/<3-T 7 
 
 BIBLE WORK IN SIAM 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH ANNUAL 
 REPORT OF THE AMERICAN 
 BIBLE SOCIETY 
 
 MR. IRWIN'S CLASS AT CHIENGRAI 
 
 AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1920 
 
OFFICERS AND AGENCIES OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 BIBLE SOCIETY 
 
 President President Emeritus 
 
 CHURCHILL H. CUTTING, New York JAMES WOOD, New York 
 
 Vice-Presidents 
 
 CYRUS NORTHROP, LL.D., Minn. 
 WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, Vt. 
 
 E. E. BEARD, Tenn. 
 
 MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., D. C. 
 FRANK E. SPOONER, Ill. 
 
 GEORGE W. WATTS, N. C. 
 
 W. T. HARDIE, La. 
 
 CHARLES E. HUGHES, LL.D.,N. Y. 
 
 H. H. SELDOMRIDGE, Colo. 
 
 JOHN R. MOTT, LL.D., N. Y. 
 
 ROBERT DOLLAR, Cal. 
 
 JOSHUA LEVERING, Md. 
 
 SIMEON E. BALDWIN, LL.D., Conn. 
 JAMES N. GAMBLE, Ohio. 
 CHRISTOPHER MATHEWSON, Fla. 
 ROBERT F. RAYMOND, Mass. 
 
 B. PRESTON CLARK, Mass. 
 
 CARL E. MILLIKEN, LL.D., Me. 
 ROBERT H. GARDINER, Me. 
 
 HENRY WADE ROGERS, LL.D., Conn. 
 WILLIAM S. PILLING, Penn. 
 
 ROBERT LANSING, LL.D., D. C. 
 
 General Secretaries 
 
 REV. WILLIAM I. HAVEN, D.D. 
 FRANK H. MANN. 
 
 Recording Secretary 
 
 REV. LEWIS B. CHAMBERLAIN, 
 
 MRS. JOHN S. KENNEDY, N. Y. 
 MRS. FINLEY J. SHEPARD, N. Y. 
 
 E. FRANCIS HYDE, N. Y. 
 
 JOHN WILLIS BAER, LL.D., Cal. 
 ASA G. CANDLER, Ga. 
 
 G. S. MACKENZIE, Ill. 
 
 EDMUND JANES JAMES, LL.D., Ill. 
 THOS. C. DAY, Ind. 
 
 HARRY P. CONVERSE, Ky. 
 
 JUNIUS E. BEAL, Mich. 
 
 HANFORD CRAWFORD, Mo. 
 
 C. E. GRAHAM, S. C. 
 
 WALTER L. STOCKWELL, N. D. 
 JOHN R. PEPPER, Tenn. 
 
 HARRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, Va. 
 WM. HODGES MANN, Va. 
 
 WM. HALLS, JR., N. J. 
 
 WILBER P. MANLEY, Iowa. 
 WESLEY L. JONES, Wash. 
 
 HENRY J. ALLEN, Kan. 
 
 GEORGE WARREN BROWN, Mo. 
 FRANK A. HORNE, N. Y. 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 * WILLIAM FOULKE 
 
 Assistant Treasurer 
 
 GILBERT DARLINGTON 
 
 M. A. 
 
 Home Agencies 
 
 Colored People of the United States, Rev. J. P. Wragg, D.D., Bible House, New York. 
 Northwestern Agency, Rev. S. H. Kirkbride,D.D., 332 So. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 
 South Atlantic Agency, Rev. M. B. Porter, 313A East Grace Street, Richmond, Va. 
 Western Agency, Rev. Arthur F. Ragatz, D.D., 808 Railroad Building, Denver, Colo. 
 Pacitic Agency, Rev. A. Wesley Mell, 122 McAllister Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
 Southwestern Agency, Rev. J. J. Morgan, 1304 Commerce Street, Dallas, Texas. 
 Eastern Agency, Rev. Samuel C. Benson, 137 Montague Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Central Agency, Rev. Frank Marston, D.D., 424 Elm Street, Cincinnati, O. 
 
 Atlantic Agency, Rev. Frank P. Parkin, D.D., 701 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Foreign Agencies 
 
 i f W. W. Peet, Bible House, Constantinople, Turkey. 
 
 Levant Agency j j Rev Franklin e Hoskins, D.D., Beirut, Syria.' 
 
 La Plata Agency, Rev. Francis G. Penzotti, 
 
 Casilla de Correo, 304, Calle Parana, 481, BuenosAyres, Argentina. 
 Japan Agency, || Rev. Karl E. Aurell, Bible House, Ginza Street, Tokyo, Japan. 
 China Agency, Rev. John R. Hykes, D.D., 73 Szechuen Road, Shanghai, China. 
 Brazil Agency, Rev. H. C. Tucker, D.D., Caixa do Correio, 454, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 
 Mexico Agency, Rev. A. H. Mellen, Apartado 1373, Mexico City, Mexico. 
 
 West Indies Agency, Jose Marcial-Dorado, Ph.D., San Juan, Porto Rico. 
 
 Siam Agency, Rev. Robert Irwin, Bangkok, Siam. 
 
 Panama Canal and Central America Agency, Rev. W. F. Jordan, Bible House, 
 
 Cristobal, Canal Zone. 
 
 Philippines Agency, Rev. J. L. McLaughlin, Box 755, Manila, P. I. 
 
 West Coast South America Agency, Rev. W. F. Jordan, Bible House, Cristobal, 
 
 Canal Zone. 
 
 •Deceased, t Appointed Acting Agency Secretary on the death of Dr. Bowen. 1 In charge of the 
 Arabic-speaking portion of the field. |! Acting Agency Secretary. 
 
SIAM 
 
 The Siam Agency was established in 1890. The circulation is mainly in 
 the Siamese and Lao languages, though a considerable number of 
 Chinese Scriptures are used to reach the Chinese in Bangkok. Some 
 of the Siamese Scriptures are printed and published in Bangkok and 
 some in Japan, and part of the Lao Scriptures are printed in Chieng- 
 mai and others in Japan. Besides these languages, there is a scatter¬ 
 ing distribution in fifteen other languages. The total circulation for 
 the year 1919 was 90,264 volumes, which is a decrease of 57,088 from 
 last year’s output. The total circulation since the establishment of 
 the Agency, which has completed twenty-nine years of activity, is 
 1,810,196. The Agency Secretary is the Rev. Robert Irwin, with 
 headquarters at Bangkok, Siam. 
 
