E KOREAN WAR
An Assessment of the Historical Record
JULY 24 & 25, 1995 • WASHINGTON, DC
CONFERENCE REPORT
THE KOREAN WAR
An Assessment of the Historical Record
JULY 24 & 25, 1995 > WASHINGTON, DC
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
Letter from Ambassador Donald P. Gregg,
Chairman of The Korea Society 3
The Korean War:
An Assessment of the Historical Record
• List of participants 4
• Agenda 5
• Report 6
• Participant biographies 14
• Sponsors 19
Korean War Related Resources 22
Veterans Service Organizations 25
Chronology of the Korean War 26
Ordering Information 32
THE KOREAN WAR
,n Assessment of the Hist
Conference Report edited by David L. Kim and Mindy Schrader.
The Korea Society • 1350 Connecticut Ave., NW • Suite 204 • Washington, DC 20036
Tel 202.293.2174 • Fax 202.293.2184 • Email uskorea@aol.com
2
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
OSH)
*1*
LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
On July 24th and 25th, 1995, The Korea Society, Georgetown University and the Korea-America
Society sponsored a conference in Washington entitled "The Korean War: An Assessment of the
Historical Record." Conference participants came from the United States, South Korea, Russia,
China and the United Kingdom, and together they worked to produce the most significant confer-
ence ever held on the Korean War.
The conference was given added impact by the fact that it coincided with the dedication of the
Korean War Veterans Memorial. The two events worked beautifully together to at last put into
deeper and clearer perspective a conflict which had for far too long been in a sort of historic limbo.
The scholarly work of the conference, and the stirring words spoken by President Bill Clinton and
President Kim Young Sam at the Memorial's dedication conveyed the same essential message:
that the war was terribly difficult, that it had been fought bravely by all participants, and above all,
even from the post-Cold War perspective, it clearly had been worth fighting.
The conference was also noteworthy for the opportunity it gave scholars to assess in public recent-
ly declassified documentary material from the Kremlin, including cables and records of meetings
involving Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim II Sung. One of the most striking aspects of the entire con-
ference to me was the honesty with which the Russian participants dealt with Stalin's role in start-
ing the war, and in prolonging it. In dealing with these terrible events so honestly, the Russians did
all of the conferees a great favor, and at the same time were freeing themselves from the wreck-
age of the past, and preparing themselves and their country to move forward into new relation-
ships with their neighbors. At the end of the conference, the performance of the Russians was
given a spontaneous round of applause by the conferees and the audience in attendance.
This report has been prepared by Dr. Kathryn Weathersby, whose ideas and guidance in the con-
ference's initial planning stages, and her participation during and following the event, were invalu-
able. I am confident that this will be a work of lasting value, and am proud to write this introduc-
tion. I know that the perspectives of history change with time, and that this report does not place
the Korean War in its final resting place. I am also confident, as new and more insightful perspec-
tives on the Korean War are arrived at, that this report will be one of their foundations.
Ambassador Donald P. Gregg
Chairman
The Korea Society
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
3
•f
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
Dr. Evgueni Bajanov
Russian Foreign Ministry
Dr. Natalia Bajanova
Russian Academy of Sciences
Mr. Clay Blair
General Woo Joo Chang
Korean-American Business Institute
Dr. Jian Chen
Southern Illinois University
Dr. Woong-Kyu Cho
Korea-America Society
Dr. Paul Cole
DFI International
Dr. Valeri Denissov
Russian Foreign Ministry
Dr. Roger Dingman
University of Southern California
General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley
Ambassador Donald Gregg
The Korea Society
Dr. Sergei Goncharov
Russian Foreign Ministry
Dr. Chull-baum Kim
RINSA National Defense College
Dr. Hakjoon Kim
Dankook University
Dr. Ilpyong Kim
University of Connecticut
Mr. Paul Lashmar
Dr. Chong-sik Lee
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. James Matray
New Mexico State University
Father Dennis McNamara
Georgetown University
Dr. John Merrill
U.S. Department of State
Dr. Bonnie Oh
Georgetown University
Dr. John Oh
Catholic University of America
Dr. Chang-ll Ohn
Korea Military Academy
Col. Rod Paschall
Dr. J.Y. Ra
Kyunghee University
Dr. Jim Reardon-Anderson
Georgetown University
Dr. William Stueck
University of Georgia
Col. Harry Summers, Jr.
Dr. Kathryn Weathersby
Florida State University
Dr. Litai Xue
Stanford University
Dr. Sung Chul Yang
Kyunghee University
Dr. Shu Guang Zhang
University of Maryland
Dr. Woong-Kyu Cho, President, Korea-America Society
4
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
CONFERENCE AGENDA
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
DAY I, MONDAY, JULY 24
Opening Remarks
Ambassador Donald P. Gregg, The Korea Society
Dr. Woong-Kyu Cho, Korea-America Society
Dr. Jim Reardon-Anderson, Georgetown University
Panel I: Perspectives on the Origins of
The Korean War
Moderator
Dr. Jim Reardon-Anderson
Panelists
Dr. James Matray
Civil is a Dumb Name for a War
Dr. Kim Hakjoon
Soviet-North Korean Relations Before the Outbreak
of the Korean War and their Implications upon the Origins
of the Korean War
Dr. Valeri Denissov
Korean War of 1950-1953: Thoughts About the Conflict's
Causes and Actors
Dr. Jian Chen
Why and How China Entered the Korean War: In Light
of New Evidence
Discussants
Dr. John Merrill
Dr. Chong-Sik Lee
Panel II: Assessing the Politics of The Korean War
Moderator
Dr. Bonnie Oh
Panelists
Dr. Roger Dingman
Politics in Peril: The Truman-MacArthur Controversy
and The Korean War
Dr. Evgueni Bajanov
Assessing the Politics of the Korean War
Dr. Xue Litai
State Interests and Realpolitik in the Decision Making Process
Dr. Kim Chull-baum
The Triangle of Stalin, Mao and Kim in the Korean War
Discussants
Dr. Sergei Goncharov
Dr. Kim llpyong
Dinner
Special Guests
Honorable James T. Laney
United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Honorable Park Kun Woo
Republic of Korea Ambassador to the United States
General Raymond Davis
Chairman of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Advisory Board
DAY II, TUESDAY, JULY 25
Opening Remarks
Panel III: Assessing the Military Strategy of
The Korean War
Moderator
Mr. Clay Blair
Panelists
General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley
Notes on the Strategy of the Korean War
Col. Harry Summers, Jr.
The Korean War Paradigm
Dr. Shu Guang Zhang
China's Military Strategy During the Korean War:
A Critical Reassessment
Dr. Chang-ll Ohn
Military Objectives and Strategies of Two Koreas
in the Korean War
Discussants
Col. Rod Paschall
Gen. Woo Joo Chang
Panel IV: Assessing the Conclusion and Outcome
of The Korean War
Moderator
Dr. William Stueck
Panelists
Dr. Kathryn Weathersby
The Soviet Role in Prolonging the Korean War, 1951-53
Dr. Natalia Bajanova
Assessing the Conclusion and Outcome of the Korean War
Mr. Paul Lashmar
POWs, Soviet Intelligence and the MIA Question
Dr. J.Y. Ra
The Politics of Conference: The Political Conference at Geneva,
April 26 - June 15, 1954
Discussants
Dr. John Oh
Dr. Paul Cole
Summary Overview
Moderator
Ambassador Donald P. Gregg
Presenters
Dr. Yang Sung-Chul
The Korean War and North-South Korean Political Development
Fr. Dennis McNamara
South Korea's Economic Development Since the Korean War
Dr. William Stueck
In Search of Essences: Labelling the Korean War
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
5
CONFERENCE REPORT
The Korean War • An Assessment of the EHistorical Record
The dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial
in Washington in July of this year proved to be an
unusually propitious occasion for convening a schol-
arly conference to assess the historical record of the
Korean War. The release in recent months of a sub-
stantial body of documents on the war from Russian
and Chinese archives has resolved important ques-
tions about the origins of the war that have preoccu-
pied political and scholarly debate on the Korean con-
flict since the war began. As a result, scholars are now
beginning to move beyond old debates to ask new
questions about the war and to formulate new frame-
works of interpretation. Access to evidence from the
communist side has brought great excitement to the
study of the Korean War, but it has also brought new
challenges. Documents and memoirs from the com-
munist side must be analyzed with the greatest care
and integrated with the massive body of documenta-
tion available from the United Nations side. Above all,
as we move toward a more balanced investigation of
the war, researchers must examine this complex con-
flict from as many vantage points as possible, a for-
midable task indeed.
The conference held at Georgetown University on July
24-25, 1995, was a significant step toward meeting these
new challenges. Jointly sponsored by The Korea Society,
Georgetown University and the Korea-America Society,
the conference brought together thirty-two scholars
from the United States, the Republic of Korea, the United
Kingdom, the Russian Federation and the People's
Republic of China for two days of intensive discussion of
a broad range of questions concerning the history of the
Korean War. The conference was further enriched by
questions and comments from members of the audi-
ence, many of whom had served in military or civilian
posts during the war and had gathered in Washington
for the dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
This report offers a brief summary of the major argu-
ments advanced in the conference presentations and
discussions. The report cannot do justice, however, to
the richness of the papers presented; readers who wish
a fuller account may obtain copies of individual papers
from the Washington office of The Korea Society (for
ordering information, see page 32). In order to make
the report more coherent, rather than following the
order of presentations, the summary is divided into six
topics that emerged as the primary foci of discussion
during the conference.
ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN WAR
In keeping with the long-standing pattern of the debate
on the Korean War, the question of the origins of the
war received more attention at the conference than any
other topic. However, the discussion of the origins of
the war took a new shape, as the old debate over who
instigated the military action on 25 June 1950 has final-
ly been laid to rest. All of the five presenters who dis-
cussed the outbreak of the war agreed on the basic nar-
rative of how the decision was made to launch a full-
scale attack on South Korea that is revealed in the
Russian archival documents presented to Kim Young
Sam by Russian president Boris Yeltsin in June of 1994.
The Russian documents show that in 1949 Kim II Sung
repeatedly pressed Stalin for permission to attack
South Korea in order to reunify the country by military
means. Initially, Stalin ruled that a North Korean offen-
sive was "not necessary," that the Korean People's
Army could attack South Korea only as a counterattack.
By September 1949, however, the Soviet leadership
agreed to entertain Kim's proposal for an invasion of
South Korea. The Politburo solicited additional infor-
mation from Pyongyang then decided that an attack
was not advisable at that time. Since North Korean
forces did not have the necessary superiority, an attack
on South Korea might lead to a prolonged civil war,
increasing the likelihood of American intervention in
the conflict, an eventuality the Soviet leadership want-
ed to avoid at all costs.
In January 1950, Kim II Sung again raised the question
of reunifying the country by military means. This time
Stalin informed Kim that he would "help him in this
matter," although he emphasized that "such a large
matter needs much preparation" and should be orga-
nized "so that there would not be too great a risk." Kim
II Sung and Foreign Minister Pak Hon Yong then trav-
eled to Moscow in April, where they worked out
detailed plans for the campaign. Stalin insisted, howev-
er, that the North Koreans secure the approval of Mao
Zedong before giving his final approval for the offen-
sive. Accordingly, Kim II Sung flew to Beijing in May,
where he secured Chinese approval. The Soviet Union
then sent the necessary military supplies to North
Korea, and Soviet military advisers went to Pyongyang
to work out the invasion plan with officers of the KPA.
While agreeing on this basic narrative, conference par-
ticipants differed in the relative importance they
assigned to various elements in the decision-making
process. Valeri Denissov emphasized the importance of
the saber rattling by South Korean leaders in 1949 and
1950 in convincing Moscow to approve an offensive
campaign against the South. Dr. Denissov, who served
for fifteen years in the Soviet embassy in Pyongyang,
reported that the Soviet leadership viewed the with-
drawal of American troops from South Korea in 1949 as
having unleashed Syngman Rhee, enabling him to
attempt unification by military means. The war-mon-
gering speeches by Syngman Rhee and others were
thus taken seriously in Moscow. They provided Kim II
Sung with a persuasive argument in favor of a preemp-
tive strike by North Korea.
6
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Kim Hakjoon agreed that the military clashes along the
38th parallel were a major factor in Moscow's eventual
decision to launch a full-scale military campaign
against the South. He emphasized, however, the central
role of Soviet Ambassador T.F. Shtykov in the decision
to attack South Korea, as well as the importance of Mao
Zedong's involvement in the decision. Dr. Kim pointed
out that in May 1949 Mao had encouraged the North
Koreans not to fear the foreign intervention that might
result from an attack on South Korea, but had advised
that they should wait until the conclusion of the
Chinese civil war before launching their reunification
campaign so that China could offer assistance to the
DPRK if necessary. Dr. Kim also pointed out that the
Russian documents indicate that there was no serious
disagreement between Kim II Sung and Foreign
Minister Pak Hon Yong about the wisdom of launching
the attack, as has long been suggested in Korea.
Unfortunately, the Russian documents do not reveal
clearly why Stalin changed his mind in January 1950
about the advisability of an attack on South Korea. The
only evidence they provide about Stalin's reasoning is
his explanation to Mao Zedong in May 1950 that due to
"the changed international situation" it was now possi-
ble to approve the plan of the Korean comrades. The
question of what Stalin meant by "changed interna-
tional situation" has thus become the major interpre-
tive question regarding the outbreak of the war and
each of the conference participants offered his own
reading of the phrase. Evgueni Bajanov concluded that
because the Cold War was in full swing by 1950, a war
in Korea had become admissible. Stalin saw the cre-
ation of NATO as a serious danger to the Soviet Union;
control of all of Korea could offset American control
over Japan. In addition, the victory of the Communist
Party in China made it seem possible that the North
Korean party might also succeed, especially since
China could now assist them. Stalin was also influ-
enced by his acquisition of nuclear weapons and by the
Americans having lost in China.
Dr. James Matray and Dr. James Reardon-Anderson
Dr. Denissov maintained that the victory of the CCP in
China was what Stalin primarily meant by "changed
international situation." Since the United States had
deserted Chiang Kai-shek, it would not likely fight a
war over Korea. A second factor was the acquisition of
nuclear weapons, which deprived the Americans of the
ability to use the "nuclear card" in a confrontation with
the Soviet Union. Discussant Sergei Goncharov sug-
gested that we look more closely at the impact of the
acquisition of nuclear weapons on Stalin's thinking,
because though he had the bomb he had no means of
delivery. This meant that the Soviet Union was actual-
ly in a very vulnerable position. It had announced that
it had nuclear capability but did not have the actual
ability to use it, which gave the adversary a strong
temptation to make a preemptive strike. With regard to
the impact of NATO, Dr. Goncharov pointed out that
when Stalin received Liu Shaoqi in 1949 he had already
made up his mind about NATO and therefore his deci-
sion in January 1950 cannot be attributed to this factor.
Dr. Goncharov stated that some Russian documents
indicate that the Truman interview on January 5 and
the Acheson speech on January 12 played some role,
but these were not the only factor. The situation in
Germany and in Europe in general must have played a
role, as well as concerns about Japan.
James Matray argued that the Russian documents do
not support the conclusion that the infamous speech
by Secretary of State Dean Acheson at the National
Press Club on January 12, 1950, was a factor in Stalin's
decision, since the Soviet leader emphasized that the
attack "must be organized so that there would not be
too great a risk." Furthermore, the Soviet leadership
could not have ignored signs in subsequent weeks that
American policy in Asia was hardening. Instead, Dr.
Matray detects in the Russian documents an increas-
ing desperation on the part of Stalin, Mao and Kim
about what the future will hold for US policy in East
Asia, particularly in Japan.
Discussant Chong-sik Lee agreed that responsibility
for the war lies with South Korea as well as with North
Korea and the Soviet Union because of the impact on
Moscow and Pyongyang of bellicose declarations by
the South Korean leadership. Dr. Lee also argued that
since Russian documents show clearly that Stalin was
very concerned about American actions in Korea, the
war would not have occurred had the US been firmer
in its attitude toward Korea. Chen Jian agreed that the
possibility of American intervention was the key factor
in Stalin's decision, since it had been the central issue
in earlier discussions of Kim II Sung's proposal.
Several American and Korean scholars discussed the
impact of the new archival evidence on the long-stand-
ing debate between "traditionalists" and "revision-
ists." Kim Hakjoon argued that the Russian documents
show that the "neo-traditionalist" interpretation is
closest to the truth, but they also support some of the
arguments advanced by the "neo-revisionist" school.
Chen Jian concluded that the picture of the war that
emerges from the new sources falls between the "tra-
ditionalist" and "revisionist" interpretations. The
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORJCAL RECORD
7
Korean War was both a civil and an international war.
Kim II Sung was the main driving force behind the
plans to liberate the South, but he was not Moscow's or
Beijing's puppet. While it would have been impossible
for Kim to carry out his plans for unifying the Korean
peninsula without Soviet and Chinese support neither
Moscow nor Beijing "ordered" the North Korean attack
on June 25, 1950.
Dr. Matray agreed that the archival evidence from
Russia and China and the recently published memoirs
and interviews have undermined the consensus that
had been emerging for the last decade plus that the
Korean War is best characterized as a civil conflict. At
the same time, however, Dr. Matray cautioned that
Korean War scholars run the risk of resurrecting tradi-
tional interpretations that have also distorted percep-
tions of the conflict. He argued that the time has now
come to escape the traditionalist versus revisionist
analytical bipolarity that has trapped Korean War
studies in an interpretational straightjacket for nearly
a generation.
to give simple, clear-cut explanations of many impor-
tant questions about the war. Russian documents are
missing on just those periods that are most crucial, e.g.
Kim II Sung's visit to Moscow in April 1950 and Zhou
Enlai's meetings with Stalin in October 1950.
Discussant John Merrill also cautioned against the
over-use of categories. He agreed with Chen Jian that
scholarly work on this period is far from over, and in
fact, is just beginning. He did suggest, however, that a
kind of consensus was emerging, focused on the com-
plex interplay of local and international causes of the
war. The division of the country was due to superpow-
er influence, but also to Japanese colonialism and to
Korean political history. The peninsula was subse-
quently destabilized due to the withdrawal of the two
superpowers and the conflict was internationalized
after the war broke out. Merrill also noted the theme of
the tail wagging the dog. Kim II Sung clearly lobbied
Stalin to support the attack on the South and by the
spring of 1950, due to changes in the international situ-
ation, the dog was a little more willing to be wagged.
Dr. Goncharov also expressed concern over discussing
the new evidence in terms of schools of interpretation,
pointing out that these interpretive approaches are
related to American intellectual history and have little
to do with the Korean War itself. These interpretations
reflect important discussions within American society
and should for that reason be respected, but at the
same time we should be very cautious about assessing
the value of this new documentary evidence by deter-
mining which schools of interpretation it supports. Dr.
Goncharov observed that it is not difficult to under-
stand how challenging it is for scholars to have a new
set of documents appear, after we have invested so
much in a particular interpretation. Without this docu-
mentary evidence, we were able to choose our ideo-
logical stand and, depending on the creativity of our
mind, produce a very beautiful picture. Right now, the
good and bad effect is that our freedom of imagination
has been severely limited. The continued declassifica-
tion of documents will limit it even further. If we pay too
much attention to continuing to build skyscrapers of
post-revisionism or some other construction, the result-
ing discussion will have little to do with the writing of
history. Dr. Goncharov also cautioned that it is too early
Dr. Valeri Denissov and Dr. Kim Hakjoon
Dr. Merrill also pointed out that the war had a preemp-
tive aspect. Stalin was worried about the survivability
of the North Korean regime, particularly in light of the
inflow of American assistance to the South in early
1950. Dr. Merrill noted that the new Russian and
Chinese sources shed fascinating light on the guerrilla
conflict in the South, the North's campaign in the sum-
mer of 1949 against ROK border violations and the
guerrilla offensive that began in the winter of 1949 and
continued through the spring of 1950. He concluded
that international events clearly fed back into North
Korean policy on the peninsula itself, whether to pre-
sent a better case to Stalin or to soften up the South for
the planned invasion.
