need of re¬ 
 enforcements in North China. At the last Conference session this southern 
 work was formed into the Yenchow District, and arrangements were made 
 for stationing a missionary in the city of Yenchowfu. Another Missionary 
 Society was proposing to take this city unless we could occupy it soon. I do 
 not want to shut others out, but, on the other hand, I do not want to give up 
 work we have already opened. I want to push our Shantung work south to 
 connect with the Central China Conference, which years ago crossed the 
 Yangtse and went up the Grand Canal to Yangchow. Besides I have 
 traveled over that whole plain, from Yangchow to Yenchowfu. It is as level 
 and fertile as Iowa and has a population of 600 to 1,000 per square mile, with 
 fine villages and large ‘hsien’ cities, or county seats, and is as natural a field 
 for Methodism as Illinois or Iowa.” 
 
 The largest item in the increase asked by the North China Conference is 
 the item for new property—$45,892.50. A large part of this is needed for new 
 missionary homes, the situation being as follows: at Peking, three additional 
 families and no new homes; at Tientsin, four families and three homes; at 
 Changli, one man now compelled to live in rooms of the hospital; at ,Taian, 
 four families and two homes. The $45,892.50 includes also appropriations for 
 a hospital and boys’ school at Taian and for numerous chapels throughout 
 the Conference. 
 
 The Finance Committee estimated that the situation demanded a re¬ 
 quest lor $121,710. The Conference is to receive $53,300. 
 
 WEST CHINA 
 
 Church, School, and Residence Buildings, Native and Foreign 
 Evangelistic Workers, Maintenance of 
 Hospitals, Chengtu College 
 
 Rev. Joseph Beech: 
 
 “The Szechwan Province, in which lie the boundaries of our West China 
 Conference, by mutual agreement has been divided up between various mis¬ 
 sionary societies, so that there is no overlapping of work. Our section, in the 
 center of the province, is 350 by 200 miles in area and contains a population 
 of about 15,000,000 people. In this area there are eighteen cities, of which 
 we have occupied only four. Two of these cities, which are important centers 
 and which we have been unable to occupy, other missionary societies are 
 asking permission to enter. The trip from Chungking to Tzechow, 200 miles, 
 takes as long as from New York to San Francisco—six days of hard travel. 
 We have no missionary between these two cities.” 
 
 Rev. James H. McCartney, M.D.: 
 
 “In the territory of the Szechwan Province assigned to our church we have 
 a population equal to that of all Korea, with only sixteen missionaries and 
 their wives and twelve workers of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society 
 
 7 
 
to man the field. Of these sixteen missionaries at least eight of them are 
 engaged in institutional work, leaving only eight for evangelistic work. Our 
 greatest need at the present time is for more evangelistic workers. We need 
 at least to double our evangelistic force if we are to properly man the field 
 that has been given us. We have 135 places of worship, with 2,964 in the 
 Sabbath schools. Nearly $4,000 was contributed by the native churches last 
 year. 
 
 “The large medical work in Chungking has been self-supporting for over 
 sixteen years, while the medical work in Chengtu receives only a few hundred 
 dollars from the Board each year. These two are among the largest hospitals 
 of our church in China. Last year they cared for more than 40,000 out¬ 
 patients, with only about $300 appropriation from the Board. The one in 
 Chengtu has still a debt of over $3,000. They both need endowments of 
 $25,000 in order to meet the demands made upon them. Twenty-five dollars 
 will support a bed for one year and $250 will endow a bed in perpetuity. 
 
 “For Chengtu College, now to become a part of the Union University of 
 Chengtu, an appropriation of $5,000 is asked. No institution in the west of 
 China will have so large a share in influencing the educated youth for 
 Christianity as this school. 
 
 “In only a very few of the one hundred and thirty-five places where we 
 have halls for worship are these owned by the Society; in the majority of 
 cases they are rented. Our foreign residences are insufficient for the number 
 of families; no direct appropriation has been given for that purpose for many 
 years. A number of school buildings are needed. Thus the item for new 
 property is the largest item in the increase asked, being $12,750.” 
 
 TLe amount asked for ky tke Finance Committee of West Cluna was 
 $43,729. Tlie amount appropriated was $18,340. 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 Increase in the Missionary Force, Grants for Aoyama Gakuin 
 
 and Mission Press 
 
 Finance Committee Statement of West Japan Conference: 
 
 “We ask you to distinguish between the sum granted in aid to the 
 Japan Methodist Church and the amounts appropriated to the educational 
 and evangelistic work carried on by the missionaries of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church working in Japan. The grant-in-aid to the Japan 
 Methodist Church you have been asked not to decrease during the first four 
 years of the life of the new church; after that it will probably be a gradually 
 decreasing sum, terminating entirely in a fixed number of years. 
 
 “The second of these appropriations should be determined wholly by the 
 needs of the work, just like the appropriations made to any other field. 
 There is a great work which we may and should do in cooperation with the 
 Japan Church, for the accomplishment of which we shall be compelled to 
 ask for a grant in excess of that of last year. If a fixed sum be granted to 
 the Japan Methodist Church, or a gradually decreasing or terminating sum, 
 
 8 
 
it will be all that church can do to work up the territory it now has and 
 bring it up to complete self-support, without opening much, if any, new work. 
 The opening of new work in the undeveloped part of this territory and its 
 development into organized and self-supporting churches may be greatly 
 aided by the hearty cooperation of the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. But the development of any new work by missionaries means a 
 further grant of money over and above that previously granted for the 
 missionaries’ salaries and house rent, to cover the cost of such work, travel, 
 chapel rents, helpers, etc. 
 
 “Moreover, in view of the constantly increasing cost of everything in 
 Japan, the annual appropriation of a fixed sum to this field means a constant 
 decrease in the amount of work which can be done. In both the east and 
 west missions the missionaries have been compelled to ask for an increase 
 in salaries in order to live and keep out of debt, and every other item of 
 expenditure is increasing with the cost of living. 
 
 “The West Japan Conference has lost three of its missionaries during 
 the year. In consequence, two stations—Fukuoka and Kagoshima—are 
 unsupplied, and Dr. Davison, at Kumamoto, is now, as he was at the be¬ 
 ginning, the only missionary of our church in evangelistic work in all the 
 Island of Kiushiu. The normal development of missionary work in this 
 field would require more foreign missionaries than the same extent of terri¬ 
 tory near Tokyo, and if we may judge by the rate of growth in the past, if a 
 properly developed, self-supporting church is to be created in Kiushiu in the 
 next twenty-five years, the work should be reenforced by the addition of at 
 least six or seven families in addition to those at Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and 
 Kagoshima. 
 
 “Men should be placed in Moji, a growing city of 38,000 inhabitants, 
 where the Rev. A. D. Berry was stationed for a short time; in Kurume, a 
 former castle town of 33,000, the seat of an army division; in Sasebo, a city 
 of 68,000, a naval station where there is great demand for missionary work. 
 Another family should be placed at Yatsushiro or Hitoyoshi, and at Omura, 
 between Nagasaki and Fukuoka, while another man is imperatively de¬ 
 manded for evangelistic work in Nagasaki itself. In addition to these places 
 the proper supply of the territory included in the mission as it now stands 
 would require a man for the city of Gifu, a city of 40,000, in the Nagoya 
 District, and an additional man for work in the Loochoo Islands. The 
 latter, though mentioned last of all, is one of the pressing needs of our 
 work. 
 
 Rev. Julius Soper, for East Japan Conference: 
 
 “Three of the most important items in the increase asked for by the 
 Finance Committee of the East Japan Conference are as follows: 
 
 “1. Increase in the missionary force. Three new missionaries are asked 
 for. There are now connected with the mission sixteen missionaries; six 
 are in school -work at Aoyama, Tokyo, four are engaged in evangelistic work, 
 one is the general manager of the Publishing House, one is treasurer of the 
 mission and of the Publishing House, one is giving special attention to the 
 night school and Gospel Society of the Central Church, Ginza, Tokyo, and 
 three are at home on furlough. On an average, two are always at home on 
 furlough. 
 
 “The field covered by this mission is a large one, extending from 
 
 9 
 
Toychashi, near Nagoya, 200 miles southwest of Tokyo, to Asahigawa, on 
 the Island of Hokkaido (formerly Yezo), 700 miles north of Tokyo. This 
 field contains the following large cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Sendai, 
 Yamagata, Morioka, Aomori, Hirosaki, Hakodate, Otaru, and Sapporo—all 
 strategic points. There is now only one missionary of the General Board in 
 the Hokkaido. There should be at least two. Yamagata and Morioka are 
 important centers. Each should be occupied by a missionary family. 
 
