Changing China

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BY THE REV. LORD WILLIAM GASCOYNE-CECIL
ASSISTED BY LADY FLORENCE CECIL
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1912

Our interest in China was first aroused by a letter from an old school-fellow, Arthur Polhill, who, with heroic self-denial, has spent the best part of his life in China as a missionary. Subsequently I joined the China Emergency Committee, who in 1907 invited us to go out to the Shanghai Centenary Conference. That visit led naturally to a tour in China, Korea, and Japan. When we returned we found that great interest was being felt at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the movement in the Far East; a Committee was formed to study the whole question, which accepted provisionally the idea of encouraging the foundation of a Western University. Before finally accepting the idea it was felt that some one ought to go to the mission centres of China and find out the opinions of the missionaries working on the field, and at the same time sound the Chinese Government and see whether it would be favourable to the scheme. As a result of these deliberations, the Committee asked us in 1909 to go out again, this time on behalf of the United Universities Scheme. On our return it was suggested that if we put our report into the form of a book it might possibly excite interest in the whole question, especially in the University scheme. We were deeply impressed with two great facts—the greatness of the need of Western education from a Christian standpoint and the vital importance of immediate action.

Not only did we seek information from English and American but also from French and Italian missions as occasion offered. We tested and compared this information by the information we got from that most enlightened and able body of men who form the consular body in China. We are especially grateful to Sir John Jordan, by whose great diplomatic skill both the position of England and the goodwill of the Chinese are maintained.