CHINESE INVOLVEMENT AND RELATIONS
WITHIN THE COMMUNIST ALLIANCE
Based on his extensive study of Chinese archival
materials, Chen Jian argued that China's decision to
intervene in the war in Korea was not based solely on
security concerns, as has long been believed in the
West. Although Beijing made the decision to intervene
in Korea in October 1950, it took steps in that direction
as early as July. The reasons for China's intervention
were much broader and more complicated than sim-
ply protecting its borders. Mao's concept of revolu-
tion reflected his generation's emotional commitment
to China's national liberation as well as its longing for
China to take a central, although not dominant, posi-
tion in world politics. This led Mao and his comrades
to emphasize that they would not tolerate
Washington's disdain of China and the Chinese peo-
ple; they were determined to challenge "American
arrogance." The rejuvenation of China's position as
the Middle Kingdom would be realized through the
promotion of Asian and world revolutions following
the Chinese model. The Korean crisis provided a test
case for this principle. The CCP leadership hoped to
use intervention in Korea to promote the international
8
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
prestige and influence of the new regime, restoring
China's central position in international affairs.
In a deeper sense, Dr. Chen argued, the attitude of the
CCP leadership toward the Korean crisis was shaped by
its determination to find a way to mobilize the Chinese
population to support continuous revolution following
the victory of 1949. In other words, the CCP's under-
standing of China's national security interests was
defined by the perceived need to maintain and promote
the momentum of the Chinese revolution. China did not
make the Korean War, but when faced with the crisis
brought about by the war, it acted on the basis of secu-
rity concerns that had been profoundly penetrated by
this revolutionary momentum.
Drawing also on new Chinese sources, Xue Litai offered
a somewhat different interpretation of Chinese deci-
sion-making. He argued that Mao agreed with Kim II
Sung's plan to attack South Korea for two reasons.
First, in his conversation with Mao, Kim exaggerated
Stalin's enthusiasm for the campaign against South
Korea. Second, Mao had requested Soviet assistance
for an attack on Taiwan and therefore worried that
questioning Kim's plan might revive Stalin's nervous-
ness about the CCP plan for Taiwan. According to Dr.
Xue, Mao decided to intervene in the war in October
1950 for three primary reasons. First, the American
decision to send the 7th fleet to the Taiwan straits was
tantamount to an American declaration of war. Second,
Mao believed the intervention in Korea would have a
salutary effect on domestic politics. Third, China's
Northeast was threatened by the American advance
into North Korea. Dr. Xue argued that neither Mao nor
Stalin was motivated by the ideology that so character-
ized their public declarations. Instead, they were pursu-
ing state interests and realpolitik. With regard to the
effects of the war, Dr. Xue concluded that because of
the American military buildup that resulted from the
Korean War, in all their subsequent mischief-making
Moscow and Beijing never again displayed so much
stomach for adventures that might risk direct con-
frontation with Western armed forces.
From research in Chinese archival sources, Zhang Shu
Guang offered a third interpretation of China's entry
into the Korean War. He concluded that Mao decided to
intervene in Korea because he believed he could win.
China had a geographic advantage, as it could get sup-
plies from the neighboring Soviet Union while the US
had to maintain a very long supply line. China also had
numerical superiority, which Mao believed would pre-
vail over American technological superiority.
Though he offered an interpretation of why Mao
entered the war, Dr. Zhang's chief concern was the
question of how China fought the war in Korea, a sub-
ject that has received little attention in the scholarly
literature. He noted that Mao had personally directed
almost every major battle of the People's Liberation
Army during the civil war of 1946-49. On the basis of
this experience Mao had developed a "weak army"
strategy, the key to which was to fight a protracted
war. Mao accordingly planned initially to fight a
strategically defensive war in Korea, to build a defen-
sive line from Wonsan to Pyongyang. He thought
this would be possible because he calculated that the
US would not advance rapidly to the north. When UN
forces did move rapidly northward following the
Inchon landing in September 1950, Mao was not dis-
couraged because he saw that there was an oppor-
tunity to strike back through a surprise attack.
Largely because Chinese forces were adapted to
mobile warfare, the surprise attack was successful.
At this point, however, Mao became "dizzy with suc-
cess." He thought the war could be won quickly and
therefore planned for a large-scale offensive. After
the failure of this offensive in the spring of 1951 Mao
developed a new strategy, which he named after a
popular candy from his home province. According to
this "sticky candy" strategy, the accumulation of
small defeats would be so troublesome to the United
States that it would withdraw from Korea.
Dr. Zhang noted that it was difficult for China to change
from mobile to positional warfare, but they were able
to dig deep fortifications and then found that they
could turn the fortifications into a staging ground for
offensive operations. The Chinese leadership also
began to emphasize the importance of winning the
war in the rear. Dr. Zhang concluded with a call for fur-
ther research, identifying in particular the need to
investigate the following issues: what China learned
about modern warfare from its experience in Korea;
questions of command and control during the war; the
relationship between Mao and Peng Dehuai,
Commander of the Chinese People's Volunteers;
Peng's relations with lower-ranking commanders; and
the relationship between Chinese and North Korean
military forces.
The paper by Kim Chull-baum focused on relations
among the leaders of the three communist allies. On
the basis of the Russian documents given to South
Korea last June, Dr. Kim concluded that prior to
China's entry into the war, the Chinese leadership
was poorly informed of Soviet and North Korean
plans, which they resented. As soon as Chinese
troops entered the conflict, however, communica-
tions between Stalin and Mao became much more
frequent and the two leaders consulted closely on
the tactics to pursue in Korea. Dr. Kim concluded
that communications were closest between Moscow
and Beijing and between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The Beijing/Pyongyang line of the triangle remained
the weakest, though it grew stronger over the
course of the armistice negotiations.
Kathryn Weathersby also examined the nature of the
alliance on the communist side. She concluded that
the physical demands of fighting against American
forces in Korea exacerbated the dependence on Soviet
military and economic support that already marked the
DPRK's and PRC's relations with Moscow prior to June
1950. The Soviet Union was the only source for the
enormous quantity of arms, ammunition and other
supplies which the PLA and KPA required to fight the
war. A large portion of the correspondence between
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
9
Stalin and Mao during the war consists of Mao's fre-
quent requests for military supplies and advisers and
Stalin's replies, which were not always favorable.
China was particularly reliant on the Soviet Union for
the creation of the PRC's air force, a task made urgent
by the relentless American air bombardment. The
Russian documents show that Kim II Sung was even
more dependent on the Soviet Union than was Mao.
In addition to his reliance on Moscow for supplies and
expertise, Kim's public actions were closely super-
vised by Soviet officials in North Korea. Furthermore,
after the entry of Chinese troops, Kim II Sung's role in
managing the war was greatly diminished. The result
of these unequal relations, Dr. Weathersby argued,
was that although Soviet-Chinese relations were com-
plex and Stalin did not simply issue orders to Mao
Zedong, the Soviet leader nonetheless had the final
voice in decision-making. The Chinese handled the
day to day management of the war, but they were
forced to defer to Stalin's leadership whenever he
chose to exercise it.
US DOMESTIC POLITICS AND
THE KOREAN WAR
Reflecting the current focus of interest on the new
sources from Russia and China, the conference includ-
ed only one paper on American politics during the
Korean War. Roger Dingman reexamined American
sources in order to investigate how US domestic poli-
tics affected American conduct of the Korean War,
focusing specifically on the dramatic conflict between
President Truman and General MacArthur. He argued
that rather than viewing the Korean War as a pollutant
in American politics, as is often the perception, it is
more accurate to conclude that domestic political con-
ditions lured American political and military leaders
into an internecine struggle that seriously damaged
their ability to direct the Korean War to an early and
more satisfactory termination.
Dr. Dingman argued that throughout 1950 the demands
of the war, the relationships with allies and domestic
political circumstances all dictated continuation of a
partnership that Truman and MacArthur both realized
was difficult but essential. By late March 1951, howev-
er, those conditions had changed. Firing MacArthur
and thereby repudiating the strategy of expanding the
war into China became the only means for President
Truman to demonstrate his command over events at
home and abroad. MacArthur, for his part, had to chal-
lenge the president, not in order to sabotage peace
talks or to satisfy his ego, but in order to expose and fill
the domestic political leadership vacuum that in his
view had produced such disastrous results in Korea.
Both men knew that the dangerous political drift at
home must be reversed if the US were to prevail on the
battlefield and in the truce negotiations. The way to do
that was to build a new domestic political coalition in
support of an effective war strategy. However, the
lengthy hearings prevented Truman and MacArthur
from building the consensus they sought. This failure
resulted in a military and diplomatic stalemate because
it removed the possibility of escalatory coercion for the
remainder of the Truman presidency.
Responding to Dr. Dingman's paper, Dr. Goncharov
observed that his analysis revealed the deficiencies of
our understanding of Soviet foreign policy. Historians
of Russia cannot produce a study of relations between
foreign and domestic policy under Stalin that is so com-
prehensive and sophisticated; we just do not know
what that relationship was. In view of the new evi-
dence, historians face a mammoth new task of synthe-
sizing and analyzing Stalin's overall thinking. We have
to begin at the very beginning, Dr. Goncharov declared,
in order to reconstruct this history.
MILITARY HISTORY OF
THE KOREAN WAR
General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley presented an
analysis of the successive strategies employed during
the seven discrete stages of the Korean War: the open-
ing offensive, the defeat of the KPA, the UN advance
into North Korea, the Chinese intervention, the return
to the 38th parallel, the Chinese spring offensive of
1951 and the static defense of the remainder of the war.
General Farrar-Hockley concluded that of the several
strategies applied by each side, three narrowly failed to
yield high dividends. The North Korean offensive of
June 1950 came close to success in July of that year. If
the KPA had been massed for the capture of Pusan and
not diverted to the southwest of Korea, and Pusan had
fallen, the Republic of Korea could have been rescued
only by a major amphibious invasion led by the United
States. In his opinion, it is by no means certain that
such an operation would have been mounted.
Secondly, if MacArthur had been ordered to limit his
advance in October 1950 to the narrow waist of Korea,
and had established there a strong defensive line while
ROK forces continued the pursuit, the northern border
of the Republic of Korea might well lie on that line today.
Thirdly, if Mao Zedong had held Peng Dehuai to the line
of the Hansay, from Seoul through Inje, sending him
reinforcements and supplies to consolidate his position,
that line might now mark the division of the peninsula.
In assessing the mistakes made during the war, General
Farrar-Hockley emphasized the arrogance of the US
and its allies, who thought that they would teach the
Korean and Chinese peasants a lesson once they
brought their superior technology to bear. He also
emphasized the importance of the poor communica-
tions equipment of the Chinese and North Korean
troops, which contributed substantially to their failure
to push UN forces out in early 1951.
Colonel Harry Summers discussed the importance of
the Korean War paradigm in American military think-
ing. He asserted that because the US military after the
Korean War adopted first the atomic model and then
the counterinsurgency model for war planning, all past
battlefield experiences were deemed irrelevant. This
was especially true of the Korean War experience, since
10
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Dr. Kim Chull-baum
it was viewed as a failure. As a result, the hard lessons
of air-to-air combat learned in MIG Alley in Korea had
to be relearned at a considerable price in the skies over
Vietnam. There was in fact no thorough analysis made
of the lessons to be learned from Korea, partly because
since it was a barely disguised defeat it seemed no
model for the future. However, the Korean War model
became the basis of US policy in the Persian Gulf,
where a new and improved Korean War model paved
the way to victory. Colonel Summers concluded that
the Korean War is the paradigm for warfare in the 21st
century, and we therefore need to look to it for lessons
for the future.
Chang-ll Ohn examined the changing military objec-
tives and strategies of the two Koreas during the war.
He concluded that neither North nor South Korea was
physically capable of independently achieving its mili-
tary objectives or implementing its desired military
strategies. Although North Korea seemed to be able to
set its own objectives and strategy, it was tightly con-
trolled by the Soviet Union and had no ability to pre-
pare and launch a large scale military offensive on its
own. South Korea was much less able than the North to
prepare and conduct even defensive operations. As a
result, South Korean military objectives and strategies
remained at the tactical level and had to conform to
those of the UN command throughout the war.
Furthermore, since the South Korean forces were under
the operational control of the UN Command from July
14, 1950 until the armistice, it was unnecessary for the
ROK military to devise its own objectives and strategy.
The North Korean military was placed in the same situ-
ation after the entry of the Chinese into the war.
Consequently, the two Koreas were not able to develop
feasible military objectives and strategies to meet their
own goals in the war.
In response to Dr. Ohn's paper, Dr. Goncharov pointed
out that one of the important lessons we can learn from
the historical record is that since North Korea was not
able to undertake the war in 1950 without substantial
assistance from the Soviet Union and China in arms,
ammunition, fuel, food, etc., the possibility of the DPRK
waging war today is even less. He argued that that pos-
sibility is, in fact, essentially zero.
On the basis of extensive research in Russia and the
United States, Paul Lashmar examined how the Soviet
Union used the conflict in Korea to gather intelligence
on American military capabilities. He concluded that at
least two F-86 airplanes downed in Korea were taken to
the Soviet Union, along with related equipment such as
G-suits and radar gun sights. American helicopters,
tank equipment and technology from the B-29 airplane
were also transported from Korea to military institutes
in Moscow. Noting that the MIG-15 was essentially a
World War II generation airplane, Mr. Lashmar asserted
that access to the latest American military technology
captured in Korea played an important role in the sub-
sequent development of Soviet military capability.
Mr. Lashmar further asserted that although the ques-
tion remains unresolved, he has found sufficient evi-
dence to be convinced that at least twenty to forty
American servicemen were taken to the Soviet Union
from prisoner of war camps in Korea and China. His
research revealed that in the initial stages of the war,
North Korean troops killed many Allied prisoners of
war as an act of retribution, and treated the rest so
badly that many died from mistreatment. By the end of
1950, however, the Soviets and Chinese changed the
policy toward treatment of POW's and, realizing that
prisoners were a valuable intelligence asset, began sys-
tematic interrogations. The Soviets were particularly
interested in gaining information on US command and
tactical structures from Air Force POW's. In the spring
of 1951, when F-86's replaced F-100's in the air war in
Korea, the Soviet Union organized over 70 search
teams to find and retrieve equipment from the new
planes. Mr. Lashmar also pointed out that the US Air
Force carried out a large number of overflights over
Soviet and Chinese territory during the Korean War, a
factor which must figure into an overall interpretation
of the war because these flights put great pressure on
the Soviet Union. He concluded with a call for further
research on the development of the idea of a preventive
war against the Soviet Union among American military
leaders during the Korean War. The idea was promoted
particularly by Curtis LeMay, who hoped that over-
flights over Soviet territory would set off World War III.
Discussant Paul Cole addressed the issue of the great
discrepancy between Soviet and American reports of
the number of airplanes downed in Korea. He reported
that one of the first telegrams sent by General Lobov
after he took command of the Soviet 64th Air Corps in
Korea harshly criticized the airmen for exaggerating the
kill claims. Lobov imposed tighter requirements for
reporting a plane downed. There now had to be gun
camera footage, eye witnesses and wreckage if they
could find it. However, this did not end the dispute
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
11
because MIG pilots claimed that their gun camera film
was bad. On the American side, the policy of claiming
a kill if gun camera film showed seven hits on a MIG
distorted the numbers because MiG's could take far
more than seven hits and still land intact.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE KOREAN WAR
Natalia Bajanova and Kathryn Weathersby both ana-
lyzed the communist strategy toward the armistice
negotiations on the basis of the newly released
Russian documents. Dr. Bajanova concluded that the
Chinese and Koreans were interested in achieving
peace if the pre-war status quo could be restored but
were willing to prolong the negotiations if desirable
conditions could not be attained. However, the
Chinese and Koreans generally did not want to con-
tinue fighting, particularly because of the heavy
losses they suffered from American bombardment.
On many occasions the Chinese and North Koreans
expressed frustration with "the intimidating and
delaying tactics" of the United States at the negotia-
tions. They believed that the Americans were afraid
to achieve peace for fear of being placed in an awk-
ward position, since the internal problems of Korea
would be exposed. The communist allies tried very
hard to avoid any displays of weakness, believing
that only strong positions could convince the
Americans to be honest and flexible in the negotia-
tions. The Chinese and North Koreans had much less
confidence in the peaceful intentions of South
Korea, suspecting a hidden desire by Seoul to wreck
the negotiations.
Quoting extensively from Stalin's cables to Mao
Zedong, Dr. Bajanova argued that the main obstacle to
achieving an armistice on the communist side was
Stalin's perception of the advantages to the Soviet
Union brought by the war in Korea. From the begin-
ning of the negotiations in 1951 and especially
throughout 1952, Stalin wanted to prolong the war in
Korea. The war tied America's hands and exacerbated
tensions within American society and among the
Western allies. It also prevented the Chinese from
making a rapprochement with the US, an eventuality
Stalin had feared since the 1930's. Immediately after
Stalin's death in March 1953 the Soviet leadership
reversed his position on the war and took steps to
reach an armistice settlement.
Dr. Weathersby agreed that Stalin's desire to prolong
the war was a major reason for the failure to achieve
an armistice before mid-1953. The cable communica-
tion between Stalin and Mao in 1951 indicates that
the communist allies initiated armistice negotiations
in June 1951, following heavy losses suffered in their
failed spring offensive, primarily in order to buy time
to strengthen Chinese and North Korean forces in
preparation for a new campaign in August or
September. However, by August 1951 the Chinese
leadership appears to have been interested in reach-
ing a settlement, provided the terms were acceptable.
Stalin, however, insisted on maintaining a hard line,
"not showing haste and not displaying interest in a
rapid end to the negotiations." As he explained to
Mao, "although the Americans are dragging out the
negotiations, nonetheless they have more need of
rapidly concluding them. This results from the overall
international situation." As long as Stalin was alive,
it proved impossible for the Chinese and North
Koreans to take effective measures to reach an
armistice agreement.
Dr. Weathersby argued that once the Chinese People's
Volunteers eliminated the danger that American
troops would cross into China or the Soviet Union,
Stalin had little interest in bringing the war to an end.
The geopolitical damage the war brought to the Soviet
Union was done in the first months of the conflict.
Prolonging the war would not substantially increase
the harm done to the Soviet position, but it would add
considerably to the damage done to the United States.
Furthermore, as Dr. Bajanova also argued, the longer
the Chinese communists fought Americans in Korea,
the less likely it became that Mao's government would
abandon its alliance with Moscow and turn to the
United States for aid.
Dr. Weathersby further concluded that the documentary
evidence of Stalin's role in the war suggests that the
Americans and their allies were essentially correct in
viewing the Korean War as a struggle with the Soviet
Union. Stalin made the final decision to attack South
Korea, and he did so only because he concluded that
the United States would not intervene. If UN forces had
collapsed at Pusan in the summer of 1950 or had failed
to repulse the Chinese offensive in the spring of 1951,
Stalin would surely have been emboldened in his deal-
ings with the West. Denied an outright defeat of
American forces, he was pleased simply to prolong the
stalemate in Korea.
Jong-Yil Ra continued the investigation of the armistice
agreement by examining the discussion of the Korean
question at the Geneva Conference of 1954, the politi-
cal conference mandated by the armistice agreement.
He noted that this conference was the first and last
occasion on which the Korean problem was discussed
by the two Koreas together with the major powers. He
concluded that the conference provided the UN nations
with an excuse to terminate the war while leaving
Korea still divided. Dr. Ra also noted that the countries
which felt themselves more exposed to the danger of
war— the Soviet Union and Western Europe— had a dif-
ferent attitude toward the conference than did the
United States, China and Korea. In the former group,
one could faintly feel a movement toward detente.
After discussing the aims of each participant, he con-
cluded that North Korea and China were successful in
using the conference for propaganda purposes. He also
observed that tensions between the Soviet Union and
China were visible at the conference and that the
Chinese were anxious to ensure that they would not be
seen as Soviet surrogates. Dr. Ra suggested that an
examination of the Geneva conference was a useful
means of exploring the effect of the Korean War on
international politics.
12
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
THE LEGACY OF THE KOREAN WAR
Father Dennis McNamara addressed the question of
the legacy of the Korean War by examining the effect of
the war on the development of the South Korean econ-
omy. He cautioned that we cannot say that the Korean
War "caused" each of these results, but rather that it
strongly influenced these trends. He argued first of all
that as a result of the war the political legitimacy of
democracy was invested in the success of capitalism.
From 1954 on there was no longer any discussion in
South Korea about capitalism; capitalism was now
defined as democracy. Secondly, as a result of the war,
South Korea's integration into the world market system
was more political and strategic than economic. While
most countries move into the world market as an eco-
nomic competitor, South Korea and Taiwan moved in
part because of their political legitimacy and leverage.