 OOD for thought abounds in this report. 
 Fundamental questions are raised and an¬ 
 swered at the outset. Such pertinent sub¬ 
 jects as whether it is the East alone that is 
 “ unhustleable,” and the vital importance 
 of the life and actions of westerners, whether 
 missionaries, merchants, or officials in the East, are frankly 
 faced. House-to-house visitation undertaken during the 
 year throughout a whole district; provision for and progress in 
 the training of colporteurs; pushing forward into new and 
 difficult fields; and the preparation of Scriptures in various 
 languages and suitable forms, together with instances of 
 individual fruit from this work, are some of the important 
 matters reported by Mr. Irwin, the reading of which will 
 bring encouragement, as well as stimulate thought.* 
 
 Ought the Scriptures to Be Translated and Donated? 
 
 Recently a correspondent of the Bangkolc Times severely criticized the 
 Bible Societies for translating the Scriptures into the vernacular tongues 
 and distributing them broadcast. Some missionaries have expressed 
 sympathy with his views so far as the large amount of free distribution 
 is concerned. It is therefore incumbent on us to defend the method or 
 change it for a better. We are open for suggestions. In the meantime 
 we are to attempt to prove two propositions: First, that it is proper to 
 translate the Scriptures into all languages and dialects and to distribute 
 them, in whole or in part, to every person who can read; and second, that 
 it is proper under certain circumstances to distribute the Scriptures at an 
 excessively low charge, or at no charge at all. 
 
 Translated? Yes! 
 
 So far as translation into vernacular speech and the spread of the 
 
 3 
 
Book among the common people are concerned the history of civiliza¬ 
 tion becomes our ally. William Tyndale, roused by the neglected con¬ 
 dition of the people of England and the indifference and ignorance 
 of the clergy, declared that he would make it possible for the plowboy 
 to know more of the Bible than the prelate. Before long, half a dozen 
 translations of the New Testament flooded the country. Everybody 
 read them and, as Green's History of the English People tells us, the 
 ndtion was reborn to a nobler life. Something of the same kind of move¬ 
 ment took place throughout Europe. Instinctively, the people felt that 
 the Book fitted their needs as the bark fits the growing tree, and that 
 there were those in power who were peeling the bark from them. See 
 but yesterday the multitudes of every nation under heaven in the trenches 
 “eagerly reading the New Testament” each in his own language, or 
 listening to it. “Nobody is ashamed to be seen reading the New Testa¬ 
 ment” is the record that comes from different sources. To-day, in this 
 land, Chinese coolies, Siamese farmers, uncouth mountain hunters, 
 gather in groups to read, listen, and discuss the wonderful story of their 
 family relation to God. Why should it be thought incredible that He 
 intended the Book for them? 
 
 Some one suggests they will misread it. Who is to decide that? 
 If the Bible, read, pondered and followed, makes men and nations better, 
 stronger and more manly in every way—and it is‘certain it does—then 
 it is a good and proper piece of work to translate it into every tongue 
 and to put it into every mail's hands, and only he who has some ulterior 
 object to gain will object, or hinder. 
 
 Donated? Yes, at Times 
 
 As to the second proposition that it is proper to give away Scriptures, 
 it is not contended that such a method is anything other than a temporary 
 measure to create an appetite for them. It is, to use a business idea, 
 advertising by sample. There is practically no gratuitous distribution 
 among the Siamese of Lower Siam now. There used to be, but the people 
 now want the Scriptures and are willing to pay for them. The Chinese, 
 great readers, almost everywhere buy their books. The Lao of North 
 Siam and the Leu and Shans have not yet come to want books badly 
 enough to pay for them, and it is good business to coax them a while 
 longer. “It's our language,” eagerly cried a crowd of the Sip Sawng 
 Punna people as one of their number took a small book and began to 
 read in a loud voice. The entire village clustered about him, and he 
 read the whole story of Ruth. The visitor to Lakawn has a pleasure 
 coming to him if he run across a group of the illiterate Ivamu squatting 
 by the roadside listening to Ah Siang reading from his Kamu Epistles 
 of Peter. A half dozen booklets judiciously placed here will probably 
 mean a little school or class within a year or two, and a whole tribe 
 will take a step upward. It is just a matter of doing what you can. 
 Better a man were not born then do nothing. If some one can find 
 a better method, the way is open. The Bible Societies will gladly 
 follow. 
 
 5 
 
The Law of Stability 
 
 There is a philosophy of the stability of nations and individuals who 
 live according to the Bible principles, and it is in harmony with the 
 law of nature. In Exodus 23: 20 ff. Moses was given the open secret of 
 success—follow the Angel. It is perfectly clear that “the nation that 
 will not serve thee shall perish”; because it sets itself, either in ignorance 
 or willfulness, against the law, as a child might set itself against a rail¬ 
 road train. A nation is strong as it conforms to the Bible principle's, 
 and weak as it departs from them. The whole long history of Israel 
 is given just to demonstrate that truth. History is strewn with dead 
 nations, like leaves in a forest, to become soil and fertilizer for a richer 
 and larger life of humanity. The process, however, is more than natural, 
 will-less evolution. It marks failure. Those nations might have lived, 
 grown greater and blessed the world in a nobler way. Dying, they be¬ 
 queathed us an idea or a lesson, the value of which we must painfully work 
 out for ourselves. How much greater the value had they lived it for us! 
 They lost their soul through disobedience to eternal law. Germany may 
 become one of the latest examples of this sad truth. This is plain 
 to the real “Bible reader,” but how shah the nations and peoples know 
 the truth except it be brought to them in their own tongue? To expect 
 them to receive it through a missionary or a priest in another language 
 is as hopeless as to attempt to bail out the ocean with a teacup, or to 
 build a modern city with a child’s play blocks. The other way—to trans¬ 
 late and distribute the Scriptures, even by gift—is feasible, sensible, and 
 successful. 
 
 What is Holy? 
 
 But does it not degrade the Holy Scriptures? What makes anything 
 holy? Nothing is holy in itself, but only as it ministers to the need of 
 man; whatever does that, is holy. “The Sabbath was made for man 
 and not man for the Sabbath,” is Jesus’ concrete way of stating the 
 truth. Abstractly stated, it would read, “Everything was made for man 
 and man was not made for anything else in the world.” Humanity, per¬ 
 sonal, national, racial, is sacred, destined to become lord of the universe, 
 and every created thing must be made to minister to his preparation for 
 the exalted position. “Thou hast made him but little lower than God; 
 Thou hast put all things under his feet.” To so revere the Bible as we 
 would a precious vase that must be kept out of the children’s reach is 
 to rob it of its power and defeat its purpose as effectually as if a people 
 should, out of reverence, keep their monarch locked in his palace lest 
 contact with common clay should defile his majesty. Both Bible and 
 monarch were made for common clay—to turn it into imperishable 
 grandeur and greatness. 
 