 “If we are to meet the demands of the work and do our share in the 
 evangelizing of Japan we should have in this field at least six missionaries, 
 either as district superintendents or evangelists, cooperating with the new 
 Methodist Church of Japan, to help the pastors and preachers, and urge the 
 churches on to entire self-support. Missionaries who use the language 
 fluently have fine opportunities in Japan for direct evangelistic work, and 
 will have for at least twenty-five years. To accomplish such a purpose there 
 ought to be two or three young missionaries on the field, giving themselves 
 wholly to the study of the language. 
 
 “2. Educational work at Aoyama, Tokyo. Aoyama is our great center in 
 Japan. There is located the Aoyama Gakuin, with three departments— 
 theological, in which the Canadian Methodists cooperate, collegiate, and 
 academic. There are now nearly 500 students in these three departments. 
 The cost of living and salaries of professional men have largely increased 
 since the Russo-Japanese War. The Missionary Society has been giving to 
 the educational work at Aoyama about $4,500 annually. But this is not 
 adequate to meet the demands of the work and furnish such facilities as 
 will keep Aoyama Gakuin on a footing with institutions of similar grade in 
 the empire, especially the public schools, so well equipped by the government. 
 Hence an increase of $1,000 is asked. No school in Japan, of similar grade, 
 is run at so small an outlay. 
 
 “3. The Mission Press. The Methodist Publishing House is the only- 
 mission publishing house in Japan. It is centrally located, on one of the 
 finest corners in the city of Tokyo. The business amounts to $50,000 a year. 
 During the past four years 180,000 volumes of the new Union Hymnal have 
 been issued from our mission press. In addition to this work there is issued 
 monthly and quarterly from this press translations of the International 
 Sunday School Lesson Leaves and other helps for all the Protestant Sunday 
 schools in Japan. But a heavy debt rests upon this Publishing House. 
 Without outside help it will take a long time to get rid of this debt. The 
 interest eats up a large share of the profits. And, besides, as this is a 
 mission press, engaged in providing the young church in Japan with a 
 healthy literature, there is more or less loss in some religious and theological 
 publications, not to speak of tracts for the people. Hence the Publishing 
 House asks for $3,000 to help it to recover itself and meet its obligations, as 
 well as to make it possible to secure the largest amount of usefulness in the 
 future.” 
 
 The West Japan Conference, through the Finance Committee, asked 
 $41,588 lor 1909, an increase of about $19,000 over the appropriation of 
 last year. The East Japan Conference asked lor $52,795, this represent¬ 
 ing an increase of over $10,000. No increase could he made hy the com¬ 
 mittee in the appropriation to Japan lor 1909—$62,500—to he divided hy 
 the Board between the East and West Conferences. 
 
 10 
 
KOREA 
 
 “Missionaries Without Homes, Schools ^W^ithout Buildings, 
 
 Physicians Without Hospitals" 
 
 Rev . George R.e'ber Jones: 
 
 “Probably no greater emergency confronts the church at this time than 
 that of its responsibility to Korea. Only a few years ago Korea was a hermit 
 nation, closed to all foreign intercourse, with laws proclaiming death to those 
 among its people who might venture to accept the Christian faith, and with 
 a deep-seated antagonism to all missionaries of the cross. Within the short 
 space of twenty years this has been completely reversed and the Christian 
 movement among the Koreans has assumed proportions of a most startling 
 and impressive character. At least 200,000 converts have been won to Christ 
 by evangelical missions there, of whom fully 50,000 are now under the care 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We have opened six mission stations, 
 including the cities of Yungbyen, Pyengyang, Haiju, Seoul, Chemulpo, and 
 Kongju. These are, with the exception of Seoul and Chemulpo, all of them 
 provincial capitals, and this line of stations extends through the heart of the 
 empire, giving us access to several millions among its population. The 
 Rev. Horace G. Underwood, senior missionary of the Presbyterian Church 
 in Korea, in his recent book, The Call of Korea, says that the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church is responsible for the evangelization of at least 3,000,000 
 Koreans. This estimate of an honored fellow-worker in another mission 
 gives a hint of the minimum of our task. 
 
 “To meet this unusual and extraordinary situation the Methodist Epis¬ 
 copal Mission has twenty-two men now on the field, of whom six have been 
 added during the past year. How small is this number to cope with a field 
 like Korea, for whose evangelization we are responsible! Of the missionaries 
 on the field five families are without houses in which to live. There are a 
 number of schools under the mission in which are enrolled over 5,000 pupils, 
 most of these in the primary grades. The equipment of these schools is 
 distressingly inadequate. The best buildings are at Pyengyang and Chemulpo, 
 where through the generosity of Mr. T. D. Collins and other friends, some 
 relief has been afforded the situation. But in other places, and particularly 
 in Seoul, Kongju, Yungbyen, and Suwon, the students meet, except in one 
 instance, in small-roomed, low-ceilinged native buildings, unsanitary and 
 unadapted to school purposes. We have a most promising theological school, 
 with 140 splendid men in preparation for the ministry, but with no habitation 
 in which to meet, the classes holding their sessions in the auditorium of 
 churches and the living rooms of the missionaries. 
 
 “There is one hospital in Pyengyang, housed in a native building, without 
 adequate wards, but doing a splendid work in spite of a most distressing 
 handicap. Medical missionaries have been appointed to the stations at 
 Kongju and Yungbyen, but go to their appointments without hospitals in 
 which to work, or even houses in which to live. 
 
 “In this day of supreme opportunity we confront our task as a mission 
 with missionaries some of whom are without homes, schools without build¬ 
 ings, physicians without hospitals—a distressing situation. On the one hand, 
 
 11 
 
a nation ready to accept Christ, and, on the other hand, a mission as yet too 
 weak to meet the situation. The missionaries are ready to make any sacrifice 
 and to go to any lengths in service, but surely help must be given to remedy 
 a situation such as the above. 
 
 “The grant-in-aid for work In Korea is about $30,000 a year, an amount 
 utterly inadequate to maintain a work which is national in its extent, 
 demands, and opportunities. The experience of the Board in other national 
 fields, like Italy, Mexico, and Japan, shows that at least twice $30,000 should 
 be spent to maintain a work at all commensurate with the demands upon us. 
 But this is particularly true in a great ripe harvest field like Korea, where 
 missionary money invested brings such immediate and immense returns. The 
 opportunity to afford permanent and adequate relief to the institutions which 
 Methodism must erect in Korea will be afforded in 1910, when the church is 
 asked by General Conference action to celebrate Korea’s Silver Jubilee, but in 
 the meantime some relief must be afforded the congested condition which has 
 grown out of the failure to make provision in the past. Parsonages should 
 be provided for the missionaries now in the field, and, at least, dispensary 
 quarters for the physicians, and several of the more needy schools should be 
 put in quarters which will meet their needs.” 
 
 To meet these needs and opportunities the Korea Mission Conference, in 
 its estimates for 1909, asked for $66,861, an increase of $38,396 over the appro¬ 
 priation of last year; of this increase $25,750 was to be used for new property. 
 In view of the debt situation this year, it seemed probable that the General 
 Committee would be unable to make any increase in Korea’s appropriation. 
 But the situation in that field had so worked upon the hearts of delegates to 
 the General Committee, that a special subscription was taken, by which in a 
 few minutes $10,000 was raised. This, by vote of the committee, was then 
 added to the appropriation for Korea. 
 
 TLe request for an increase of $38,396 was tlius answered witL an 
 increase of $10,000. TKe appropriation asked for was $66,861; tke appro¬ 
 priation made was $38,465. 
 
 12 
 
SOUTHERN ASIA 
 
 NORTH INDIA 
 
 New Missionaries, Training Classes, Boarding School for Boys 
 
 Rev. W. A. Mansell, for the Finance Committee: 
 
 “T,he amount of increase asked for is $12,058. Of this amount $2,500 is 
 the sum needed to adjust the salaries of the missionaries according to the 
 new scale fixed by the Board. It was voted that this amount should be asked 
 for as a separate item, as it was felt by the missionaries that they could not 
 accept the increase of salaries if it had to be cut out from the work. Of the 
 balance of the increase, $3,300 is needed to adjust the salaries of the native 
 workers according to the revised scale which has been for two years before 
 the Conference, but which it has been impossible to adopt, owing to lack of 
 funds. The cost of living has greatly increased, making it impossible for 
 native preachers and workers to subsist on their meager allowances. Our 
 estimates also include the salaries of four new missionaries.” 
 
