Page 118 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 118
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 118
FROM CHINA INLAND MISSION TO BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE
21One of the leaders of the communists at this time when so many missionaries and others
were in danger, was Chou-en-lai. He was later to be premier and foreign secretary of
Communist China. GFA got to know him personally when he was trying to secure the
release of individuals captured by his forces. His importance in this negotiating process is
given credibility by the fact that, in order to communicate with GFA, Chou's messenger
"penetrated the C.I.M. in Hankow and stood by my bedside at midnight."
By 1933 he was in Nanking, at that stage the capital of China, where he was familiar with
Generalissimo Chiang-kai-shek and his brother-in-law T.V.Soong. GFA had a lot to do
with famine relief in the province of Shensi. In his efforts to stimulate the activities of
Chinese benevolent agencies he became friendly with General Chu-ching-lan who, after
organizing resistance to the Japanese in Manchuria, was responsible for the use of millions
of dollars contributed by Buddhists for relief work.
In April 1933, GFA again visited Kansu, 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 shipping firm of Butterfield & Swire.22. They left Nanking by rail on April 16,
1933. A car collected them from the terminus in Honan and they drove 90 miles to Sian
"along one of the roads conditioned by us". Then they flew to Lanchow and on by car to
Sining. Such an easy five-day journey seemed incredible to GFA.
He had four purposes in going:
1. To check on the highways which the Famine Relief Commission had been building.
This was important to him as he felt a strong sense of responsibility for this project as the
Chinese Government had contributed substantially towards its completion. “I am
particularly anxious not to forfeit any of the confidence reposed in us.”
2. He had received many invitations from Sining 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 Yellow River, many of the ideas for which had been given to them by
him in 1930.
21 Thanks to David Bentley-Taylor and Amy Moore for the following material.
22 Maurice Woodforde Scott was born in Peking in 1912. After returning to England for his education at
Marlborough and at St. Edmund's College, Oxford, he joined the firm of Butterfield & Swire and was posted to
Shanghai and Hong Kong (1934-1937). After the war he enrolled in Wells Theological College and was
ordained in 1949. His ecclesiastical career was based entirely in England, and he was made Honorary Canon
of Winchester Cathedral in 1975 until his partial retirement in 1980. He died in 1983
FROM CHINA INLAND MISSION TO BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE
21One of the leaders of the communists at this time when so many missionaries and others
were in danger, was Chou-en-lai. He was later to be premier and foreign secretary of
Communist China. GFA got to know him personally when he was trying to secure the
release of individuals captured by his forces. His importance in this negotiating process is
given credibility by the fact that, in order to communicate with GFA, Chou's messenger
"penetrated the C.I.M. in Hankow and stood by my bedside at midnight."
By 1933 he was in Nanking, at that stage the capital of China, where he was familiar with
Generalissimo Chiang-kai-shek and his brother-in-law T.V.Soong. GFA had a lot to do
with famine relief in the province of Shensi. In his efforts to stimulate the activities of
Chinese benevolent agencies he became friendly with General Chu-ching-lan who, after
organizing resistance to the Japanese in Manchuria, was responsible for the use of millions
of dollars contributed by Buddhists for relief work.
In April 1933, GFA again visited Kansu, 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 shipping firm of Butterfield & Swire.22. They left Nanking by rail on April 16,
1933. A car collected them from the terminus in Honan and they drove 90 miles to Sian
"along one of the roads conditioned by us". Then they flew to Lanchow and on by car to
Sining. Such an easy five-day journey seemed incredible to GFA.
He had four purposes in going:
1. To check on the highways which the Famine Relief Commission had been building.
This was important to him as he felt a strong sense of responsibility for this project as the
Chinese Government had contributed substantially towards its completion. “I am
particularly anxious not to forfeit any of the confidence reposed in us.”
2. He had received many invitations from Sining 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 Yellow River, many of the ideas for which had been given to them by
him in 1930.
21 Thanks to David Bentley-Taylor and Amy Moore for the following material.
22 Maurice Woodforde Scott was born in Peking in 1912. After returning to England for his education at
Marlborough and at St. Edmund's College, Oxford, he joined the firm of Butterfield & Swire and was posted to
Shanghai and Hong Kong (1934-1937). After the war he enrolled in Wells Theological College and was
ordained in 1949. His ecclesiastical career was based entirely in England, and he was made Honorary Canon
of Winchester Cathedral in 1975 until his partial retirement in 1980. He died in 1983
