Page 85 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 85
opinion that it would be almost impossible to accomplish the journey and inadvisable
to try. Apart from banditry the most pressing problem was that of obtaining
transportation. There was at least eight hundred miles of overland journeying to be
accomplished after leaving the railway and all means of transport were reported
lacking on this great highway, which for centuries has been the main highroad from
China to the West. We therefore decided on organizing our little expedition into a
self-contained mobile caravan, and to this end purchased a one and a half ton motor
truck which we drove out of Tientsin on March 6th bound for the far interior.
And here I must pause to say a few words about the men who went with me. It
has been said, and quite correctly, that if you want to get to know a man, travel with
him. This is doubly true when your field of travel is the interior of China. And to be
able to live and travel together for seven months without one single important
disagreement, and during all that period of time to retain the enthusiasm of a
common inspiration, the fixed determination of a set purpose, is no mean
accomplishment. I notice here tonight the faces of several who have travelled in the
far north-west, and I am sure they will be able to bear testimony to the truth of the
above statement. They will remember how that under the conditions of life of those
journeying days the little things often loomed so large and it was frequently
necessary to pause for a re-assessment of comparative values. And so I bear
testimony to the sterling qualities of those who went with me.
First to Mr. W. N. Ruhl who hails from Lancaster, Pa. a missionary who has
had thirty years of experience in South Kansuh and whom I was fortunate enough to
meet in Hankow last January when he was waiting for the road to open for his return
to his work. And then the other companion, Dr. Hillington Kao, a man who has spent
a number of years in north west Kansuh and who met me in Tientsin on the eve of
our start, under a peculiar set of circumstances which I can only term as Providential,
Thus our party, as far as the China International Famine Relief Commission was
concerned, consisted of us three. From Taiyuan, however, we had another
companion, Dr. Rees of the China Inland Mission who was proceeding to Lanchow
Hospital to take the place of Dr. Rand who died during the typhus visitation, resultant
upon famine conditions, and which he contracted from famine refugees last year.
As already stated, we left Tientsin on March 6th. and drove the truck overland
to Shih Chia Chwang on the Peking-Hankow Railway. Here we entrained for
Taiyuan, the capital of the province of Shansi, from whence we drove overland via.
Tongkwan, Sian, Pingliang and Kuyuan up to Lanchow. The uniqueness of the
accomplishment lay in the fact that we carried on the truck sufficient petrol, oil and
spares, not only to accomplish the journey to Lanchow but also for the return journey
which would have given a total mileage of two thousand odd miles.
The journey from Taiyuan to Sian was quite uneventful but at this latter place
our problems became acute. The reports of Mr. Grover Clark proved to be true and I
can state tonight that this journey from Sian to Lanchow (which was my seventeenth
opinion that it would be almost impossible to accomplish the journey and inadvisable
to try. Apart from banditry the most pressing problem was that of obtaining
transportation. There was at least eight hundred miles of overland journeying to be
accomplished after leaving the railway and all means of transport were reported
lacking on this great highway, which for centuries has been the main highroad from
China to the West. We therefore decided on organizing our little expedition into a
self-contained mobile caravan, and to this end purchased a one and a half ton motor
truck which we drove out of Tientsin on March 6th bound for the far interior.
And here I must pause to say a few words about the men who went with me. It
has been said, and quite correctly, that if you want to get to know a man, travel with
him. This is doubly true when your field of travel is the interior of China. And to be
able to live and travel together for seven months without one single important
disagreement, and during all that period of time to retain the enthusiasm of a
common inspiration, the fixed determination of a set purpose, is no mean
accomplishment. I notice here tonight the faces of several who have travelled in the
far north-west, and I am sure they will be able to bear testimony to the truth of the
above statement. They will remember how that under the conditions of life of those
journeying days the little things often loomed so large and it was frequently
necessary to pause for a re-assessment of comparative values. And so I bear
testimony to the sterling qualities of those who went with me.
First to Mr. W. N. Ruhl who hails from Lancaster, Pa. a missionary who has
had thirty years of experience in South Kansuh and whom I was fortunate enough to
meet in Hankow last January when he was waiting for the road to open for his return
to his work. And then the other companion, Dr. Hillington Kao, a man who has spent
a number of years in north west Kansuh and who met me in Tientsin on the eve of
our start, under a peculiar set of circumstances which I can only term as Providential,
Thus our party, as far as the China International Famine Relief Commission was
concerned, consisted of us three. From Taiyuan, however, we had another
companion, Dr. Rees of the China Inland Mission who was proceeding to Lanchow
Hospital to take the place of Dr. Rand who died during the typhus visitation, resultant
upon famine conditions, and which he contracted from famine refugees last year.
As already stated, we left Tientsin on March 6th. and drove the truck overland
to Shih Chia Chwang on the Peking-Hankow Railway. Here we entrained for
Taiyuan, the capital of the province of Shansi, from whence we drove overland via.
Tongkwan, Sian, Pingliang and Kuyuan up to Lanchow. The uniqueness of the
accomplishment lay in the fact that we carried on the truck sufficient petrol, oil and
spares, not only to accomplish the journey to Lanchow but also for the return journey
which would have given a total mileage of two thousand odd miles.
The journey from Taiyuan to Sian was quite uneventful but at this latter place
our problems became acute. The reports of Mr. Grover Clark proved to be true and I
can state tonight that this journey from Sian to Lanchow (which was my seventeenth