From Washington's point of view, South Korea had to
become a trading nation so that the US would not have
to continue to support it. Consequently, the US opened
its markets to South Korean goods. Fr. McNamara cau-
tioned that this historical circumstance should be kept
in mind as other countries look to South Korea and
Taiwan as models of economic development. Thirdly,
the urgency of economic development following the
war led to the reconsolidation of the earlier pattern of
large-scale enterprises in South Korea.
William Stueck concluded the conference with a dis-
cussion of the labels used for the Korean War. He noted
that Korea is a much labeled war and suggested that
this is so in part because its significance is so ambigu-
ous to so many people. During the 1970's and 1980's,
some American scholars, reacting against the prevail-
ing tendency of their countrymen to focus exclusively
on the US role in the war, and in some cases reacting
against the "Cold War orthodoxy" that justified
American intervention in Korea, settled on "civil war"
as the proper label for the conflict. Stueck argued that
this label is flawed, since the war involved combatants
from twenty different governments, virtually all of the
weapons and ammunition employed came from out-
side the peninsula and fifty to sixty percent of the esti-
mated casualties to military personnel were non-
Korean. Furthermore, the North attacked the South
rather than vice-versa simply because the former was
able to get outside support for its venture whereas the
latter was not. Stueck argued that the essence of the
war is therefore best captured through an examination
of the evolving conflict between the United States and
the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II and of
the emerging situation in northeast Asia following the
communist victory in China.
After discussing the uses and limitations of the terms
"forgotten war," "wrong war" and "limited war," Dr.
Stueck offered the term "necessary war" as a fitting
label for the conflict. He used the word "necessary" in
the tragic sense that the American theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr understood it, when he wrote during the
Korean War that "the tragic element in a human situa-
tion is constituted of conscious choices of evil for the
sake of good." Dr. Stueck argued that the evidence
from the Soviet Union supports the conclusion of
American policy planners in 1950 that the balance of
military power between the Soviet Union and the
United States was threatened and that the nature of the
Soviet regime posed a threat to world peace.
Consequently, it is possible, Dr. Stueck asserted, that
had the Korean War not broken out when it did, some
other crisis would have occurred which may have been
even more difficult to contain. Alternatively, Stalin
might have refused to provide the US with a context for
major rearmament and continued to build up his atom-
ic capability and his conventional military advantage in
Europe. Such a scenario would have encouraged mili-
tary probes by the Soviet Union and heightened the risk
of superpower confrontation. In a word, in its timing
and its location on the periphery of the Soviet-
American contest, the Korean War may have been nec-
essary to prevent something even worse.
Dr. Stueck acknowledged that Koreans can hardly be
expected to take much consolation from this analysis,
for though the Korean War was limited for the non-
Korean combatants, for Koreans it was the most devas-
tating war they had ever experienced. However, in con-
templating the impact of the Korean War on "the long
peace" between the superpowers in the aftermath of
the holocausts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, we should
at least entertain the possibility that the sacrifices
endured from 1950 to 1953, however tragic, were not
entirely in vain.
This report was prepared by Dr. Kathryn Weathersby, a
conference participant of "The Korean War: An
Assessment of the Historical Record. " Dr. Weathersby
is currently on leave from the Department of History at
Florida State University and is in Washington, D.C.
preparing a book on Soviet involvement in Korea from
1945-1953.
Dr. William Stueck
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
13
li>
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
Dr. Evgueni Bajanov
Dr. Bajanov received his Ph.D. from the Institute of the
Far East at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1973 and
a State Doctor degree from the Institute of Oriental
Studies at SAS in 1986. From 1968-1970 he studied
international relations and Chinese dialects at Nanyang
University in Singapore. From 1970-1985, Dr. Bajanov
served as a Soviet Diplomat in the United States (at the
Consulate General's Office in San Francisco) and in
China. From 1985-1991, he held a senior position in the
international department of the Central Committee of
the CPSU, where he was in charge of Soviet relations
with the Far East. Since 1991, he has been the Deputy
Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Russia's Foreign
Ministry. In 1993, he was appointed head of the newly
established Institute of Contemporary International
Problems, the "think tank" of Russia's Foreign Ministry.
Dr. Bajanov has authored nine books and over 300 arti-
cles on China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United
States and Russia.
Dr. Natalia Bajanova
Born in 1947, Dr. Bajanova received her Ph.D. from the
Institute of Oriental Studies at the Soviet Academy of
Sciences in 1973. From 1970-1985, she served as a
Soviet diplomat in the United States and China. Since
1985, she has held the position of Senior Researcher
on Korea in the Institute of Oriental Studies. She has
international renown as the author of six books and
over 200 articles on Korea, China, the United States,
and Russia.
Mr. Clay Drewry Blair
Upon graduation from high school, Mr. Blair enlisted in
the U.S. Naval Reserve where he served in the
Submarine Service and was awarded the Submarine
Combat Insignia for war patrols on the U.S.S.
Guardfish. After his service, he attended Tulane
University and Columbia University for undergraduate
school to pursue a writing career. While a student at
Columbia, he worked as a copy boy for Time magazine
and moved up to become chief copy boy, trainee
reporter, then finally Time-Life correspondent assigned
to cover the Pentagon, CIA, NASA, the Atomic Energy
Commission, and Congress. He wrote for Time and Life
for seven years, during which he also published four
books, most notably a biography of the Navy's Admiral
Hyman G. Rickover.
Mr. Blair left Time-Life to become a staff writer for The
Saturday Evening Post in the Washington Bureau
where he also performed the duties of Washington
Editor and published four more books. Mr. Blair then
worked for the Post in Philadelphia as Assistant
Managing Editor, Managing Editor, then Editor.
Meanwhile, he was named the Editor-in-Chief of the
Curtis Publishing Company where he held the editorial
command for The Ladies' Home Journal, Holiday,
American Home, and Jack and Jill magazines. Soon
afterwards, he became the Executive Vice President
and Director of the company. He left Curtis in 1965.
Presently, Mr. Blair remains a freelance author, special-
izing in military history. He has published a total of
twenty-four books, the most current being Korea: The
Forgotten War.
Gen. Woo Joo Chang
General Woo Joo Chang began his military and acade-
mic career at the Korean Military Academy, and contin-
ued on to the U.S. Army Infantry School, U.S.
Command and General Staff College, the National
Defense College, and Harvard Business School. In 1958
he became the Dean of Faculty at National Defense
College and three years later became the Commanding
General of the 3rd Infantry Division ROK Army. Two
years later, he served as the Senior Korean Member of
the Military Armistice Commission for the United
Nations Command in Panmunjom. In addition, he
served as Comptroller and Assistant Minister of
Defense for Plans in 1964, and as the Deputy Chief of
Staff for Plans and Policy for the ROK Army in 1967. In
1971, he participated in the first South-North Korean
Talks as Secretary General.
General Chang pursued his business career to become
the president of Korea Overseas Construction
Corporation in 1975, Hyundai Corporation in 1976, and
Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company in
1978. Presently, General Chang is President of the
Korean-American Business Institute, Honorary Consul
General of the Republic of Fiji, and a member of the
Board of Governors of the Korean Retired Generals and
Admirals Association.
Dr. Jian Chen
Jian Chen is Associate Professor of History at the State
University of New York at Geneseo, and will join the
faculty at the history department of Southern Illinois
University in August 1995. He is also Associate Editor
of The Journal of American-East Asian Relations. His
published works include The Sino-Soviet Alliance and
China's Entry into the Korean War (Washington:
Woodrow Wilson Center; 1991), China's Road to the
Korean War: The Making of the Sino-American
Confrontation (New York: Columbia University Press;
1994), and Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the
Cold War in East Asia: Documentary Evidence, 1944-
1950 (co-editor, Imprint Publications; 1995).
Dr. Woong Kyu Cho
Born in 1937 and currently residing in Taegu, Korea, Dr.
Cho received his M.A. in Political Science from Eastern
New Mexico University and his Ph.D. in Political
Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Upon receiving his doctorate in 1975, Dr. Cho became
Associate Professor at Alcorn State University. From
1982-1986, he served as Special Assistant to then oppo-
sition leader Kim Young Sam. Following this position,
he was Dean of the College of Foreign Studies at
Keimyung University from 1992-1994. Presently, Dr.
14
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Cho serves as the President of the Korea-America
Society and the Korea International Education Council.
In addition, he is a member of the Presidential
Commission for Education Reform, Vice President of
the Korean Association of American Studies, the Senior
Advisor of the National Unification Council, Dean of the
Graduate School of International Studies and Professor
of American Studies at Keimyung University. Dr. Cho's
most current publication is Internationalization of
Higher Education and National Competitiveness (1995).
Dr. Paul M. Cole
Dr. Paul M. Cole, Senior Associate at DFI International
in Washington, D.C., has worked in a variety of foreign
policy research institutions and in private industry on
trade issues since 1981. He has been a Senior Fellow at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies and
an analyst with the RAND Corporation. For the past
four years, Dr. Cole has conducted research on Korean
War POW/MIA issues for the U.S. Department of
Defense. This research has focused on archives in the
United States, and five former republics of the Soviet
Union, including Russia. Dr. Cole holds the MSFS
degree from the Georgetown University Graduate
School of Foreign Service and the Ph.D. from the Johns
Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International
Studies. He authored a three-volume report, POW/MIA
Issues, at RAND in 1994.
Dr. Valeri Denissov
Dr. Denissov is currently the Deputy Director of the
Asian Department, Russian Foreign Ministry. Having
spent over fifteen years in North Korea, he also serves
as Professor and State Doctor of History and is the
author of six books and numerous articles on Korea
published worldwide. His published works include
North Korea Nuclear Plans, The Korean Problem:
Methods of Settlement, The Korean Peninsula: A View
from Russia and South Korea.
Dr. Roger Dingman
Roger Dingman, Associate Professor of History at the
University of Southern California, specializes in
American diplomatic and military history with particular
emphasis on Twentieth Century American-East Asian
relations. He completed his undergraduate studies at
Stanford University (B.A. 1960) and took his graduate
degrees at Harvard University (M.A. 1963, Ph.D., 1969).
He also studied at the Inter-University Center for
Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. He has taught at
Harvard, the United States Naval War College, and the
School of Modern Asian Studies at Griffith University in
Brisbane, Australia. In 1988-89, he served as
Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force
Academy, and in 1991, he was Aspinall Visiting
Professor at Mesa State College in Grand Junction,
Colorado. He has lectured and given seminars at uni-
versities and colleges throughout the United States and
in Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, Korea, the
Philippines, and Singapore. He is the author of Power
in the Pacific (University of Chicago Press, 1976), a
study of the origins of the Washington Naval Arms
Limitation Conference of 1921-1922, and co-editor of
Kindai Nihon no taigai taido (Modern Japan and the
Outside World) (Tokyo University Press, 1974). His near-
ly fifty articles and essays have been published in ten
countries and five languages. He is currently working
on two books: one on the impact of submarine warfare
in the Pacific on U.S.-Japan relations, the other about
American civil-military relations in the Korean War.
General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley
General Farrar-Hockley was born in 1924 and educated
at Exeter School, from which he enlisted as a regular sol-
dier in the Gloucestershire Regiment under age. He
served in the Second World War with that Regiment and
the parachute Regiment, and was a company comman-
der in operations at the age of 20. In 1950, as adjutant of
1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, he took
part in the Korean War, in which he was captured in 1951
by the Chinese. He subsequently took part in numerous
British campaigns and commanded a parachute battal-
ion, a parachute brigade, land forces in Northern Ireland,
and an armoured division, interspersed with various
staff appointments. He held a Defence fellowship at
Exeter College, Oxford, from 1968-70. His final post was
Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Northern Europe,
before retiring in 1983. He has written twelve books,
principally military histories and biographies.
Dr. Sergei N. Goncharov
Sergei N. Goncharov, formerly with the Far Eastern
Institute at the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, is an
advisor to Boris Yeltsin and a member of the Russian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently serving in Beijing.
He is author of Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao and the
Korean War (1993), with John W. Lewis and Xue Litai.
Amb. Donald Phinney Gregg
Donald P. Gregg is Chairman of The Korea Society in
New York. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to
the Republic of Korea (1989-1993). Mr. Gregg was Vice
President George Bush's National Security Advisor,
supporting the Vice President in the areas of foreign
policy, defense, and intelligence. He has had an exten-
sive career in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,
serving in Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Korea. Among
his many awards include the Order of National Security
Merit from the Korean Central Intelligence Agency
Director for his service in Korea, the C.I.A.'s highest
award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, and the
Department of Defense medal for distinguished public
service. Before earning his B.A. in philosophy from
Williams College, Mr. Gregg served in the United States
Army from 1945-1947. He has received an Honorary
Doctorate of Political Science from Sogang University
in Seoul.
Dr. Chull-baum Kim
Kim Chull-baum is currently Professor of International
Politics and Chairman of the Department of
International Affairs (Research Institute on National
Security Affairs) at Korean National Defense University.
Dr. Kim is a research fellow at the Ridgeway Center for
International Security Studies at the University of
Pittsburgh, and serves as President of the Korean
Council of Area Studies and the Korean War Studies
Association. Dr. Kim, who received his Ph.D. from
SUNY at Buffalo, is the author of The U.S. and Korean
War, and editor of Perspectives on the Korean War, The
Truth About the Korean War, The Korean War: Politics
of Superpowers and the North-South Conflict, Korea
and the Cold War, and New International Order and the
Korean Peninsula in the 21st Century.
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
15
Dr. Hakjoon Kim
Professor Kim received his Ph.D. in Political Science
from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972. Dr. Kim was
former Professor and Chairperson of the Department of
Political Science at Seoul National University. In 1991,
his work Hankuk Chonjaeng[The Korean War] was pub-
lished and later translated into Japanese. He is current-
ly the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees at Dankook
University in Seoul.
Dr. Ilpyong J. Kim
Dr. Ilpyong Kim is Professor of Political Science at the
University of Connecticut. He served as an officer in
the ROK Army and won the U.S. Bronze Star Medal
during the Korean War. Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. from
Columbia University, and has been a visiting professor
at Columbia, research professor at Harvard University,
Senior Fulbright Scholar at Tokyo University (1976-77),
and Fulbright Professor of International Relations at
Seoul National University (1991-1992). Dr. Kim is an
internationally recognized expert on Chinese politics
and East Asian affairs in the U.S., and has has authored
or edited more than fifteen books and contributed
numerous articles to academic and professional jour-
nals. Dr. Kim has served as the editor of the "China in a
New Era" series and recently edited Korean Challenges
and American Policy (1990) and The Two Koreas in
Transition: Implications for U.S. Policy (1995). He is
currently working on a book project dealing with the
Historical Dictionary of the Korean War.
Mr. Paul Lashmar
Paul Lashmar is a TV producer and investigative jour-
nalist specializing in historical documentaries. He fre-
quently works for the BBC and is currently producing a
documentary on the Korean War for the BBC TV's his-
torical documentary "Timewatch" (shown in the U.S.
as part of the A&E Channel's "Time Machine" strand).
His previous documentary for Timewatch was "Spies
on the Sky," an investigation into Anglo-American spy
plane operations over the Soviet Union during the early
Cold War. This was broadcast in the U.K. in February
1994 and the U.S. in May 1994. He has also written for
the Washington Post on the subject. Mr. Lashmar was
an investigative reporter for The Observer Sunday
newspaper from 1978-1989 and was responsible for a
number of major exclusives. In 1986 he was awarded
joint Reporter of the Year in the U.K. Press Awards.
From 1989-1992 he worked for Granada TV's current
affairs series "World in Action." In August 1994,
Charter 88 published his report on British
Government's "Open Government" initiative on public
records. In July 1994 he was contributor at The Institute
of Contemporary British History Conference on
"Images of Masculinity after WWII."
Dr. Chong-sik Lee
Dr. Lee, Professor of Political Science at the University
of Pennsylvania, grew up in Korea and China and
received his Ph.D. from the University of California,
Berkeley in 1961. He spent the Korean War years in
North Korea (Pyongyang) and South Korea (Pusan,
Taegu, and Seoul). Professor Lee's numerous publi-
cations include The Politics of Korean Nationalism
(1963), Communism in Korea (1973, with Robert A.
Scalapino) and Japan and Korea: The Political
Dimension (1985).
Dr. James Irving Matray
Professor Matray received his Ph.D. from the University
of Virginia in 1977 and is now a professor at New
Mexico State University, where he has taught graduate
seminars on the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and
numerous other U.S. affairs in Asia. Dr. Matray was
Visiting Associate Professor of History at the University
of Southern California in 1988-1989 and Distinguished
Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Institute of Peace
Studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul in 1990.
Professor Matray has authored The Historical
Dictionary of the Korean War (1991) and The Reluctant
Crusade: American Foreign Policy in Korea 1941-1950
(1989). He has co-edited Korea and the Cold War:
Division, Destruction, and Disarmament (1993), and is
currently working on a new book entitled The Price of
Intervention: American Foreign Policy in Korea, 1950-
1953. In addition, he has written numerous academic
book chapters, articles, review essays, dictionary
entries, and reviews and was a member of the Board of
Editors for the Pacific Historical Review. He is present-
ly preparing a survey of U.S. -Korean relations since
World War II, while continuing work on a study of U.S.
policy toward Korea from 1950 to 1953.
Fr. Dennis McNamara
Rev. McNamara is Associate Professor of Sociology
and chair-elect of the Sociology Department at
Georgetown University. He is the University's first
and newly appointed Y.H. Park Professor of Korean
Studies, teaching courses entitled Modernization and
Development, Comparative Analysis, and Political
Economy. He plans on continuing and expanding the
annual Georgetown Conference on Korean Studies.
Fluent in both Korean and Japanese, he is the author of
many books and articles. His monograph The Colonial
Origins of Korean Enterprise, 1910-1945 is a highly
acclaimed study on the roots of Korean capitalism in
the precolonial and colonial society. Presently, he is
completing the second volume entitled Market and
Society in Korea: The Grain Trade, 1876-1945. Focusing
on the recent industrial restructuring of Korea and
Japan, his book entitled Textiles and Industrial
Transition in Japan and a similar volume on Korea
are forthcoming.
Dr. John Merrill
Dr. Merrill is currently a Foreign Affairs Analyst with the
Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department
of State. Dr. Merrill received his B.A. in Political Science
from Boston University, an M.A. in East Asian Regional
Studies from Harvard University, and in 1982, a doctor-
ate in Political Science from the University of Delaware.
His extensive specialization includes international rela-
tions, Chinese modern history, comparative politics
and the politics of both the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea. He has
held teaching and research positions at George
Washington University, the University of Delaware,
Lafayette College, and the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
Dr. Merrill is the author of Korea: The Peninsular
Origins of the War (1989), Was it an Invasion or a War
of National Liberation? The Korean War, 1948-1950
16
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
(1988) in Korean and The Cheju-do Rebellion in
Japanese. He is, as well, an author of numerous arti-
cles, reviews and review articles.
Dr. Bonnie B.C. Oh
Professor Oh is the Distinguished Research Professor
of Korean Studies at Georgetown University. She
attended the Law College of Seoul National University,
Barnard College of Columbia University, Georgetown
University, and the University of Chicago where she
received her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies. Dr. Oh has
taught at Marquette University, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Loyola University of
Chicago before becoming an Assistant Dean at St.
Mary's College of Maryland and at the University of
Maryland at College Park. In 1994, she became the
Distinguished Research Professor of Korean Studies at
Georgetown University where she teaches courses on
Korean history and Asian American Studies.
She has authored several articles on Korean history,
contributed to an encyclopedia on Chinese history, and
co-edited East Meets West, a history of the Jesuit entry
into China.
Dr. John K.C. Oh
Dr. Oh's educational background includes the Law
School at Seoul National University, Marquette
University, Columbia University, and Georgetown
University where he earned his Ph.D. in internation-
al politics. Presently, he is Professor of Political
Science at Catholic University of America where he
had served as its Academic Vice President.
Professor Oh participated in the Panmunjom
armistice negotiations as a press officer for the
South Korean delegation to the United Nations, and
held the position of Cultural Attache for the South
Korean Mission to the United Nations. He has com-
pleted research projects for various foundations and
was featured in several conferences.
Professor Oh has authored Western Democracy in
Korea, Korea: Democracy on Trial, and Democratic
Politics and Economic Development in South Korea.
