Page 96 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 96
In these ways he reckoned that 100,000 people who would have died were kept alive till the next
harvest, happily a good one.
He made such effective personal contact with the leaders of society that he could say "we
received sympathetic assistance from the Government, from businessmen,f rom private sources, from
rebels and brigands".
He seemed to know no fear and to have a charmed life. Many people shot at GFA but no one
ever hit him. In August 1930 there was a fearful battle in and around the city of Anting near Lanchow.
He blandly says, "I had to get into the city". A sortie was made by the heavily outnumbered Muslim
defenders, so "I managed to make contact with them and went back into the town with them." Then
of course "the Muslim leader, whom I knew, made me welcome and invited me onto the city wall." A
relief worker carrying $1,000 had been killed at Anting, but the money was returned to GFA "with
profuse apologies for having shot our man." )
And now a word or two about the future before I resume my seat. As already
stated, harvest prospects, generally speaking, are good and I think we may say that
if the harvest materializes and. is gathered the food supply will be assured
throughout the winter. That however is a big “IF”. The ancients said truly that ‘‘There
is nothing certain in life save death.” I am thinking of July 13th last when in an area
through which I was travelling at the time, a hailstorm came out of a seemingly clear
sky and in a few moments of time absolutely destroyed the summer crops which the
people were just on the point of reaping. In a few moments of time the hope of
months was wiped out and the poor people again brought to the very verge of want
and starvation. If, of course, the assurance of a food supply alone marks our
objective then our work is done. But that ‘‘man shall not live by bread alone” is
equally true in the material world as in the spiritual. Beyond the supply of actual food
others things are included among the bare necessities of life. One of the saddest
sights we had constantly to witness this year was the suffering endured by those
who had got frost bitten last year when they had to face the terrible cold of that
northern winter with insufficient clothing, and in many cases practically no fuel. One
such man, having lost all but two fingers and all his ten toes, I met crawling on his
hands and knees over the high mountain roads trying to win his way back to the site
of his former home. That cold is coming again this year, and next spring other
problems will become pressing. There will be the question of seed grain and farming
implements, the building of homes etc. The question of rehabilitation is a large one
In these ways he reckoned that 100,000 people who would have died were kept alive till the next
harvest, happily a good one.
He made such effective personal contact with the leaders of society that he could say "we
received sympathetic assistance from the Government, from businessmen,f rom private sources, from
rebels and brigands".
He seemed to know no fear and to have a charmed life. Many people shot at GFA but no one
ever hit him. In August 1930 there was a fearful battle in and around the city of Anting near Lanchow.
He blandly says, "I had to get into the city". A sortie was made by the heavily outnumbered Muslim
defenders, so "I managed to make contact with them and went back into the town with them." Then
of course "the Muslim leader, whom I knew, made me welcome and invited me onto the city wall." A
relief worker carrying $1,000 had been killed at Anting, but the money was returned to GFA "with
profuse apologies for having shot our man." )
And now a word or two about the future before I resume my seat. As already
stated, harvest prospects, generally speaking, are good and I think we may say that
if the harvest materializes and. is gathered the food supply will be assured
throughout the winter. That however is a big “IF”. The ancients said truly that ‘‘There
is nothing certain in life save death.” I am thinking of July 13th last when in an area
through which I was travelling at the time, a hailstorm came out of a seemingly clear
sky and in a few moments of time absolutely destroyed the summer crops which the
people were just on the point of reaping. In a few moments of time the hope of
months was wiped out and the poor people again brought to the very verge of want
and starvation. If, of course, the assurance of a food supply alone marks our
objective then our work is done. But that ‘‘man shall not live by bread alone” is
equally true in the material world as in the spiritual. Beyond the supply of actual food
others things are included among the bare necessities of life. One of the saddest
sights we had constantly to witness this year was the suffering endured by those
who had got frost bitten last year when they had to face the terrible cold of that
northern winter with insufficient clothing, and in many cases practically no fuel. One
such man, having lost all but two fingers and all his ten toes, I met crawling on his
hands and knees over the high mountain roads trying to win his way back to the site
of his former home. That cold is coming again this year, and next spring other
problems will become pressing. There will be the question of seed grain and farming
implements, the building of homes etc. The question of rehabilitation is a large one
