COPY.
Chefoo P. O.,
China,
Jan. 12, 1894,
My Dear Mr. Saunders,
I observe in a recent copy of the "Religious Herald" (recent to me, but old to you) that Mr. Matheny has begun to write up the Gospel Mission in that paper. He has wished to edit a paper in the interests of that movement, but I suppose the time is not yet ripe for such an enterprise. I think that the friends of the Board ought to know what the leaders of this movement mean. I do not wish to appear publicly in the papers as opposing their plans, but I should like to give you some facts to be used at your discretion, in conversation or in print. There has been a great outcry against "Centralization". "Local churches to the front," says Dr. Crawford. "No need of paid agents", says Mr. Herring. "This movement is not antagonistic to the Board", it is declared. "It is meant to supplement the Board". Now for facts. It is no secret here that Mr. Bostick has declared it his purpose to "smash the Board" and "wipe out the Convention". A Central Committee was suggested to Mr. Herring from China. He replied, "That will grow up naturally. If we should speak of it now, it would ruin us". Miss Barton is my authority for these facts. She says that there is to be a Central Committee and a salaried agent. Thus it is designed to have a new board under the name of Central Committee and also a de facto Secretary, -- a field-secretary, he might be styled.
The Board has mission property here consisting now of three dwelling houses and one church. Originally, all the dwelling houses were rented. Mrs. Holmes owned the one in which she lived and the Board rented it from her at Taels 100 pr. annum. Later, the F. M. Board purchased the property. Dr. Crawford owned the house in which he lived, and the Board paid a high rent, Taels 180 pr. annum. A third house was rented from the natives, a house fitted up at considerable expense by the Board. After Mr. Bostick was involved with the Board and his resignation was morally certain, he succeeded in getting a mission vote to pull down the repairs in the native rented house and to use them in building himself a house. Surplus money was also voted him. Mr. Pruitt and I, who had opposed the giving up of this native rented house, were absent in America, and the new missionaries, just come, did not know the facts. Mr. B. built a house, which he said he built for the mission, and moved into it. He held it persistently for over a year after his connection with the Board was severed (nearly two years, or a year and a half in all), and paid no rent for its use.
The Board, in its perplexity, wished to leave Shantung entirely, and asked Dr. Crawford to release them from the written obligation to buy his house. He refused and continued to live on in the house for over a year after the Board dropped him, the Board being forced to continue paying him the former large rent. He only left when the house was bought. In the "Ky. Baptist", Mr. Bostick seeks to excite great sympathy because they were forced (?) to leave Tung Chow. The Board would have given them two mission houses and a church beside, if Dr. Crawford would only have relieved them from the compulsion to buy his house.
Mr. Bostick drew six hundred dollars for travelling expenses, but was finally compelled to refund it. He put it out at interest in Chefoo at seven pr. cent. He returned the money to the Board in America and paid two pr. cent. interest. The Board meanwhile was borrowing money at six pr. cent. When taxed with this gain, he replied that any business man would say it was a legitimate transaction.
You take the "Biblical Recorder" and know how matters have been worked in N.C. In S.C., a beginning has been made in the Greenville Baptist Church, with Prof. Cook as leader and a Mr. Norwood as banker. In N.C., Mr. J. B. Bostick is banker. Mr. Herring has heretofore been the real "paid agent". I heard that he dared not stay longer in America, because people were beginning to cry, "paid agent".
Naturally, we Virginians stand by the Board. We don't believe Boards are wrong nor that the S.B.C. ought to be "wiped out".
I write to you, because I want you to know the facts and because I believe that a word from you now and then in the "Herald" or "Biblical Recorder" might do a world of good. I am too far off to take a share in any discussion until it might be too late. There ought to be some thoroughly informed person on the spot, not officially connected with the Board. It occurred to me that you would not object to knowing how things have worked here and in this letter, I have given you a slight insight into matters. The whole story would go back about thirty years. I have been connected with the mission about twenty.
(Closing; personals-)
L. Moon.