 The Joyful Life 
 
 The New Testament is the record of the most joyful life ever lived. 
 Christian Science has no patent on joy, nor have Faith cults on abiding 
 peace. Jesus told his disciples, when persecuted, to “rejoice and leap for 
 joy,” as though difficulty and grief were the necessary conditions for hap¬ 
 piness; the deeper the darkness the more radiant the light. It does not 
 
 6 
 
mean that happiness grows from grief, nor that light leaps out of darkness. 
 The great shining sun above is the inexhaustible source of light, and 
 the secret of happiness lies in the soul’s contact with God. Sorrow, 
 persecution, disappointment, are the occasion for the triumphant growth 
 of the finer graces, but not the cause. Most adults are, as Emerson says 
 (“The Conservative,” p. 330), “very foolish children who, by reason of 
 their partiality, see everything in the most absurd manner and are the 
 victims at all times of the nearest object. . . . Our experience, our percep¬ 
 tion, is conditioned by the need to acquire in parts and in succession, 
 that is, with every truth a certain falsehood.” It ought not to be so. 
 There is no excuse for having to acquire a certain amount of falsehood 
 with the truth. Jesus never did. It is due to willful neglect to look 
 at things as they are, to a growing laziness of mind to think; an absurd 
 taking for granted and jumping to quick conclusions. The sun in our 
 heaven, and the greater suns beyond that, seem so far off and so common 
 that we scarcely notice them. We fail to see that they are the most 
 fundamental facts in the universe and in our life. Failing to see that, 
 it is not strange that we neglect the Book that instructs us in the arts 
 of shining and enjoying. Eternal life, about which the Bible has so much 
 to say, is not merely stretched-out existence, but the quality of God’s 
 life of love, joy, and peace, unending because founded on truth, justice, 
 and kindness. As the bee, to get the sweetest honey, must have a long 
 mandible and must sink it deep into the heart of the flower, so simplicity 
 of spirit and fellowship with God will enrich our lives with the sweetness 
 and fragrance of heaven. “I came that they might have life and might 
 have it more abundantly,” in ever richer measure. Why then should any 
 of us fail to reach the sunny heights of superb and normal manhood, 
 and stand shoulder to shoulder with Him who was called the Son of man? 
 
 The Christian Paradox 
 
 But why all this emphasis on the Bible? Such teaching is not con¬ 
 fined to this particular book. Why not make the Bible one among the 
 others? The chief reason is that the Bible, unlike other books, makes 
 God supreme and man subordinate, and it shows his will for our con¬ 
 duct and character. Not only that, but it opens the way to their at¬ 
 tainment and furnishes the requisite inspiration and energy to travel 
 that way to the goal. It is the way of the denial of self, the surrender 
 of our will to the control of another, and willingness to follow his direc¬ 
 tions in everything. But, that’s slavery! Yes, but consider who the 
 master is and what his purpose is. The Master is Jesus Christ, God’s 
 Son, who loves us with an everlasting love and whose object is not to 
 get all he can out of us, but to “work in us,” to present us faultless, and 
 to enable us to work out for ourselves happiness, success, and an assured 
 future—the very qualities all are striving for. 
 
 Righteousness Exalteth, Sin a Reproach 
 
 The evidence that this is no fairy tale is abundant in the lives of 
 nations and men. The great outstanding lesson of history is that “right- 
 
 7 
 
eousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Chris¬ 
 tian nations have died, and some are dying; but the cause is that they 
 refused or neglected the plain teaching of the Bible, which they pro¬ 
 fessed to follow. The Bible teaches the one method of attaining real 
 manhood that has been found to work. Many other methods have been 
 tried and in the pinch failed. Instead of slavery, this is found to be 
 freedom. Instead of losing our life, we find it. We surrender our will 
 only to exercise it in an effective way. The Bible is our best friend when 
 it teaches that “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” He who 
 refuses goes downward and, sooner or later, wakes up to the realization 
 that he alone is to blame for failure. It is not an arbitrary act of God, 
 but the law of nature that the Bible points out. We therefore can urge 
 the Bible on all mankind with a good heart. 
 
 Christianity—I nternational Goodwill 
 
 I wish we Christian missionaries could make some adequate ex¬ 
 pression of our faith, which is, as Fosdick (“Challenge of the Present 
 Crisis,” p. 94), says, “international goodwill.” It is not our business to 
 attempt to force on the Siamese and Chinese a religion they hate, or to 
 change their customs nor to introduce among them anything of a divisive 
 nature, except as the truth divides good from evil. Jesus’ commission 
 to us was to proclaim the gospel, and that gospel he summed up in the 
 one idea of the kingdom of God—God the Father and King of all man¬ 
 kind, a Family in which all men, without respect to race or nation, are 
 children, and so brothers and sisters, on the one condition of allegiance 
 to Jesus Christ, God’s representative on earth. 
 
 It is an idea so vast and far-reaching that few of us get even the 
 vision, much less proclaim it by word and life. In other times it has 
 had a different expression; to-day, owing to the world catastrophe, it 
 surely spells “international goodwill.” Physical force is futile; but 
 genuine brotherliness to individuals, maintained over years, will con¬ 
 quer the nations. It is recorded, “Thy people shall be willing in the 
 day of thy power,” and Christians, missionaries, doctors, merchants, and 
 others, are to determine when that day of power shall dawn. 
 
 Catching the Vision 
 
 Our call, therefore, to the Christian element in Siam is to catch the 
 magnificent vision and become international in spirit, and our call to the 
 Siamese and Chinese and other nationals in this country is to catch the 
 vision of your own prophets and religious leaders, and to ponder the 
 probability that these are along the same line as Christianity, and need 
 the living Christ to fulfill them. Let us all get away from the idea of 
 antagonism. That will never bring us anywhere. And let us, as the 
 apostle exhorts, “put on, as the elect of God, a heart of compassion, 
 kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another.” 
 We are bold to declare, as Christ himself did, that he came not to destroy 
 anything good in the law and writings of prophets, but to fill them out 
 into their full intention and to give men a righteousness that is not 
 
 8 
 
merely external, but that is hearty and joyous; that unlocks the latent 
 energies of soul and body which nothing else can do; and that inevitably 
 projects itself into the everlasting future—for nothing good ever dies. 
 
 In the nature of the case, the message has to be given to individuals 
 and small groups, and men have to be won one by one; but we should 
 never lose sight of the nations and the new humanity that is to be and 
 for which individuals and nations exist and grow. Jesus’ idea of the 
 kingdom is that it grows like a plant into a tree with widespreading 
 limbs, and that it blends its members into a homogeneous and heavenly 
 spirit, as leaven unites the myriad particles of flour into a loaf of bread. 
 Can anyone read the story of our thousands of years of life and not see 
 the direction of the current that way? Clan has grown to tribe, tribe to 
 city-state, city-state to nation-state, nation-state to federal-state; and 
 the logical issue of to-day’s movement, as Myers (“General History,” 
 p. 748), points out, would seem to be the world-state. Humanity seems 
 to grow like a child. It learns and refuses to learn by the things it suffers; 
 stumbles under a load of things it tries to carry; is bewildered by the 
 multitude and strangeness of its experiences; yet light-heartedly and 
 inevitably pushes its way up to manhood; for man persists, though men 
 die. 
 