 Rev. N. L. Rockey, Gonda District: 
 
 “The burden here in the Gonda District is great, the responsibilities are 
 momentous and weigh us down almost more than we can bear. The feeble 
 boys’ school must be strengthened and brought up to date; a class must be 
 opened for the training of pastor-teachers, and one or two experienced native 
 teachers must be found somewhere to help me care for them. All this will 
 take about $500 more per year than has ever been given here, besides the 
 initial expense of providing quarters. In many ways we are fifteen years 
 behind the rest of the Conference, but we have a territory and a people with 
 an opportunity that Bishop Thoburn said he coveted above most of the fields 
 he has seen.” 
 
 Rev. J. H. Grill, Bijnor District: 
 
 “The following is a list of what is needed to equip the Bijnor District 
 properly: (1) A central boarding school for boys, with buildings for tuitional 
 purposes united to a large church building on the edge of the bazaar. (2) A 
 church building in each of five circuit headquarters now not supplied. 
 (3) The girls’ boarding school to be enlarged by the extension of at least 
 500 feet of wall. The addition of teachers’ dormitories and a room for the 
 sick. A well for drinking water is greatly needed, as the entire number of 
 boarders now depend for drinking and bath water on the supply carried by a 
 single old man, who carries it to them in a leather sack every hour. (4) A 
 grant is needed for the expenses of a summer school for the lower grade of 
 teachers and helpers.” 
 
 The North India Coni erence ashed for $74,258. An appropriation of 
 $62,200 was granted. 
 
 13 
 
SOUTH INDIA 
 
 Itinerating Journeys, Grants for Village Set ools. Taxes, 
 
 Sanitarium 
 
 Finance Committee Statement: 
 
 Mission 
 
 “The large advance in the estimates over the appropriation for 1908 
 is thus explained: (1) The advance in missionaries’ salaries is due to 
 an advance in the salary scale and to estimates for new missionaries. (2) The 
 current year’s appropriation did not provide for missionaries’ itinerating 
 under the head of evangelistic work. Our missionaries have been obliged to 
 meet this charge in considerable part themselves. (3) The appropriation for 
 1908 was too small to admit any grants for educational work. Our boarding 
 and training institutions greatly need help, and the advance that we ought to 
 make in the line of village schools cannot be made from any local source. 
 The great importance of this work and our inability to provide for it explains 
 the estimate. (4) We have been so closely pressed by the smallness of the 
 appropriation that we have been unable to provide for taxes on mission 
 property. This item and workers’ rents have been a heavy burden on our 
 missionaries and we feel warranted in asking relief at this point. (5) Our 
 estimates for new property show large plans f#r increasing our material 
 equipment. For only two objects, however, do we ask aid through the appro¬ 
 priations. The chief item is of great importance because of its bearing on 
 the health of our mission force—$4,000 for a mission sanitarium. The addi¬ 
 tional item—$500 only—is asked for a much-needed school building at Bidar, 
 where we have no building for school purposes or for public services of the 
 church. 
 
 “A comparative study of the estimates presented will show that we are 
 not seeking to escape personal effort to secure support for the work. As 
 regards new property, we have asked only $500 beside the amount needed 
 for the sanitarium; for evangelistic work we have asked less than one third 
 of the ‘Total Proposed Expenditure/ and of that nearly forty per cent is 
 needed for itinerating; for our educational work we have asked about one 
 sixth only of the ‘Total Proposed Expenditure/ ” 
 
 The South India Conf erence, through the Finance Committee, asked 
 for an appropriation of $45,037, an increase of $21,387. The appropria¬ 
 tion is $23,775, an increase of $125. 
 
 NORTHWEST INDIA 
 
 Increased Living Expenses, Native Preachers' Salaries, Debts on 
 
 Property 
 
 Rev. J. C. Butcher: 
 
 “Because the most important work of the missionary is the development 
 of the native agency, special attention should be given to the Northwest 
 India Conference. This Conference contains one half of the native Chris¬ 
 tians in India, yet instead of having a strong force of missionaries, with a 
 good supply of schools, for the development of the native agency for the 
 conquest of the country, it has barely enough missionaries ‘to hold things 
 
 14 
 
together/ and outside of the orphanages not more than 300 Christian boys 
 in the boarding schools. 
 
 “Here is the situation: A territory 1,300 miles long, containing 
 60,000,000 people, of whom 90,000 are enrolled in our own Christian com¬ 
 munity, and 6,000,000 belong to the classes that are disposed to accept 
 our religion. To furnish instruction to this Christian community and prepare 
 native workers to evangelize the rest there is a force of fifteen missionaries, 
 four boys’ orphanages, and four boys’ boarding schools. It is not strange 
 that some of the Jubilee visitors complained that we were not educating our 
 Christian community. Worse than that, we are not training workers to 
 evangelize the country. What can fifteen missionaries without adequate 
 schools or buildings be expected to accomplish toward such a task? More¬ 
 over, we cannot reject all the inquirers that come to us, so we are baptizing 
 about 10,000 a year. 
 
 “Ten years ago the Northwest India was a small Conference, as well 
 provisioned as any of the other India Conferences. But during the last ten 
 years it has grown more than all the rest of India put together, and the 
 situation has become a serious one. Instead of one Conference, with fifteen 
 missionaries and a grant of $31,625, we ought to have now four Conferences, 
 with at least fifty missionaries and a grant of $80,000.” 
 
 Finance Committee Statement: 
 
 “The items of increase asked for are three: 1. An increase in mis¬ 
 sionaries’ salaries is demanded by the fact that prices have gone up from 
 twenty-five to forty per cent since the fixing of the previous scale. 2. This 
 Conference is dependent on special gifts for Hindustani preachers’ salaries 
 to a very large extent. There is considerable difference between the amount 
 that is being ‘distributed’ in 1908 on account of special gifts and the amount 
 that is actually being received by the Conference. To make up this difference 
 an appropriation is asked. 3. For debts on property an appropriation of 
 $10,083 is asked.” 
 
 Tke total amount needed for 1909 by tlie Nortkwest India Conference, 
 as estimated by the committee, is $58,119. The amount the Conference is 
 to receive is $31,625. 
 
 CENTRAL PROVINCES 
 
 New Missionaries, Village Sckools, Theological School, Acquisi¬ 
 tion of an Independent Mission 
 
 Finance Committee Statement: 
 
 “We are asking for next year an increase of about $10,000 over what we 
 are receiving from the Board this year. This is accounted for in three ways. 
 The increase includes an amount asked for new property, and an amount for 
 new missionaries, but is chiefly made up of figures that show the ever- 
 increasing demands of a growing work upon us. But taking the figures as 
 they are, with the increase asked for, they show that we are proposing to 
 provide for just about half of the needed expenditure of the Conference for 
 the coming year. It is going to require a lot of faith and prayer and work 
 and lifting to realize our hopes in this line, but we felt that we could not 
 ask for a larger increase, much as it is needed. In sending these estimates 
 
 15 
 
we send the result of careful and prayerful consideration of what our work 
 already in hand demands and what we ourselves hope to do in helping to 
 meet these demands.” 
 
 Rev. George K. Gilder, Raipur District: 
 
 “In the Raipur District, with its area of 30,000 square miles and a 
 population approximating 4,000,000, of whom nearly 2,000,000 look to us for 
 the word of life, there are but two missionaries of the Board—one at Gondia 
 and the other at Raipur. To be sure, we occupy a number of other strategic 
 points, from each of which it is possible to develop successful work; but in 
 order to bring this about we certainly ought to have three more missionaries. 
 Without additional leadership it is well-nigh impossible for us to avail our¬ 
 selves of the many golden opportunities that offer at more than one of 
 these centers.” 
 
 The late Rev. G. B. Ward, Godavari District: 
 
 “Missionaries for the work now included in the Godavari District is the 
 most imperative need before us. There are 2,000,000 people to whom we alone 
 are called thus far. It is such a field as offers in few parts of India. We 
 should so worthily occupy the whole of it that there may be left no reason 
 for any other mission to dream it is needed on the same ground.” 
 
 Rev. H. A. Musser, Nagpur District: 
 
 “In the Nagpur Circuit we have 4,000,000 Marathas in a territory of 
 50,000 square miles. These people live in villages and towns of from 100 to 
 10,000. We aim to occupy all the large places of 1,000 or over with a good 
 school and a preacher and his colporteur, and to have in the preacher’s charge 
 a circuit of five or six villages within five miles of his station which he will 
 regularly visit and from which will come children for his school. We have 
 now in the district about twenty such stations already running and their 
 influence is tremendous; the schools are growing out of their small quarters 
 and inquirers are found in many places. We could place twenty-five more 
 such centers immediately if we had the funds. We are needing $1,000 to 
 remodel a building to be used as a theological school at Nagpur.” 
 
