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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
March, 1933
/V) / S 5 ! ÛAJ S m m an d u
MENACE in^ììflancliuria
By ROSALIND GOFORTH* Szepingkai, Manchuria, China
around the corner. Outside, the bandits, yelling like fiends, press the attack with redoubled fury. The defend ers, knowing their lives are hanging in the balance, cling tenaciously to their posts, but they are too few for such a large force ,o f bandits, and their ammunition is running low. At last they are overpowered. A t last the gate is smashed in, and the bandits swoop down upon the villagers killing every man, woman, and child. They loot the village, but before leaving, they burn it and carry away everything o f value.” . T reatment of the R ich O f another place, Mr. Reoch writes: “ The bandits have carried off twenty to thirty young women. One has a child clinging to her, and a bandit is about to dash the child to death, but a bandit leader inter venes. Rape is rampant. The poor have nothing left, and the bandits urge them to loot, too. L ife for them now is a sort o f primitive communism. “ During the daytime, bandits ask children where those who have money live. A t night, they steal their way to the place pointed out. They demand money. The man tells them he has nothing left. Then the bandits force him to stand on a table, while they tie a rope from his thumbs to a rafter. The table is pulled from under him. The robbers then beat him unmercifully, but he still maintains that all has been taken. Coal oil is poured over him, and he is set on fire. One or two are thus done to death every day.” A R aid at T ’A T ze C h ’ eng The following is the graphic account, also sent in by Mr. Reoch, o f the rescue o f one o f our faithful evangelists from the clutches o f these fiends in human guise: “ Mr. Li preaches at T ’a Tze Ch’eng, an outstation one hundred miles northwest o f Taonan. This busy inland town, hundreds o f years ago the dwelling place o f Mon golian princes, stands in the center o f a fertile, farming dis trict. The pagoda, from which the town derives its name, can be seen from a distance. The outlook o f the church work in this district was most encouraging, and fifty or sixty more converts were to be baptized this autumn. “ Some months ago, in planning my work, I decided to go to T ’a Tze Ch’eng on September 14, to hold two weeks’ classes; followed by baptism and Communion ser vices. I was prevented from doing this as the floods had made the roads impassable. It was reported that there were thirty-seven bands o f robbers operating over the twen ty-five miles o f country between the railroad and T ’a Tze Ch’eng. “ A t 3 a.m. on September IS, the peace-loving towns people were rudely awakened by the arrival o f 2,000 ban dits, who, yelling like fiends, hurled themselves into battle. They attacked the south and east gates simultaneously. The town was defended by only seventy or eighty police men and soldiers hired by the merchants. Firing continued for an hour, and at 4 a.m. the south gate was set on fire. The east gate was broken down. The soldiers fled. The bandits entered the town, and pandemonium broke loose. D isturbed at P rayer . “ The chfirch ;is: near the east gate. One bandit smashed in a window and leaped into the building. Two others
■ h ile the bandit menace is, to a degree, world-wide, it is doubtful if any country on earth has yet seen what we are now seeing in the Far East of the utter desolation and chaos caused by these hordes of
Courtesy H. C. Hunt
D r . and M rs . J onathan G oforth
armed men, led by desperate characters who stop at noth ing. That Christian people in the homelands may know just what this menace means to those who are carrying on for the gospel’s sake in this land, to the native Christians, and to the work generally, I am passing on extracts from let ters just received from the Rev. Allan Reoch who, with the Revi William Davis, is working in the far western part o f the field. These letters give a true and vivid picture of what is taking place, not only all over Manchuria, but also in very many parts o f China itself. Until a few months ago, our missionaries could go to practically any part of our vast field, which stretches from the South Manchuria Railway west and northwest as far as the Russian border. But this bandit menace is increas ing to. such a degree that our consuls urge all nationals to remain as much as possible within what are deemed safe areas. Consequently, we have been forced to leave our faithful Chinese coworkers to carry on without help at a number of centers. So the work goes on in spite of condi tions which might indeed baffle and cause us to “ observe the wind” and “ regard the clouds” (Eccl. 11 :4). But from many parts o f our field comes the word o f converts join-1 ing the church. In one center, forty are waiting for bap tism ; in another, seventy-three were baptized; and so it is elsewhere. A V illage A nnihilated May the Lord help all who read the following to ear nestly pray for our Chinese people whose sufferings at the hands o f their own people may be but dimly imagined. Mr. Reoch writes: “ It is September, the sky is gray, and there is a cold wind blowing. Bandits in large numbers are approaching from the north a village where a well-to-do farmer lives. The village can be seen from a distance— a group o f gray mud walls. From a loophole in one o f the towers protrudes a rifle from which hangs a red cloth—a warning to all it may concern that those within are prepared. The only relief from the monotonous gray is the ripe grain which stands uncut in the fields. “ The bandits send word that they are going to fight the Japanese, and they ask for a man with horse and rifle from each family in the village to join them. These sturdy peas ants doubt their patriotic motives. The scenes which fol low show that they are right, for by no stretch o f imagina tion could these barbarous hordes o f robbers be considered the saviours o f their country. “ The attack begins. The ramparts are manned. Firing goes on continuously from all angles. There are casualties on both sides. Soon darkness o f night is upon them; and in the village, fear comes upon the people and despair lurks *Mrs. Jonathan Goforth, who, with her husband, is affiliated with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. —
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