 The Need—“An Influx of Idealism” 
 
 What this and surrounding countries need is “an influx of idealism,” 
 as Emerson (“English Traits,” p. 118) has it. “Where that goes is 
 poetry, health, and progress.” “An invasion of armies,” says Victor 
 Hugo, “can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.” Char¬ 
 acter is built on ideals, but as the archbishop of York reminds us, “ideals 
 will not care for themselves.” We have to foster them and to help one 
 another to live up to our ideals. We who were forced by circumstances 
 to stay by the stuff need to catch the spirit of those who went to the 
 Front and, in turn, stimulate them to the same heroism in the long drawn- 
 out, every-day struggle with evil. “This is a sphere,” says Professor 
 Leonard, of Bristol University, “in which everyone of us may play a 
 part.” 
 
 “We Can if we Will” 
 
 Somehow, people expect us missionaries to be superior to others. 
 Let us take it as an honor and a spur. We need not shut our eyes to the 
 difficulties in the way of carrying the gospel to all parts of Tailand with 
 its Babel of tongues. Caleb could see the enormous difficulties in the 
 way of winning Canaan as well as the other spies, the walled cities, iron 
 chariots, and mailed warriors; but still he knew they were able to go up 
 and take it. What is needed in our case is the determination to do this 
 work, and then set about finding the way to do it. Just to say, “We 
 can’t do it till we get reinforcements,” is ignominious failure. Anybody 
 could do it if he had plenty of forces and ideal conditions. This calls 
 for extraordinary men—what missionaries are supposed to be. What 
 we want to see, is that it is the task of us missionaries on the field to 
 devise measures for the spiritual conquest of all the people within our 
 territory, and begin to do it. That is what we were sent here for. The 
 
 9 
 
church in America cannot do it. The Boards cannot do it. They 
 sent us here to do it. They will stand back of us with forces and 
 supplies. If they should fail, we at least have done our duty. The 
 great forward movements in the Christian world, one cannot view them 
 without applause and a desire to take a part in them. Will they suc¬ 
 ceed? That will depend on the Christian world itself. Russel H. Con- 
 well says: “Success has no secret. Her voice is forever ringing through 
 the market place and crying in the wilderness, and the burden of her 
 cry is one word— Will.” The haystack “We can if we will” has become 
 a scientific commonplace. To will, however, is actually to know the 
 problem and to get down to work it out. Anything else is to stand, like 
 the street lounger with hands in pockets and jaw hanging loose, gazing 
 at the job. “The great enterprise to which Jesus summoned his dis¬ 
 ciples, consisted in the secure establishment of a certain way of living 
 throughout the entire human race. It is a way of living characterized 
 by three elemental features. It is a life in which every man looks up to 
 God as his Father, with a growing assurance of the reality and nearness 
 of a vast unseen world of which he is a part; a life in which, in the midst 
 of the day’s work, every man looks out upon all other men with a 
 kindling desire to work with them in all possible ways and at any cost 
 for the common good; a life in which each man in the midst of the day’s 
 work, looks forward with a growing expectation of immortality, to the 
 endless life in which he will work together with a multitude of others 
 in the ever-changing universe of God” (“The Christian Witness in 
 War”). Here is opportunity of a very sublime order—fellow-workers 
 with God, training ourselves to work with whomsoever fortune puts 
 alongside us, and seeing the universe take ever new forms under our 
 master strokes. There is much in modern life to encourage us. For 
 instance, a recent editorial in the Bible Society Record says: “There is 
 evidence that men everywhere are turning to the Scriptures again for 
 light upon the complicated problems of our times. And perhaps there 
 was never a period in which the opportunity was so great for pressing 
 home upon the minds of the people the value of this great book, not only 
 as a revelation of spiritual truth, but as setting forth a social order of 
 things that would meet the most exacting requirements of our exact¬ 
 ing age.” 
 
 Christianity Indigenous to the Orient 
 
 So, too, the nations are now aware that no one liveth—or dieth—to 
 itself and, if not lessening their selfishness, they are giving a helping hand 
 to the small, weak, and backward nations in political and industrial 
 matters. But politics and industry, like everything else, are beneficial 
 only when based on sound morals and religion. The missionary teacher 
 and colporteur now, theoretically at least, take rank with the diplomat 
 and trader. A recent number of Asia devotes a long article to an 
 acknowledgment of the debt that the Orient owes to the Christian mis¬ 
 sionaries, and the October, 1919, number of The Ladies' Home Journal has 
 an article entitled,‘And Forty-Five Missionaries,” showing how they have 
 profoundly affected China for good. We have a right to expect that, 
 
 10 
 
led by the logic of events and a growing acquaintance with their inner 
 worth, the strong governments of the world will soon take a direct in¬ 
 terest in commending Christianity to the more backward peoples. There 
 is nothing more friendly they can do for the Orient than to show that 
 they are in hearty sympathy with the cause of foreign missions, and 
 back such sympathy by an exhibition, in action, of the justice and broth¬ 
 erly spirit taught by the Bible. If all the representatives of Christian 
 countries living in Siam and China had these two qualities, there is little 
 doubt that so real a Christianity would be welcomed by all those peoples. 
 Christianity is indigenous to the Orient. We of the West are slowly 
 learning it. We need to give it to the Orient that they may come to 
 their true and full life, and that they, in turn, may teach us its fullness. 
 Both of us must receive and both must give. This is simply an extension 
 of the principle of political and commercial reciprocity now so clearly 
 recognized. We must give first of all the open Bible, for there is nothing 
 that will so surely and speedily deliver any country or people from the 
 evils that afflict it. It will either provide a direct cure, or stimulate in¬ 
 quiry until a cure is found. Discovery and invention are products of the 
 Christian mind. We missionaries have no need for discouragement. 
 We seem to be within sight of the goal. 
 
 Colportage for the Year 
 
 We have to report a much smaller distribution than usual—90,264 
 against 147,352 last year. Probably there is not an actual falling off; 
 but, owing to furloughs, transfers, broken health, and deaths in the 
 mission force, only a little over half of the supervisors have sent in re¬ 
 turns of their work for the year. Thus, nothing has been heard from 
 the great regions of the Shan States and the Sip Sawng Panna (in South 
 China), Lakawn, and part of Chiengmai, and only the first three months’ 
 distribution in Chiengrai and Nan. Also some parts of the field in the 
 North Siam Mission are ceasing to give away Scriptures, and sales will 
 be few for a long time to come. We were short of Chinese Scriptures for 
 several months and had to lay off colporteurs. 
 
