Page 31 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 31
When the War was well into its second year, GFA began to assess his options. It was fairly
obvious he couldn’t volunteer for service as a soldier because of his health. The China
Inland Mission was not encouraging its members to volunteer, partly because of the danger
of travelling and also the problem of caring for their families in their absence. But there was
something he felt able to do.
He decided to find some way that he could serve his country while still carrying on his
missionary activities. He contacted Miles Lampson.
Miles Lampson9 entered the British Foreign Office in 1903. He served as 1st Secretary at
Peking from 1916 to1920. He was later to become Lord Killairn. This was the man whom
GFA contacted in order to offer his services to his country. Miles Lampson knew a good
man when he saw one. Before long they had agreed that GFA would have a dual role as a
representative of the Foreign Office. He would act as an intelligence gatherer amongst the
Muslim community with which he was so familiar, and he would also report on any travellers
passing through this remote area, whose activities might seem to be in any way suspicious.
Sian, Lanchow and Kashgar were all part of the original Silk Road. Kashgar, which was at
the extreme western border of China, had had a key role in the tensions between Russia
and China, and both places were hotbeds of violence between Muslims and Chinese. In
1917 China entered the war against Germany. Turkey was allied with Germany in WWI,
and as Turkey was a strong Muslim country, the large population of Muslims in this remote
area saw China as their enemy. With GFA’s already impressive understanding of the
Muslims and rapport with them, he stood out as a very useful agent to report on matters
involving them. At the end of the war, he wrote a very serviceable book for missionaries
working amongst Muslims called “The Crescent in North-West China” (Published in 1931 by
The Religious Tract Society for the China Inland Mission).
He reported to Lampson about the attitude of community leaders in Kansu and further west.
He took on the job of part-time tutor to the son of the Muslim Military Governor of Kansu.
This meant that he paid frequent visits to the Governor’s residence, providing plenty of
casual contact with officials. The Military Governor was an extremely fat man, and Dr Bob
Parry, who was in Lanchow at the time, remembered GFA borrowing the man's belt. and
laughingly winding it around himself, the Governor's son, and the doctor.
He combined his missionary work with organizing film shows and other propaganda to
publicize Allied successes. GFA described what he claimed was the first cinema show ever
given on the borders of Tibet.
9 Lampson entered the Foreign Office in 1903. He served as Secretary to Garter Mission, Japan, in 1906, as
2nd Secretary at Tokyo, Japan, between 1908 and 1910, as 2nd Secretary at Sofia, Bulgaria in 1911, as 1st
Secretary at Peking in 1916, as Acting British High Commissioner in Siberia in 1920 and as British Minister to
China between 1926 and 1933.
When the War was well into its second year, GFA began to assess his options. It was fairly
obvious he couldn’t volunteer for service as a soldier because of his health. The China
Inland Mission was not encouraging its members to volunteer, partly because of the danger
of travelling and also the problem of caring for their families in their absence. But there was
something he felt able to do.
He decided to find some way that he could serve his country while still carrying on his
missionary activities. He contacted Miles Lampson.
Miles Lampson9 entered the British Foreign Office in 1903. He served as 1st Secretary at
Peking from 1916 to1920. He was later to become Lord Killairn. This was the man whom
GFA contacted in order to offer his services to his country. Miles Lampson knew a good
man when he saw one. Before long they had agreed that GFA would have a dual role as a
representative of the Foreign Office. He would act as an intelligence gatherer amongst the
Muslim community with which he was so familiar, and he would also report on any travellers
passing through this remote area, whose activities might seem to be in any way suspicious.
Sian, Lanchow and Kashgar were all part of the original Silk Road. Kashgar, which was at
the extreme western border of China, had had a key role in the tensions between Russia
and China, and both places were hotbeds of violence between Muslims and Chinese. In
1917 China entered the war against Germany. Turkey was allied with Germany in WWI,
and as Turkey was a strong Muslim country, the large population of Muslims in this remote
area saw China as their enemy. With GFA’s already impressive understanding of the
Muslims and rapport with them, he stood out as a very useful agent to report on matters
involving them. At the end of the war, he wrote a very serviceable book for missionaries
working amongst Muslims called “The Crescent in North-West China” (Published in 1931 by
The Religious Tract Society for the China Inland Mission).
He reported to Lampson about the attitude of community leaders in Kansu and further west.
He took on the job of part-time tutor to the son of the Muslim Military Governor of Kansu.
This meant that he paid frequent visits to the Governor’s residence, providing plenty of
casual contact with officials. The Military Governor was an extremely fat man, and Dr Bob
Parry, who was in Lanchow at the time, remembered GFA borrowing the man's belt. and
laughingly winding it around himself, the Governor's son, and the doctor.
He combined his missionary work with organizing film shows and other propaganda to
publicize Allied successes. GFA described what he claimed was the first cinema show ever
given on the borders of Tibet.
9 Lampson entered the Foreign Office in 1903. He served as Secretary to Garter Mission, Japan, in 1906, as
2nd Secretary at Tokyo, Japan, between 1908 and 1910, as 2nd Secretary at Sofia, Bulgaria in 1911, as 1st
Secretary at Peking in 1916, as Acting British High Commissioner in Siberia in 1920 and as British Minister to
China between 1926 and 1933.
