From the archive: Around the world
Janet Scott continues her look at the Friend’s world war one archive
During 1916 the Friends Foreign Mission Association of the Religious Society of Friends celebrated its jubilee. The Association was set up in 1866 in the wake of the religious revival of 1859 and the celebrations included a major conference, followed by a public meeting, at Devonshire House, the headquarters of the Society in central London. One of the talks was given by A Warburton Davidson, who said that perhaps the greatest accomplishment during the previous fifty years was the establishment of the Society in the heart of China. His talk was reported in The Friend on 20 October 1916:
‘When our missionaries first landed on the shores of China, they landed amongst a people that hated them, and that were determined to do everything they could to frustrate their efforts. Open opposition met them at every turn. But when, five years ago, the Revolution occurred, a significant change had come about, the seed had grown secretly to an extent which took even the missionaries by surprise. I remember well the day when Chungking, the great city on the Yangtse, went over to the revolutionary party, and when the Government officials were arrested. The city was in a ferment. But yet I walked to and fro amongst the people, and was treated kindly everywhere. I actually sat on a merchant’s counter opposite the Imperial Bank of China, and watched the revolutionary soldiers march up the street and take possession of the Bank…’
‘The last three months in Szechwan have probably been the most terrible time that there has been for hundreds of years. Civil war has raged over the most populous part of it. One military faction after another has plundered the city, armed with our Western methods of war. Countless numbers of people have been done to death; and the whole population has been stricken with terror. But our missionaries have remained at their posts, and their presence has been valued by the people. The latter have come to them for help, and have taken refuge in their houses; and in all our stations our Quaker missionaries have been playing the part of arbitrators, mediators and peacemakers.’
Glenart Castle
In September 1916 the first world war had just entered its third year. There had been massive loss of life and casualties at the Somme and Verdun. The Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) reported that they were providing orderlies for a second hospital ship:
‘The Glenart Castle is a ship of 7000 tons, formerly a Union Castle liner, now fitted with 540 beds for patients, and up-to-date appliances and equipment. The destination of the ship is unknown, though she is bound for the Near East.’
Two weeks later no news had been received from the ship, but on 29 September The Friend was able to report her safe arrival at Salonika. Letters from the ship, published in the edition of 10 November, gave an insight into life on board:
‘When we have a full complement of patients aboard, it is a pretty heavy task for all of us. The ward orderlies especially have a strenuous time with their twelve hours’ shifts (7.30 to 7.30), and the six night orderlies, with the assistance of two nurses, hold the fort, or rather the seven wards and 450 patients, without very much time for anything but attention to duties.
‘Several members have been slightly indisposed owing perhaps to the heat and lack of fresh vegetables, but with one exception, they have not been off duty more than a few days… Whilst in port here we have enjoyed meeting with Randall (Sibford School) and Douglas (Ayton and Bootham)… It takes us two to three days to clean up the wards after the disembarkation of our patients. There is a night fumigation, followed by strenuous charring of beds, floors, walls etc., and general disinfection of blankets and renewal of linen, quite a business. We are hoping for a few days’ quiet before reloading, but one never knows the future many hours ahead with any certainty.’
The Friend also offered readers of the magazine other insights into the experience of life on board the ship. A later letter, published on 1 December, reported:
‘… we were told one night to be ready to stand by at about midnight, as we were to take on board the survivors from a ship which had come to grief on the seas. At midnight or thereabouts a trawler drew alongside and a number of women and children came aboard, they were all allotted beds and given sleeping suits and beef tea and eggs etc. ; a number of men who came aboard at the same time were also looked after. The names had to be taken, so that lists could be made out, and the next day all were found quarters on shore where they received every kindness.’
Two more groups of shipwrecked survivors were also helped.
Rendel Harris
On 13 October The Friend reported that Rendel Harris, the distinguished Biblical scholar and mathematican, was to spend the winter in India. He proposed to travel out in early November to join James Hope Moulton in Bombay. The journey was ill fated. The ship on which he was travelling, the City of Birmingham, was attacked. The Friend in the 8 December edition quoted from a report in the Westminster Gazette:
‘He has been to Mount Sinai, and he has travelled in Armenia in massacre times or just after them, and he has discovered Syriac MSS which restored lost books to early Christian literature in the ‘Apology of Aristides’ and the ‘Odes of Solomon’ ; and he helped decipher the great Sinai Syriac codex. And now, at or near 65 years of age, he goes out to India and is submarined. The telegrams report that all passengers were saved, so that there is every hope that after a winter of sunshine in India, Dr. Harris will be back among us, with fresh interests and a great story to tell. One can conceive that the presence of such a man must have contributed to the reassurance of his fellow-passengers.’
Rendel Harris was able to send a message to Woodbrooke to report his safe arrival at Alexandria. This was mentioned in the edition of 8 December.
Friends’ War Victims Relief Committee
The Friends’ War Victims Relief Committee (FWVRC) was set up to help victims of the war. The Friend carried a report in the edition of 10 November of work being done by the committee:
‘Our most interesting inmate is a lady who made her escape from Antwerp on foot, being unable to get a passport to join her former mistress, a French officer’s wife, now in Tours. She and two lads, brother and cousin, braved all dangers; and after hairbreadth escapes got through the morasses which border the frontier. They hid in sandhills from sentries, being helped by peasants, and arrived in Flushing the fourth day after leaving Antwerp.’
In Moscow, Thomas D Heald had been working on the registration of refugees for relief purposes and expected to remain throughout the winter. The magazine on 15 December carried a report by him of his work:
‘An interesting sidelight upon the mental outlook of the refugees occurred the other day, when two elderly women came to one of the feeding points where I was at work and asked for tickets for the meals. I recognised them as old attenders and with the help, as interpreter, of one of the English ladies asked them why they had been absentees so long, and why they had not registered and received new tickets like most of the others. They replied that when they saw the registering going on, they were afraid that as soon as we got them written down we should be dispatching them to Siberia!’
’ The first snows of winter have already reduced the attendance at the feeding points. As the shortage is amongst the children, it can be explained on the ground of lack of footwear. Throughout the summer months all the children, and even the Russian women of the poorer classes in Moscow, invariably went bare legged and barefooted.’
The Friend reported in the same issue that:
‘Many thousands of African subjects are being transported to Europe to reinforce the ranks of labour, so seriously depleted, in France and elsewhere. Such an experiment involves grave risks, climatic and social, to the immigrants, and to these risks the authorities are awake.’
Two years into the war, propaganda and ‘spin’ had, also, become the normal practice. Readers were informed that:
‘… these sons of Africa are willingly forsaking their sunny lands and happy homes, content to brave the dangers of the sea and the rigours of our climate in order that they may help the Mother country.’
‘From the archive’ is researched and selected by Janet Scott. See: www.thefriend.org/archive
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