 It is with profound sorrow that we are called on to star the names 
 of three friends of the Agency from the Presbyterian Missions, all of 
 them active on our behalf though not actual supervisors: C. J. Shellman, 
 M.D., the Rev. W. A. Briggs, M.D., and the Rev. W. C. Dodd, D.D. 
 
 Prae Field—-House-to-House Canvass 
 
 A special feature of this line of work this year, the first successful 
 attempt of the kind, was the house-to-house canvass of the entire province 
 of Prae, together with a section of Lakawn and another of Chiengrai 
 embraced in the Prae field. Twenty-one men and four women were 
 employed. Mr. Callender estimates the area covered at 2,000 square 
 miles, with a population of 100,000, 315 villages and towns, and 13,867 
 houses. A little over 30,000 portions of Scripture were distributed, of 
 which 1,605 were in Siamese, a few in Chinese and Western Shan. The 
 rest were in Lao. The cost to the Society of the work was 1,485 ticals, 
 
 11 
 
or $557. The main work was done during the first three months of the 
 year, some mountainous districts difficult of access being not finished till 
 near the end of the year. We quote the following from Mr. Callender’s 
 very full report, itself taken largely from the lips of the colporteurs: 
 
 “The plan was to get as many as possible to distribute the Scrip¬ 
 tures in order to create enthusiasm—-which goes a long way towards 
 successful missionary effort. None but Christians were employed, and 
 we got the best available. Some were jewels, some were gems in the 
 rough, and some were very ordinary material. But when the work is 
 needed to be done, the best material available must be harnessed and 
 sent forth. The plan involved bi-weekly conferences for those distribu¬ 
 ting in the Prae plain, and as often as practicable for those distributing 
 at more distant points. 
 
 Some Experiences 
 
 •“These conferences revealed varied experiences of the colporteurs. 
 At some homes they were met with the fear expressed that reception of 
 Scriptures might obligate them to pay out money later. Some were 
 afraid that their children would be taken to the mission schools and 
 forced to become Christians. Some said that to leave off making offer¬ 
 ings at the monasteries would spell darkness to them. These offerings 
 are more attractive than the Christian way because more demonstrative 
 and sociable, as children are pleased with toys and bright colors. At 
 some of the houses in the city the women colporteurs encountered opposi¬ 
 tion. They were ordered politely to leave, as their Christian teachings 
 were not wanted. At some places in the out-villages the women endured 
 great hardships. Not knowing where to lodge for the night, they would 
 pray to be divinely led and they were not disappointed. At one village, 
 just at night, one of the women said, ‘I wonder where we can put up for 
 the night; it is getting dark.’ The answer came from one of the others, 
 ‘We will pray about it, and the Lord wil\ prepare some house for us.’ 
 They were in the sala or public lodging-place, where it would not do for 
 women to stay unprotected. Soon after prayer, a woman came down 
 fr’om her house near by and entered into conversation w r ith them. The 
 sequel was that she invited the whole party of four women to lodge with 
 her that night and share her hospitality. 
 
 Welcomes 
 
 “Here is w T hat the leader of one company of men has to say: ‘We 
 stopped at the house of the headman of the village and showed the 
 pictures. (The colporteurs had stereoscope views, some on the life of 
 Christ, many of different countries, besides a picture roll on the Life 
 of Christ.) This was a large village, and we stopped there two nights. 
 The villagers turned out well, including many monks. We admonished 
 them and opened up the Scriptures for them to listen, day and night, 
 and they listened attentively. We gave them Scriptures and they took 
 them readily, without a criticism from a single house; and they invited 
 us to return, for they understood. 
 
 “We proceeded to another village and arrived there at about four 
 
 12 
 
o’clock in the afternoon. The headman of the village received us cor¬ 
 dially, and we stopped at his house. We showed the pictures we had 
 with us, at least fifty persons being present, including monks. I taught 
 and distributed Scriptures, and it was pleasant, not a single house refusing 
 Scriptures. We remained there nine days, for there were many houses; 
 and we met and praised God in the use of hymns and prayer, and vil¬ 
 lagers said it was very pleasant, for they had never been accustomed 
 to hearing such things. 
 
 Difficulties and Rewards 
 
 “After this. Elder Noi Neum and Loong Nan Tan went with us, and 
 Kaao returned home. The rest of us went to a village exceedingly diffi¬ 
 cult of access on account of the mountains, there being five hills. On 
 account of the steepness of the hills and the roughness of the road, some 
 were not able to continue, being sore of feet. I comforted them with 
 words of Scripture, telling them about the sufferings of our Lord, which 
 were many times greater than we were undergoing. One person helping 
 us to carry the books was not a Christian, and it was an opportune time 
 to give him the gospel message. We finally reached the village in the 
 hills about five o’clock in the afternoon, and abode there in one of the 
 houses that night; and the next morning after breakfast we went to the 
 sala of the monastery to distribute books, but the monks would not 
 accept them. After the noonday meal we showed the views to the 
 people, and all turned out, there being only seventeen houses in this 
 village. We taught them the Scriptures and they listened well. The 
 next morning every one accepted a portion of Scripture. In the evening 
 we had a service, there being about sixty present, and they asked us to 
 remain another night; but I replied there are many other villages to 
 which we must go. From that place Elder Noi Neum and Nan Tan had 
 to turn back, because the road was too difficult for them, one being sore¬ 
 footed and the other very old. Me Noen and I persevered and found the 
 road very bad indeed, being overgrown with tall jungle grass, which 
 had to be parted with our hands all along till we reached the next village, 
 where we arrived about eleven o’clock. We went to the sala of the 
 monastery where we produced the pictures to show the people, and the 
 whole village turned out and listened well and requested us to remain two 
 or three more nights; and that when we return in the future we need not 
 bring anything to eat—so eager were they to have us return. At the 
 next village the headman rang the gong, calling all the people together 
 to hear our message, saying this village had never heard the gospel 
 before. 
 
 The People More Ready 
 
 “In some instances, individuals who received the Scriptures raised 
 their hands and bowed their heads in the attitude of worship. Some 
 of the colporteurs say it will not be long before many of these people 
 take a stand for Christianity. This drive in distributing the Scriptures 
 has brought some interesting facts to the surface. One of these facts is 
 that the bulk of the people are much more ready to receive the gospel 
 
 13 
 
message than they were a year ago. Another fact has appeared, viz.: 
 there is an undercurrent of opposition which seems to emanate not from 
 the common people, but from a higher source. 
 
 “All the Siamese and Lao officials were visited, and all the monasteries. 
 To the three highest Siamese officials in Prae City was given each a New 
 Testament in Siamese and to the three highest Lao noblemen each a New 
 Testament in Lao. Two of the Siamese officials wrote notes of appre¬ 
 ciation. 
 