 Bishop J. E. Robinson: 
 
 “By the recent acquisition of the Balaghat Mission, in the Jubbulpore 
 District, property valued at 15,000 rupees, comprising three bungalows, one 
 fairly good church, a number of small chapels and village schoolhouses, 
 together with a native Christian community of 130, was transferred to us 
 without financial equivalent. More valuable, however, were the seven 
 missionary workers of proved efficiency—men and women thoroughly accli¬ 
 mated and possessing a good knowledge of the vernacular—who were added 
 to our mission force. To send these to the field and support them while 
 acquiring the language and during their period of service, would have cost 
 the church not less than $20,000, apart from all the incidental risks of 
 misfits, breakdowns, etc. The Conference is now under obligation to provide 
 $200 a month for the Balaghat Mission, this being outside of the regular 
 appropriations for 1908. An appropriation of $2,400 is asked for this 
 purpose.” 
 
 The work of the Central Provinces Mission Conference, according to 
 tie estimates of the Finance Committee, called for an appropriation of 
 
 $28,411. The appropriation made was $17,131. 
 
 16 
 
BOMBAY CONFERENCE 
 
 New Missionaries, 
 Orphanages 
 
 Support for English Work, Maintenance of 
 and Training Schools, Native ^A^orhers 
 
 Rev. Edwin F. Frease: 
 
 “The Bombay Conference includes nearly all of the great Bombay Presi¬ 
 dency. It is operating in three great language and race areas—the Marathi, 
 Gujarati, and Sindhi; is doing something in Hindustani, and has an extensive 
 English work. It has to meet, therefore, difficulties not experienced in 
 missions operating in practically one language area. Adjustments in the 
 working force which otherwise would be practicable cannot be made; to an 
 extent, at least, the solidarity of interest is broken; a multiplicity of problems 
 arise; three sets of educational and training institutions, with their separate 
 missionary and indigenous staffs, are necessary, and literature in three lan¬ 
 guages must be produced. When, therefore, the work of the missionaries of 
 this Conference is compared with that of a similar number elsewhere, together 
 with the work and results, this language and race factor must be taken fully 
 into account. 
 
 “The Marathi is spoken by about 20,000,000, and our fair share of re¬ 
 sponsibility for this people in this Conference is perhaps 5,000,000. We have 
 been in this field for over thirty-five years, and yet today have but three mis¬ 
 sionaries working in the Marathi tongue! Of these the district superintend¬ 
 ent, instead of being free to ‘superintend,’ which is of supreme imporance in 
 such a work, is practically tied down to Poona with the care of the boys’ 
 orphanage and the Bible training school, and the work in and reachable from 
 Poona. In the great city of Bombay, in many if not most respects the chief 
 city of the East, amidst a population of nearly a million, one lone missionary 
 is striving to make himself heard and felt among the Marathas. For the vast 
 town and village populations but one missionary is available. Surely this 
 would be bad enough were each of the three well supplied with funds for 
 carrying forward the fight. But the appropriation barely covers the personal 
 support and itinerating of the missionaries, leaving not a penny available for 
 the work itself in that great city and field. It really would be ludicrous were 
 it not so painfully serious, this way of attacking such a problem by such a 
 church as ours! Yet there can be no doubt, from the results attained* and 
 the openings now before us, that with a force more proportionate to the 
 task and reasonably supported, the Marathi country would soon be one of our 
 most fruitful fields. 
 
 “The English work is almost wholly self-supporting, yet it needs and 
 should have financial aid where conditions require it. It is in connection 
 with the Bombay District that the work in Sind has been opened, the pastor 
 of our English Church in the large and rapidly growing port of great and 
 increasing importance, Karachi, having also had charge of the vernacular 
 work, which has taken firm hold in the city and sent its branches far out 
 along the railway lines into the regions about, without help from the appro¬ 
 priations thus far. The very least that should be done is to send a missionary 
 for that particular work and give him adequate funds to carry it forward. 
 
 “The church is familiar with the great movement to Christ in the 
 province of Gujarat and Kathiawar, with a population of about 10,000,000, 
 where from small beginnings over 35,000 converts have been won in the past 
 
 17 
 
thirteen years, in spite of the ravages of famine and plague. The present 
 baptized Christian community is only about 20,000, the terrible mortality 
 from plague and famine accounting for the others. Such amazing growth, 
 together with the orphan problem, made institutional work on a large scale 
 not optional but imperative. The Christian orphans must be cared for and 
 trained, and a large force of Gujarati workers selected and trained. 
 
 “Each of three institutions must have missionary supervision, and 
 much of the time of another missionary must be given to editorial and other 
 literary work. As a result, there has never been more than one man in the 
 Gujarat District free to give himself to direct work among the more than 
 seven hundred towns in which there are now Christians living, and this year 
 that one brother is mission treasurer for the Conference, district treasurer, 
 has considerable building work, and has assigned to him the supervision of 
 seven great circuits containing some 8,000 Christians in about three hundred 
 towns, and of some seventy Gujarati workers, with the supporters of all of 
 which he must keep up correspondence! And the superintendent of the 
 Kathiawar District is single-handed carrying the burden of the work among 
 the 3,000,000 of that great peninsula! It has become an almost impossible 
 situation, and it is no cause for surprise that it has become impossible ade¬ 
 quately to care for the converts or follow up the movement, resulting in a 
 falling off in baptisms, although over 2,000,000 souls are immediately 
 reachable were the fight but pushed vigorously. 
 
 “Yet with the exception of very small grants for the upkeep of properties, 
 the Board of Foreign Missions has not been able to appropriate anything 
 toward the maintenance of these great and essential institutions, nor for the 
 support of any of the over two hundred and fifty preachers and teachers, nor 
 for day or Sunday schools, nor for any other kind of work. So that here, as 
 all over the Conference, the additional responsibility of raising the special 
 gifts to carry on this vast work has been a nerve-racking burden. 
 
 “The regular committee of the Board of Foreign Missions recommended 
 to the last General Committee that the appropriations be increased to $30,000, 
 an increase of about $7,000. But this is just what the Conference asked as 
 the minimum of its most urgent needs several years ago, and it should now be 
 granted $40,000 a year. This would make the proportion between the appro¬ 
 priation and special gifts safe; it would be possible to reinforce the mission¬ 
 ary staff, to make at least helpful grants to the institutions, and to push the 
 field work with real vigor along all lines. There can be no doubt that if this 
 were done, one of the most notable advances the church has ever seen would 
 speedily follow in each of the great language areas of the Conference.” 
 
 Tbe appropriation asked for Bombay by tbe Finance Committee was 
 $49,552. Tbe appropriation received was $22,775, tbis being an increase 
 of $125. __ 
 
 BENGAL 
 
 New Mission Homes and Cburcb. Buildings, Debts on Old 
 
 Property, a Sanitarium, Native Work 
 
 Rev. J. O. Denning: 
 
 “It will require $14,350 to provide for the missionaries of the Board in 
 the Bengal Conference in 1909, notwithstanding the fact that the entire 
 
 18 
 
support of three, and two thirds of the support of one, come from other 
 sources; as also the support of a European missionary not of the Board. 
 Add to this $1,000 for the support of an American not of the Board. Last 
 year [1908] our appropriation was only $16,900. On that basis we would have 
 left for the native work only $1,650 for workers, rents, taxes, itinerating, 
 schools, etc., whereas our actual needs for these purposes, as the estimates 
 will show, are $26,000; and our estimates are very low. In addition to this, 
 we are in urgent need of property. A mission house at Arrah, in the Tirhoot 
 District, is very greatly needed. The two workers there are living in a shed 
 that is about to tumble down. We have a fine plot of land of about four or 
 five acres in a good location. Arrah Circuit contains a population of 2,000,000, 
 and practically no work is being done there by any other mission. Our work 
 there is opening up splendidly. A mission house at Rasra is seriously needed. 
 Payments are not yet completed on the buildings at Asansol, Pakur, and 
 Muzzaffarpur. Appropriations are also asked toward the Hati Bagan church 
 and the Toong Sanitarium.” 
 
 Rev. Frederick B. Price: 
 
 “In view of all the circumstances, we ask for special consideration of our 
 status as a Conference in this Province of Bengal, which alone contains a 
 population of 80,000,000, equal to that of the United States, and which presents 
 peculiar strategic opportunities. Though other missionary bodies are repre¬ 
 sented on the field, we consider that our own church is responsible for 
 evangelizing about 16,000,000 souls during this generation, though our limited 
 staff and the stubborn conditions here prevent aggressive movement without 
 substantial reinforcements.” 
 