He has co-authored Emerging Roles of Asian Nations
in the 1980's: A New Equilibrium and has a book
forthcoming entitled South Korean Politics:
Democratization and Economic Development. In addi-
tion, he has written over 150 scholarly articles, reviews,
and essays on Korea, Japan, East Asia, and interna-
tional politics.
Dr. Chang-ll Ohn
Born in southwest Korea, Dr. Ohn received a B.S.
from the Korea Military Academy in 1967 and a B.A.
from Seoul National University in 1971. After com-
pleting his undergraduate studies, he joined the U.S.
Army Command & General Staff College in 1967 for
one year. He then went on to receive his M.A. from
the University of Kansas in diplomatic history, and a
Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in diplomatic
history and international relations. Since 1983, he
has been Colonel and Professor of Military History
and Strategy at the Korea Military Academy in Seoul.
Dr. Ohn is the author of World Military History (1988)
and History of the Korean War (1990) as well as
numerous articles.
Col. Rod Paschall
Author, security consultant, historian, teacher and for-
mer commander of Delta Force, Rod Paschall is a con-
sultant to the Ketron, SoftRisk and JAYCOR corpora-
tions, designing, writing and marketing emergency
management, security and intelligence systems and
special operations studies for businesses and the U.S.
government. He serves as a senior consultant with the
Office of International Criminal Justice, University of
Illinois at Chicago and as Professor at the American
Military University. During 1992, he was a panel leader
and writer for the American Security Council
Foundation's conference on U.S. strategy. In 1993, he
served as a consultant for the Treasury Department
during the Waco Review and in 1994 he was an opera-
tions analyst for a Department of Defense sponsored
study of non-lethal weapons. A contributing editor for
Military History Quarterly and an editorial board mem-
ber of the journal, Low Intensity Conflict and Law
Enforcement, his fields of expertise include military his-
tory, counterterrorism, strategy, special operations,
research and development, gaming for executives in
the management of serious incidents, intelligence and
professional writing.
Rod Paschall holds a Master of Arts in history from
Duke University (1971), a Master of Science in interna-
tional relations from George Washington University
(1970) and a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military
Academy (1959). He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War
College (1978) and the Navy Command and Staff
College (1970). His military career included command
assignments in Special Forces, infantry and Delta
Force. He performed staff duties at every level from
battalion to corps and JCS, mostly as an operations
officer. Additionally, Mr. Paschall had two research and
development tours featuring weapons, force structure,
and doctrine development. His combat experience
included over five years in Laos, Vietnam, and
Cambodia as well as activities while commanding Delta
Force in European, Middle Eastern, Asian and Latin
American countries. History assignments were as an
Assistant Professor of History, U.S. Military Academy at
West Point; Instructor, U.S. Army War College, and
Director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute. Mr.
Paschall served as an infantry company commander in
Korea during 1965-1966. His military decorations
include the Silver Star, Purple Heart and four Bronze
Stars.
Mr. Paschall's books include Witness to War: Korea
(Perigee, 1995), Critical Incident Management
(University of Illinois, 1992), LIC 2010: Special
Operations and Unconventional Warfare in the
Twenty-First Century (Brassey's, 1990) and The Defeat
of Imperial Germany 1917-1918 (Algonquin 1989). He
has authored some 30 magazine articles and 25
encyclopedia articles.
Dr. Jong-Yil Ra
Dr. Ra is currently Professor of Political Science at the
College of Political Science and Economics at Kyung
Hee University, the President of the Korean Association
of European Studies, and Director General of the
Center for the Reconstruction of Human Society at
Kyung Hee University. He received both his B.A. and
M.A. from Seoul National University in Political Science
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
17
and his Ph.D. from Trinity College in Cambridge in the
same field. He has also served as Fellow Commoner at
Churchill College in Cambridge and as Fulbright Senior
Scholar at the University of Southern California. Dr. Ra
authored The Unfinished War - The Korean Peninsula
and the Great Power Politics: 1950-1954. He has writ-
ten other publications related to the politics of Korea in
various journals and books.
Dr. James B. Reardon-Anderson
Dr. Reardon-Anderson has been the Director of Asian
Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign
Service since 1992. He joined the faculty in 1985 as the
Sun Yat-sen Professor of China Studies, and from 1990-
1992, he served as the Director of the National
Academy of Sciences' Committee on Scholarly
Communication with the People's Republic of China.
He is now a tenured Professor in the School of Foreign
Service at Georgetown.
Dr. Reardon-Anderson is a graduate of history of
Williams College, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from
Columbia University. He has held academic appoint-
ments at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies, the University of Michigan, and
the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Additional
administrative appointments include Librarian of
Columbia University's C.V. Starr East Asian Library and
Director of the Inter-University Program for Chinese
Language Studies in Taipei (Stanford Center).
As the Director of Asian Studies, Dr. Reardon-Anderson
chairs the Asian Studies Faculty Committee, directs the
Asian Studies Certificate Program, manages Georgetown's
Exchange Agreement with National Chengchi University
on Taiwan, and advises the Asian Council. Dr. Reardon-
Anderson is the author of numerous books, articles, chap-
ters and academic papers. His current research involves a
project on the human and natural impacts of the grassland
ecosystem of the Mongolian steppe.
Dr. William Stueck
Professor Stueck received his B.S. from Springfield
College, his M.A. from Queens College, and his Ph.D.
from Brown University. He is now a Professor of
History and Coordinator of Instruction at the University
of Georgia. He has taught at New College of the
University of South Florida, Syracuse University, and
Purdue University. During the fall of 1995, he will be
teaching at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in
Seoul on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Professor Stueck has published widely on the early
Cold War and the Korean War. His most recent works
includes The Necessary War: An International History
of the Korean War and "The Soviet Union, the United
States, and the Division of Korea: A Comparative
Approach" in the Journal of American-East Asian
Relations. He has delivered scholarly papers through-
out the United States and in the People's Republic of
China, the Republic of China, and the Republic of
Korea. He has received major research grants from the
National Endowment of the Humanities, the American
Council of Learned Societies, and the Harry S. Truman
Library. Currently he is working on a survey of U.S.-
Korean relations to be published by Twayne in its
International History Series.
Col. Harry G. Summers
An Army War College Distinguished Fellow who for-
merly held the War College's General Douglas
MacArthur Chair and the Marine Corps University's
1993-94 Brigadier General H.L. Oppenheimer Chair of
Warfighting Strategy and 1994-95 Chair of Military
Affairs, Colonel Harry G. Summers Jr. is now a syndi-
cated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, editor of
Vietnam magazine, and has been named the 1996 hold-
er of the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial
Lectureship at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Honorary Colonel of the 21st Infantry Regiment,
Colonel Summers is a veteran of the Korean and
Vietnam Wars. Twice decorated for valor and twice
wounded in action, his award-winning critique of the
Vietnam War, On Strategy is used as a student text by
the war and staff colleges, and by many civilian col-
leges and universities. He also won critical acclaim for
his other works The Vietnam Almanac (1985), Korean
War Almanac (1990), Persian Gulf War Almanac (1995),
and On Strategy II (1992). His The New World Strategy:
A Military Policy for America's Future and Atlas of the
Vietnam War are forthcoming. Formerly the U.S. News
& World Report's chief military correspondent and con-
tributing editor for the late Defense and Diplomacy
magazine, he has written numerous articles appearing
in prominent periodicals. Colonel Summers has made
more than 200 network television appearances and has
been a frequent guest on radio talk shows as a Military
analyst for NBC News during the Gulf War.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, Colonel
Summers has testified before the Congress on strategic
military issues and lectured at the White House; State
Department; CIA; DIA; National Defense University;
and numerous military, academic and staff colleges
and academies throughout North America. A graduate
of the Army War College, Colonel Summers was
awarded a Bachelor's degree in Military Science by the
University of Maryland and Master of Military Arts
and Science by the Army Command & General
Staff College.
Dr. Kathryn Weathersby
Dr. Weathersby obtained her B.S. from Vanderbilt
University and both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Russian his-
tory from Indiana University. Since 1989, she has been
an Assistant Professor of History at Florida State
University, teaching courses on 20th century Russia,
Modern Japan, and World History.
Dr. Weathersby has been awarded with numerous hon-
ors and fellowships, including Research Scholar
(Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies,
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) and
the Advanced Research Grant from the Joint Council
on Korean Studies of the Social Science Research
Council. She served as a member of the Task Force on
Archival Affairs at the American Association for the
Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Acting Director of
the Asian Studies Programs, the Outreach Coordinator
for the Midwest Program for Teaching about Japan at
Indiana University, and as the Outreach Director of the
East Studies Center at Indiana University.
18
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Among her many papers, reviews and publications
include "To Attack or Not to Attack? Stalin, Kim II
Sung and the Prelude to War" (Bulletin of the Cold
War International History Project, Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars, Spring
1995) and "The Soviet Role in the First Phase of
the Korean War: New Documentary Evidence"
( Journal of American-East Asian Relations,
Winter 1993-94).
Dr. Litai Xue
Dr. Xue is currently a Research Assistant at the Center
for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) at
Stanford University. In addition to his work on the
Project on Peace and Cooperation in Northeast Asia, he
assists with various other programs sponsored by
CISAC. He is also conducting intensive research on the
global and regional factors that may cause new-run
armed conflicts across the Taiwan Strait and the impact
produced by the crisis upon the security and stability
of the Northeast-Pacific region. Dr. Xue has written
six articles concerning the security of China as well
as the following books: China Builds the Bomb
(1988, co-authored with John W. Lewis); Uncertain
Partners— Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War (1993, co-
authored with Sergei Goncharov and John W. Lewis);
China's Strategic Seapower: The Politics of Force
Modernization in the Nuclear Age (1994, co-authored
with John W. Lewis).
Dr. Sung Chul Yang
Dr. Yang is the Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor
of Political Science at the Graduate Institute of Peace
Studies, Kyunghee University in Seoul, and President
of the Korean Association of International Studies. Dr.
Yang is the author of Korea and Two Regimes: Kim II
Sung and Park Chung Hee (1981), co-author of A
Journey to North Korea (1983), the author of A Study of
North Korean Politics (1993), South Korean
Government: A Study of Top Bureaucratic Elites, 1948-
1993 (1994), a contributor to Korea-U.S. Relations in a
Changing World (1990), and The Korean Peninsula
(1990). He has also contributed numerous articles in
English and Korean to academic journals.
Dr. Shu Guang Zhang
Professor Zhang (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor of
History at the University of Maryland at College Park,
where he teaches American diplomatic history. He was
a Nobel Institute Fellow on International Relations at
the Norwegian Nobel Institute in 1995. Dr. Zhang has
authored Deterrence and Strategic Culture: Chinese-
American Confrontation, 1949-1958 (1992), Mao's
Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War,
1950-1953 (forthcoming 1995), co-edited with Jian
Chen Chinese Communist Foreign Policy and the Cold
War in Asia, 1944-1950: Documentary Evidence (1995),
and has authored numerous articles on China's foreign
policy and U.S.-East Asian relations.
CONFERENCE SPONSORS
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
The Korea Society
The Korea Society is the leading organization in the United States dedicated expressly to the promotion of greater
awareness, understanding and cooperation between the United States and Korea in all areas of vital interest to
the people of both countries. A private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, The Korea Society arranges timely
and informative programs in the areas of business, public affairs, education, intercultural relations, and the arts.
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University was established in 1919, five years
before the United States organized its official foreign service. The oldest school of international affairs in the
nation and the largest in the world, its mission is to provide education in the nature of international relations and
to prepare students for national and international citizenship and work. The Asian Studies Program, a division of
SFS, is the largest regional studies program at Georgetown.
Korea-America Society
The Korea-America Society is dedicated to the promotion of friendly relations between the United States and
Korea. The Korea-America Society supports exchanges in the fields of culture, arts, academics on a people to peo-
ple level, as well as programs in economics, security issues, politics and diplomacy for the purpose of contribut-
ing to the shared ideals of freedom, democracy, peace and prosperity of these two countries.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following organizations for their generous sup-
port of this conference:
Asiana Airlines
Korea Foundation
Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
TRW, Inc.
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
19
Right: Panel I:
Dr. John Merrill,
Dr. Jian Chen,
Dr. James Matray,
Dr. James Reardon-
Anderson,
Dr. Valeri Denissov,
Dr. Kim Hakjoon,
Dr. Chong-Sik Lee.
Below: Mr. David E.
Brown, Ambassador
James Laney,
Dr. Kim Chull-baum,
General Ray Davis
Right: Dr. Bonnie Oh
Far Right: Honorable
Park Kun Woo, ROK
Ambassador to the US,
and Ambassador Donald
P. Gregg
Bottom Right: Panel II:
Dr. Sergei Goncharov,
Dr. Kim Chull-baum,
Dr. Evgueni Bajanov,
Dr. Bonnie Oh, Dr. Roger
Dingman, Dr. Xue Litai,
and Dr. Ilpyong Kim
20
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
THE KOREAN WAR
An Assessment of the Historical Record
JULV 24 & 2V 1 W • SASH! Nw i ON. !'<•
Left: Panel IV: Dr. Paul Cole, Dr. J.Y.
Ra, Dr. Natalia Bajanova, Dr. William
Stueck, Dr. Kathryn Weathersby,
Mr. Paul Lashmar, Dr. John Oh
Below: Dr. Sung-Chul Yang
Middle: Panel III: Gen. Woo Joo
Chang, Dr. Chang-ll Ohn, Col. Harry
Summers, Mr. Clay Blair, Gen. Sir
Anthony Farrar-Hockley, Dr. Shu
Guang Zhang, and Col. Rod Paschall
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
21
*1*
KOREAN WAR RELATED RESOURCES
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
THE NEW DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
FROM RUSSIA AND CHINA
Summaries of the Russian documents presented by
President Yeltsin to South Korea in June 1994 were
published in Korean in Chosun llbo July 21-22, 1994,
and in Seoul Shinmun May 15, 1995 through July 4,
1995. English translations of selected documents have
been published in the Bulletin of the Cold War
International History Project. Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC,
Issues 5 & 6, Spring and Fall 1995. Copies of these bul-
letins can be obtained by writing the project at 1000
Jefferson Drive SW, Washington, DC 20560, fax (202)
357-4439, tel (202) 357-2967.
SELECTED MATERIALS ON
THE KOREAN WAR
Korea, the First War We Lost
By Bevin Alexander
1986 • $1 6.95/pb
To Order: Hippocrene Books
171 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016 • tel (212) 685-4371
Disaster In Korea
By Roy E. Appleman
1989 • 456 pages • $35.00/hc
To order: Texas A&M University Press
Drawer C
College Station, TX 77843-4354 • tel (800) 826-8911
East of the Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout
in Korea, 1950
By Roy E. Appleman
1987 • 399 pages • $35.00/hc
To order: Texas A&M University Press
Drawer C
College Station, TX 77843-4354 • tel (800) 826-8911
Escaping the Trap
By Roy E. Appleman
1990 • 411 pages • $35.00/hc
To order: Texas A&M University Press
Drawer C
College Station, TX 77843-4354 • tel (800) 826-8911
Ridgway Duels for Korea
By Roy E. Appleman
1990 • 665 pages • $39.50/hc
To order: Texas A&M University Press
Drawer C
College Station, TX 77843-4354 • tel (800) 826-8911
The Forgotten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953
By Clay Blair
1987 * 1136 pages • $19.95/pb
To order: Anchor Books, a division of Doubleday
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
China's Road to the Korean War: The Making of the
Sino-American Confrontation
By Jian Chen
1995 • 352 pages • $37.50/pb
To order: Columbia University Press
Order Department
136 South Broadway
Irvington, NJ 10533 • tel (800) 944.8648
The Sino-Soviet Alliance and China's Entry into the
Korean War
By Jian Chen
June 1992 • 32 pages
To order: Woodrow Wilson Center: Cold War
International History Project
1000 Jefferson Drive SW
Washington, DC 20560 • tel (202) 357-2967
POW/MIA Issues, Volume I, The Korean War
By Paul Cole
1994 • 284 pages
To order: RAND Distribution Center
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 • tel (310) 451-7002
The Origins of the Korean War: Volume 1-Liberation
and The Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947
By Bruce Cumings
1981 • 640 pages • $26.95/pb
To order: Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, NJ 08540 • tel (800) 777-4726
The Origins of the Korean War: Volume 2-The Roaring
of the Cataract, 1947-1950
By Bruce Cumings
1992 • 976 pages • $35.00/pb
To order: Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, NJ 08540 • tel (800) 777-4726
The Story of Ray Davis: Lessons Learned in
Peace and War
1995 • 304 pages • $1 9.95/hc
To order: Research Triangle Publishing
P.O. Box 1223 Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 • tel (800) 941-0020
The Dagger and the Gift: The Impact of the
Korean War on Japan
By Roger Dingman
Spring 1993, Volume 2, Number 1 • $12.50
To order: The Journal of American-East Asian Relations
Imprint Publications, Inc.
520 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 840
Chicago, IL 60611 • tel (312) 595-0668
Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History
of the Korean Conflict
By Robert J. Dvorchak
1993 * 317 pages • $34.95/hc
To order: Combined Books, Inc.
151 E. 10th Avenue
Conshohocken, PA 10428 • tel (610) 828-2595
22
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
The Inchon Landing, Korea, 1950
By Paul M. Edwards
1994 • $49.95/hc
To order: Greenwood Publishing Group
88 Post Road West
PO Box 5007
Westport, CT 06881 • tel (800) 225-5800
The British Part in the Korean War, Volume 1:
A Distant Obligation
By Anthony Farrar-Hockley
1990 • $78.72/hc
To order: UNIPUB
461 1 -F Assembly Drive
Lanham, MD 20706-4391 • tel (301) 459-7666
The British Part in the Korean War, Volume 2:
An Honourable Discharge
By Anthony Farrar-Hockley
1990 • $93.72/hc
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A Substitute for Victory: The Politics of Peacemaking
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1990 • 248 pages • $34.95/hc
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The Wrong War: American Policy and the
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1992 • 296 pages • $34.95/hc
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Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War
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1993 • 393 pages • $45.00/hc
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The Korean War
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1987 • $14.00/pb
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Forgotten No More: The Korean War Veterans
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1995 • 94 pages • $24.95 + $4.00 S&H
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Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and
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1994 • $30.00/hc
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Flefighting the Last War: Command and Crisis
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By D. Clayton James with Anne Sharp Wells
1993 • 282 pages • $24.95
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The Truth about the Korean War:
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1991 • 275 pages • $9.95/pb
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Korea and the Cold War: Division,
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1993 • 306 pages • $1 6.00/hc
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The Korean War: 40-Year Perspectives
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1991 • 131 pages • $8.00/pb
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Korea, the War Before Vietnam
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1986 • $32.95/hc
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From the Hudson to the Yalu
By Harry J. Maihafer
1993 • 279 pages • $29.50/hc
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Historical Dictionary of the Korean War
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1991 • 626 pages • $85.00/hc
To order: Greenwood Publishing Group
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The Reluctant Crusade: American Foreign
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By James Matray
1985 • 338 pages • $30.00/hc
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Korea: The Peninsular Origins of the War
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1989 • 237 pages • $36.50/hc
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From Pusan to Panmunjom
By Sun-yup Paik
1992 - 271 pages • $24.95/hc
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Korea: Witness to War
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1995 • 212 pages • $1 2.00/pb
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With a Black Platoon in Combat
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1993 • 176 pages • $31.50
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Chinese Attitudes toward Nuclear Weapons: China
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By Mark A. Ryan
1989 • $51 .95/hc
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Hazardous Duty: An American Soldier in
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By John K. Singlaub with Malcolm McConnell
1991 • 574 pages • $25.00/hc
To order: John K. Singlaub
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Women Marines in the Korean War Era
By Peter A. Soderbergh
1994 • 167 pages • $45.00/hc
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The Korean War: An International History
By William Stueck
July • 1995 • $40.00/hc
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Korean War Almanac
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1990 • 352 pages • $29. 95/hc
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In Mortal Combat
By John Toland
1993 • 624 pages • $14.00/pb
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Soviet Aims in Korea and the Origins of
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By Kathryn Weathersby
November 1993 • 33 pages
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New Findings on the Korean War
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Fall 1993 • 80 pages
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To Attack or Not to Attack? Stalin, Kim II Sung
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By Kathryn Weathersby
Spring 1995 • 159 pages
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The Soviet Role in the Early Phase of the Korean War:
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Deterrence and Strategic Culture: Chinese-American
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1992 • $37. 95/hc
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A Revolutionary War: Korea and the Transformation of
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1993 • 265 pages • $24.95/pb
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Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the
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By Shu Guang Zhang
1995 • 400 pages • $45.00/hc
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The Official Korean War Veterans Family
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The Forgotten War Remembered
Videotape One • Dedication Week Activities
1995 • $34.95 + $3.95 S&H
The Final Convoy
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To order: Courage Productions, Inc./KWV Series
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Freedom is Not Free: The Story of the Korean War
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1995 • $49.95
To order: Research Triangle Publishing
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24
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
The Korean War Veterans Association
Nicholas J. Pappas, President
209 Country Club Drive
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
Korean War Veterans Family Endowment, Inc.
