sponding Secretary, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. Readers of this magazine knowing of young men to whom this opportunity for service may be presented will confer a favor by sending their names to the same address.

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ARGELY through the efforts of Secretary Root an international commission will meet in Shanghai this

51,000, exported to China. This understanding, which is intended to apply to the ten years allotted for the eradication of opium in this country, is subject to revision at the end of three years, if China shows no willingness or ability to reduce proportionately the production and consumption of Chinese opium and the importation of other foreign opium."

A British Blue Book on Opium

Mr. S. Leech, of the British Legation in Peking, has recently submitted a report on the opium question. It should supply valuable information for the use of the commission. Mr. Leech finds that the central government of China is maintaining a fairly commendable anti-opium policy, but that its efforts are largely negatived by the indifference or scarce-concealed opposition of provincial officials.

Foreign powers are doing something to aid the Chinese Government. Thus Great Britain, through the Indian Government, "has concluded an arrangement with China whereby, beginning from the current year, it undertakes to reduce by 5,100 chests annually the number of chests, at present amounting to

Is Conditional Reduction Justifiable?

It is possible that the conditional reduction of the importation of opium by Great Britain may be defended on the ground that only thus can China be persuaded or forced to restrict, and finally abolish, the home cultivation of the poppy. We say this conditional reduction may be defended; we fail to see how it can be justified. For if the opium traffic is an evil, and few would have the temerity to deny that it is, no failure on the part of China to take effective measures for safeguarding her own people can possibly justify a Christian government in continuing to share in the profits resulting from human degradation. This apparent endeavor to hold on to the very last to a vicious traffic for government revenue a Secretary for India has openly stated in Parliament that the Indian Government could not give up its income from the opium trade without calling upon the home government for greatly increased appropriations-will only serve to deepen the stain which Great Britain, during more than sixty years, has brought upon the Christian name by its attitude in this matter. It is to be hoped that the International Commission may reach an agreement by which all half-way policies on the part of Christian governments may be abolished forever, so that China may have united support in her effort, however imperfect that effort may be, to do what Japan has done.

are much under the rule of the priests. On my visits home I often used to talk of what I had learned, and of the wonderful inventions of the West. I also said I have heard something about Christianity. All this caused my people to fear lest I should fall away from the path they thought the only right one. After doing well at school for two years, my parents could not endure it any longer, and so I had to leave school, return home, and was put to farming, at which I worked until I had to become a soldier-three years ago.

"My soldier's life has been a varied one, and some months ago I was ill in the hospital. The nurse, a fellow-soldier belonging to the Red Cross Society, attended me and was most kind and gentle. I had much time to think and read, and wondered what the sign of the cross could mean. Some weeks ago I was visiting that nurse one Sunday morning and he told me he was going with his father to church."

The father was one of our converts, baptized last Easter, so the soldier came with his friend to the service. He tells me he is anxious to learn about the Christians' God and their religion. I find he has read a good deal of the New Testament. He tells me he fears returning home, which he must do in two months, when his time of service will expire. He is anxious to get a good start so that when he returns home he may remain faithful to his vow. He is to become a catechumen next Sunday. The experience of this man illustrates one of the common difficulties we who live in the interior have to contend with. One thing he told me, that he was struck with the reverence of our service, so different from what he had once or twice seen elsewhere. This we do in spite of no organ, which we much need.

My orphan children are all well, but as my friends drop off one by one in helping me I find it hard to feed so many. But then I think of the poor state I found them in three years ago, and thank God for the opportunity of

Bishop Wells summarizes the achievement's of fifteen years:

HEN I first came to Eastern

WHWashington,

communicants of the Church and nothing more in this whole district; no clergymen, no institutions. Now we have two thousand communicants, twenty clergymen with twenty-two layreaders, ministering to sixty churches and missions. We have in successful operation three boarding and dayschools with twenty teachers and three hundred pupils; a hospital with fifty beds; a Church Home for Children, with room for twenty orphans; and a "Workingman's Inn," with a restaurant, reading-room, etc., and two hundred beds. The hospital, orphanage, inn, one school and six parishes are supported wholly by the field without help from the East. The fifty-four missions and two schools must have help from the East until they too develop into full self-support.

church, many being obliged to stand outside. A short time before I had organized a choir of men and women; they rendered the full choral service in a splendid manner. To the offering made at the service was added next day the money realized from the sale of the fruits and vegetables. The enclosed draft for $35 was thus made possible. It is the desire of St. Luke's congregation that this money be used for missions at the discretion of the Board.

୩

Bishop Brent, writing from Manila, on November 3d, about the typhoon which wrecked the Sagada Mission, says:

I

ARRIVED [from the United States]

on Sunday afternoon. News has just come from Sagada that in the typhoon of Sunday, October 11th, our saw-mill was wrecked, the Sagada. church unroofed, the other mission buildings damaged, and the personal property of the missionaries ruined. The Stauntons were swept away by the wind, but not seriously hurt. Some thirty people in the district were killed. Our loss is almost irreparable and leaves us in a miserable plight. The damage to the saw-mill is estimated at $2,500. I fear the loss to missionaries and other buildings will be as much again. At present I have only the bare facts. I am leaving for Sagada on Tuesday next and shall probably cable when I know accurately how matters stand. The wire is still down between here and Cervantes, so I cannot get into communication with our people.

I

An appreciative Chinese father sends this letter to Dr. Pott in answer to a request for help in enlarging St. John's University, Shanghai: HAVE great pleasure in reading your honorable letter, which came to me about two weeks ago, asking for help in the Mann's Memorial Hall Fund. In responding, I beg to enclose herewith

$40 as my little subscription toward the accomplishment of this noble object. Last April I had contributed through my son's teacher, Mr. Y. T. Tsur, the sum of $30 in the Alumni Expansion Fund. I take great interest in the expansion work of St. John's College, which I am glad to know has incorporated as a university. My two sons, Foh Nyven and Foh Zur, have received many advantages, and have made great progress in their education from studying in your university, and I have great hopes in seeing them one day graduate from your university, and may be in a position to render help to their alma mater.

I beg to tender you my best thanks for the kindness you have shown to my sons. I wish you every success in your work and hoping that I shall do more help in the future.

apportionment, but if we come short this ought to save the day! We hear you need it now! I enclose check from our treasurer.

[

Bishop Paddock writing about his experience during the first few months of his episcopate in Eastern Oregon says:

STRA

TRANGE as it may seem to some, my missionary experience in the tenements of New York for nearly ten years taught me many lessons which help now to solve the problems of a sparsely settled population. For whether there be 250,000 or two and a half people to the square mile, human nature has much in common East or West, and temptation, sickness, sorrow, disappointment, need the Gospel to alleviate and strengthen. Everywhere man needs the Christ to inspire and save.