Page 84 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 84
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 84
I am glad that I speak in this building; an institution under the flag of the nation
which set the lead in this demonstration of Christian sympathy to a people who were
in desperate and dire need in that far-away province.
And lastly I am glad that it is on this day; a day which is in a very special sense
God’s Own Day and on which I would offer a humble tribute of thanksgiving to the
Divine Care which has watched over us upon our ways and brought us safely
through.
So to-night, without further delay I will set forth my story and fashion it much
upon the plan which was so much favoured in the old records of geographical
explorations. It shall be set forth under the two headings,
First, Kansuh and our -way thither, and
Second, Wherein shall be related those things we saw and did there.
I must refer one moment to 1929 when this part of China was visited by one
of the most desperate famines that I suppose has ever been recorded in its history.
The country, as history shows, has always been subject to these periods of acute
food shortage, but I doubt whether anything could have exceeded in severity the
famine, with all its attendant horrors, which prevailed there last year.
I was in Kansuh throughout 1921, doing the reconstruction work following on
the great earth-quake which took place there during the December of the previous
year - an earthquake so severe that I have since seen it stated in scientific
magazines that it is one of the most severe earthquakes of which we have any
seismological record - and despite having become somewhat accustomed to the
sights of suffering and sorrow prevalent in such a catastrophe as that, I must confess
that I was not prepared, for one quarter of the misery, suffering, and inconceivable
distress I was forced to witness in Kansuh last year during my tour of investigation.
To me it was, and still remains, one long drawn-out horrid nightmare. I think I am
right in saying that it was mainly due to the interest aroused in the suffering of that
province, largely through the medium of my reports, that an offer was made from
America at the beginning of this year, for the donation of a certain sum of money to
be used toward the alleviation of that suffering. One of the conditions of the gift was
that I should be released from my work of teaching in the Chefoo Schools and set
free to go up to Kansuh to personally supervise the work of relief distribution. The
Executive of the China Inland Mission was approached and gave permission for me
to proceed.
Previous to my setting forth from Chefoo in February of this year, another
member of the China International Famine Relief Commission, under whose
auspices I was to undertake my mission, had proceeded as far as Sian in Shensi in
an attempt to get through to Kansuh, but he had found the country between Sian and
Lanchow in such a state of open banditry that he had given it as his considered
I am glad that I speak in this building; an institution under the flag of the nation
which set the lead in this demonstration of Christian sympathy to a people who were
in desperate and dire need in that far-away province.
And lastly I am glad that it is on this day; a day which is in a very special sense
God’s Own Day and on which I would offer a humble tribute of thanksgiving to the
Divine Care which has watched over us upon our ways and brought us safely
through.
So to-night, without further delay I will set forth my story and fashion it much
upon the plan which was so much favoured in the old records of geographical
explorations. It shall be set forth under the two headings,
First, Kansuh and our -way thither, and
Second, Wherein shall be related those things we saw and did there.
I must refer one moment to 1929 when this part of China was visited by one
of the most desperate famines that I suppose has ever been recorded in its history.
The country, as history shows, has always been subject to these periods of acute
food shortage, but I doubt whether anything could have exceeded in severity the
famine, with all its attendant horrors, which prevailed there last year.
I was in Kansuh throughout 1921, doing the reconstruction work following on
the great earth-quake which took place there during the December of the previous
year - an earthquake so severe that I have since seen it stated in scientific
magazines that it is one of the most severe earthquakes of which we have any
seismological record - and despite having become somewhat accustomed to the
sights of suffering and sorrow prevalent in such a catastrophe as that, I must confess
that I was not prepared, for one quarter of the misery, suffering, and inconceivable
distress I was forced to witness in Kansuh last year during my tour of investigation.
To me it was, and still remains, one long drawn-out horrid nightmare. I think I am
right in saying that it was mainly due to the interest aroused in the suffering of that
province, largely through the medium of my reports, that an offer was made from
America at the beginning of this year, for the donation of a certain sum of money to
be used toward the alleviation of that suffering. One of the conditions of the gift was
that I should be released from my work of teaching in the Chefoo Schools and set
free to go up to Kansuh to personally supervise the work of relief distribution. The
Executive of the China Inland Mission was approached and gave permission for me
to proceed.
Previous to my setting forth from Chefoo in February of this year, another
member of the China International Famine Relief Commission, under whose
auspices I was to undertake my mission, had proceeded as far as Sian in Shensi in
an attempt to get through to Kansuh, but he had found the country between Sian and
Lanchow in such a state of open banditry that he had given it as his considered