Daniel R. Smith, President
7315 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 400 E
Bethesda, MD 20814
Korean War Association
Jack Walker
5353 Cane Ridge, Suite 115
Antioch, TN 37013
1st Cavalry Division Association
Mr. Arthur J. Junot
302 North Main
Copperas Cove, TX 76522-1799
2nd (Indian Head) Division Association, Inc.
Mr. Bill Creech
P.O. Box 460
Buda, TX 78610
Society of the 3rd Infantry Division
Mr. Stanley Smith
163 Lyman Street
Westboro, MA 01581
7th Infantry Division Association
Mr. Maurice Reeves
7303 H Street
Little Rock, AR 72205
Company L, 21st Infantry Regiment
Mr. Hugh Brown
75 Jefferson Circle
Athens, GA 30601
40th Infantry Division Association
Mr. Edwin Lown
210 Highland Avenue
Maybrook, NY 12543
1st Marine Aircraft Wing Association
Robert J. Waters, President
P.O. Box 7240
Freeport, NY 11520
1st Marine Division Association, Inc.
Joseph P. Sheridan, President
18 Oxford Street
Natick, MA 01760
Cavalry Association, US Horse
Mrs. Patricia S. Bright
P.O. Box 6253
Fort Bliss, TX 79906
9th Infantry Association
Mr. Daniel Quinn
412 Gregory Avenue
Weehawken, NJ 07087
7th Infantry Regiment Association
Mr. Harry E. Cooke, President
618 Hamilton Street
Lancaster, PA 17602-2131
17th Infantry Regiment Association
Mr. Ralph Colley
408 K Street
Barling, AR 72923
25th Infantry Division Association
Mr. Morgan J. Sincock
P.O. Box 340
Flourtown, PA 19031
45th Infantry Division Association
Attn: National Secretary
2145 Northeast 36th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73111
The Chosin Few
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7211 SW 62nd Avenue #20
Miami, FL 33143
187 ARCT Association
Alexander S. Jaznach
RT #1, Box 311 A
Cumberland, VA 23040
7th Cavalry Regiment Association
CSM John McCamley, USA (Ret)
1401 Short Street
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
23rd Infantry Regiment Association
Mr. Joe Sease
2810 Foxwood Drive
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
65th Infantry Regiment Retiree Association
Mr. Kenwood Ross
120 Maple Street, Room 207
Springfield, MA 01103-2278
24th Infantry Regiment Association
Mr. Taylor Moore III
124 West Lakeside Avenue
Columbia, SC 29203
314th Composite Wing, 5th Air Force Headquarters
Mr. Louis J. Buddo
Box 270362
St. Louis, MO 63126
1st Marine Division Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 220840-6840
Chantilly, VA 22021
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
25
li*
KOREAN WAR CHRONOLOGY
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
Edited by James I. Matray, Historical Dictionary of the Korean War, "reprinted with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.,
Westport, CT." Copyright © 1991 by James I. Matray.
1862 Korean-American Treaty of Friendship and Commerce signed
1919 March First Movement protests Japanese colonial rule in Korea
1943 December 1 Cairo Declaration promises Korean independence "in due course"
1945 August 8
August 11
September 2
September 6
September 8
December 21
Soviet Union declares war on Japan and sends troops to occupy Korea
Soviet-U.S. agreement divides Korea at the 38th parallel into zones of military occupation
Japan's formal surrender ends World War II
Creation of Korean People's Republic in Seoul
U.S. troops arrive in southern Korea to begin occupation
Moscow Agreement provides formula for Korean reunification
1946 May 8
Joint Soviet-American Commission adjourns after failing to agree on how to implement the Moscow Agreement
1947 August 4
September 17
September 29
November 14
1948 January 24
April 2
May 10
August 15
September 9
October 19
December 12
December 31
SWNCC 176/30 outlines steps to break Soviet-U.S. deadlock over Korean reunification
United States refers issue of Korean independence to UN
JCS submits memorandum assessing Korea's strategic significance
UN General Assembly approves resolution providing for a UN Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK)
to supervise national elections leading to reunification and independence
Soviet occupation commander refuses to permit UNTCOK entry into northern Korea, thus preventing national elections
President Harry S. Truman approves NSC-8 as the basis for U.S. Korea policy
Separate elections held under UN supervision in southern Korea
Establishment of the Republic of Korea (ROK)
Establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Outbreak of Yosu-Sunchon uprising in South Korea
UN approves resolution recognizing the Republic of Korea as the only legitimate government on the peninsula, calling
for Soviet-U.S. withdrawal as soon as practicable, and establishing a UN Commission on Korea (UNCOK)
Soviet occupation forces withdraw from North Korea
1949 March 23
April 8
May 2
June 29
October 21
President Truman approves NSC-8/2 as new U.S. Korea policy
Soviet Union vetoes admission of the ROK to the UN
Establishment of U.S. -Korean Military Advisory Group (KMAG)
U.S. occupation forces withdraw from South Korea
UN passes resolution instructing the UNCOK to use its "good office" to encourage Korean reunification, verify
Soviet military withdrawal, and observe and report any developments contributing to the outbreak of hostilities.
1950 January 12
January 19
February 14
February 14
April 14
April 14
May 2
May 30
June 7
June 15
June 24
June 25
June 25
June 25
June 26
June 27
June 27
June 27
June 28
June 28
Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson excludes the ROK from U.S. defensive perimeter in National Press Club speech
House of Representatives defeats Korean aid bill of 1949-1950
President Truman signs Far Eastern Economic Assistance Act
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance signed
General Douglas MacArthur submits memorandum emphasizing Taiwan's strategic significance
NSC-68 recommends substantial increase in U.S. defense budget
Senator Tom Connally predicts fall of the ROK to Communists
National Assembly elections in the Republic of Korea produce a majority of representatives opposed to
President Syngman Rhee
Democratic Fatherland Front proposes plan for reunification
John Foster Dulles arrives in South Korea on fact-finding mission and addresses National Assembly two days later
UNCOK surveys thirty-eighth parallel and finds ROK troops in defensive positions
North Korean army invades South Korea
UN Security Council approves resolution calling for cease-fire in Korea and withdrawal of DPRK forces
north of thirty-eighth parallel
First Blair House meeting to discuss the crisis in Korea
Second Blair House meeting held
Arrival of Church survey mission in Korea and the creation of the Advance Command and Liaison Group in Korea (ADCOM)
UN Security Council approves resolution calling upon members to provide assistance to the ROK in resisting aggression
President Truman announces U.S. air and naval assistance for the ROK and neutralization of Taiwan
Han River bridge destroyed prematurely trapping South Korean soldiers and civilians in Seoul
North Korean troops occupy Seoul, the capital of the ROK
26
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Errata
KOREAN WAR CHRONOLOGY, page 26
1882 Korean- American Treaty of Friendship and Commerce signed
1950 June 29
June 29
June 29
June 29
June 30
July 2
July 5
July 7
July 8
July 12
July 13
July 13
July 14
July 15
July 19
July 20
July 29
July 31
August 1
August 4
August 5
August 6
August 9
August 10
August 15
August 17
August 19
August 25
August 25
August 26
September 1
September 1
September 4
September 5
September 8
September 11
September 12
September 15
September 18
September 19
September 25
September 25
September 27
September 27
September 29
September 30
October 2
October 7
October 8
October 9
October 10
October 11
October 12
October 15
General MacArthur visits Korea and observes fighting at the Han River
Soviet Union informs the United States of intention to remain uninvolved in Korean civil war
and declares UN Security Council resolutions illegal
President Truman at press conference agrees with a reporter's description of the Korean War as
a "police action"
Congress approves Deficiency Appropriations Act providing additional aid to the ROK
President Truman commits ground forces in Korean War
President Truman rejects Chiang Kai-shek's offer of Chinese troops for service in the Korean War
Battle of Osan and first Battle of Wonju
UN Security Council resolution establishes UN Command
President Truman appoints General Douglas MacArthur commander in chief of UN Command (CINCUNC)
U.S. and the ROK sign the Taejon Agreements
Army Chief of Staff General J. Lawton Collins and Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S.
Vanderberg visit Tokyo for discussions with MacArthur lasting until July 14
Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru urges United States and Soviet Union to take steps
to localize and terminate the Korean War
Battle of the Kum River, lasting until July 20
President Syngman Rhee transfers control of the ROK's military forces to the UNC for the
duration of the Korean War
President Truman addresses nation on the Korean crisis
North Korean forces seize city of Taejon
Lieutenant General Walton W. Walker, 8th Army commander, issues "stand or die" order
MacArthur visits Taiwan until August 1 to discuss measures for defense of the island
Soviet Union ends boycott of UN Security Council, as Jacob Makil assumes position as
president of the body
UN forces withdraw inside Pusan Perimeter
Battle of the Naktong Bulge, lasting until August 19
W. Averell Harriman visits Tokyo with Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway for discussions with
MacArthur until August 8
Beginning of the defense of Taegu
First bombing raid on Rashin (Najin)
Establishment of the Korean Augmentation of the U.S. Army (KATUSA)
U.S. permanent representative at UN, Warren R. Austin, calls for reunification of Korea
General Collins and Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Forrest P. Sherman visit Tokyo to discuss plans for
the Inch'on landing with CINCUNC General Douglas MacArthur
Publication of MacArthur's VFW message
Secretary of the Navy Francis P. Matthews refers to the possibility of waging a preventative war
against the Soviet Union
Creation of the X Corps in preparation for the Inch'on landing
President Truman addresses Congress to explain U.S. policy in the Korean War
Mobilization of four U.S. National Guard divisions
U.S. Navy fighters shoot down Soviet aircraft over Yellow Sea
Battle of Yongch'on, lasting until September 13
Congress approves Defense Production Act
Truman orders implementation of NSC-81, the plan for the military offensive across the
thirty-eighth parallel
Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson resigns; General George C. Marshall is his replacement
UNC stages Inch'on landing
UN forces recapture Kimp'o Airfield
8th Army begins breakout from Pusan Perimeter
JCS authorizes ground operations north of thirty-eighth parallel
Acting Chief of Staff of Chinese People's Liberation Army warns that China will not "sit back with
folded hands and let the Americans come up to the border"
8th Army and the X Corps link forces south of Seoul
JCS directive forbids air operations beyond Yalu River
UN forces complete recapture of Seoul operation
South Korea's 3d Division crosses thirty-eighth parallel
Chinese premier Chou En-lai warns Indian ambassador K.M. Panikkar that People's
Republic of China will intervene in Korean War if U.S. forces cross thirty-eighth parallel
UN resolution authorizes military operations to reunite Korea and establishes UN Committee for the
Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK)
U.S. planes strafe Soviet air base in Siberia
General MacArthur demands immediate North Korean surrender
North Korean leader Kim II Sung rejects surrender demand
South Korea's 3d Division captures port of Wonsan
UN Interim Committee resolves that the UN recognizes no government as having "legal and
effective control" over North Korea and asks the UNC to assume administrative responsibility in the
north pending arrival if the UNCURK
President Truman and MacArthur meet at Wake Island Conference
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORJCAL RECORD
27
1950 October 19
October 19
October 24
October 25
October 25
October 27
October 28
November 1
November 3
November 6
November 7
November 8
November 10
November 10
November 24
November 24
November 26
November 28
November 30
November 30
December 1
December 1
December 4
December 5
December 6
December 8
December 10
December 14
December 15
December 16
December 19
December 20
December 23
December 23
December 26
December 31
Chinese People's Volunteers Army crosses the Yalu
South Korean forces occupy Pyongyang
MacArthur removes restrictions on movement of non-Korean forces to provinces bordering
the Yalu River
X Corps lands at Wonsan harbor
Opening of Chosin (Changjin) Reservoir Campaign
China opens first offensive lasting until October 31, and UNC captures first Chinese "volunteers"
JCS sends MacArthur an occupation directive for North Korea
Battle of Unsan, lasting until November 6
UN approves Uniting for Peace resolution to permit the General Assembly to act against
an aggressor and to create a UN Collective Measures Committee
Chinese forces attack 8th Army north of Ch'ongch'on River and then disengage, starting a three-
week lull in the fighting
Mac Arthur requests approval for hot pursuit of Chinese planes into Manchuria and destruction
of Yalu bridges
UN Security Council passes resolution inviting the PRC to participate in debate on the issues of Korea and Taiwan
Soviet Union vetoes UN Security Council measure calling upon the PRC to withdraw its forces from Korea
British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin submits "buffer zone" proposal to U.S.
MacArthur announces while visiting Korea the start of the Home-by-Christmas offensive
PRC representative Wu Hsui-ch'uan arrives at UN for discussions
Chinese launch second offensive lasting until December 9
PRC's representative to the UN Wu Hsui-ch'uan denounces the United States for aggression
in Korea
President Truman's atomic bomb press conference comment
First Korean War briefing meeting at the Canadian embassy
MacArthur points to prohibitions on air strikes in Manchuria to explain the UNC retreat in
U.S. News and World Report interview
Passage of UN resolution establishing UN Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA)
British Prime Minister Clement Attlee begins trip to United States
UN forces evacuate Pyongyang
JCS directive bans unauthorized public statements by government officials regarding the war
Issuance of Truman-Attlee communique
Hungnam evacuation of the X Corps and 7th Infantry Division begins, lasting until December 24
UN resolution establishes UN Cease-fire Group
UNC forces retreat below the thirty-eighth parallel
President Truman declares state of national emergency
PRC Delegation leaves UN
Former President Herbert Hoover delivers "Gibraltar America" speech
PRC premier Chou En-lai rejects UN Cease-fire Group's proposal, demanding U.S. withdrawal from Korea
and Taiwan and the PRC's admission to the UN
General Walker, 8th Army commander, killed in a jeep accident
Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway arrives in Korea to replace Walker
China launches third offensive south of the thirty-eighth parallel
1951 January 1
January 3
January 4
January 11
January 12
January 13
January 15
January 15
January 17
January 25
February 1
February 5
February 5
February 10
February 11
February 13
February 15
February 21
March 7
March 7
Mobilization of two more U.S. National Guard divisions
UN Cease-fire Group reports failure of negotiations with PRC
Chinese Communist forces capture Seoul
UN Cease-fire Group proposes five principles as basis for a settlement of the Korean War
JCS rejects MacArthur's plan for winning the Korean War
U.S. votes in favor of UN cease-fire resolution that promises discussion of other Far Eastern issues
Operation Wolfhound begins, lasting until January 25 and forcing Chinese retreat to Osan
Generals Collins and Vandenberg visit Tokyo for discussions with General MacArthur
China rejects UN Cease-fire Group's five principles because "the purpose of arranging a cease-fire first
[before negotiating) is merely to give the United States troops a breathing space"
Operation Thunderbolt begins, lasting until February 1 and forcing Chinese retreat to the Han River
Passage of UN resolution condemning China for aggression in Korea and establishing
UN Additional Measures Committee and UN Good Offices Committee
Operation Punch forces the Chinese to retreat north of Seoul
Operation Roundup met with Chinese counterattack, forcing the X Corps on February 11 to retreat
southward to Wonju
South Korean National Guard units slaughter innocent civilians at the town of Koch'ang
Fourth Chinese offensive to force UNC retreat from central Korea
Battle of Chip'yong, lasting until February 15
General MacArthur requests permission to bomb Rashin (Najin)
Operation Killer begins, lasting until March 1 and pushing Communist forces in central Korea
north of Han River
Operation Ripper begins, lasting until March 21 and forcing Chinese retreat north of the
thirty-eighth parallel
MacArthur makes "die for tie" statement at a press conference in Korea
28
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
1951 March 14
March 15
March 20
March 22
March 24
March 26
March 29
April 3
April 5
April 6
April 11
April 14
April 19
April 22
April 22
April 23
April 28
May 3
May 16
May 17
May 18
May 18
May 30
May 31
May 31
June 1
June 2
June 5
June 15
June 23
June 29
July 10
July 14
July 15
July 26
July 28
August 17
August 18
August 23
August 25
September 1
September 8
September 11
September 13
September 28
October 3
October 5
October 22
October 24
October 25
October 25
November 12
UNO completes recapture of Seoul from the Chinese Communists
MacArthur advocates in a press interview crossing the thirty-eighth parallel to fulfill the UNC mission
of reuniting Korea
JCS informs MacArthur of Truman's planned cease-fire initiative
Operation Courageous by March 29 moves the UNC to a position just south of the
thirty-eighth parallel
MacArthur issues "pronunciamento" demanding Communist surrender
Washington Conference of foreign ministers of nations in the Western Hemisphere begins,
lasting until April
PRC radio broadcast rejects MacArthur's ultimatum and calls for renewed
military efforts
Operation Rugged allows UNC forces to cross the thirty-eighth parallel and establish the
Kansas Line on April 6
Republican house Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr., of Massachusetts reads
letter from MacArthur dated March 20 in the House calling for victory in the Korean War
Operation Dauntless, lasting until April 11, results in the UNC's establishing the Kansas
Wyoming Line
Truman recalls MacArthur, replacing him with General Ridgway
Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet arrives in Korea to replace Ridgway as 8th Army
commanding general
MacArthur delivers "No Substitute for Victory" speech to a joint session of Congress
China opens first stage of fifth offensive, lasting until April 28
Battle of the Imjin River, lasting until April 25
Battle of Kap'yong, lasting until April 25
JCS authorizes UNC attacks on air bases in Manchuria if Chinese Communist planes threaten the
security of UNC forces on the ground
Senate MacArthur Hearings before Joint Committee of Armed Services and Foreign
Relations commence, lasting until June 25
China opens second stage of fifth offensive, lasting until May 23
Truman approves NSC-48/5
UN resolution calls for selective embargo against PRC
Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk delivers speech referring to the PRC as "a Slavic Manchukuo on a
large scale" and "not the Government of China"
UNC forces restore defensive positions at Kansas Line
First meeting between George F. Kennan and Jacob A. Malik regarding possible cease-fire
negotiations in Korean War
JCS sends new directive to Ridgway on future conduct of the war
Operation Piledriver moves UNC forces to Wyoming Line
UNC implements Operation Struggle
Second Kennan-Malik meeting
UNC consolidates defensive position along Kansas-Wyoming Line
Jacob Malik's radio broadcast suggests opening of truce talks
CINCUNC General Ridgway offers to meet Communist commander in the field to discuss a
cease-fire and armistice
Opening session of Kaesong truce talks
Communist delegation agrees to permit equal press coverage
Governor Thomas E. Dewey visits Korea
Approval of agenda for Kaesong talks
Commonwealth Division established
Communist delegation demands UNC apology for ambush near Kaesong
Battle of Bloody Ridge, lasting until September 5
Communists suspend truce talks because of alleged UNC strafing of
Kaesong neutral zone
U.S. Bombing raid on Rashin (Najin)
ANZUS Treaty signed
Japanese Peace Treaty signed in San Francisco
Acheson meets with British foreign minister Herbert S. Morrison
Battle of Heartbreak Ridge, lasting until October 15
JCS Chairman General Omar N. Bradley and State Department Soviet expert Charles E. Bohlen visit
Tokyo and Korea until October 3
Operation Commando, lasting until October 8
U.S. ambassador Alan G. Kirk meets Soviet foreign minister Andrei Y. Vyshinsky and urges him to
