LL signs point to an annual meeting of the American Board, October 16-18, of unusual interest and significance. As it is the year hen the Board meets by itself, the entire program r three days can be devoted to the work of the ard in its various fields and phases. Stirring Stirring ents in China, Turkey and Mexico and the rallyg of world forces at Jerusalem last spring, with e emergence of new policies of coeration, furnish a favorable backound for missionary presentation d discussion.

A glance at the list of speakers ows an unusual number of promint missionaries. Perhaps the most nspicuous is Dr. Stanley Jones of dia, loaned to us by the Methodist ard, widely known through his two lumes, "The Christ of the Indian ad" and "Christ at the Round ble"; he will preach the sermon Tuesday night. No missionary is ore in the public thought than this ostle of Evangelism who has aveled and lectured all over India, d who possesses a rare gift of pubinterpretation. The church will crowded that opening night, parularly as the Bridgeport Congretionalists mean to have their ung people out in full force.

tain fields such as the Philippines, Japan, China, India, Turkey and Mexico. In fact, the program is to be built around these personalities. For the first time in its history the Board will bring to the platform of its annual meeting a converted Moslem, Hashim Hussein of Constantinople, now studying for the ministry at Hartford Seminary. Other nationals will be announced later.

The local setting of this One Hundred and Nineteenth Meeting could not be improved. To meet in Connecticut means reaching easily the heart of New England Congregationalism. Meetings in that state have been noteworthy for large attendance. Assembling at Bridgeport, it should be possible to draw largely from New York, New Jersey and adjoining states. The Bridgeport churches are wonders for hospitality. No severely restricted basis of entertainment for them! In addition to taking into their homes the Corporate Members of the Board, they invite churches to send delegations of three-preferably the pastor, a layman and a woman-these to be known as "Church Representatives," and to be entitled to hospitality on the usual convention plan (lodging and breakfast), and to a reserved section in the United Church, where all the meetings will be held. We look for hundreds of churches to take up with this unusual offer.

Then there is Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt, the Chairan of the Prudential Committee, who was at Jeruem, and who will give the convention address on ednesday evening, discussing some such topic as he Future of Foreign Missions." On the same eveng Miss Helen B. Calder, the well-known Secretary the Board, who has been abroad for over a year, d who also attended the Jerusalem meeting, will ther up the impressions of her travels in a way interest all.

The missionaries, following the custom of the st, will be brought on by countries. We note such mes as Dr. Frank C. Laubach of the Philippines; ss Isabelle McCausland and Mr. Leeds Gulick of Dan; Rev. Paul L. Corbin, Rev. Hugh W. Hubbard 1 Dr. Alice Browne Frame of China; Rev. Edward rbank, Miss Lillian Picken and Rev. James H. ckson of India; Rev. Harwood B. Catlin and Miss rgaret Walbridge of Africa; Dr. Cyril H. Haas 1 Miss Edith Sanderson of Turkey; and these by means exhaust the wealth of names.

The striking new program feature will be the roduction of prominent Christian nationals of cer

No church could possibly be better constructed for such a series of meetings than that over which Dr. William Horace Day presides. Auditorium, chapel, dining-hall, exhibit-room, committee-rooms, rest-rooms, are all of the latest and best model. The friends of the Board should begin planning right now to have these rooms swarming with delegates. Especially would we urge the Corporate Members of the Board of all classes-At-Large, National Council and Life-to be in attendance from the opening session Tuesday afternoon to the closing session Thursday evening. And, of course, our pastors from near and far will avail themselves of an opportunity like this.

Correspondence in respect to hospitality should be sent to Mrs. Stanley E. Brown, 877 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, Conn. The official hotel will be the Stratfield. For additional details see the October Missionary Herald.

L

ESS than a century ago there was no universal basis for friendship between a Christian and a non-Christian land. There was no common culture: none of the schools of the world outside America and Europe taught history, modern science, economics, government, or, in fact, anything that was of general application to all men and all races; the goal of education was to make every student a replica of his ancestors, with all their traditions and customs. There could be, of course, no equal treaties.

International relations were in this condition when the foreign missionary movement began a century and more ago. The men sent out were the flower of the best universities and colleges of the modern world, the best product of Christian civilization. They went with no narrow conception of religion and education. They had a far vision and in faith saw the generations that were yet to be. They looked upon education as part of the eternal process, always beginning, never ending, by which individuals, races and nations progress toward that which is highest and best.

In the face of persistent opposition in the countries where they labored they planted schools which grew in numbers and raised their standards as the minds of the youth became awakened. Village schools grew into academies, academies and high schools into colleges, followed by professional schools in great numbers. . . . To understand the true significance of the influence of Western learning in two Far Eastern countries, Japan and China, one should visit the powerful American educational institutions now in full operation in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki and other influential centers in Japan; also those in Nanking, Peking, Shanghai, Tsinan, Foochow, Canton, Hangkow, and other large centers of population in China.

PREPARATION IN THE ORIENT

Japan was the first to yield. Count Okuma, that revered "Elder Statesman" who but recently passed away, told me that he had attended the first mission school in Japan. He said that most of the pupils were from the Samurai class and were eager to study two things primarily, Christianity and constitutional government.

Japan caught the spirit of modern education and within a century has adopted Western standards. Viscount Ito replied to a question as to the secret of Japan's phenomenal change from the conservatism of centuries to the status of a modern nation: "It is due to the fact that at a critical period in Japanese history Americans brought to us Western learning."