 Tke Finance Committee estimated tLat these opportunities and needs in 
 the Bengal Conference could he met adequately with an appropriation of 
 not less than $42,000, An appropriation of $17,025 was granted. 
 
 BURMA 
 
 New Missionaries, Buildings for a Bihle Training School and for 
 Day and Boarding Schools, Mission Residences 
 
 Rev. B. M. Jones , for the Finance Committee: 
 
 “The fact that our estimates, though by no means extravagant in pro¬ 
 portion to the pressing demands upon us, are more than four times the 
 amount of our appropriation for the current year, indicates rather plainly 
 the position in which we find ourselves, namely, committed to the performance 
 of work the means for which are entirely inadequate. 
 
 “Due very largely to the fact that our mission has always been under¬ 
 manned, our work in Burma has gained comparatively little momentum. It 
 has been impossible to give the work close, personal supervision or to set 
 aside men who could give their time to the training of workers. One large 
 circuit has been practically without supervision for more than a year, and it 
 has been impossible to give a man to the Chinese work, as has been planned 
 for two years past. Our present force consists of two married and three 
 single men; the time of one of the former, however, being entirely taken up 
 with our self-supporting English Church in Rangoon. We are asking for one 
 
 19 
 
married and three single men, as the lowest number with which we can 
 reasonably he expected to cope with the work as it is. 
 
 “Next to the estimate for missionaries, that for property and equipment 
 will he seen to be the largest item. It includes provision for land and building 
 for a Bible training school, and additional buildings for several day and 
 boarding schools which are self-supporting when equipped, and which have 
 been our most fruitful field of evangelism. The boys’ school building in 
 Rangoon, though completed only last year at a cost of $16,000 without expense 
 to the Board of Foreign Missions, has now nearly 500 pupils and is full to 
 overflowing, so that pupils must be turned away from both day and boarding 
 departments. Other schools are proportionately prosperous and equally needy 
 of housing and equipment, and the need of mission residences is imperative.” 
 
 The amount needed for work in Burma during 1909, according to the 
 estimates of the Finance Committee of that Conference, is $41,213. TLe 
 amount which the Conference is to receive is $10,025. 
 
 MALAYSIA 
 
 Native and. Foreign Workers, Schools, Evangelistic and Educa¬ 
 tional Work among Mohammedans 
 
 Bishop William F. Oldham: 
 
 “Malaysia is a saucer into which the overflow of China and India is 
 sending a continuous double stream of emigration. This double stream 
 meeting the Malays, themselves divided into various tribes, is making a most 
 curious and most interesting amalgam of human population, which under 
 various flags (chiefly the English and the Dutch) is being compacted into 
 civilized peoples, with stable government and enlarging opportunity for 
 worthy commercial and civic life. In all this subdivision the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church is the only American organization at work. And the 
 American ministry of the gospel to 70,000,000 of the human family is confined 
 to the missionaries of the Malaysia Conference. There are several difficulties 
 in this field which are being met and splendidly overcome by as gallant and 
 devoted a band of men and women as serve the church in any of her foreign 
 fields. The marked feature here is a chain of great schools extending from 
 Penang, on the north, to Buitenzorg, in Java, on the south. In these schools 
 over 4,000 boys and girls are under teachers who, while enlarging their 
 earthly horizon and giving them stirring new thoughts regarding the life 
 that is, are also unceasingly bringing to bear upon the problems of that life 
 the knowledge of that larger life ‘which is and shall be for evermore.’ 
 
 “Properties now valued at half a million dollars, current coin, are being 
 used for the Christian education of the youth of Malaysia. The publishing 
 house in Singapore is erecting a very handsome three-story building on one 
 of the most prominent sites in the city. Singapore is so strategic a point in 
 the world’s commerce that the printed matter distributed there reaches more 
 millions of diverse peoples, perhaps, than from any other port in all the world. 
 This gives the publishing house located there peculiar significance and value.” 
 
 Rev . J. R. Denyes: 
 
 “Opportunities for work in Java are now coming to us faster than we 
 can find the funds to care for them. In two places Mohammedans have asked 
 
 20 
 
for a teacher to be sent to them. In other places the people would be glad to 
 have us open Christian schools, and would listen to the gospel. Chinese and 
 Malays who have become Christians, but have moved away to other places, 
 are continually sending to us, asking that churches be opened in their 
 villages. There is a rich harvest waiting for the reapers.” 
 
 In West Borneo a decided movement toward Christianity has been for 
 some time spreading up and down the whole coast. But until this last year 
 government would not permit the missionary to establish regular church 
 organizations. Now, however, the coveted permission has been granted and 
 wonderful progress is expected in that region. 
 
 TLe amount needed for 1909 by tlie Malaysia Conf erence, as estimated 
 by tbe Finance Committee, was $30,863. The amount appropriated is 
 $21,380. 
 
 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
 
 Scliolarsliips and. Teachers in Bible Training Schools, Six Mis¬ 
 sionary Couples for Evangelistic Work and Two 
 Score Filipino Evangelists, Forty Churches 
 
 Bishop 'William F. Oldham: 
 
 “When the next General Conference assembles there will be at least 
 50,000 Methodists in the Philippine Islands. And as many more thousands 
 above fifty as we are supplied with added missionary workers. With our 
 present equipment and organization it may safely be said for each added 
 missionary couple there will be an added 2,000 members during the quad- 
 rennium. The people are ready and willing and many eagerly accept the 
 proffered salvation. All that is needed for glorious advance is the strength¬ 
 ening of our Bible training schools, male and female, by added scholarships 
 and two added missionary teachers, one under the Board and one under the 
 ladies’ society; to these add six missionary couples for evangelistic work and 
 two score Filipino evangelists at from $60 to $150 a year; then help to build 
 forty churches at from $50 to $500 each, and we can almost guarantee that the 
 quadrennium will close with shouts of victory from a Methodism of from 
 50,000 to 80,000 people entrenched and eager for further advance.” 
 
 Rev. William H. Teeter , Central Districts 
 
 “First among the needs of the Central District must be mentioned the 
 matter of American missionaries. We need a man and wife at once to take 
 charge of this large province of Bulacan. The district superintendent, who is 
 also missionary in charge of this province, was in his own home just two and 
 one half days from August 28 to October 21, 1908, and this is a fair sample 
 of his life all the time. The work of this province is being neglected and 
 will be neglected until there is a missionary on the field to care for it. Over 
 300,000 people and no missionary! For the province of Nueva Ecija also we 
 need another missionary. This province is too large for any one man to 
 handle; then, too, much of the year the present missionary can go to the 
 northern part of his work by one of two methods only—submarine boat or 
 airship; we have neither. A man in the northern part of this province 
 would make thousands and thousands of members possible, as it is wide open 
 for the gospel. Then, too, we have one entire province in this district that 
 has never been touched. 
 
 21 
 
“We need more than double the force of Filipino workers. We have the 
 workers, but we need the money to put them to work. In the year to come 
 we must have $2,500 to care for our native workers, or we will be going 
 backward, for every man is overworked and underpaid now; just a few days 
 ago one of our men got into such straits financially that I had to give him 
 $10 out of my own pocket in order to make it possible for him to continue. 
 This is only one case—there are others like it constantly. 
 
 “An American doctor is needed for the 1,000,000 people in this district. 
 The missionary does a great deal to allay suffering, but he is not a doctor, 
 and as a consequence there are hundreds dying every year that might and 
 would be saved for future usefulness if we had a medical man or woman on 
 the district. We have the building for the hospital, and the trained nurse is 
 on the field, but we cannot open until there is a doctor here to give his time 
 and experience. We need also a dispensary at every missionary station, 
 where the sick and afflicted can come to meet the missionary doctor as he 
 travels from town to town on his regular trips. 
 
 “One of the greatest needs of the entire work is the need of an 
 orphanage to care for the children. Rome appreciates this, and she gathers 
 up all that she can get and molds them her way; if we could start such an 
 institution we could have these islands under the control of Protestant 
 officials twenty years hence. It would be the best money that Methodism has 
 ever invested in these islands. 
 