persuade Chinese and North Koreans to resume armistice negotiations
Signing of the P'anmunjom security zone agreement
Battle of Namsi, largest air clash of the war
Truce talks resume at P'anmunjom
Winston Churchill replaces Clement Attlee as British prime minister following labor
Party's electoral defeat
Ridgway orders 8th Army to implement active defense strategy
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
29
1951 November 12
November 13
November 27
November 28
December 3
December 20
December 27
Operation Ratkiller begins to kill or capture guerrillas in South Korea, lasting until March 15, 1952
At P'anmunjom, the UNC proposes the battle line as the demarcation line for a DMZ if all other
issues are settled in thirty days
Agreement reached at P'anmunjom truce talks on agenda item 2, demarcation line and DMZ
First Anglo-American discussion of Joint Policy (Greater Sanctions) statement
Negotiators at P'anmunjom refer Communist proposal for settling agenda item 3, covering cease-fire
inspection, to subdelegates to work out the details
Truman administration approves NSC-118/2
Agreement on demarcation line at P'anmunjom invalidated
1952 January 2
January 8
January 27
January 31
February 10
February 16
February 18
February 19
March 26
April 2
April 5
April 8
April 10
April 20
April 28
April 28
May 2
May 7
May 11
May 12
May 19
May 22
May 24
May 25
June 2
June 10
June 22
June 23
June 25
June 25
June 26
July 1
July 4
July 7
July 11
August 5
August 27
September 2
September 28
October 1
October 6
October 8
October 13
October 14
October 24
October 24
October 26
UNC proposes voluntary repatriation of POWs at P'anmunjom
Communist delegation rejects voluntary repatriation principle
P'anmunjom negotiators agree to defer discussion of airfield rehabilitation
Negotiators shift to subdelegation discussion of agenda item 5, political consultations
between governments
Operation Clam-Up, lasting until February 15
Communist negotiators at P'anmunjom suggest that the Soviet Union should be a member of the
neutral commission in charge of supervising the cease-fire
Soviet Union charges U.S. with waging biological warfare in North Korea
Agreement at P'anmunjom truce talks on agenda item 5 provides for political conference ninety days
after the armistice to discuss withdrawal of foreign troops and Korean reunification
U.S. delegate at UN denies charges of using biological warfare and criticizes Communists for
refusing an impartial investigation
Communist delegation at P'anmunjom recommends checking POW lists
Operation Scatter results in screening of POWs in UNC camps, lasting until April 15
Truman seizes U.S. steel mills
Meyer mission to Republic of Korea begins, lasting until May 24
UNC announces only 70,000 Communist POWs desire repatriation
UNC submits package proposal at P'anmunjom truce talks, but Communist delegation
refuses to accept voluntary repatriation
Truman appoints General Mark W. Clark to replace Ridgway
Communists partially accept package proposal, dropping the Soviet Union as a NNSC member for
no limits on airfield rehabilitation
Koje-do POW camp uprising begins with seizure of camp commander, Brigadier General
Francis T. Dodd, lasting until June 10
Communist POWs release General Dodd
General Clark formally assumes command as CINCUNC
Publication of John Foster Dulles's "A Policy of Boldness" article in Life magazine
Foreign Minister Anthony Eden sends draft of Anglo-Indian Five Point Plan for settling POW
controversy to Washington
U.S. and ROK sign Agreement on Economic Coordination
President Syngman Rhee declares martial law in Pusan
Supreme Court declares Truman's seizure of steel plants unconstitutional in Youngstown
Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer
UN forces rout militant POWs, ending Koje-do uprising
Lloyd-Alexander mission to Tokyo
Suiho bombing raids begin, lasting until June 26
Assassination attempt on President Rhee
JCS authorizes General Clark to develop Operation Everready for removal of Rhee
from power in South Korea
Battle of Old Baldy begins, lasting until March 23, 1953
Operation Homecoming releases 27,000 civilian internees, lasting until the end of August
South Korean National Assembly passes amendment for popular election of the president,
ending the political crisis
Communist delegation at P'anmunjom repeats its demand for the repatriation of all Chinese POWs
Massive UNC air raid on Pyongyang
South Korean presidential elections produce victory for Rhee
Second UNC air raid on P'yongyang - largest of the war
Mexican POW settlement proposal submitted to the UN
UNC presents final proposal to settle POW repatriation issue
Cheju-do POW uprising
Battle of White Horse Hill signals Communist acceleration of ground war, lasting until October 15
UNC declares indefinite recess of the P'anmunjom truce talks
Operation Showdown reveals futility of ground assaults against entrenched Communist positions
Battle of Triangle Hill, lasting until November 5
Republican presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges to "go to Korea" if elected
U.S. introduces Twenty-one Power UN resolution, calling for a reaffirmation of support for voluntary
repatriation concept
Battle of the Hook, lasting until July 25, 1953
30
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
1952 November 3
November 4
November 10
Peruvian POW settlement proposal submitted at the UN
Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president of the United States
General Van Fleet, the 8th Army commander, announces mobilization of two new South Korean
November 17
November 18
December 2
December 3
December 9
December 14
December 17
divisions and six regiments
Menon POW settlement proposal submitted at the UN
Truman-Eisenhower transition meeting held at the White House
President-elect Eisenhower tours Korea until December 5
UN resolution endorses Menon POW settlement proposal
U.S. bombing raid on Rashin (Najin)
Pongam-do POW uprising
Eisenhower meets with MacArthur, who submits plan for victory
1953 January 20
January 25
February 2
February 7
February 22
February 22
March 5
March 15
March 20
March 23
March 28
Eisenhower inaugurated president of the United States
Operation Smack tests close air support strategy
"Unleashing" of Chiang in Eisenhower's State of the Union speech
Clark requests permission to bomb Kaesong
UNC proposes exchange of sick and wounded POWs
Lieutenant General Maxwell D. Taylor replaces Van Fleet as commander of the 8th Army
Death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Georgi Malenkov speech voices support for cease-fire in Korea
JCS approves Operation Moolah to encourage MiG pilots to defect
Battle of Pork Chop Hill, lasting until July 1 1
Communist delegation at P'anmunjom accepts UNC proposal for exchange of sick
and wounded POWs
March 30
Chou En-lai radio broadcast outlines POW settlement proposal for exchange of sick and wounded
plus non-repatriate POWs to a neutral state
April 2
President Eisenhower approves NSC-147, a contingency plan to escalate military operations
against the DPRK and the PRC
April 11
April 17
April 18
Operation Little Switch receives approval
Start of Tasca Mission to study Republic of Korea's economy, lasting until June 15
UN resolution calls for convening General Assembly after signing of a Korean
armistice agreement
April 20
April 22
April 26
May 7
May 13
May 13
Exchange of sick and wounded POWs, lasting until May 3
Eisenhower approves arms and equipment for two new ROK divisions
Resumption of P'anmunjom truce talks
Lieutenant General Nam II advances eight-point POW settlement proposal
Start of UNC raids on dams in North Korea, lasting until May 16
President Eisenhower approves arming four more South Korean divisions, to a total army
strength of twenty divisions
May 22
May 22
General Clark sends Operation Everready plan to Washington, D.C., for final approval
Secretary of State Dulles warns China through India that United States might use atomic weapons
if UNC POW settlement proposal is rejected
May 25
Final UNC POW settlement proposal submitted at P'anmunjom with the intention to
terminate truce talks if Communists reject plan
June 4
June 8
June 10
June 15
June 17
June 18
June 20
June 22
At P'anmunjom, Communists accept UNC final POW settlement proposal
Communists formally approve concept of voluntary repatriation
Communist forces open offensive against South Korean troops
President Eisenhower receives Tasca report
Acceptance of revised demarcation line at P'anmunjom truce talks
President Rhee releases 27,000 North Korean POWs
UNC delegation gains approval for recess at P'anmunjom
Start of Assistant Secretary of State Walter S. Robertson's mission to the ROK,
lasting until July 12
July 6
July 7
July 10
July 11
July 13
Communists stage new military thrust into Iron Triangle
Eisenhower administration approves NSC-154/1 and NSC-157/1
Rhee agrees not to disrupt armistice agreement
Issuance of Robertson-Rhee communique
Final Chinese offensive of the war inflicts heavy casualties on South Korean forces in
Kumsong region
July 17
July 19
July 27
July 27
July 28
Eisenhower administration approves NSC-156/1
Agreement reached on all substantive points at P'anmunjom
Signing of the Korean armistice agreement
Signing of the Joint Policy (Greater Sanctions) statement, issued publicly on August 7
Military Armistice Commission meets for the first time
1954 January 26
February 1
April 26
U.S. Senate ratifies U.S. -ROK Mutual Defense Treaty
Neutral Nation Reparation Commission formally dissolves
Opening at Geneva Conference of discussions regarding Korean reunification
THE KOREAN WAR • AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD 31
ORDERING INFORMATION
The Korean War • An Assessment of the Historical Record
To order copies of the Conference Report or Participant Papers from "The Korean War: An Assessment
of the Historical Record" please contact:
The Korea Society
1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 204
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: 202-293-2174
Fax: 202-293-2184
E-mail: USKOREA@AOL.COM
There is a $5.00 processing fee for the Conference Report and a $2.50 processing fee for each
Participant Paper requested. Checks may be made payable to The Korea Society and must be
received prior to distribution.
The list of available Participant Papers is as follows:
1 . Civil is a Dumb Name for a War
by Dr. James Matray (18 pages)
2. Russian Foreign Ministry Documents
on the Origins of the Korean War
by Dr. Kim Hakjoon (29 pages)
3. Korean War of 1950-1953: Thoughts About
the Conflict's Causes and Actors
by Dr. Valeri Denissov (14 pages)
4. Why and How China Entered the Korean War:
In Light of New Evidence
by Dr. Jian Chen (16 pages)
5. Politics in Peril: The Truman-MacArthur
Controversy and the Korean War
by Roger Dingman (35 pages)
6. Assessing the Politics of the
Korean War
by Dr. Evgueni Bajanov (23 pages)
7. A Triangle of Kim, Stalin, and Mao in
the Korean War
by Dr. Kim Chull-baum (27 pages)
8. Notes on the Successive Strategies
Employed During the Korean War
by General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley (12 pages)
9. The Korean War Paradigm
by Col. Harry G. Summers (17 pages)
10. China's Military Strategy During
the Korean War
by Dr. Shu Guang Zhang (33 pages)
11. Military Objectives and Strategies of
Two Koreas in the Korean War
by Dr. Chang-ll Ohn (18 pages)
12. The Soviet Role in Prolonging the
Korean War, 1951-1953
by Dr. Kathryn Weathersby (27 pages)
13. Assessing the Conclusion and Outcome
of the Korean War
by Dr. Natalia Bajanova (13 pages)
14. POW's, Soviet Intelligence and the
MIA Question
by Mr. Paul Lashmar (14 pages)
1 5. The Politics of Conference: The Political
Conference at Geneva, April 26 - June 15, 1954
by Dr. J.Y. Ra (31 pages)
16. In Search of Essences: Labelling
the Korean War
by Dr. William Stueck (22 pages)
32
THE KOREAN WAR ■ AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD
GIMGA DESIGN GROUP O 1995
For all your inquiries about Korean
art. culture and other matters in-
cluding publications and materials on
Korea, contact the address below:
/TV
PRAK
SELECTED
PUBLICATIONS
ON KOREA
(3)
PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION OF KOREA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
General & Miscellaneous
History
Economics
Science
Art & Culture
Language & Literature
PUBLISHED BY:
Public Relations Association of Korea
Paeknam Bldg., # 601, 188-3 Ulchi-ro l-ka
Chung- ku, Seoul, Korea
I P. O. Box 2 I 47, Seoul
Cable : "PUREASKO" Seoul Tel: (22)6092—6
■
Better world 4 Better understanding.
The titles of the books introduced in the catalog No. 1 include:
1 . A New Horizon in Asia (3 vols.) by Park Chung-Hee
Vol. 1 Our Nation s Path The 1st edition m 1962. and 2nd in 1970. /Hollyim
Corporation: publishers/240pp. 160 x 235/ $6.55 (Postage included)
Vol. II The Country, the Revolution and I The 1st edition in 1962 and the 2nd
in 1970. /Hollym Corporation: publishers/ 192pp. 160 x 235/ $6.30 (Postage
included)
Vol. Ill: Major Speeches by President Park Hollym Corporation: publishers/
380pp. 160 x 235/ $6 95 (Postage included)
2. Modern Transformation of Korea
by Yi Kyu-tae Translated by Sung Tong-mahn. Kim Soon shm. Charles Goldbery.
Park Nahm-sheik The I st edition m 1 970 ISe-Jong publishing Co I328pp 170
x 240/181 photos/ $9 00 (Postage included)
3. The Korean Political Tradition and Law — Essays on Korean Law and
Legal History by Hahm Pyong-choon The 1st edition in 1967. and the 2nd
in 1971. /Hollym Corporation: publishers/ 250pp 140 x 210/S4 50 (Postage
included)
4. The Passing of Korea by Homer B Hulbert The 1st edition in 1969 /Yonsei
University Press/474pp. 150 x 210/50 photos/ 2 illus / $6 50 (Postage included)
5. A History of the Church in Korea by Allen D Clark The reivsed edition
in 1971 /The Christian Literature Society of Korea/480pp 150 x 210/5 photos!
$5.00 (Postage included)
6. The History of Protestant Missions in Korea 1832-1910
byL George Paik The 1st edition in 1929. and the 2nd in 1 970,/Yonsei University
Press/470pp 150 x 210/ $6.50 (Postage included)
7. The History of Korea
by Han Woo-keun Translated by Lee Kyung-shick Edited by Grafton K Minty/
The 1st edition in 1970 /552pp. 160 x 230190pp. of photos/ $1 1 00 (Postage
included)
8. Folk Tales from Korea
by long In-sob The 1st edition in 1970 /Hollym Corporation: publishers/
258pp. 140 x 220/ $5 50 (Postage included)
9. In This Earth and In That Wind — This is Korea
by Lee O-young Translated by David / Stemberg The 1st edition in 1967 /
Hollym Corporation: publishers/ 226pp. 130 x 1 90/ 50pp. of illus / $4 50 (Postage
included)
10. Meditations of the Lover by Han Yong-woon The 1st edition in 1970 /
Yonsei University Press/210pp 140 :< 2101 $4.00 (Postage included)
11. Religions of Old Korea by Charles A. Clark The 1st edition in 1961 /
The Christian Literature Society of Korea/ 296pp 150 x 210/6 photos/ $4 00
(Postage included)
12. Korea Struggles for Christ Edited by Harold S. Hong. Ji Wonyong.
Kim Chung-choon The 1st edition m 1966. /The Christian Literature Society
of Korea/254pp. 155 x 215/S3 00 (Postage included)
13. Guide to Korean Culture by Ha Tae-hung The 1st edition in 1968 /
Yonsei University Press/400pp 150 x 210/34 photos and maps/8 illus. / $7.00
(Postage included)
14. Korea Its People and Culture
Edited by Kim Ick-dal The 1 st edition in 1970,/Hakvyon-sa Ltd. /472pp. 200 x
2601120pp. of color and monochrome illus./ $18 00 ( Postage included)
15. Korean Cultural Series
Vol. 1 : Korea- Forty-three Centuries The 1st edition in 1962. and the
2nd in 1970. /Yonsei University Press/300pp. 148 x 209/ $2 30 (Postage included)
16. Vol. Ill: Folk Customs and Family Life The 1st edition in 1958. and the
4th in 1 970,/Yonsei University Press/90pp. 150 X 210/15 illus / $1.70 (Postage
included)
17. Vol. IV: Poetry and Music of the Classic Age The 1st edition in 1960.
and the 2nd in 1 969. /Yonsei University Press/80pp. 150 x 210/15 photos/3
illus./ $1.30 (Postage included)
18. Vol. VIII: The Korean Nights Entertainments The 1st edition in 1970 /
Yonsei University Press/1 58pp. 150 x 210/14 illus./ $2.00 (Postage included)
The titles of the books introduced in the catalog No. 2 include:
19. Korean Studies Today-Development and State of the
Field
(Edited by Lee Sung-nyong The 1st edition in 1 970. /Institute of
Asian Studies. Seoul National University/ 250pp. 160 x 230/
$7.20 (Postage included)
20. Seoul : Past and Present (A Guide to Yi Taejo's Capital)
I) by Allen D. Clark and Donald N. Clark The 1 st edition in 1 969./
Hollym Corporation: pubhshers/242pp. 170 x 240/77 photos/ 1
ill us./ $6.50 (Postage included)
21. The Feel of Korea
by 44 Americans living in Korea The 1st edition in 1966./
Hollym Corporation: publishers/370pp. 130 x 195/44 photos/
$4.50 (Postage included)
22. One Man's Korea
by James Wade The 1st edition in 1967. /Hollym Corporation:
I publishers/ 266pp. 180 x 185 /30pp. of il/us./ $5.95 (Postage
I included)
23. Seven Years with Korea's Park Chung-Hee
i by Kim Chong-shin The 1st edition in 1 967. /Hollym Corpora-
tion: publishers/ 306pp. 130 x 1 90/21 pp. of photos/ $5.30
(Postage included)
24. Korean Patterns
by Paul S. Crane The 1st edition in 1967. and 2nd in 1968./
I Hollym Corporation: publishers/ 244pp. 130 x 190 /34pp. of
illus./ $4 00 (Postage included)
25. Thoughts of a Korean
by Park Won The 1 st edition in 1 970 / Pyung-hwa Press/ 1 94pp.
130 x 190/ $3.00 (Postage included)
26. Pictorial Korea
Edited by Song Jung-hoon The 1st edition in 1 970,/lnterna-
I tional Publicity League of Korea/232pp. 1 90 x 260/ $5.50
' (Postage included)
27. Beautiful Korea
Edited by Chong Bi-sok. Cho Pil-dae. Chong Do-son. Suh
Myung-suk. Kuon Yong-chul The 1st edition in 1970. /Hui-
mang publishing Co. /844pp. 190 x 210/2.250 photos and
maps/ $17.00 (Postage included)
28. Korean Cooking
by Yun Su-seok. Hwang Hye-seong. Wang Jun-yon. Yoo Key-
wan. Sun Bok-kyong The 1st edition in 1 960./ Hakwon-sa.
Ltd. /250pp. 200 x 260/ 200pp. of photos and illus./ $4 00
( Postage included)
29. The Tragedy of Korea
by Frederick A. McKenzie The 1st edition in 1 969,/Yonsei
University Press/31 2pp. 150 x 210/27 photos/ $6.00 (Postage
included)
30. Korea's Fight for Freedom
by Frederick A McKenzie The 1st edition in 1 969,/Yonsei
University Press/320pp. 150 x 210/ $5.50 (Postage included)
31. Korea and Her Neighbours
by Isabella B. Bishop The 1st edition m 1 970,/Yonsei University
Press/490pp. 150 210/22 photos/2 maps/11 illus./ $6.50
(Postage included)
32. Early Voyagers
by James Wade The 1st edition in 1 969,/Hollym Corporation:
pubhshers/86pp. 140 x 210/ $5.00 (Postage included)
33. The Tunnel of Destiny
by Kim Hyung-cho The 1st edition in 1971. /The Christian
Literature Society of Korea /334pp. 130 x 190/ $3.50 (Postage
included)
34. In the Depths
by Hahn Moo-sook The 1st edition in 1 965. /Translated by Kim
Dong-seong. Kim Rye-soo. Kim Chong-un. Ro Dai-yong. Chung
Chong-wha. Joo Yo-seob/29pp. 140 x 200/ $4.00 (Postage
included)
35. The Running Water Hermitage
by Hahn Moo-sook The 1st edition in 1 967. /Translated by
Chung Chong-wha/ 186pp. 140 x 200/ $4.00 (Postage included)
36. Korean Folk Songs
Edited by Lee Kang-yum The 1st edition in 1 970. /National
Music Research Society/80pp. 230 x 300/21 photos/ $4.50
(Postage included)
II
37. Let's Learn Korean with Records
by Jung ln-hak The 1st edition in 1 965,/Hollym Corporation:
pubhshers/63pp. 190 x 190/ 18pp. of photos/ 10pp. of illus./ 2
sheets of records/ $4.50 (Postage included)
38 An Intensive Course in Korean (2 vol.s)
by Park Chang -hai Vol.l: The 1 st edition in 1960. and 11th in
1 971 ./Yonsei University Press/736pp. 150 x 210/ $6.50 (Post-
age included) Vol. II: Yonsei University Press/769pp. 150 < 210/
$6 00 (Postage included)
39. Korea and Christianity
by Spencer J. Palmer The 1st edition in 1 967,/Hollym Corpora
von: publishers/ 174pp. 140 x 210/26 photos/ 2 illus./ $4.50
(Postage included)
40. Democracy and Mission Education in Korea
by James E. Fisher The 1st edition in 1970. /Yonsei University
Press H 88pp. 150 x 210/ $4.00 (Postage included)
41. Korean Cultural Series
Vol.ll: A Trip through Historic Korea by Ha Tae-hi
The 1st edition in 1960. and the 3rd in 1 969 /Yonsei Univen
Press/1 10pp. 150 x 210/16 photos and maps/ $1 .80 (Postagt
included)
42. Vol.V: Korea Sings— Folk and Popular Music and
Lyrics
by Ha Tae-hung The 1st edition in 1960. and the 3rd in 1970./
Yonsei University Press/1 30pp. 148 x 209/S1.80 (Postage
included)
43. Vol.VI : Folk Tales of Old Korea
by Ha Tae-hung Yonsei University Press/ 266pp. 1 50 x 210/10
illus./ $2.30 (Postage included)
44. Vol.VII: Maxims and Proverbs of Old Korea
by Ha Tae-hung The 1st edition in 1964. and the 3rd in 1970./
Yonsei University Press/320pp. 150 x 210/2 illus./ $2.30
(Postage included)
45. Vol.lX : The Life of a Rainhat Poet
by Ha Tae-hung Yonsei University Press/ 1 70pp. 150 x 210/
10 illus./ $2.00 (Postage included)
46. Vol.X: Tales from the Three Kingdoms
by Ha Tae-hung The 1st edition in 1 970. /Yonsei University
Press/ 1 92pp. 150 x 210/16 illus./ $2.20 (Postage included)
For further information on the publications above, make
inquires to the Public Relations Association of Korea.
