Page 99 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 99
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
and he spared no effort to find out what had happened to them. His report made it only too clear that
six soldiers had stopped them at 11 am on 23 July outside the West Gate of Xi’an where they had
been keeping watch for them for several days. They were taken out and shot that same night at a
place clearly identified, though GFA was not prepared to give the names of witnesses and informants
for fear of reprisals.
In April 1933, Findlay Andrew again visited Gansu, taking Fanny with him as well as Mr. and Mrs.
Scott. Mrs. Scott was a cousin of Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, and Mr. Scott was a
director of the to Table of Cfirm of Butterfield & Swire. Travel conditions were improving so they went
partly by rail, partly by car and partly by air to Lanzhou and on beyond to Xining. He had four
purposes in going:
1. To check on the Xilan Road, a highway from Xi’an to Lanzhou, which the Famine
Relief Commission were building, but towards the expenses of which the Chinese
Government had contributed substantially. ‘I am particularly anxious not to forfeit any
of the confidence reposed in us.’
2. He had received many invitations from Xining officials to come and see the roads they
had built ‘inspired by your example’. They had even constructed a bridge across the
upper reaches of the Huang He (Yellow River), many of the ideas for which had been
given to them by him in 1930.
3. TV Soong, brother-in-law of Generalissimo Jiang Kaishek had entrusted him with a
special mission, and that was to make sure the Muslims of Gansu remained loyal to
the Chinese Government. Japan had annexed Manchuria and, as TV said to GFA,
‘We have lost the north-east. We must take care not to lose the north-west.’ The two
men had often met in Shanghai and had become good friends.
4. He had a scheme of his own to irrigate a well populated plain thirty miles east of
Lanzhou by laying a conduit through a five mile belt of sand to bring water from
mountains lying to the south. The problems of Gansu were still uppermost in his
mind as he had recently been entertaining the ‘Chairman’ of the Province who was
rather disinclined to return there. ‘I am trying to persuade him, and also to get the
Government to insist on his going’.
Scott was horrified by the rigours of travel in Gansu and marvelled at GFA’s skill in handling difficult
officials. He described him as ‘on close personal terms with most of the leading civil and military men’,
and remarked that his work in famine and earthquake relief had given him ‘a very prominent place in
the regard of all classes of people’. When they got back to Lanzhou many feasts were given in honour
of GFA.
GFA LEAVES CIM
It was in July 1933 that he ceased to be a member of the CIM. Why this happened is not altogether
clear, but it is remarkable that the Mission had retained his services for 25 years in spite of the fact
that his talents had long been mainly devoted to projects not directly connected with the
evangelisation of the people, or Church building. Fanny, by this time was not able to face the rigours
of life in inland China, and she had also become a strong advocate of British Israelism. GFA’s
priorities had changed too, and his close friends were now largely outside the CIM circles.
99
Amy Moore
and he spared no effort to find out what had happened to them. His report made it only too clear that
six soldiers had stopped them at 11 am on 23 July outside the West Gate of Xi’an where they had
been keeping watch for them for several days. They were taken out and shot that same night at a
place clearly identified, though GFA was not prepared to give the names of witnesses and informants
for fear of reprisals.
In April 1933, Findlay Andrew again visited Gansu, taking Fanny with him as well as Mr. and Mrs.
Scott. Mrs. Scott was a cousin of Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, and Mr. Scott was a
director of the to Table of Cfirm of Butterfield & Swire. Travel conditions were improving so they went
partly by rail, partly by car and partly by air to Lanzhou and on beyond to Xining. He had four
purposes in going:
1. To check on the Xilan Road, a highway from Xi’an to Lanzhou, which the Famine
Relief Commission were building, but towards the expenses of which the Chinese
Government had contributed substantially. ‘I am particularly anxious not to forfeit any
of the confidence reposed in us.’
2. He had received many invitations from Xining officials to come and see the roads they
had built ‘inspired by your example’. They had even constructed a bridge across the
upper reaches of the Huang He (Yellow River), many of the ideas for which had been
given to them by him in 1930.
3. TV Soong, brother-in-law of Generalissimo Jiang Kaishek had entrusted him with a
special mission, and that was to make sure the Muslims of Gansu remained loyal to
the Chinese Government. Japan had annexed Manchuria and, as TV said to GFA,
‘We have lost the north-east. We must take care not to lose the north-west.’ The two
men had often met in Shanghai and had become good friends.
4. He had a scheme of his own to irrigate a well populated plain thirty miles east of
Lanzhou by laying a conduit through a five mile belt of sand to bring water from
mountains lying to the south. The problems of Gansu were still uppermost in his
mind as he had recently been entertaining the ‘Chairman’ of the Province who was
rather disinclined to return there. ‘I am trying to persuade him, and also to get the
Government to insist on his going’.
Scott was horrified by the rigours of travel in Gansu and marvelled at GFA’s skill in handling difficult
officials. He described him as ‘on close personal terms with most of the leading civil and military men’,
and remarked that his work in famine and earthquake relief had given him ‘a very prominent place in
the regard of all classes of people’. When they got back to Lanzhou many feasts were given in honour
of GFA.
GFA LEAVES CIM
It was in July 1933 that he ceased to be a member of the CIM. Why this happened is not altogether
clear, but it is remarkable that the Mission had retained his services for 25 years in spite of the fact
that his talents had long been mainly devoted to projects not directly connected with the
evangelisation of the people, or Church building. Fanny, by this time was not able to face the rigours
of life in inland China, and she had also become a strong advocate of British Israelism. GFA’s
priorities had changed too, and his close friends were now largely outside the CIM circles.
99