 “We have in Central District four provincial capitals where we are doing 
 work. These cities run in population from 17,000 to 25,000 people. Yet in all 
 this work we have not one substantial church edifice, and in three of them 
 we have practically nothing. In San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, the missionary has 
 fitted up the under part of his house for services. In Malolos we have 
 nothing in the shape of a church or chapel. I have had many schoolboys ask 
 me to hold services in English for them, but we have absolutely no place to 
 do it. We could have a hundred schoolboys and girls in our services if we 
 had a decent church to invite them to. It is the opportunity of a man’s life; 
 we have the site; we need $5,000 for the church. San Fernando, Pampanga, 
 has an old chapel that is a disgrace to Methodism—unsanitary, dark, with 
 moldy walls and bad odors. How can we hope to get the better class of 
 people to our services? It is due only to the sterling qualities of Brother and 
 Sister Housley that we have any service there. We need and should have 
 at once $5,000 for this church. Tarlac, though not so large, has about the 
 largest constituency of the better class of Filipinos as friends of the church. 
 We have one of the best sites in the city for a church, but no money; we 
 need $5,000 for this church. We need to build well in these capital centers. 
 Then, too, there is little use of building anywhere with anything except 
 cement and the native woods, and this costs money. In all of these places 
 the people will help to some extent, but they cannot help much, as we are 
 pressing them hard for the support of their own preachers, and the people 
 are poor.” 
 
 The above statement of conditions in tbe Central District represents to 
 a great extent tbe needs felt m all parts of our work in tbe Philippines— 
 needs wbicb, according to tbe estimates of tbe Finance Committee of that 
 Conference, called for an appropriation of $46,875. Tbe appropriation 
 made was $25,900. 
 
 22 
 
AFRICA 
 
 Needs as Outlined by tbc Africa Diamond Jubilee Commission 
 
 Through the Africa Diamond Jubilee Commission a special appeal for 
 Africa is now being made to the church. In one of the pamphlets by Bishop 
 Joseph C. Hartzell—Diamond Investments in Africa—published by the Com¬ 
 mission, the special needs of the six Methodist Episcopal centers of work in 
 that continent are given as follows: 
 
 Liberia. —Missionaries to reenforce present stations and open work among 
 the aboriginal tribes; buildings, equipment, and scholarships for the training 
 of native leaders. 
 
 Angola. —More missionaries; churches and chapels at three main stations 
 and several substations; improved industrial and educational equipment at 
 the present stations; gifts for new work, particularly for work in the high 
 and healthful Chokwe country, inhabited by superior tribes among which no 
 foreigner has as yet resided. 
 
 Madeira Islands. —Money for the strengthening and enlargement of the 
 work among the sailors, and an additional missionary, and further equipment 
 for the missions already established. 
 
 Portuguese East Africa. —More missionaries for training schools and 
 for superintending native work; buildings for training schools, additional 
 equipment for the mission press, and a physician. 
 
 Rhodesia. —Equipments for industrial work; money and missionaries to 
 open work in six native centers; money for medical dispensaries and training 
 schools for native workers. 
 
 North Africa. —Here are all the needs of a new mission. There must be 
 more missionaries and these well trained for the difficult Mohammedan work. 
 There must be equipment—two centrally located buildings, one at Tunis and 
 one at Algiers, as headquarters for the work. 
 
 For a more detailed statement of these needs, together with the sums of 
 money required, the reader is referred to the pamphlet, Diamond Investments 
 in Africa, to be obtained from the Africa Diamond Jubilee Commission, 150 
 Fifth Avenue, New York city. 
 
 Tbe amounts requested from tbe General Committee for tbe Africa 
 Conferences, and tbe amounts appropriated are as follows: Liberia— 
 Amount asked, $16,061; received, $15,376. West Central Africa— 
 Amount asked, $17,194 ; received, $14,201. East Central Africa—Amount 
 asked, $19,230; received, $16,065. No appropriation was made for tbe 
 
 work in North Africa, wbicb as yet is supported entirely by special gifts. 
 
 23 
 
LATIN AMERICA 
 
 EASTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 Re-enforced. Missionary Staff, Pioneer Work on tke Plains of 
 Argentina, Aid for Building Projects of 
 Struggling Ckurclies 
 
 Rev. Charles W. Drees: 
 
 “The needs of the Eastern South America Conference grow out of (1) the 
 depletion of the missionary staff by the death of Dr. Siberts and the retire¬ 
 ment or transfer to other fields of three others within three or four years, 
 without new men supplying their places; (2) the great increase in the 
 expense of living, involving larger pay for native workers and increased 
 rentals; (3) the opportunity and urgency of educational work which has 
 never had its proper development in this mission; (4) the pressure of calls to 
 new fields within our territory; and (5) the need of church, parsonage, and 
 school buildings. 
 
 “Leaving out of view for the time being the provision for property, and 
 providing for only small expansion, the appropriation to this mission should 
 be about $62,000, an increase of about $9,000. Such an increase should make 
 all the difference between fort-holding, with only tentative advance upon the 
 unoccupied territory of our field, and an aggressive, enthusiastic campaign. 
 More specifically the needs are: 1. Reenforcement. A trained preacher and 
 educator, with his wife, for Buenos Ayres, to take a department of instruc¬ 
 tion in the seminary, which cannot be adequately cared for by one man, and 
 to aid in the evangelistic work in that great city of a million and a quarter 
 inhabitants; a married missionary for Paraguay, capable of directing the 
 schools and also of learning an indigenous language, the Guarani, and being 
 a leader in the evangelization of the Indian population east of the Paraguay 
 River; a missionary printer, to take charge of the mission press; a trained 
 educator and his wife, also a trained teacher to establish a boys’ high 
 school in Buenos Ayres, which would speedily become self-supporting. These 
 we need to restore the staff to its normal efficiency in the face of the diffi¬ 
 culties and opportunities before us. 2. Expansion. Nearly half the state 
 capitals of Argentina invite and await our occupation. The new settlements 
 that have been formed or are being formed on the plains by the immense tide 
 of immigration call us to a pioneer work similar to that by which Methodism 
 contributed so vitally to the “making of the West” in our own country. 
 3. Church Extension. Besides the sum ($62,000) “for the work,” as above 
 suggested, a yearly appropriation for the next ten years of $5,000 to be 
 applied to the aid of our smaller churches which are struggling to secure 
 chapels and parsonages, would result as follows: (1) It would create 
 property of a value at least five times as great as the aggregate outlay from 
 
 24 
 
the Board’s treasury. (2) It would give to our work the prestige of perma¬ 
 nent establishment in the view of the public. (3) It would release large 
 sums of money now employed, and measurably lost, in rentals of inadequate 
 places of worship, and would turn it to pastoral support. This would place 
 many pastoral charges on a basis of complete self-support.” 
 
 Dr. Drees's estimate of $62,000 is made, "leaving out of view tLe pro¬ 
 vision for property and providing for only small expansion." Tlie esti¬ 
 mates of tke Finance Committee, wlucli included $26,000 for new property, 
 called for an appropriation of $112,050. The appropriation made to that 
 Conference was $52,592. 
 
 NORTH ANDES AND CHILE 
 
 Grants for Old and. New Schools, Missionaries, Bible Teachers, 
 
 Church Buildings 
 
 Rev. Homer C. Stuntz: 
 
 “The school at Concepcion, Chile, has partially completed what will be 
 one of the finest school buildings in all South America. Just now they are 
 held back by lack of funds, but the entire plant will be completed in time, 
 and will shelter a great boys’ school, sending out into all the walks of life 
 in that growing republic the men who will direct its affairs. In Peru and 
 Ecuador we are face to face with large opportunities among the most in¬ 
 fluential classes, and can but meagerly improve upon them. The Trans- 
 Andine Railway, which has been creeping slowly toward the fertile interior 
 where lies the real Peru of fertility and beauty, of mines and forests and 
 undreamed-of possibilities, has now reached Huancayo, 225 miles from the 
 coast, and the real capital of Peru. There we should immediately entrench 
 ourselves with property and at least two missionary leaders. From a point 
 near that large city fifteen cities, with thousands of people in each one, can 
 be seen from one point, and in not one of them is there a voice lifted up to 
 tell the people that Jesus Christ can save any poor sinner who will come to 
 him! In Bolivia we are at the parting of the ways. We must either go forward 
 with confidence or lose all that has been invested of life and money. The 
 Bolivian government has made a grant of public money to sustain a public 
 school in La Paz, but even with this grant from year to year, so high are the 
 rentals that must be paid for the school buildings necessary, and so expensive 
 is living in that capital, it has been impossible to make the local tuitions 
 and the government grant meet the expenses. Those who are now in charge 
 of the work at that outpost state that they cannot go on with the work 
 unless our Board gets squarely behind them and guarantees what funds are 
 needed to meet the inevitable deficit in the annual budget. 
 