 Let Your Imagination Loose 
 
 “This splendid piece of work done by the colporteurs has been made 
 possible by the generous aid of the American Bible Society through their 
 representative in Siam, the Rev. Robert Irwin, B.D., and we hereby ex¬ 
 tend our heartiest appreciation to the Bible Society and to Mr. Irwin.” 
 
 It is difficult for those of us w 7 ho have not been over the ground or 
 done something of this kind of work, to appreciate what it means to cover 
 the territory of a province and to enter every house in it. Remember 
 these colporteurs went mostly barefooted and bareheaded, with only a 
 shoulder bag and a long bladed knife, and that it is a mountainous 
 country, whose roads are mostly lonely trails along bridgeless streams, 
 with tiger and robber infested forests, and whose people are suspicious 
 of every stranger. Unless we let our imagination loose, we are apt to 
 suppose that these men have an easy time of it on their eight dollars a 
 month. To one who actually thinks the matter out, these colporteurs 
 are the real Peace Commissioners. A political League of Nations may 
 bring a lasting peace, but there is no question of the peace built on the 
 Book these men distribute. It looks forward to the time when men shall 
 beat their swords into ploughshares and lose the art of war. Slowly 
 the idea is developing in the mind of the world, and some fine morning 
 we shall waken to find it realized, and then these now unknown col¬ 
 porteurs shall have their reward. 
 
 Bangkok 
 
 Fewer men have been at work this year in Bangkok. Mr. Fuller, 
 in charge of the Chinese missionary work there, has been closely en¬ 
 gaged in pushing out along educational lines for the benefit of the Chinese 
 people and, therefore, has had to cut down the number of his colporteurs 
 through inability to superintend them. Only a couple of Chinese col¬ 
 porteurs have been steadily at work. One Siamese was at work in the 
 city for half the year, but gave it up. We ought to have a dozen good 
 colporteurs in the city, not only for Siamese and Chinese but for many 
 other Asiatic peoples. It is a most cosmopolitan city and growing. A 
 large number of Indians are accessible. Mrs. McClure tells of giving a 
 Hindustani Bible to an Indian. A week later she met him an inquired 
 whether he had read some of it. “All of it,” he said. Incredulous, she 
 questioned him on what he had read and he was able to tell her about 
 the Old Testament characters and to show an intelligent knowledge of 
 the New. He said, “Mem, I began at the beginning (pointing to the 
 back of the book) and read to here (what to us would have been the 
 
 14 
 
beginning). Now, my friend is reading it and all of them want it.” 
 
 One supervisor writes, “Incidently there is much seed sowing that 
 cannot be collated in statistics.” 
 
 Chiengmai Accomplishments 
 
 Dr. Campbell, in charge of all the evangelistic and colporteur work 
 of Chiengmai province, has kept a number of men distributing through- • 
 out the feasible months of the year, and continues to write optimistically 
 of the results of spreading the Scriptures broadcast. To quote him: 
 
 “Four new households are reported. One worker moved his sister’s 
 family two days’ journey and set them down in a Christian community 
 in order to have them become Christians. It is needless to report that 
 the effort was blessed. Such efforts always are. 
 
 “There was one unique experience. A young man came to say that 
 he and his mother and younger brother wished to become believers and 
 desired a service in their house. He said they had been led to this 
 decision some weeks before by reading the books given them by a man 
 whose name he did not know. From the description and date I was 
 able to identify the colporteur quite easily. 
 
 “During these three months 6,121 Scriptures were distributed. 
 The men are distributing a little more sparingly than formerly, lest the 
 supply be exhausted before the war conditions as to paper and printing 
 have time to improve. . . . Eight more new households have become 
 Christians. In Ampur San Maha Phone every house in the following 
 villages was visited and Scriptures placed in every instance where the 
 people were at home.” Then follows the names of eight in that Ampur 
 (district), and six in Muang Pao, and many more. “Also Scriptures were 
 sent to Muang Pai six days west and Muang Hang six days northwest. 
 Also the Muang Chem five days southwest and to other distant points. . . . 
 
 “An only daughter, seven or eight years of age, was taken in this 
 epidemic. The bereaved parents told me how a few hours before her 
 death she described the Heavenly City and seemed eager to go and 
 urged them to join her there a little later. This seems to comfort them 
 very much. They have repeatedly donated Scriptures to tell others of the 
 same hope.” 
 
 British Shan States Being Entered. 
 
 A recent letter from the Rev. J. H. Telford of the American Baptist 
 Mission in Kengtung, British Shan States, gives the assurance that the 
 mission will soon be reinforced to enable them to take up vigorous work 
 for the Shan, or Keun, Tai people there. Heretofore the time of the two 
 American families has been fully occupied with the hill tribes, and practi¬ 
 cally nothing has been done for the Tai. Among other things Mr. Telford 
 says, “Our Mission is waking up to the need of the Shans and be¬ 
 fore long I think we shall have at least one additional family for the 
 Shan people. Both Mr. Hanna and myself are now giving ourselves to 
 the study of the Shan language, and I do not think it will be long before 
 our Shan work is on the map so far as Kengtung is concerned. ... I hope 
 that when you visit Kengtung the next time you will see us in action with 
 
 15 
 
the Shans. We hope to concentrate on them with our biggest guns and 
 with every legitimate means of warfare, that we may bring to naught 
 the seemingly insuperable barriers that have thus far forbidden the 
 establishing the kingdom of God among these interesting Shan folk.” 
 
 Eastern Siam Untouched 
 
 Nothing has yet been done in eastern Siam,- the Mission feeling 
 unable to undertake any new work without additional men from home. 
 The need however is just as great as ever and it would seem as though 
 the receptive attitude of the people would lead the South Siam Mission 
 to enter the field even at the expense of some of the existing work. 
 
 French Territory Closed 
 
 The French territory east of the Mekawng is still closed to evangelistic 
 and Bible work, except three cities along the coast and the single province 
 of Cochin-China. 
 
 Who Live in G1 ass Houses 
 
 Kipling made us acquainted with the unhustleable nature of 
 the East, but we are sure now that the fault is not with the eastern 
 peoples. Here, for instance, is one of the leading nations of the 
 West positively forbidding Christian teachers to enter this southeastern 
 empire, and refusing to allow Christian literature to pass through the 
 mails. Here is the American Presbyterian Church allowing year after 
 year to slip away without lifting a hand to help the four millions of 
 Siamese in the eastern half of Siam and with just the beginning of work 
 in the Yunnan field, though continuing to acknowledge its responsi¬ 
 bility for the evangelization of the Tai people. And here again is the 
 American Baptist Church, laying claim to be the teachers of the eastern 
 Shan States and, after twenty or more years, just proposing to begin to 
 do something for the Shan people. Let us Westerners quit throwing 
 stones and exchange our glass walls for something more substantial. 
 The American Bible Society has had workers in all these Tai fields, but 
 it is like pouring water into a hole until the Missions co-operate by per¬ 
 manent occupation. We have challenged the Missions to mobilize their 
 native forces and put their churches on a war basis in order to make a 
 determined advance in all these countries, and we have a standing offer 
 to provide them with as many colporteurs, under their own control, as 
 they have evangelists. We believe it is as practicable for us to trust 
 God and the home church who sent us to do this work, as for our boys 
 who went to France to trust the President and the country to provide 
 all they needed to win the war. It is not that we have unlimited funds 
 in hand. We might be hard pressed if the Missions should accept our 
 offer. We as well as they, and business, and politics, and war, and 
 everything else human, must walk by faith. 
 
