Page 86 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 86
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 86
time of covering the ground) proved to be the most difficult and dangerous. The first
day out from Sian we made the little city of Tong Sheo at which place we arrived
about 6-30 p.m. Some of you will remember how the city is located right on the side
of a mountain. We noticed there seemed to be a general absence of official life in
that the city guards, police, and the District Magistrate had all run. We laid little store
on this until late in the evening we were visited by a man who urged us to make an
instant departure, notifying us of the presence of a large band of brigands in the
immediate vicinity who were headed in our direction with their arrival scheduled for
daylight. We lost no time in getting under way. It was quite a wonderfully weird
experience to be at midnight, driving in a motor, drumming up one of the oldest and
longest highways in the world. A road that leads right through to the heart of Asia.
Asia, so wonderful, so old!! A road which has been tracked by countless feet from
days long before Christ came to earth: wanderers from the Yellow to the Caspian
Seas.
By the following evening we came to the city of Changwu and found the place
straitly shut up and in a state of siege. It had been attacked by robbers that very
morning and we had considerable difficulty in persuading the defenders to open and
admit us. But on the following day we had even greater difficulty in persuading them
to again open the city gates to let us out. However, after much parleying we were
able to come to a working arrangement and shot through the hurriedly opened gate
whilst the gallant defenders covered our departure with a volley.
And here I am going to insert a few words in extenuation of much I shall
have to say in the next few paragraphs on a subject with which the foreign
population of China has been surfeited during recent times. I refer to banditry. The
Bard of Avon stated the truth when he wrote,
“A surfeit of the sweetest things,
A certain loathing to the stomach brings.”
If this is true of the sweet, how equally true of the bitter!! And if you in Shanghai
are surfeited with this subject how much more so those who have to live under the
conditions resultant upon this state of banditry? There are many here who will
remember some of the criticisms of the Red Cross Report in connection with this
subject and Famine Relief. After the experiences of this, and last year, I want to
make a positive statement on this matter. I am convinced that banditry is largely
an outcome of famine, or to put it perhaps a little more clearly, that a season of
famine or acute food shortage will always result in an outbreak of banditry. The
pages of European history confirm that periods of food shortage have been
followed by seasons of violent outbreaks. I would even go further and state that
rightly administered famine relief is a real pacification measure. I think Mr. Baker
will subscribe to the truth of this statement, on the basis of his experience in
Shensi this year. It is not within the bounds of common sense to mentally visualize
thousands and millions of people, without any means of existence, quietly lying
time of covering the ground) proved to be the most difficult and dangerous. The first
day out from Sian we made the little city of Tong Sheo at which place we arrived
about 6-30 p.m. Some of you will remember how the city is located right on the side
of a mountain. We noticed there seemed to be a general absence of official life in
that the city guards, police, and the District Magistrate had all run. We laid little store
on this until late in the evening we were visited by a man who urged us to make an
instant departure, notifying us of the presence of a large band of brigands in the
immediate vicinity who were headed in our direction with their arrival scheduled for
daylight. We lost no time in getting under way. It was quite a wonderfully weird
experience to be at midnight, driving in a motor, drumming up one of the oldest and
longest highways in the world. A road that leads right through to the heart of Asia.
Asia, so wonderful, so old!! A road which has been tracked by countless feet from
days long before Christ came to earth: wanderers from the Yellow to the Caspian
Seas.
By the following evening we came to the city of Changwu and found the place
straitly shut up and in a state of siege. It had been attacked by robbers that very
morning and we had considerable difficulty in persuading the defenders to open and
admit us. But on the following day we had even greater difficulty in persuading them
to again open the city gates to let us out. However, after much parleying we were
able to come to a working arrangement and shot through the hurriedly opened gate
whilst the gallant defenders covered our departure with a volley.
And here I am going to insert a few words in extenuation of much I shall
have to say in the next few paragraphs on a subject with which the foreign
population of China has been surfeited during recent times. I refer to banditry. The
Bard of Avon stated the truth when he wrote,
“A surfeit of the sweetest things,
A certain loathing to the stomach brings.”
If this is true of the sweet, how equally true of the bitter!! And if you in Shanghai
are surfeited with this subject how much more so those who have to live under the
conditions resultant upon this state of banditry? There are many here who will
remember some of the criticisms of the Red Cross Report in connection with this
subject and Famine Relief. After the experiences of this, and last year, I want to
make a positive statement on this matter. I am convinced that banditry is largely
an outcome of famine, or to put it perhaps a little more clearly, that a season of
famine or acute food shortage will always result in an outbreak of banditry. The
pages of European history confirm that periods of food shortage have been
followed by seasons of violent outbreaks. I would even go further and state that
rightly administered famine relief is a real pacification measure. I think Mr. Baker
will subscribe to the truth of this statement, on the basis of his experience in
Shensi this year. It is not within the bounds of common sense to mentally visualize
thousands and millions of people, without any means of existence, quietly lying