Less than a hundred years ago education in China was confined to an intensive study of the literary and religious classics of the country; it comprised

1 Part of an address given at Grinnell College Commencement.

nothing that we regard necessary in an educational curriculum.

Turkey was Islamic and the ideals taught its youth and practiced by its people were the ideals of Mohammedanism. But never in all history has a Moslem country so arrayed itself on the side of liberal education and religious liberty as has Turkey. The youth of that land have caught the spirit of progress and have been, in increasing numbers, the patrons and supporters of Western learning. Voiuntarily laying aside the authority she held by inheritance over other Moslem countries, Turkey has taken her stand as a modern state under a modern constitution, with no control over religion. With general education, a free press, religious freedom, entrance into the sisterhood of nations, Turkey is a living example of the mighty power of the modern school in preparing a people for world fellowship. Superstitions, prejudices, race antagonisms, religious intolerance, are giving way to the standards of civilization.

THINKING IN TERMS OF PEACE

The new diplomacy thinks in terms of peace and not in terms of war. It is based upon a conscious-ness of an underlying friendship rather than upoz an armed neutrality.

The diplomacy of the past consisted mainly of polite language undergirded by the idea of physica force. Even in this generation Americans living in Turkey used to ask the United States Government to start a battleship towards Turkish waters whenever Turkey granted a special privilege to citizens of France and denied the same to citizens of America. Those of us who lived in Turkey at that time, or who lived or traveled in Japan and China, were not under the laws of those countries, but under common law administered by officials of the United States. The international attitude was one of suspicion. Warships were easily dispatched to reinforce a diplomatic demand, and ultimatums were not

uncommon.

But a sweeping change has taken place within the last two decades. In China a large number of Americans are asking that the United States Government shall not attempt to protect their persons or their property by a threat or show of physical force. They ask that all American military and naval forces be withdrawn from China.

Science, invention and modern enterprise have brought the nations and races of the world into neighborhood relations to such an extent that anything short of friendliness becomes a menace to the entire family of nations. We are learning that if ¦ one nation suffers, all suffer with it; and if one nation prospers, it is to the advantage of all. The fact is that international diplomacy tends to be con

structive, mutually helpful and to aim at peace and good order.

TREATIES WITH NON-CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES

It is well within my day that America and European nations have made equal treaties with nations not confessedly Christian. The first treaty of this character was with Japan, known to be a nonChristian country. Conservative diplomats predicted dire international complication as a result since the ideas and ideals of Japan were so at variance with those of the United States. There is today the same protest, from a small but rather noisy group, to the ratification of the equal treaty with Turkey which was signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1923 and which was rejected by the Senate of the United States last year because that body was unable to grasp the significance of the new international day upon which we have entered. Eleven other nations, including

England, France and Italy, with larger vision, have already ratified such treaties, while ours awaits an era of enlightenment. Equal treaties have been ratified with Siam. Others are under negotiation with China.

There is a rising tide of international friendship, a rapidly increasing unity in national ideals. The spread of knowledge has given different races a common culture. Progress is steadily being made towards a foundation for world understanding and for permanent international peace. As the ancient custom of settling by duel questions of personal honor is completely gone, so the custom of settling by force questions of so-called national honor is rapidly slipping into the discard. This is an outstanding part of the new diplomacy and there can be but one outcome a world responsibility for the protection of all human rights, the coöperation of nations for an abiding peace.

T

HE Department of State of the United States Government was prompt, direct and friendly in opening negotiations with China in July, thus giving de facto recognition to the Nationalist Government now in control. Furthermore, a first agreement was concluded immediately. A treaty was signed by the Chinese Minister of Finance and the American Minister, promising to China complete national tariff autonomy, with the expectation that it will be effective January 1, 1929. Harvard and Princeton can get together, it appears, in China! Minister MacMurray had earlier secured a settlement of the claims concerning the "Nanking incident" of 1927; the first settlement to be reached by a foreign power. Other points of difficulty in the revision of the China treaties can be adjusted in due course. Tariff autonomy was the most obvious and immediate need. This action breaks the tradition of the "Concert of the Powers." It was never a harmonious concert; they were not harmonious with each other or with China. The American action accords to China a dignity which is due. Why should an agreement between the two nations wait upon the delays and possible manipulations of seventeen other powers which have interests in the Far East? British diplomacy in several instances recently has treated China with realism and frankness, with manifest friendliness. American diplomacy now does likewise. Concurrently with the negotiations the withdrawal of some of the American troops has been effected.

America thus gives friendly aid to the Nationalist leaders of China in their critical hour of opportunity. There is still an enormous task before them to establish government by civilians for the eighteen provinces. They have done well in many places in North China in the recent months. Their military leaders have shown great restraint and wisdom in Tsinan, and also during their occupation of Lintsing and Tehchow, the American Board Stations in Shantung. They had constructive, earnest purposes and began to enlist the sympathies of the common people at once as they came into these towns. They were not vindictive towards the defeated or retreating Northern forces. Tunghsien was occupied by a division of the Kuominchüin, the old People's Army of Feng Yu Hsiang. The people gave these soldiers a warm welcome as old friends. Peking and Tientsin were both occupied by soldiers of Yen Hsi Shan, the Governor of Shansi. There was some disorder before the occupation was complete, but much less than was feared.

The four principal military commanders have together paid their respects and "reported their stewardship" at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial in Nanking; this incident seems significant for a purpose of harmony. Upon the civilian leaders at this time, such men as T. V. Soong, C. T. Wang, H. H. K'ung and others, there rests a great responsibility. Americans may well watch China with hope and friendliness and patience.

R. E. C.