A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AND AFTER
by O. L. Ki
Nearly three years have elapsed since the time the manuscript for this hook was intended to be ready for the press. The years 1917 and 1918 were years of storm and stress, not unlike some of the years immediately preceding. For the fighting between the opposing armies of Szechwan and Yunnan or Kweichow proceeded more or less continuously in Szechwan.

In April, and again in July, of 1917, fierce lighting took place within the city of Chengtu itself. There were many hundreds or even thousands of casualties among soldiers and civilians, and large sections of the city fell a prey to the torch of the incendiary, resulting in great loss of property as well as loss of life. Other sections of the province, including several of our stations, were also the scenes of fighting, with its inevitable accompaniment of looting and other forms of lawlessness. The fall and winter of 1918-1919 brought a measure of relief, especially from the widespread rule of the brigands, who had been holding certain main roads and waterways for many months.

In the summer of 1918 the main or central portion of the new School for Missionaries Children, located in its three- acre compound at the University, Chengtu, was completed and occupied. Early in September of that year the School was moved from the dwelling inside the city which had done duty as school building for some years, to the new building outside the city. During the winter of 1918-1919 the pupils numbered 29, of whom 19 were in residence. Late reports from China indicate that the new building in less than one year from its opening is going to be crowded to its utmost capacity, and at the present rate, will be altogether insufficient to accommodate the numbers seeking admission from our own and other Missions. Provision for an addition has already been made.

Building operations have not by any means ceased, although made difficult by the very unfavorable rate of exchange and by the disturbed state of the country. In addition to the two large buildings already referred to as having been brought to completion on the University campus, Chengtu, namely, the Hart Memorial and the School for Missionaries Children or "Canadian School," two new dwellings and a fine new brick school building have been erected and brought to completion in the city of Kiating.

THE FIELD
by the Rev. R. O. Jolliffe

CHENGTU.

It is impossible within the bounds of this paper to give any adequate description of Chengtu. The capital of this province is one of the finest cities in China. It has a population of probably half a million within its walls, not to speak of the dense* suburban population. The walls of the city measure twelve miles in circumference and are about thirty-six feet wide and forty feet in height.

HISTORICAL: Chengtu has a regal history. As recently as the 3rd century A.D., it was the capital of the Kingdom of Shiih. Here, at a time when two usurpers held sway over the rest of China, the real royalty in the person of Heo Clm ruled at least a part of West China. This king, however, by his absolute worthlessness and dissolute life proved his right to provide the usual ending to a dynasty of illustrious emperors. His captor, the king of Wei, displayed his contempt for the man by giving the last king of the Han Dynasty the title of "Duke of Treasure."

STRATEGIC: Chengtu is the heart of the great fertile plain previously mentioned, and throws out pulsating arteries of commerce in every direction. To describe the commerce of Chengtu, the wide streets busy from morning till night, the numerous enterprises which engage this enterprising people, and the evidences of progress alone, would fill books. Chengtu is the centre of Szechwan, not only politically, but educationally and socially, and holds a strong influence over the bordering provinces. Chengtu's paramount relationship with Tibet, both politically and commercially, has long been established.

OCCUPIED: It is natural that this city should be an attractive centre for Missions, and particularly to those who look to extend their work through influential centres. There are in Chengtu the following missionary organizations : The Methodist Episcopal, the China Inland (Western Branch), the Society of Friends, the American Baptists, the Canadian Methodists, the Y.M.C.A., the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and a Hostel carried on by the Church Missionary Society.

OPPORTUNITY: It would perhaps be difficult to find in all the world a more ideal mission centre than that presented in the city of Chengtu. A people, at any time cosmopolitan in outlook, open-minded and ready to accept the Gospel on its merits naturally make an enticing field in which to labor for the establishment of the Christian Church, even if its influence were always to be local. But Chengtu throngs with students, with prospective officials, with merchant princes, and with leading gentry, who come from all parts of the province, and will carry back to their native places, and scatter with the strength of their influence, the impressions they have received at the capital. Naturally, then, many forms of special missionary work should be undertaken at Chengtu. The most comprehensive of the special efforts is the West China Union University, just outside the south gate of the city. The Press of our own Mission is another of these broader schemes which minister to the province at large. The Y.M.C.A. and similar Young Men's Guilds, together with numerous smaller groups in connection with mission work in street chapels, in dispensaries, and even in private houses, testify to the fact that no one can be long in Chengtu without becoming conscious of the strategic opportunities offered them through this throbbing centre. Even in ordinary church work and small schools the arrangements are tinged with the consciousness of their relationship to the province at large. The Chinese Church throughout the province is not less sensitive to the church work at Chengtu than are the people throughout the province in matters of commerce or of politics. In regard to our own works, probably no other feature of our mission field has so strongly influenced the policy of our Mission as has what is considered to be the strategic importance of the Capital City.

[THE EAST GATE. CHENGTU, WITHOUT THE WALL. Note the narrow street with poles for awning.]

OUR RESPONSIBILITY: Our distinct field in and around Chengtu, for which we are as a Mission responsible, is as follows :
1. Within the city, work in the eastern and north eastern section of the city, and without the city a large share of the great East gate suburb.
2. A share in the property and work outside the south gate. This work is all institutional, and with few exceptions all union.
3. The outstation field. This stretches eight miles (Eng.) north of the city, and includes the large town of Tsung- Nyi-Chiao. On the north-west our field includes the two out- stations of Tu-Chiao and Si-Pu, respectively five and eight miles distant from Chengtu. Pihsien, a walled city sixteen miles from the west gate of Chengtu, is also in our field, while directly west, Wenkiang, a walled city, sixteen miles from the city, is opened as an outstation, as is also Wu- Chia-Chang, twenty-three miles from Chengtu in the same direction. To the south our out-stations link up with our work in Jenshow.