After seeing the palace we visited the fine church, built by the native Christians after the destruction of the former one by the Boxers in 1800. It seats several hundred people, and has a native pastor. It may interest readers to know that among the State papers found during the Russian occupation of Moukden was a description of the destruction of the property of the Christians. This was written in Manchu, which is quite different from Chinese writing, and bound in imperial yellow silk, enclosed in a yellow silk box and sent to Peking. There it was countersigned by the late Emperor and late Dowager Empress, and sent back to Moukden to be placed in the State archives. Could any more conclusive proof be found that the Boxer outrages were sanctioned by the Court at Peking? We were privileged to see this interesting historical document.
At the time of the Boxers all the missionaries in Manchuria were obliged to flee, some without time to take even necessary clothing with them. One of the most popular doctors learnt afterwards that the robbers in a certain village had planned to carry him off in order to save him from the Boxers! It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the medical missionary, and no mission field has been more favoured in this respect than Manchuria. The medical mission work was started at Moukden in 1882 by Dr. Christie, who has steadily built up the work there, and whose new hospital is the model for what such institutions should be. Despite the prejudices of the people, the work has steadily grown. The renown of the foreign doctor has spread for hundreds of miles, and the message which is nearest to his heart has been carried into remote villages in the Long White Mountains by patients who return from the hospital not only cured, but also imbued with the missionary spirit which has brought a new life to them. The respect which is felt for this work is shown in no way more clearly than in the fact that when the hospital was obliged to be left for ten months during the war between China and Japan, the buildings with their contents were left absolutely unharmed.
Not so fortunate, however, was the hospital during the Boxer time, for all the buildings were destroyed by fire, and when they might have been rebuilt, another desolating war swept over the country. The missionaries had returned and had their hands more than full, for Moukden was the refuge to which crowds of destitute Chinese were driven. No less than seventeen refuges, containing some 10,000 people, were under the care of the missionaries, for the officials thankfully recognised their efforts and cooperated with them, doing similar work themselves. There were as many as four hospitals being carried on at the same time, for not only were there numbers of wounded, but epidemics of smallpox and fever spread among the refugees.
When at last the time came for building the new hospital, the money granted as an indemnity for the destruction of the former ones by the Boxers was wholly inadequate, for the price of everything was more than quadrupled. The Chinese were not slow to show their sense of indebtedness for the unstinted labours on their behalf, and the new buildings, owing to their generosity, were built on a larger scale than before. The Japanese, too, came forward with most generous aid, in return for the work that had been done for their wounded during the war. Marshal Oyama sent a donation of about £100 for the Red Cross work, and ordered all the wood required for the buildings to be sent up by rail, free of charge, from Newchwang. This was of the greatest importance, as there was no seasoned wood to be obtained in Moukden, and it meant a saving of several hundred pounds. The Viceroy sent a gift of over £600, to which he added another £150 when he opened the new hospital. Another friend carted all the bricks and tiles; a director of the Chinese railway ordered all the requisite Portland cement and floor tiles to be brought up free of charge from Tang Shan to Hsin Muntun, and others helped in various ways. No wonder the hospital is such a splendid success, when it has such workers and such friends! It has several wings radiating out from a long central corridor, with a fine operating theatre at the end. There is an X-ray apparatus and other special furnishings.[3] There are outbuildings for students, &c., a laboratory and class-rooms, besides the preaching hall, where service goes on daily.
But what, it may be asked, is the staff for this large work? The surprising answer is one man; only last year has a second been appointed, to give a part of his time to assisting Dr. Christie. He has, of course, trained Chinese assistants to help him in the work, and very efficient some of them are, and two Chinese hospital evangelists, who follow up the cases, but the bulk of the work falls on himself. What would our doctors at home think of having to perform ten operations in a day, after handing over nine minor ones to the assistants? But that was the case the day we visited the hospital. It accommodates 110 patients, and the beds do not lack occupants. The attendance of out-patients is frequently 200 or 300 per morning, so that the attendance for the year is very large, last year numbering over 26,000. After the recent visit of the Naval Commission returning from Europe, a request came for medical aid for 200 men with badly frost-bitten ears, as the soldiers are not allowed to wear ear-muffs when on parade. It is not etiquette to wear ear-muffs or spectacles when speaking to any one, and the curious custom is now coming into fashion of touching the glasses instead of removing them. The hospital is a free one, but poor as are many of the patients, few of the in-patients leave without giving an offering, and many out-patients do the same. Some of the beds are supported from home, and it only requires £5 per annum to support one.
It will be seen from these figures how requisite it is to have a larger staff, and to undertake (what is now being planned) a training college for the Chinese. The late Viceroy promised a yearly sum of about £420 for this purpose, but as he has been replaced by an anti-foreign Viceroy, it was feared that his promise would not be ratified by his successor. Despite the further fact that the new buildings are not yet begun, when the matter was placed before him he promised to consider it, and shortly afterwards sent word that the sum had been duly placed in the bank to the credit of the mission. The college will be a union one of the Irish Presbyterians and the United Free Church of Scotland, and may draw students also from the Danish Lutheran stations, the only other missionary society working in Manchuria. As there are now some 40,000 Christians there will be no difficulty in finding students, though it will not be entirely confined to Christians.
The course will be a thorough one, extending over five years after the preliminary examination, and diplomas will be given. The estimated cost of the new buildings and equipment is £2500, and two houses for professors £1500. An excellent site has already been obtained through the generosity of the Chinese, which is close to the hospital.
I have described at some length the medical mission here, and yet have done scant justice to it; of the women’s work a word must also be said. There are two fully qualified women doctors, and their hospital, with accommodation for seventy patients, is so crowded, that a new wing is now being added. They do a large amount of work in the people’s homes, as many of the ladies are not to be reached otherwise, also they do work as far as time allows in the district round Moukden. When it is known that the doctor is coming, patients crowd to see her; and one realises a little the magnitude of the work when one chances to see the missionary come back utterly worn out by a two days’ visitation, having interviewed over 900 patients in that short space of time.
Women’s work in Moukden is not merely medical, but also educational. Besides the training of Bible women there is an excellent girls’ boarding school, for which new buildings (badly needed) are in course of erection. Great excitement was caused in the little community by the girls being taken, for the first time in their lives, to see an exhibition. It is rather disappointing to the traveller who thinks he is going to the genuine Far East to find it invaded by industrial exhibitions and school excursions, but alas, such is the prosaic fact.
We devoted a day to visiting the imperial tombs on the north of the city, and although it was the end of March, we suffered intensely from the cold, and had not the advantage of going in a glass coach as we did on the occasion of visiting the eastern tombs. The road was too rough, and even the solid droshky built in Odessa, and drawn by two sturdy beasts, was severely tested by the frightful ruts into which we were frequently plunged. The Russian driver was a capital, good-tempered fellow, and never hesitated to drive through a quagmire or up a bank into a ploughed field when necessity compelled. After three hours’ driving we approached a fine bluff crowned with pine-trees, among which gleamed the golden roofs of the tombs, so we knew that our destination was at hand.