■■■i General 8- Miscellaneous
47. Korea
Edited by Hak Won Publishing Co.. Ltd.
This book contains all the needful materials for those who are
interested in Korea. It is divided roughly into six parts, dealing
first with the natural environment, weather, animals and plants
of Korea, the origin of the Korean race, national traits, and lan-
guages, secondly with the history of Korea from the ancient times
to the modern age and historical relics, thirdly with Shamanism,
Buddhism, Confucianism, Tong- Hak Sect, Christianity, school
system, women's education, universities and libraries, fourthly
with costumes, food and drink, structure of houses, marriage
customs, and fete days, fifthly with sculptures, industrial arts,
classic dances, folk music, literature, movies, and dramas, and
finally with all the sightseeing spots in the country with minute
historical explanations of their background. The fifty-five writers
who contributed to this scholarly work are all famous professors,
scholars and experts in their respective fields.
The 1 st edition in 1970.
Hak Won Publishing Co.. Ltd/47 1pp. 188 / 254/1 22 photos/
$12.00 (Postage included)
48. Korea, Past and Present
Edited by Kwangmyong Publishing Co.
This book contains almost all information any foreigner may
want to find out about Korea. A casual glance at the entries is
sufficient to give satisfaction to those who are eager to know about
the historical and cultural traditions, philosophical background,
old and new customs, arts, religions, latest economic growth and
the current political reformation and future goals of the Korean
people. The authenticity of the book is well evidenced by the
selection of the writers comprising Korea's leading scholars,
journalists, and experts in their respective fields. Composed in
easy-to-read capsules and printed on paper of de luxe quality,
this comprehensive handbook is abundant in colorful pictures
depicting the cultural traditions as well as the energy and vivacity
of modern Korea which is achieving a rapid industrial growth.
It was profusely illustrated, with index and appendices ar-
ranged to be of maximum help to the readers. And 128 color
pictures will make the contents much easier to understand.
The 1st edition in 1972.
Kwangmyong Publishing Co. /450pp. 185 x 245/1 28 photos/
$10.00 (Postage included)
49. "Kwanan"
Edited by Chae Sok Kong and Hang Yong Song
This is a bird's-eye-view of the political organizations of the
Yi Dynasty since its founding, with a list of all the government
offices that came into existence from the Three- Kingdoms era to
that of Koryo.
The 1st edition in 1972.
Po Chin Chai Printing Co.. Ltd. /250pp. 148 x 210/ $4.00
(Postage included)
50. Rebuilding a Nation
by Park Chung Hee. President of the Republic of Korea
In this book. President Park Chung Hee of Korea presents
perspectives on Korea's national reform and reconstruction.
Briefly reviewing the historical background of the nation, the
President describes how he wants to achieve political stability,
economic development, and social welfare in his developing
country.
In the full-length essay he wrote for the Britannica Book of the
Year in 1971, the author emphasizes, first of all, the growth of
Korea's national strength to meet the ever-present communists
challenge in Asia. President Park determinedly declares; "We
will march forward---for those who give up halfway can never
win."
The 1 st edition in 1971
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Korea) Inc. /28pp. 210 x 275/
$9.95 (Postage included)
51. Relations between Korea and Arabia
by Choe Sang-su
This book is the first scholarly work in our country dealing with
the historical and cultural relations between the Koreans and Arabs.
This research and study of national, social customs and folklore
has been done 30 years ago. In the 1 1 th century, several hundred
Arab merchants came to Korea, and conjugal relations developed
between the Koreans and Arabs in the 13th century. This book is
an important reference document by which to develop diplomatic
relations with Arab States, and an aid to the establishment of
"People-to-people" friendship with them.
The 1st edition in 1971 .
Korea Saudi Arabia Association HI 5pp. 150 x 210/10
photos/ $5.00 (Postage included)
52. Koreans In America
by Warren Y. Kim
This book is an attempt to record how the early immigrants
and the refugee students, despite incredible hardship, continued
to fight for freedom in a strange land whither they fled from the
Japanese oppression. It is also an attempt to bring to light the
indefatigable efforts of a small group of patriots who strived to
rescue their country from foreign aggression.
As regards the activities of the Koreans in America for the
past forty years, there were hardly any sources from which to
collect materials except the old Korean records and newspapers,
such as those held by the Korean National Associations of Hawaii
and Los Angeles. In some cases, the records of defunct organiza-
tions were available only from private files.
The 1st edition in 1971.
Po Chin Chat Printing Co.. Ltd. /1 62pp. 1 55 x 21 5/ $3.00
(Postage included)
I
History
53. The History of Korea
by Sohn Pow-key. Kim Choe-choon. and Hong Yi-sup
The History of Korea was chosen as the first book publication
project by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, and
appeared in 1970. The subject was most appropriately chosen,
as it has been nearly three-quarters of a century since the
appearance of the first — and up till now only — pioneer full-scale
study of Korea in English, a volume which is now, of course,
obsolete. The present book, written by three leading Korean
historians covering their various periods of specialization, is a
scholarly, comprehensive, yet readable volume which fills a long-
felt need in international historical Orientology and library fields,
and is certain to become a standard reference and source.
Profusely illustrated, with index, appendices, and bibliography
arranged to be of maximum help to the reader.
The 7 st edition in 1970.
Korean National Commission for UNESCO/363pp. 145 x 225
/ 40 photos/8 illus./ $6.00 (Postage included)
54, A New Theory on Korean History
by Lee Ki-paek
In this book the author attempts to grasp the development of
Korean history with a progressive attitude on the basis of in-
dependent historical view and historical facts. This is the most
authentic edition on Korean history, with all the imperfections in
the old edition(1 961 ) removed, periods and eras systematically
divided, and chapters and paragraphs reorganized during the
author's sojourn in the United States. This book was published
simultaneously both in Japan and Korea.
Once translated into English at Harvard University, and now
published in Japanese in Japan, this is one of the finest history
books ever written about Korea that ought to be read not only by
history students but by readers in general.
The 1st edition in 1971.
Il-cho Gag Publishing Co. /480pp. 148 x 210/ $6.50 (Postage
included)
Economics
55. The Economic History of Korea
by Hochin Choi
The long history of the Korean economy has so far been hidden
behind the barrier of language from the eyes of the Western people.
This book is the first of its kind published in English language. It
is divided into six parts, dealing respectively with the primitive,
ancient and feudalistic societies in the history of the Korean eco-
nomy. A special emphasis is given to the period of Japanese
colonialism before the end of World War II. The book is also
characterized by the extensive inclusion of statistics. It may also
be utilized as a source of bibliography in the study of the socio-
economic history of Korea. The bibliography at the end of the book
cover an almost exhaustive number of books, articles, pamphlets,
official publications, etc. written in Korean, Japanese, Chinese,
English and other European languages.
The 1st edition in 1971.
Panmun Book Co. /381pp. 150 x 205/ $10.00 (Postage
included)
■■■■Science
56. The Birds of Korea
by M.E.J. Gore and Won Pyong-Oh. Illustrated by Judy North
360 species of birds that are found in Korea are described under
the following headings; geographical distribution, shape (to en-
able the observer easily to identify), habitat (with descriptions of
geographical features), and present situation (with detailed
account not yet published). This guidebook also enumerates birds
fit for Korean weather and its ecological features, along with
detailed notes on their preservation. Descriptions are both in
Korean and English.
Michael E.J. Gore is a British diplomat who has studied birds
in Europe, Africa and South-East Asia. Since 1967 he has been
Consul in Seoul. A member of the British Ornithologists Union,
he has previously published papers on the birds of Cyprus and
Borneo.
Won, Pyong-Oh is Director of the Institute of Ornithology,
Kyung Hee University, Seoul, and is a recognized authority on
the birds of Korea. A professor of zoology, he has published many
papers on the subject and on conservation of wildlife in Korea. He
is a Secretary of the International Council for Bird Preservation
and a member of the Survival Service Commission of the Inter-
national Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources.
The 1st edition in 1972.
Korea Branch. Royal Asiatic Society /450pp. 188 x 257/
$15.00 (Postage included)
57. The Distribution Atlas of Butterflies in Korea
by D M. Seok
This book shows by means of dot maps on a county basis, the
documented distribution of each species of butterfly. The maps
are arranged alphabetically by family, genus, and species within
the major group sequence of butterfly. A total of 250species com-
prise the known butterflies. The distribution patterns are based
upon specimens examined by the authors and deposited in
herbaria.
The 1st edition in 1973.
Po Chin Chat Printing Co.. Ltd. /260pp. 225 x 320/250
illus./ $25.00 (Postage included)
£t Culture
58. Early Korean Typography
by Pow-key Sohn
Mould-making and type-casting were disseminated westward
to Europe from Korea, through China-Arabian route.
Korea's tradition evolved in the course of her struggle for
culture; her unique cultural heritage achieved a homogeneous
entity in world civilization. It was in Korea that the movable
copper type was invented and successfully utilized. The invention,
originating from the intellectual search for truth and knowledge,
contributed to enriching intellectual nourishment in Korea as well
as in other countries.
Out of the invaluable collection of the Central National Library
were taken the specimen pages for this book. Thanks to Dr.
Sohn who analyzed the background of the invention and the
development of Korean typography, the texts are added to
his explanatory notes on each specimen page. The design and
the format of the book are entirely based upon his suggestion.
The first edition in 1970.
Po Chm Chat Printing Co . Ltd. /150pp. 275 x 395/75 illus./
$50.00 (Postage included)
59. Modern Korean Painting
Edited by Korean National Commission for UNESCO
This de luxe art book, published in 1971 to commemorate the
sixtieth anniversary of the introduction of modern occidental
painting to Korea, is the second volume of the UNESCO-Korea
series. Highlighted by numerous color plates reproducing paint-
ings by 20 of the nation's leading contemporary artists, the book
includes brief essays in English on each painter, his career, style,
and work. A general introduction and an appendix provide valu-
able background to the history of art in modern Korea, and this is
the first time for such basic materials to be available in a Western
language. The 160-page large-size book contains two color and
four black and white reproductions of the work of each artist,
1 20 plates in all.
The 1st edition in 1971
Korean National Commission for UNESCO /1 59pp. 260 x 245
/ $17.00 (Postage included)
60. Masterpieces of Korean Painting Vol. I
Edited byChisik Industrial Co.
This is a collection, the largest size of its kind in the world, of
30 color reproductions of the paintings carefully selected out of
those regarded as national treasures or of the same importance of
the Yi Dynasty, with each painting beautifully mounted for the
convenience of appreciation and preservation.
All the explanations are done not only in Korean but translated
into English and Japanese, and the book is put in a beautiful
slipcase. As valuable data for Korean studies and the studies of
Korean paintings, the second (35 paintings) and the third (35
paintings) volumes will soon follow.
The 1 st edition in 1972.
Jisik San up Co. — Korean Cultural Institute/! 28pp. 440 x 550/
$100.00 (Postage included)
61 . The Flavor of Korean Folk Painting
Edited by Encylopaedia Britanmca (Korea) Inc. and Zozayong
Thirty-three pieces of Korean folk art, reproduced in color and
black and white, are introduced in this book along with essays on
each work. The works selected are somewhat crude and rustic
in style and form. They are all works done by the common people
and are symbolic of their life. They, therefore, do not conform to
the orthodox esthetic and technical standards of the artistic
establishment.
Symbilizing long life, good luck, repelling evil, education,
eternity and nationalism, the paintings carried in this book are
defined as the humble expression of basic human desire and
faith. According to Mr. Zozyaong, who is an avid lover of Korean
folk art and the collector of the works introduced, the special
flavor of Korean folk painting is to be found in its rich humor
and satire.
The 1 st Edition in 1972.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Korea) Inc. /44pp. 155 x 260/
$1.60 ( Postage included)
62. Tanwon's Genre-Picture Album
This album of 25 life-size pictures copied from the original
genre-pictures overflowing with sweetness and humor by a great
painter in Yi Dynasty, Hong To Kim alias Tanwon, is a valuable
contribution to the artistic world of Korea. Among the works
are included "A Scene on the Road," "Musicians and Dancer,"
"Korean Wrestling," "Peddling Tour," "Building a House," "Vil-
lage School," "Farmers Turning Up the Ground," "Training Re-
cruit," "Collecting Alms," "Ferry Boats," "Firewood Carriers,"
"A Wayside Tavern," "Women by the Well," "Washer Women at
the Stream," "Lunch Time on Field," "A Bridegroom," "Shoeing
the Horse," "Scholar Artist," "The Carrier," etc. The original
Tanwon's Genre- Picture Album was registered (No. 527) as one
of Korea's national treasures, and was also named by Cultural
Properties Custody Bureau as one of Korea's cultural properties.
The 1st edition in 1972.
Tamgu-dang Publishing Co.. Ltd./25 pictures 225 x 270/
$150.00 (Postage included)
63. Pictures of the Items Deposited in the National Central
Museum
Edited by Samhwa Publishing Co.
In order to introduce the ancient art of Korea at home and
abroad, the pictures in this collection were carefully selected
as the most representative cultural properties out of the many
precious items now deposited in the National Central Museum.
They were unearthed from all over the country after extensive
researches on the relics of ancient Korea. It contains 100 helio-
typed pictures, which were most carefully selected and arrayed
according to different eras and fields by the National Central
Museum. This is a valuable collection both academically and as
archaeological data, because in it we can find the pith of all our
cultural properties.
The works collected here include pictures of 85 industrial pro-
ducts such as earthenwares, bronze wares, gold crown, personal
ornaments, utensils for daily use, Buddhist images, green porce-
lain works, white porcelain works, etc., and 15 other items such
as figure-paintings, pictures of heavenly beings, sketches, land-
scape paintings, genre-pictures, portraits, etc.
Especially, the detailed expositions attached including the
eras of the works, places of digging-up, names of the makers,
actual sizes, etc. will be very helpful for you to understand the
ancient art of Korea, while the minute color printing will produce
an effect similar to that of the originals.
The 1 st edition in 1972.
Samhwa Publishing Co. /276pp. 230 x 300/100 photos/
$15.00 (Postage mcludde)
Language b Literature
64. Hun-Min-Jeong-Eum "Right Sounds to Educate the
People" (Korean Alphabet)
Translated by Jeong Ho Lee
The Korean Library Science Research Institute has for some-
time cherished a project for the translation and publication
of Hun-Min-Jeong-Eum to introduce it overseas. This book
attempts to give a general and brief summation of the contents
of the "Explanations and Examples" version of "Right Sounds
to Educate the People," and also contains a photostatic copy
of the original manuscript at the end of the volume.
The 1st edition in 1972.
Po Chin Chai Printing Co.. Ltd./ 192pp. 225 x 320/2 photos/
68 illus./ $20.00 (Postage included)
65. An Introduction to Korean Literature
by In Sob long
This is a complete guide book in English for foreigners who
are interested in Korean Literature. It gives the general information
on the traditional background, historical trend, and comprehensive
appreciation of various phases of Korean Literature, ancient and
modern. The author also paid much attention to the influences of
Western literature on the development of modern Korean culture,
so that foreigners might easily excavate the characteristics of
Korean Literature by analogical approach.
The 1 st edition in 1970.
Hyangin-sa (Book Center) /310pp. 150 x 210/ $4.00 (Post-
age included)
66. Humour in Literature — East and West
Edited by International P.E.N. Centre. Korean Centre
This book is an arrangement and translations into three lan-
guages, Korean, English and French, of all the proceedings, such
as speeches, questionings and discussions that took place at the
37th International P E N. Congress, which was held in Seoul
between June 28 and July 4, 1970. The International P E N.
Club praised the book as establishing a "new milestone in the
history of recording the proceedings of an International P.E.N.
Congress meeting."
International P EN. Cenre. Korean Centre/ 981 pp. 150 x210
/ $7.50 (Postage included)
67. Sea of Tomorrow
Translated by Edward W. Poitras
This book consists of 40 poems by Pak Tu-jin who is one
of the most respected figures in the Korean literary world today,
as well as one of the prominent trio poets, Pak Tu-jin, Pak Mok-
wol and Cho Chi-hun, known as belonging to the "Green Deer
School." His early works were published in the late 1 930's, and
ever since he has steadily presented new works to the public.
This translated collection includes such a poems as "Song in a
Graveyard," one of his early works, and "The Acts of the Apostles
4," another that appeared while this manuscript was being pre-
pared. The 40 works included here are intended to be representa-
tive, although they include hardly more than one-tenth of his
total output to date.
The present excellent translation would not have seen the
light without such a competent translator as Dr. Edward W.
Poitras, who is a well-known authority as an American on the
Korean language and literature.
The 1st edition in 1971.
Il-cho Gag Publishing Co. /104pp. 1 50 x 230/ $3.50 (Postage
included)
68. A Pageant of Korean Poetry
Translated by In Sob Zong
This book introduces in one volume, a bird-eye-view of the
Korean poetry from the earliest time down to the present period,
including ancient poems, Korean short sonnets, folk songs, and
various poetical works of modern times. This collection tries to
visualize in English to the eyes of Western readers the nucleus
of Korean Poetry in a complete anthology. The three hundred and
twenty poems will show the individual differences of more than
two hundred and twenty four poets, but they may represent the
historical trend of Korean poetry. In the introduction, the author
gives the historical trend of Korean poetical creation, indicating
schools or movements of Korean literature. This book was selected,
translated and with an introduction and a short preface by William
Butier Yeats, the famous Irish Poet. And it secured also the Best
Translation Reward by the Korean Centre of the International
P.E.N. Club in Oct. 30, 1963.
Hyangin-sa (Book Center) /324pp. 150 x 210/ $3.00 (Post-
age included)
69. Songs of the Dragons
Translated by James Hoyt
This initial volume in a projected series of joint-venture
publications with the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, is
the first English version of an epic-didactic poem of the early Yi
Dynasty. Songs of the Dragons is a translation with an introduc-
tion and notes by James Hoyt. This important historical literary
work also represents the first major writing to be transcribed in
the newly-invented Korean phonetic alphabet called Han-gul.
The 1st edition in 1971 .
Korean National Commission for UNESCO /1 86pp. 145 x 235/
$5.00 (Postage included)
70. Modern Short Stories from Korea
Translated and edited by In Sob Zong
This book presents 20 short stories by modern Korean novel-
ists. 8 stories in part I are based mainly on the theme of love and
marriage, but the remaining twelve deal with other aspects of
human relationships, though some of them touch incidentally on
the subjects of love and marriage, but not as the principal issue.
This book introduces various aspects of modern Korean life in
contrast with those of traditional life of Korea which are elaborate-
ly illustrated in "Folk Tales from Korea" written by the same
author.
The 1st edition in 1958.
Munho-sa/310pp. 105 x 230/ $3.00 (Postage included)
71. Tales from Korea
by Yong Tae Pyon
This is a collection of fairy tales from Korea carefully selected
by the author out of the heaps of those that have been handed
down from generation to generation and been on the tongues of
men most often, and excellently translated into English by the
author himself.
It is a translation of 1 6 tales such as "The Sun and the Moon"
and others, which should be read as a good primer by all the
foreigners who take any interest in Korea, let alone English lan-
guage students.
