Page 121 - Neglected Arabia Vol I (1)

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Annual Report—Bagdad—1921

Rev. James Cantine, D.D.

Read at Karachi, September 20, 1921.

T HIS annual report records the first year’s history of a venture I
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upon new and memorable ground, and one which may entail
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considerable responsibility for the future. And though as such
it may be thought of some importance, yet we may not congratu- 1
late ourselves in that the occupation of Bagdad by the Arabian Mission. I
means, by itself, a great advance in the evangelization of Arabia, such as 1
would follow the opening of a new station at Hassa or on the Oman • I
Coast. For it must be remembered that Bagdad was held by the I
Church Missionary Society years before our Mission was organized, |
and has not lacked continuous occupation from that time on. It is • I
true that this mission of the great English society did not grow as |
rapidly as did ours, but when the war broke out they had six or seven fl
men and women at work in the city, and a large and cosily building ' I
enterprise under way. Five years of Turkish and German hostility to I
everything Anglican effectually destroyed what could be destroyed, of
missionary enterprise, and when faced with this material loss, and with -1
the necessity for a new beginning under uncertain political conditions, I
with also a very trying deficiency in both men and means, the society * *; I
decided to withdraw from its Mesopotamian field. We, being their 1
nearest neighbors, working at some of our stations under identical 1
conditions and one with them in their hopes and efforts for the good I
of the Moslem population, it was but natural that we should have had 1
to consider what could at once be done to conserve what was left of I
nearly four decades of missionary effort; and to keep open this door, 1
not alone to Mesopotamia, but also to Northern Arabia—a door which. I
might in the inevitable clash of interests incident to the reorganization j
of the country, have been shut for years to come. To this appeal the I
Arabian Mission could not be deaf, and at its annual meeting a year j
ago, we were appointed to Bagdad, it being understood, in fact so noted ]
by the Board, that this appointment was only a tentative measure, i
the hope and expectation of the Mission and the Board being, that for j
all Upper Mesopotamia some scheme of union effort might be in- j
augurated at home, that would include the Reformed-Presbyterian \
bodies of America, some of them already interested in work among j
Moslems. I judge from letters received that this hope will eventually j
be realized. 1
With this introduction I will pass to my report proper. Some of my
fellow-missionaries will follow me as I note the real sorrow caused
by the severance of ties which, in the course of years, bind one locally
to one’s work, to one’s fellow-workers, and to those for whom one has
labored; also, in the statement that it takes considerable time, in this
cuunlry, to pack one's household goods, move them five hundred miles,
and make of them a home in a new environment. Our house was not
in every way desirable, either as to location or arrangements, but we