 Training Colporteurs 
 
 The quality of our colporteurs improves very, very slowly. Moral 
 growth is always slow. We ourselves have nothing to boast of in the 
 
 16 
 
matter of spiritual attainments. All we can say is that we are trying to 
 improve and trying to help our colporteurs, along. It is a good deal to 
 be able to say that some of them are trying to improve both in character 
 and work. 
 
 Orientals in Siam are very different from us in tlieir ideals of work. 
 We want to get the job done; never mind how, so it is right. They do 
 not see that it makes any difference whether the job is done or not. 
 Then, their manner of life and control has been such that they have little 
 or no initiative. Mr. Callender, who has handled large numbers of col¬ 
 porteurs this year, has this to say: “The colporteurs are so timid and 
 fearful lest they do something the missionary may not approve. Their 
 caution may be a good sign, but it does not represent the best method 
 of progress and speed in getting the work done. In some cases if the 
 men would just exercise more judgment and go ahead, it would save 
 time and also money.” 
 
 Ai Noi of Chiengrai, Mr. Bachtell’s cook, is a sample of the opening 
 of mental power and aggressive energy by the gospel. He learnt to 
 read and now is interested in the study of the Scriptures. He misses no 
 opportunity to attend classes. He volunteered this year to go to Luang 
 Prabang, in French territory, as a colporteur whenever the French give 
 permission for us to enter. This result it not an impulse, but a process 
 covering a number of years. It is noticeable that the brightest faces are 
 the ones that have been studying the longest; some of the beginners 
 are dull and dark. 
 
 Training classes for colporteurs have been held throughout the North 
 Siam Mission as usual with gratifying success. The attendance has 
 increased considerably and there is a more intelligent interest in the 
 subjects presented. Two booklets on Co-operation with God have been 
 prepared and printed in the Lao language and taught to a number of 
 churches and classes. These deal wdth Prayer and Our Tasks. A third 
 series is almost ready for the press on Self-Discipline. The same three 
 series are translated into Siamese and will soon be printed. All of these 
 studies deal with the development of the individual life. Another series, 
 in preparation, deals with the social side of Christianity and the unity 
 of the church. We have kept four men in the Mission Training School 
 throughout the term at an expense of five hundred ticals. To meet the 
 need that is soon to be thrust upon us, if progress is to be made at all, we 
 must increase out training both in quantity and quality. Man force is 
 the demand of the hour, and there is only one way to get it, and that 
 is by training. 
 
 Pushing Forward 
 
 Following the inquiry of our New York office as to the probable 
 expense of “doing our part of the work in South China” and the sug¬ 
 gestion of an advance in 1920, we entered on a vigorous and continued 
 effort to secure enough capable men to make a drive into South China, 
 eastern Siam, and, if the way should open, into Luang Prabang, the 
 capital of French Laos. Numbers of men volunteered for service, but, 
 owing to the shortage of missionaries to superintend them and their own 
 
 17 
 
excessive demands, no drive was attempted. The work done will make 
 the next attempt easy, however. That a large number of men have 
 learned to be willing to go so far away from home for several months, 
 is success in itself. The North Siam Mission transferred the Rev. and 
 Mrs. C. R. Callender and Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Park to Chiengrung Station 
 in South China, and they are taking several colporteurs with them— 
 to stay, we hope. 
 
 In one of his tours, Mr. Metcalf, of the China Inland Mission, in 
 northern Yunnan, found several Tai villages ready to give up their spirit 
 worship for Christianity, and appealed to Chiengrung Station to send him 
 a native teacher. The appeal was forwarded to the Mission and in 
 response a young man went from Nan. Now his brother has gone to 
 join him as a colporteur, and both intend to stay there. Thus the Tai 
 field of operations keeps on enlarging and demands an ever-increasing 
 trained force of colporteurs and evangelists. 
 
 With the vision of this growing need before us, we have kept steadily 
 pressing on the churches their responsibility to distribute the Scriptures 
 within their bounds, so as to release the colporteurs for the far-away 
 work. There is no doubt that they will do it in time. Conferences held 
 in connection with the Bible Study and Colporteur classes show T that 
 their consciences are waking and beginning to trouble them. They are 
 getting glimpses of a nobler life than living for themselves. It was a 
 happy five weeks’ experience, in connection with our training work in 
 Chiengrai, for Mr. Baehtell, going on furlough, to leave me in charge of 
 the city church, and to have the session of five members undertake to 
 conduct all the services and direct all the work of the church, including 
 the pastoral visitation, evangelistic touring, and distribution of the 
 Scriptures throughout their whole field—a section equal to several town¬ 
 ships in America. A new day will dawn for the church in Siam when 
 all of them undertake to do this as their regular business. It is not a 
 question of can, but, as with most of our matters, of mill. The real prob¬ 
 lem, in training these men, is to infuse morale into them. “ It is 
 morale that enables men to endure hardships, hunger and pain, to 
 face death again and again and yet to keep on fighting. It springs from 
 the spirit of the individual soldier and sailor. As long as he continues 
 to be cheerful and to feel confident of himself and his officers, so long 
 does the morale of the army and the navy continue to be strong. . . . 
 That is why the soldier with a buoyancy of spirits is more valuable 
 to a regiment than a squad of sharpshooters” (From “This Side the 
 Trenches”). It is as true of colporteurs and evangelists and ministers. 
 Morale grows out of ideals, and ideals out of the Word of God kept soaking 
 in the heart and practised in the life. As Milton said, “He who would 
 write heroic poems must make his whole life a heroic poem.” We mis¬ 
 sionaries and we American Christians have the task of our life in being 
 first what we want the Siamese to be. 
 
 Preparation of Scriptures 
 
 The Scripture Revision Committee of the South Siam Mission have 
 
 18 
 
completed the revision of Chronicles I and II, and it is now on the press 
 at Chiengmai. Revised Exodus is almost ready for the press. Psalms 
 in Siamese has been printed. Malachi in Lao has been printed for the 
 first time, and plates of a reduced size are being made in Japan. 
 