 “In the republic of Panama our force of workers consists of the district 
 superintendent and his wife and the principal of our school for boys and 
 girls. We are now housed in our new building, which has been built near 
 the palace of the Panama government and directly on the water front, and 
 which affords accommodations for the boys’ and girls’ school, the church, and 
 quarters for the district superintendent. The work is being pushed among 
 the Americans; between five and six thousand of our countrymen reside 
 
 25 
 
there. Our needs in Panama are (1) another American missionary to 
 master the Spanish language and give himself to a pioneer kind of 
 evangelism in the cities and villages not hitherto reached by our work; 
 (2) provision for another school; (3) beginning of a Bible training school 
 for native workers; (4) a roomy and well-located church in the heart of the 
 Spanish population.” 
 
 Bishop Frank M. Bristol: 
 
 “How the Methodists of La Paz, Bolivia, need a respectable building for 
 our church services! How our southernmost mission, under Brother Reeder, 
 needs about $400 to complete the buildings that are needed to accommodate 
 our growing work! For $125 we can keep one of our most useful workers 
 in the field as a Bible reader, a devout woman of great influence among the 
 people of Santiago, Chile. Again: we have a converted Indian chief down 
 in Chile, a Methodist local preacher, who goes among the people of his own 
 tribe, preaching the gospel, and it costs only about $10 a month to support 
 him in the work, and thus to help him bring his whole tribe to Christ.” 
 
 Rev. Goodsil F. Arms: 
 
 “Concepcion is the third city in size in Chile and is the commercial and 
 educational center of the southern half of Chile. Here we have a college for 
 boys and one for girls, making it the most important center of our educa¬ 
 tional work on the west coast of South America. Here is one of our most 
 important churches. Yet for our church work we have only a small room 
 that was fitted for a chapel when the edifice for the boys’ school was con¬ 
 structed. Only two hundred and thirty persons can be accommodated in 
 schoolroom and chapel together.” 
 
 The appropriations requested lor Chile, Peru, and Ecuador amounted 
 to $76,200. The appropriations made to these countries amounted to 
 $36,475. To Bolivia and Panama, from which no estimates were 
 received, appropriations of $5,000 and $2,500, respectively, were made. 
 
 MEXICO 
 
 New Places Calling for Workers, a Parsonage in Mexico City, 
 
 a School Building m Puehla 
 
 Rev. John W. Butler: 
 
 “Our work is so developing that if we do not have an increase in our 
 appropriation it will suffer very much in 1909. Several of our circuits are 
 not properly manned. Take, for instance, the Huitzo Circuit: it has eight 
 congregations, three day schools, and five Sunday schools; and yet we have 
 but one preacher on that circuit. We cannot send another man there for 
 lack of funds. Then, there is the Cuyemecalco Circuit: it has five congre¬ 
 gations and three or four more places waiting to be opened. The preacher 
 teaches school, and he cannot attend to these places and attend to his 
 school. They are all off the railway and a considerable distance apart. The 
 interests of this circuit cover a territory from seventy-five to eighty miles 
 long and thirty to forty miles wide, and the only way he can get about is on 
 
 26 
 
horseback. These new places are calling out for workers and offer to provide 
 places of worship, including furniture, if we will only send them preachers. 
 In the Zacualtipan Circuit we have opened up several new places during the 
 year, and there is an urgent call for four new pastors, but we have no money 
 to send; not even one preacher can we send into that large and promising 
 circuit. And I might multiply these cases. Our evangelistic work must have 
 some increase or suffer. 
 
 “Our school work is growing in numbers and influence. Our graduates 
 are eagerly taken up by the government, and from this source we have had 
 applications for half a dozen teachers recently, so that in addition to the 
 work we are doing, if we can properly support our schools, we will furnish 
 dozens of teachers to the government, who will be spreading the leaven 
 throughout society. 
 
 “In some sections it is very interesting to notice the eagerness with 
 which children come to our schools. We can cite cases where boys and girls 
 walk six and eight miles in the morning in order to come to school, and 
 must walk the same distance to return home in the evening. Such is the 
 influence of our work through our schools and our churches that the govern¬ 
 ment has opened up the prisons and penitentiaries to our workers during the 
 past year in at least two states. We are now allowed to go in and give 
 temperance lectures, and in some cases to preach the gospel and distribute 
 religious literature.” 
 
 Rev. Homer C. Stuntz: 
 
 “In Mexico City the English-speaking congregation has paid for a lot in 
 a fine location at a cost of $10,000, and seeks aid this year for the erection 
 of a parsonage theron. In Puebla the plant of the boys’ school has been 
 sold to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, as it was exactly what was 
 needed to complete their plan of buildings, and a new site has been secured 
 for the boys’ school. On this lot is being built a school building which will 
 easily lead all of our institutions in that republic.” 
 
 Tkus are described open doors in Mexico, some of wkick must remain 
 unentered during 1909, for in response to a request for $87,459, tke 
 Mexico Conference receives $58,900. 
 
 2 ? 
 
EUROPE 
 
 PROTESTANT EUROPE 
 
 Congregations “Making Heroic Efforts to Pay Ckapel Dekts, 
 But Forced to Create More Dekts ky tke 
 Growtk of tke Work * 
 
 Rev. Homer C. Stuntz: 
 
 “The work in Protestant Europe [North Germany, South Germany, 
 Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland] had a normal 
 development during the year 1908, and presents practically the same front— 
 that of aggressive, evangelistic work, with churches crowded, altars filled 
 with seekers, and solid growth in membership and property. North and 
 South Germany and Switzerland have made heroic efforts to pay chapel 
 debts, but have been forced to create more debts by the growth of the work. 
 Rentals are so high, and rented halls so unsatisfactory for religious work in 
 any part of Europe where the population has had churchly ideas from 
 infancy that for reasons of economy and expediency it is wisdom to secure 
 church sites and erect our own buildings, even though indebtedness must be 
 incurred. With the low interest obtainable in many parts of our work on the 
 Continent the same sums which would be paid monthly for poorly located 
 and unsuitable halls will in a term of years carry interest on more than half 
 the cost of site and building and retire the balance of the principal indebted¬ 
 ness, and it is for this reason that our church leaders there feel compelled to 
 continue their policy of building when it is not possible at once to raise the 
 entire cost of the church. When it is understood that the ministers in our 
 German Conferences in Europe receive only $405 as an average annual salary 
 some idea can be gained of the struggle which is involved in all extensions 
 of the work. 
 
 “In Norway, Sweden, and Denmark there is the same wholesome spiritual 
 growth which has marked our work in those countries from the first day it 
 w T as established there. The type of Methodism is more like that of the 
 pioneer period in our own country. The progress toward self-support which 
 has been made in all these fields of Protestant Europe has been most grati¬ 
 fying. In Sweden the entire budget as sent to the General Committee is but 
 twenty-three per cent of the expense incurred in carrying forward their 
 work. Out of one hundred and twenty-three charges in this Conference forty- 
 seven are entirely self-supporting. Bishop Burt brings glowing reports of 
 the progress in each of these European fields.” 
 
 Tke amount estimated for work in Protestant Europe for 1909 was 
 $91,995. Tke amount appropriated was $83,446. Tkese figures do not 
 include tke estimates of or tke appropriation to tke Finland and Saint 
 
 Peterskurg Conference, wkick are given under Russia. 
 
 28 
 
RUSSIA 
 
 Training’ of Men and Women Workers, New Ckurcn in Hel- 
 smgfors. Mission Buildings in St. Petersburg 
 
 Rev. Homer C. Stuntz: 
 
 “In Russia the field that opens before us is illimitable. Of the 150,000,000 
 of that great nation, at least 5,000,000 are severed from any relation to the 
 state church. Religious liberty is now a settled fact, and can be enjoyed by 
 any body of believers whose purposes are unselfish and whose methods are 
 open to the sun. No hindrance has been placed in the way of our superin¬ 
 tendent in opening his work, whether in Saint Petersburg or in outlying 
 cities. He reports large bodies of dissenters, more or less definitely agreeing 
 upon certain doctrines, and all absorbingly interested in the study of the 
 Word of God. Preaching has been begun in at least twenty cities and villages 
 outside of Saint Petersburg, and on November 8, 1908, there was dedicated in 
 Wirballen, Russia, the first Methodist Episcopal Church to be erected in an 
 empire which will yet be swept with waves of spiritual power. The Bethany 
 Deaconess Home has been formally opened in the Russian capital, with five 
 young women in residence, all of whom can speak at least two languages 
 fluently. The little handful of members in Russia gave last year over $50 
 for missions and $95 for local expenses. The converted Russian is a religious 
 enthusiast and loves to evangelize among his own people. Methodism is a 
 revival and missionary church, with the most open encouragement given to 
 lay preaching. It would seem that God has sent us to this nation just at the 
 turning point in her destiny, to lead the new Russia into vital relations with 
 Christ.” 
 
