Page 233 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 233
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
and the girls to an empty compartment where he said they could spend the night. That was
marvellous. There were only four bunks, so the two smallest got into one and Percy rolled himself in a
rug on the floor between the bunks. Ruth Porteous, whose stories always grew in interest if not
always in credibility when she told them, often regaled us afterwards with the tale of that long night.
She declared that every time Percy rolled over in the night, he managed to roll onto one of the extra bit
of blankets hanging down from the four bunks, so that by the morning (as Ruth tells it) the girls had no
blankets and Percy had them all!
BENGBU
We reached Bengbu next day and had to hang round the station for an hour or two till our smaller
cases had been opened and searched by the Japanese. We were thankful they didn’t worry about our
larger luggage which would all have had to be unroped and re-roped again. We got rickshaws then
and made our way to the Mission compound which had no resident missionaries at that time as all had
been evacuated. To our surprise, Mr. Davis and his party were still there. The Rowes had gone on
ahead, but had been held up because they did not have the proper passes. So we settled ourselves
in as comfortably as possible until we could get word from Stanley that they were going on and we
could follow.
The Mission compound was quite a big one with plenty of room for us all, and as Bengbu is quite a big
town, I usually went out each day with one or two of the girls to buy food for us all. This was so as not
to draw on the supplies we had brought with us which would be needed for the journey as we got
further inland. The Japs were well in control, but we had no trouble because England was still not at
war with Japan at that time.
It was a different matter with the Chinese who were under Japanese control in that area. One day at
the railway station, a queue of Chinese were lined up to buy tickets. I saw an old woman obviously ill
and shaking with malaria, standing in line with her daughter who was trying to support her. The
Japanese guard walked along the line, looked at these two who were obviously in distress, then he
deliberately walked away, came back with a bucket of cold water and doused the old lady with it.
I saw another old lady knocked right off her feet by a blow from a Japanese guard when she didn’t
move as fast as he thought she should. There was certainly no love lost between the Japs and the
Chinese. One day, when I was buying something in a shop, I saw a Japanese soldier ride by on
horseback. He was taking the middle of the road and expected everybody to move out of his way.
The shop keeper stood behind his counter and watched him without any expression on his face at all.
He waited till the man was past and then very deliberately walked right out in to the middle of the road,
cleared his throat and spat right where the Japanese had passed. Then still with no expression on
his face, he turned and walked back into the shop. Not a word was spoken, but his actions spoke far
louder than any words could have done.
We were surprised when one day Stanley and Norah, with their whole party turned up again at
Bengbu. The Japanese would not give any of us passes to go on and said there was heavy fighting
ahead of us. We had better go back where we had come from! We were determined not to go back
to Shanghai, but how were we to go forward when every place seemed to be manned by Japanese
military? The Rowes, Ernie Davis, the Terrys and ourselves met together to discuss all the
possibilities while Percy and I planned language study and periods of prayer for the girls who were
soon going to get bored if they were shut up for long inside the walled compound with nothing much to
do. We had no idea how long we would be there and could only commit the whole situation to the
Lord and trust Him to lead us aright.
233
Amy Moore
and the girls to an empty compartment where he said they could spend the night. That was
marvellous. There were only four bunks, so the two smallest got into one and Percy rolled himself in a
rug on the floor between the bunks. Ruth Porteous, whose stories always grew in interest if not
always in credibility when she told them, often regaled us afterwards with the tale of that long night.
She declared that every time Percy rolled over in the night, he managed to roll onto one of the extra bit
of blankets hanging down from the four bunks, so that by the morning (as Ruth tells it) the girls had no
blankets and Percy had them all!
BENGBU
We reached Bengbu next day and had to hang round the station for an hour or two till our smaller
cases had been opened and searched by the Japanese. We were thankful they didn’t worry about our
larger luggage which would all have had to be unroped and re-roped again. We got rickshaws then
and made our way to the Mission compound which had no resident missionaries at that time as all had
been evacuated. To our surprise, Mr. Davis and his party were still there. The Rowes had gone on
ahead, but had been held up because they did not have the proper passes. So we settled ourselves
in as comfortably as possible until we could get word from Stanley that they were going on and we
could follow.
The Mission compound was quite a big one with plenty of room for us all, and as Bengbu is quite a big
town, I usually went out each day with one or two of the girls to buy food for us all. This was so as not
to draw on the supplies we had brought with us which would be needed for the journey as we got
further inland. The Japs were well in control, but we had no trouble because England was still not at
war with Japan at that time.
It was a different matter with the Chinese who were under Japanese control in that area. One day at
the railway station, a queue of Chinese were lined up to buy tickets. I saw an old woman obviously ill
and shaking with malaria, standing in line with her daughter who was trying to support her. The
Japanese guard walked along the line, looked at these two who were obviously in distress, then he
deliberately walked away, came back with a bucket of cold water and doused the old lady with it.
I saw another old lady knocked right off her feet by a blow from a Japanese guard when she didn’t
move as fast as he thought she should. There was certainly no love lost between the Japs and the
Chinese. One day, when I was buying something in a shop, I saw a Japanese soldier ride by on
horseback. He was taking the middle of the road and expected everybody to move out of his way.
The shop keeper stood behind his counter and watched him without any expression on his face at all.
He waited till the man was past and then very deliberately walked right out in to the middle of the road,
cleared his throat and spat right where the Japanese had passed. Then still with no expression on
his face, he turned and walked back into the shop. Not a word was spoken, but his actions spoke far
louder than any words could have done.
We were surprised when one day Stanley and Norah, with their whole party turned up again at
Bengbu. The Japanese would not give any of us passes to go on and said there was heavy fighting
ahead of us. We had better go back where we had come from! We were determined not to go back
to Shanghai, but how were we to go forward when every place seemed to be manned by Japanese
military? The Rowes, Ernie Davis, the Terrys and ourselves met together to discuss all the
possibilities while Percy and I planned language study and periods of prayer for the girls who were
soon going to get bored if they were shut up for long inside the walled compound with nothing much to
do. We had no idea how long we would be there and could only commit the whole situation to the
Lord and trust Him to lead us aright.
233