 The order for reduced plates of most of the historical books of the 
 Old Testament in Siamese has been given the Fukuin Printing Company, 
 of Yokohama, with the hope of producing this part of the Bible in one 
 volume by the end of the year. 
 
 A second edition of the New Testament both in Siamese and Lao 
 has been made, without margins to still further reduce the size. With¬ 
 out margins! What would F. W. Boreham say to that? In “Mush¬ 
 rooms on the Moor,” he says: “I love a margin. There is something 
 delicious, luxurious, glorious in the spacious field of creamy paper bounded 
 by the black letterpress on the one side and the gilt edges on the other. 
 Could anything be more abominable than a book that is printed to the 
 uttermost extremities of every page? It is an outrage, I aver, on human 
 nature. Indeed, it is an outrage on Nature herself, for Nature loves 
 her margins even more than I do.” But hold on, Mr. Author. Your 
 instances of Nature’s margins in flies and fishes and birdlings for cats 
 and snakes to eat, and plants for browsing cattle, are not the only way 
 Nature has. She has left no margins to her mountains, but piled them 
 up thousands of feet in the air and stretched them continents long. 
 She has left no margin to the earth itself, but packed it full inside, and 
 nowhere is there such a profusion of things as over its surface. She 
 does have a gilt edge, but she has put it on the shimmering sea, on the 
 waving wheat fields, on the glistening sand and the glittering church 
 spire. Nature adapts herself. That is what we are trying to do—adapt 
 ourselves. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary cannot be carried com¬ 
 fortably in a man’s vdSt pocket. By reducing the type and cutting off 
 the margins it could be made portable. The Siamese Bible is about 
 three-fourths the size of Webster’s. Our endeavor is to get it small 
 enough to be carried to church. 
 
 Donations 
 
 We take pleasure in acknowledging the following gifts to the Agency: 
 
 Pitsanuloke Church. 
 
 
 
 Ts; 90.00 
 
 Sritamarat Church. 
 
 
 
 46.04 
 
 Chiengrai Church. 
 
 
 
 13.36 
 
 Lakawn Church. 
 
 
 
 30.13 
 
 Prae Church. 
 
 
 
 50.00 
 
 Rev. Allen Bassett. 
 
 
 
 57.00 
 
 Mrs. C. B. McFarland. 
 
 
 
 135.00 
 
 Issues, Additions 
 
 and Circulation 
 
 of Stock 
 
 
 Direct issues: 
 
 Bibles Test's 
 
 Portions 
 
 Total 
 
 From Bangkok. 
 
 .... 643 
 
 93,776 
 
 94,419 
 
 Prae. 
 
 5 
 
 18,043 
 
 18,048 
 
 Lakawn. 
 
 205 
 
 7,003 
 
 7,208 
 
 Chiengmai. 
 
 .... 
 
 2,900 
 
 2,900 
 
 Chiengrai. 
 
 
 7,500 
 
 7,500 
 
 Total direct issues. 
 
 .... 853 
 
 129,222 
 
 130,075 
 
 19 
 
Issues, Additions, an 
 
 d Circulation of Stoc 
 
 k (Continued) 
 
 Indirect issues: 
 
 
 
 
 
 To other Bible Societies. 
 
 
 • • • • 
 
 500 
 
 500 
 
 Binders. 
 
 
 58 
 
 2,685 
 
 2,748 
 
 Total indirect issues. 
 
 
 58 
 
 3,185 
 
 3,243 
 
 Total direct issues. 
 
 
 853 
 
 129,222 
 
 130,075 
 
 Total issues for 1919. 
 
 
 911 
 
 132,407 
 
 133,318 
 
 Direct additions: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Manufacture. 
 
 
 950 
 
 91,000 
 
 91,950 
 
 From other Bible Societies.... 
 
 35 
 
 368 
 
 33,978 
 
 34,381 
 
 Total direct additions. 
 
 35 
 
 1,318 
 
 124,978 
 
 126,331 
 
 Indirect additions: 
 
 
 
 
 
 From binders. 
 
 
 50 
 
 2,709 
 
 2,759 
 
 Total additions to stock... 
 
 35 
 
 1,368 
 
 127,687 
 
 129,090 
 
 Circulation by 
 
 Districts 
 
 
 
 Sales: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Biblea 
 
 Test’s 
 
 Portions 
 
 Tot»l 
 
 Bangkok. 
 
 99 
 
 317 
 
 8,932 
 
 9,348 
 
 Chienginai. 
 
 
 139 
 
 
 139 
 
 Chiengrai. 
 
 
 39 
 
 
 39 
 
 Nakon Patom. 
 
 
 16 
 
 2,030 
 
 2,046 
 
 Petchaburi. 
 
 3 
 
 40 
 
 702 
 
 745 
 
 Sritamarat. 
 
 . 
 
 8 
 
 313 
 
 321 
 
 Total sales. 
 
 102 
 
 559 
 
 11,977 
 
 12,638 
 
 Donations: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bangkok. 
 
 
 
 2,282 
 
 2,282 
 
 Prae. 
 
 
 
 30,694 
 
 30,694 
 
 Chienginai. 
 
 
 
 25,840 
 
 25,840 
 
 Chiengrai. 
 
 
 • 
 
 18,810 
 
 18,810 
 
 Total donations. 
 
 
 
 77,626 
 
 77,626 
 
 Total sales. 
 
 102 
 
 559 
 
 11,977 
 
 12,638 
 
 Total circulation. 
 
 102 
 
 559 
 
 89,603 
 
 90,264 
 
 Details of 
 
 Circulation by Language 
 
 
 Siamese. 
 
 . 9,218 
 
 Hindi. 
 
 
 1 
 
 Siamo-Lao (diglot). 
 
 . 4,019 
 
 Tamil. 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 Lao. 
 
 . 69,836 
 
 Urdu. 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 Kamu. 
 
 45 
 
 Singhalese.... 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 Laotien. 
 
 1 
 
 Malay (Arabic) 
 
 
 . 8 
 
 Cambodian. 
 
 151 
 
 Malay Baba... 
 
 
 
 Chinese, Wenli. 
 
 . 6,576 
 
 Malay (Roman). 
 
 . 1 
 
 Cantonese. 
 
 250 
 
 Gurumukki.. . 
 
 
 
 Tie-Chiu (Roman). . 
 
 5 
 
 Javanese. 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 Hainanese “ . 1 
 
 1 
 
 English. 
 
 
 . 104 
 
 Hakka. 
 
 13 
 
 Welsh. 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 Shanghai. 
 
 1 
 
 Danish. 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 Japanese. 
 
 1 
 
 German. 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 Talaing or Mon (Pegu). 
 
 2 
 
 French. 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 Burmese. 
 
 3 
 
 Spanish. 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 Bengali. 
 
 Braille. 
 
 Total.90,264 
 
 8-12-20—3' 4 m 
 
 20