 Rev. George A. Simons: 
 
 “Arrangements were made at the session of the Finland and Saint Peters¬ 
 burg Conference, August, 1908, for training of four able young men from 
 Russia, three being sent to our seminary in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, 
 and one to German Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, where already there are two 
 young men and one young woman from Russia preparing themselves for this 
 great mission field. Others have volunteered to come. Five young women 
 are in residence at our Bethany Deaconess Home, recently opened in Saint 
 Petersburg. Thus God is raising up men and women for our pioneer work in 
 Russia; we need not go a-begging for them. The only embarrassment is lack 
 of funds with which to support these future workers who are now being 
 trained in various countries. Bishop Burt and the writer have assumed the 
 financial responsibility for the young men and have pledged our support to 
 the deaconesses in Saint Petersburg, having faith in God and the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, believing that the money will surely come. 
 
 “We have formed a third district in our Conference, with five preaching 
 places, and have named it the Russian District. Calls are coming to us from 
 different parts of the empire, but we cannot respond, as we are hampered 
 financially. In Finland we have engaged five new men, three of whom 
 graduated from our theological seminary at Helsingfors last spring. For 
 these men and the new work undertaken in Russia we have not sufficient 
 funds, our appropriation being inadequate for the current year. We shall 
 not borrow money, but simply trust in God for timely help. 
 
 29 
 
“Unanimous action was taken by our brethren to observe the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of Methodism in Finland this coming year by raising 25,000 
 mark ($6,000) for a Finnish Jubilee Church in Helsingfors. Methodists all 
 over the world ought to be interested in this, and help to swell the sum to 
 $10,000. For over fifteen years these people have been meeting in a hall. The 
 congregation has grown to two hundred, and their need of a church edifice is 
 imperative. Before long we must have a suitable mission house and a Bible 
 teachers and preachers’ training institute in Saint Petersburg. There is no 
 evangelical school of this kind in all Russia! Scores of Russians are com¬ 
 pelled to go to Germany every year to receive Bible training. The Methodist 
 Church ought to have the honor of planting the first school of this kind in 
 this semipagan empire.” 
 
 In view of these opportunities, the Finance Committee of the Finland 
 and Saint Petersburg Mission Conf erence asked this year for $23,667 (all 
 the increase over last year's appropriation of $9,048 to go to Russia). 
 An appropriation of $9,348 was granted. 
 
 BULGARIA 
 
 Training of Men for the 
 
 Securing Needed Properties 
 
 Rev. Elmer E. Count , for the Finance Committee: 
 
 “At the last Annual Conference the bishop designated the only mission¬ 
 ary on the field, the Rev. Elmer E. Count, to live in Sofia, as the interests of 
 the mission seem to demand the presence of a representative at the capital 
 city of the principality. An invitation had previously been extended to our 
 Board from the American Board to come to Sofia and take part in winning 
 that city for evangelical Christianity. This necessitates the renting of a 
 house for Mr. Count and his family, and a hall in which evangelistic services 
 can be held. 
 
 “One of the great needs of our work in Bulgaria is the proper training 
 of worthy young men for the ministry. We have no educational institutions 
 of any sort for young men, so have to avail ourselves of the best we can 
 elsewhere. We have been able to find the theological institutions, but up to 
 this present year we have been looking almost in vain for the worthy young 
 men. It has been a subject of much prayer with us. We gratefully acknowl¬ 
 edge the answer to those prayers. At the last Annual Conference, either 
 personally or through brethren to represent them, no less than six young men 
 of an extremely hopeful class presented themselves for our consideration as 
 candidates for the ministry of our church. One 6f them entered our work 
 this year. The other five are in course of preparation. We hope to send two 
 of these to Frankfort, Germany, next year. We would like to send the four 
 to the same institution. We ask aid from the Board of Foreign Missions to 
 help in training two of these young men. It is, after all, the cheapest 
 possible way to train our men. Educational institutions supported by the 
 mission would bring the price much higher. 
 
 “We are asking for $1,000 for Pleven, for a building, because of most 
 
 30 
 
urgent needs at that point. We have there a large lot located on a corner of 
 the most central section of the city'. We have upon it a one-story building, 
 containing one room of about fifteen feet by twelve feet, that serves as a 
 meeting place for church services, and two others of much smaller dimen¬ 
 sions for the preacher’s family. Another adjoining building serves as a 
 kitchen and storeroom. You can, therefore, appreciate the desire of the 
 people there to have a church building that will accommodate the congrega¬ 
 tion. Constantly people are turned away because of lack of room. The 
 congregation is made up of poor people, but they have pledged 2,000 francs 
 toward the new building. If we have $1,000 we can handle the situation by 
 putting up a modest building on one of the very best corners of that growing 
 city. 
 
 “At Sofia, the opening of which we believe means so much for the 
 progress of our work, there is at present a very unique opportunity for us 
 to acquire a most suitable property. It is in a very desirable location. On 
 the corner of the plot is a large, strongly built building three stories high. 
 Alongside of this, belonging to the same property, is an open plot of 1,500 
 or more square meters. The rooms of the building could easily be converted 
 into a temporary arrangement for church services. Room also could be had 
 for our printing establishment. A missionary’s and pastor’s home could also 
 be provided. The vacant lot could be held for a future church. Owing to 
 special circumstances in which the owner of this property is placed at 
 present, it could most probably be secured for 100,000 francs. There is a 
 mortgage on it of 40,000 francs, which could be continued; from the sale of 
 a piece of property now in our hands in Rustchuk we could realize 32,500 
 francs; we would expect to raise 2,000 francs here. Thus a grant of $5,000 
 from the Board would permit us to handle the case.” 
 
 To meet urgent situations suck as tkese, tke Bulgaria Mission Confer¬ 
 ence asked for $17,433. An appropriation of $9,500 was granted. 
 
 ITALY 
 
 Rev. A. W. Greenman , for the Finance Committee: 
 
 “The inevitable expansion of our work, attesting its general evangelical 
 and Methodist character, together with the large recent additions from the 
 Italian Free Church, urgently demands more preachers, more chapels and 
 parsonages, and more funds for itinerating, if we are to provide in any 
 adequate way for the places and people who have come under our care, and 
 respond to the most promising calls. With a proper increase of funds our 
 splendid plant of preachers, members, friends, and institutions would show a 
 far larger proportionate increase of efficiency and results. 
 
 “There is urgent need of new property in Trieste and Naples, in each 
 case for the proper housing of old work. In Trieste our work so long and 
 successfully conducted in the face of most persistent opposition requires 
 this advance. Of Naples, the largest city in Italy and third on the continent, 
 it is enough to say that the work is more poorly housed than in other cities 
 
 31 
 
of one tenth its size; $25,000 is asked for to make a first payment on a 
 splendid site now available.” 
 
 The Finance Committee estimated tliat these opportunities and needs 
 in the Italy Conference called for an appropriation for 1909 of $86,745. 
 An appropriation of $55,312 was granted. 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 “A Million of Methodists m France Within the Next 
 
 Quarter of a Century" 
 
 Bishop William Burt: 
 
 “One of the greatest events in the history of the church since the 
 Reformation is the separation of church and state in France. The door is 
 now wide open. We have entered and are already at work in five important 
 centers—Marseille, Avignon, Lyon, Grenoble, and Chambery. This we have 
 been able to do through the generosity of Mr. John S. Huyler. Leaders in 
 church and state heartily approve our policy. Other doors are now open 
 which we cannot enter for lack of funds. We need now, to make the working 
 force already on the field more effective, an energetic, enterprising, and 
 consecrated superintendent who shall plan and direct the campaign. We need 
 an additional $2,000, and we need this very much. Success now means glorious 
 victories in the near future. Discouragement at the beginning would cripple 
 us for a long time. Help to evangelize France!” 
 
 Rev. Homer C. Stuntz: 
 
 “It is not unreasonable to expect a Methodism in France numbering a 
 million of souls within the next quarter of a century. Given the French 
 temperament, Methodist doctrine and polity, and the disestablishment of 
 the Roman Church, and this result is a glorious possibility. Only a lack of 
 the requisite courage, sacrifice, and wisdom in leadership will prevent a 
 consummation so devoutly to be sought.” 
 
 For tliis opening work in France it was estimated tliat $7,060 would be 
 needed for 1909. Five thousand dollars have teen secured by special 
 gift; $2,060 additional was requested from the General Committee; $840 
 was appropriated. 
 
 The estimates for 1909 made on the field exceeded tke appro¬ 
 priations made by tke General Committee of Foreign 
 Missions by more tkan $600,000 
 
 32