The 1st edition in 1960.
Il-cho Gag Publishing Co./ 1 46pp. 128 x 1 88/ $1 .00 (Postage
included)
72. Fragrance of Spring, The Story of "Choon Hyang"
by Sim Chat Hong
Although the plot of this love story is not much different from
that of any other story of the same nature, the characters all
possess peculiar personalities. The indomitable spirit with which
the heroine fought against all sorts of hardship for her immortal
love constitutes the central idea of this famous romance. It is
because of this spirit that "Choon Hyang" has been acclaimed
as an embodiment of feminine grace and chastity of oriental
womanhood. In an easy, simple narrative style Professor Sim has
rewritten this difficult-to-translate legendary tale of quaint
manners and customs of old Korea, treating the chapters as fast-
moving scenes of a motion picture.
The 1st edition in 1970.
Po Chin Chat Printing Co.. Ltd. /232pp. 135 x 195/S1.50
(Postage included)
73. Plays from Korea
Translated and edited by In Sob Zong
This is the first collection of Korean plays ever printed in English
(1 968). The thirteen plays included here will bring to life through
dialogue and action the background of Korean culture and con-
temporary psychology of the nation, including a traditional Ko-
rean Puppet play, "the Puppet Woman."
The 1st edition in 1968.
Korean Language School for Foreigners. Chung-ang Univ./
248pp. 150 x 210/ $2.00 (Postage included)
The catalog No. 4 will follow later.
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— nfrm
V&l;
presentation of
Difficulties
which have arisen in the
CHOSEN [KOREA] MISSION
of the
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN U. S. A.
Because of a Lack of Definition between
the Foreign Board and itself concern-
ing their mutual responsibilities
m the administration of
FIELD WORK.
5 A. ('loKett a*\d J E. Aldhts, fci'.i Yt
/. A Petition of Missionaries to the Executive Com-
mission of the General Assembly.
II. A Statement of Three Cases of the BoartT s deal-
ings with the Mission in such matters.
III. The Correspondence on these subjects by Board
and Mission Officials.
LA
Printed for private use, and not /or Publication.
I
INTRODUCTION
The Korea Mission was established in 1884. It is now the
largest of the twenty-seven missions under our Foreign Board.
It has a total membership (men and women) of 144. Of these 86
are active voting members (men and single women), and 42 are
ordained ministers.
The field has been a very open one and the work blessed with
the outpouring of the Spirit. This has made possible concentra-
tion on direct evangelism, and the use of methods ideal to all mis-
sionaries but often made impossible because of greater difficulties.
According to the latest Board statistics covering its entire twenty-
seven missions, there are in the Korea Mission 26% of all the com-
municants received on profession of faith during the previous year,
30% of the total communicant membership, 38% of the average
attendance, 37% of Sunday School attendance; while there are
88% of the self-supporting churches. The largest Presbyterian
Theological Seminary in the world also is in that country. This I
work is done by something over 10% of the missionaries and 7%
of the appropriations. These statistics are given to show that the
question of field administration herein brought before the Church
is not a small one but involves a marked proportion of the Church’s
interests in foreign mission work.
The question has been under discussion for seven years, peti-
tions have been made without effect. Recurring cases have made
necessary this presentation.
The six evangelical missions in Korea organized an Educa-
tional Federation with a constitution ratified by Missions and
Boards. A co-operating Finance Committee of Board representa-
tives was organized at home. This Committee, assuming functions
constitutionally placed in the field body, took the initiative of or-
' ganizing a single college for the entire country, at a different loca-
' tion and upon vitally differing principles, from the already organ-
ized and operating union college. The matter was brought to a
vote of the entire missionary body. Only 30% favored the new
proposition. Three Presbyterian Missions carrying from two-
thirds to three-fourths of all the work in the country, were almost
unanimously opposed. Regardless of this the college was directly
ordered established. In consequence the field Federation dissolved
itself. None of the three missions have gone into the institution.
Our own Board was one of the most prominent in this action.
Our Mission carried over one-half of all the work in the country.
It made an 86 7c vote against the proposition. It protested, peti-
tioned, and explained. The Board finally authorized “such mem-
bers of the Mission as were willing to do so” to represent it in
establishing the College, and it has since been operated outside and
,notT^eJiapaneSe Atdmi"istrat>on issued an Ordinance requiring
that all religious instruction and exercises be eliminated from
curriculum of all Mission schools. Those holding a go vernment
themselves of the ten years, closed all new schools, 'and' sorted
fci°r oVlng theJuture of Christian education for the Korean
Church. Our own Mission made its policy nlain in
new^O a®Clded to tak,e out a barter for the new college undTr
the new Ordinance secularizing all departments except the the£
SnaeffortsUS' C°UrSe Unintentl°na"i’’ gave a ruinous blow to
Miasi0n bad a11. along been urging the point of the Mis-
sion s place in field administration. It was told that the General
Assembly s constituting action caused all field authority to inhere
in the Board, and the Board did not have power to change this
TTie discussion was long continued. The Mission finally petitioned
the Board to ask for a Commission to go into the matfer and pro-
vide regulations defining the relations'^ field administration This
was refused. At the next meeting of General Assembly (1919) the
Board presented for Assembly ratification a Dronositinn r!
merger Board of all Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in which
was embodied “on the field abroad all problems of ^ missionary
administration should be determined by the new Board ” Th!
Assembly adopted it with the provision that “in the consummation
torce ofPoa^XPrcehC”1 lferenCe sha11 be held with, the missionary
rflder should give particular attention' to the "Brief’
prepared at the suggestion of Board representatives and the Board
Memorandum’' prepared for presentation to the Central Assembly
said that i^hh 8 d a° ^Position of the Mission it should be
said that is has never desired to alter the organic law nf th!
final*®^ ’v!1 fu -y recognized that all authority, initial appellate and
final, inheres in the General Assembly, and that the Board U th»
HSThme Mits^ h386^ “ £® -W°5k’ caryinS head responsibility for
the p® j s.s*on bas never desired autonomy or independence from
here i^theBoarf Ttd^il Many P<7®rS in field matters should in-
But thpV!Bd' ? d ful1 Powers of restraint should also be there
sionarj! i^tm^th^field a*m°t a1c?pt hhe position that “every
Board ’’ or that ‘wilnt ,Jely betcause of apointment by the
larger’ , °A that present world conditions imperatively demand a
Their and,.m°re effective unification of all missionary^ activities ”
Payees 'abroad 'S T* t0 ^ With that °f ^ ™en m-
to this worT witWhe m! Prefbyters.of ^e church, called of God
and as such ihT,,h Masters promised presence in their midst
work which thpv h!?"6 v^nt® ngbtf’ inherent in themselves, in the
lives. Not onlv dr,haV® Hi'1 Up,and to which they have given their
rapid ^owth and inr! and pr?pnety sPeak in the matter, but
necessary to efficiency' comPlexlty of field problems make it
Unctions of the lirw and progress. It is a definition of these
necessary to the w^rk Wh “ requested and which has become
r 3
*
executive commission of THE general assembly
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A.
field ^™"sotnrf^di the Mission while recognizing that the ulti-
retrularly constituted mission body. ^ oi^Qiiiri Kp fol-
recojmized this principle and has directed that it should l be 101
“out in its missionary work, as appears m its action of 1917 •
larger mias.ons.” ^ Mmute3> 1917, page 219).
On the other hand, the Board of Foreign f lssions or^ts sec-
retaries acting for it, has, in its relations with the Lhosen Mission,
tended more and more to set aside this principle and has increas-
hands and exercised directly those powers which should have oeen
exercised through the Mission. . ,
The conflict of these two principles, that of local j
ment and that of the centralization of autho£^. situation
the Board in New York has resu ted in i^ of autHoritv loss
There is manifest today on the field a corl^u ^ , : ty.„ p»'oar(j
of morale, discouragement and lack of confid effort is
and the whole work built up at great cost of life and effort is
jeopardized. .... ••
We present herewith three statements of Pf ^p ^nTrd^has
occurring since 1912, in which it appears that the Board has
acted in a manner to justify the above statement We have ap-
nooio'i tv„ Or,^rri n<rein and again, but have obtained no rebel
1
and we are therefore seeking redress through the General Assem-
bly. s
We respectfully request that you take such action as will se-
cure a thorough examination of the relations existing between the
Board of Foreign Missions and the Chosen Mission and obtain an
authoritative definition in the Board Manual approved by the
General Assembly of the relations which should properly exist
between the Board of Foreign Missions and the Missions in regard
to the matter of field administration, to the end that relations
more suitable for the prosecution of modern complex mission work
under definite Presbyterian principles may be established.
Respectfully submitted,
(The original sheets in
five or more identical
copies, signed by the
following individuals) :
Norman C. Whittemore
Stacy L. Roberts
Edwin L. Campbell
Geo. S. McCune
Blanche I. Stevens
S. P. Tipton
Vera F. Ingerson
Archibald Campbell
Jennie M. Rehrer
John D. Bigger
Chas. Allen Clark
J. U. Selwyn Toms
R. E. Winn
W. J. Anderson
John Y. Crothers
Edwin Kagin
Martha Switzer
A. G. Welbon
Jas. E. Adams
Samuel A. Moffett
W. M. Baird
R. O. Reiner
W. L. Swallen
E. M. Mowry
W. N. Blair
Margaret Best
Alice M. Butts
Anna S. Doriss
Velma Lee Snook
Helen W. Anderson
Edw. F. McFarland
Robt. McMurtrie
Ansel W. Gillis
Henry W. Lampe
Wm. B. Hunt
H. C. Whiting
Anna M. McKee
Katherine McCune
Charles E. Sharp
C. L. Phillips
J. G. Holdcroft
W. T. Cook
T. Stanley Soltau
Hilda Helstrom
G. H. Winn
Henry M. Bruen
Walter C. Erdman
F. S. Miller
Marion E. Hartnesi
Harold H. Henderson
Harriet E. Pollard
G. O. Bergman j
Elizabeth B. Bek ini
C. F. Hoffmpn
5
(
THE CASE OF THE BOARD’S DEALING WITH THE SENATE
OF THE EDUCATIONAL FEDERATION IN KOREA.
(Reforeocai at cad of Statement)
I. The Organization and Constitution of the Senate.
The conditions of missionary education in Chosen and the
developing of the new Japanese government’s relations to it were
such that it became necessary for the various Missions to stand
together in educational matters, and for this reason in 1911 the
six Federated Missions organized an additional Educational Fed-
eration with a governing Senate composed of their representatives
and gave to it such powers as the current conditions made neces-
sary. These Missions were the Northern Presbyterian, Southern
Presbyterian, Canadian Presbyterian, Australian Presbyterian,
Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal, South. The Con-
stitution was adopted by all the Missions and ratified by all their
Boards. For the Northern Presbyterian Mission this was done
by the Board in April, 1912. (1.)
The Constitution among other powers delegated to the gov-
erning body, the Educational Senate, the following: (2) “The
location and number of High Schools, Art Colleges, Technical
Schools, and Special Schools which shall be founded on or main-
tained by any of the constituent Missions, their correlation and
the delimitation of their respective territory, shall be determined
by the Senate.”
“That such funds may be secured, the Senate shall take
steps for the organization of a holding body and for incorporation
as may be necessary.” (3).
This holding body when organized became known as the
‘Joint Holding Committee.’
II. Assumption of Senate Functions by Joint Holding
Committee.
The representatives of our Board upon this Joint Holding
Committee were appointed at the same meeting as approved the
Senate Constitution, April 15th, 1912. (4). At the first meeting
of this Joint Holding Committee organized for the sole purpose
of securing and holding necessary joint funds (5) it started to
exercise functions the initiative for which was delegated solely
to the field Senate by the Missions and Boards. (6).
At this time there was but one college in the country. It was
at Pyengyang. It was a union institution of the two principal
Missions in the country with a permanent Constitution ratified
by both Missions and Boards. It had been running for years,
and had an attendance of 68 students in the collegiate course.
The Joint Holding Committee in New York first raised and
thrust upon the federated organizations the question of one col-
lege for the whole country and a change in location! (7) This is
shown in the minutes of its first meeting:
1. Number: There should be but one college in the country.
2. Location: That it should be either at Pyengyang or Seoul.
3. Correlation: Character of Pyengyang school if Seoul
should be decided upon as location.
A- 4 H (
In its second meeting the Joint Holding Committee sought
from the Boards authority (8) and secured it. This was done
without regard to the Educational Federation on the field or its
Constitution. The real situation and purpose however was not un-
derstood upon the field until long after. On the field the actions
were understood only as recommendations to the field. These min-
utes were sent to the field by our Board to secure the action of the
Mission (9) which took action (10) not appreciating the coming
usurpation of recognized field rights.
The Joint Holding Committee then made an extremely strong
recommendation for a new location at Seoul for the College it pro-
posed, secured a favorable vote from the Boards and put the
matter to a vote of the missionary body of the six Federated
Missions. (11). The Chairman of the Joint Holding Committee
who was also secretary of the Northern Presbyterian Board for
Korea wrote the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Northern Presbyterian Mission, who was also a member of the
Educational Senate, saying that the Boards were not forcing the
question of location and that the missionaries were being given the
opportunity to put the College where they wanted it. (12). This
was accepted as explanatory and in harmony with the Constitution
and the vote was taken by the Senate.
IU. Field Vote and Overriding of Field by Home
Orgnaizations.
The vote of all male missionaries more than one year on the
field was taken with the recommendation of the Joint Holding
Committee in the hands of the voters. These numbered 121. The
vote resulted, in favor of the existing location at Pyengyang 63 ; in
favor of the new location at Seoul 37 ; votes not received in time
limit 21. Of the 21 whose votes were not received it was known by
a previous vote that 8 stood for Pyengyang and 3 for Seoul.
This practically two-thirds vote was reported by the Senate
Secretary to the Joint Holding Committee with a careful analysis
of the vote. (13). The Joint Holding Committe received this and
by putting all non-voters on the side of the minority favoring the
new proposition pronounced it a fifty-two per cent vote, cast its
own vote on the side of the minority, declared this a majority of
the parties concerned, and through the Boards ordered the estab-
lishment of the institution at the new location in Seoul. (14). The
question of its authority being raised (15) it stated that (16)
c jThe Joint Committee derives its jurisdiction from the
boards which appointed it and in whose behalf it acts, that the
^ommittee is empowered, subject to the ratification of its recom-
mendations by the Boards, to deal with any and every subject
aitecting educational work in Korea which concerns the co-opera-
w r®laltlons and activities of the Boards, that the action charac-
all fi6d the Senate as that of the Joint Committee was that of
„;"Ye ,the Boards ‘n North America, and that this action
atfnntLU"..eSS and until sha11 be modified by the Boards which
to the fi'ld”nd whlch lnstructed the Joint Committee to send it
S' ( .’
The grounds of the action of the Joint Holding Coi.-.aittee
having become clear, and its incompatibility with the Constitution
of the Senate evident, the Senate protested the action and refused
to accept the decision. It pointed out the overriding of its Constitu-
tion ratified by the Boards, the usurpation of the functions dele-
gated to it, the injustice of the action, and the confusion created
by it. (17). (18). This was conveyed to the Joint Holding Com-
mittee, but no explanation, justification or reply was ever received.
The college at Seoul was established, upon the authority of
the Boards through the Joint Holding Committee, without further
reference to the Senate, and against a practically two-thirds vote
of the eitire missionary body of the country, and the almost unan-
imous vote of those Missions carrying nearly three-fourths of the
work cf the country. The chief party in this action was the Board
of theNorthem Presbyterian church.
Tie Constitution of the Senate having been shattered and
the fa:t of its shattering left ignored, the Senate ultimately dis-
solveditself, by the authorization of the constituent Missions, and
ceased to exist.
N)TE:
Itmay be said that the Senate made a reference of the ques-
tion t( the Joint Holding Committee. This is true. But this was
done a to an outside body, before any realization on the field of
the c curse that body was pursuing. (19).
It will be seen from the letters referred to that conditions in
the Jont Committee led the Senate to invalidate the reference (be-
fore tie Joint Committee decision was made), and ultimately the
Comnittee itself repudiated it as the basis of its decision. For
these reasons it has not been entered here as an essential factor
h the sequence pursued.
(1) Board Letter 64, See Appendix I; Board Letter 80, Appendix II.
(2) Art. 6, Sec. 4.
(3) Art. 5, Sec. 11.
(4) B. L. 80, Appendix II. B. L. 102, Appendix III.
(6) Cont. Art. 5, Sec. 11, quoted above.
(6) Minutes, Joint Com., 6-27-12, Appendix IV.
(7) Minutes, Joint Com., 6-27-’12, Resolutions 2 & 3: Appendix IV.
(8) Minutes, Joint Com., 7-24-’12, Appendix V.
(9) Bd. L., 102, Appendix III.
(10) Mission Minutes, 1912, pages 51-53, Appendix VI.
(11) Bd. L„ 145, 4-15-13, Appendix VII.
(12) A. J. B. to S. A. M., 7-25-13. Appendix VIII.
(13) J. E. A. to A. J. B., 8-13-13, Appendix IX.
(14) A. J. B. to J. E. A., 9-15-13. Appendix X. J. E. A. to
A. J. B., 10-20-13, Appendix XI, Bd. L., 177, Appendix
XU, F. M. N. to J. E. A., 2-24-14, Appendix XIII. Bd. L.,
196, Appendix XIV.
(16) J. E. A. to F. M. N„ 4-6-14, Appendix XV.
(16) Joint Com. to J. E. A., 5-19-14, Appendix XXV.
. (17) Senate Minutes 6-13-14, Appendix XVI.
(18) J. E. A. to A. J. B., 4-23-14, Appendix XVII.
(19) J. E. A. to A. J. B., 12-25-12, Appendix XVIII. J. E.
A. to A. J. B., 3-31-13, Appendix XIX. A. J. B. to J. E. A.,
4-28-13, Appendix XX. J. E. A. to A. J. B., 6-27-13, Appen-
dix XXI; 6-23-13, Appendix XXII. Bd. L., 167, 7-30-13,
Appendix XXUI. Senate Minutes, 6-13-14, pages 10-15,
Appendix XXIV. Joint Com. to J. E. A., 5-19-14, Appen-
dix XXV.
THI^^SE OF THE BOARD’S DEALING WITH THE CHOSFM
MSSWN IN THE MATTER OF THE LOCATIONoT
ONE COLLEGE FOR THE COUNTRY.
(R«fcr«aeca U n] o! Suitnj.nl)
I. The Northern Presbyterian Mission bod
Bo^ds No quMtionC of StheU desirability^ ■ of\ca°tSn S^Tsen"'1
Seoul. The Mission had at times eddfovpH timoc j* ^
SMS" its
however, took no action. This was the situldonhf thffaHf
2SS2S- 0°<
S in KoerraereTPbreSernt Wi^h rtaln missionaries'1 of theT Ms
these meetings 'to our Son in ^Au^st^nh^sim™^' vlth*
Mission'co^Weration^S^ptemter0111'11^ aPPr°Va1’ and &***
Kon.^he ^ statemen?ere^lt^Sent^i0n °f the *the
HI TI„ j' j .u U' . ■ , 456' Memorandum pg. 23, Appendix I yytv
Sion^after lon^discussioif"^^''^^^^'^^ " ^00'<
passed “thafPPr°^ but Slx ne£ative votes; and it was also
With! in*the IJnioii Coll ^ Missions to unite
Southern and Austrnl^n p® 3k Pye.n^n«-” in which request the
basis of thfs mot on nn^fv Mlss’?ns concurred. Upon
it "■"oft; ti. : ,so0vou,d lhe Mis™» «
emphatic dKis^n^ °/ theser actions the Board called them “an
entirely ignoring the real character of the Mission’s actim.. the
fact of an existing union college built up upon many years devel-
opment of work, and that no Mission except the Methodist Epis-
copal which handled but fifteen per cent of the educational work
of the country, had raised any question as to its location.
V. Board Letter No. 145 (24) brought to the Mission the Board’s
endorsement of the New York Joint Holding Committee’s action
strongly recommending the Seoul location, and asking for a vote
of the missionary body of the country on the question. The nu-
merous wrong and unbalanced statements favoring the Commit-
tee s position as set forth in this communication need not be gone
into. Suffice to say that on the field instead of the six Federated
Missions haying voted for one Union College for the country as
stated, the three Presbyterian Missions carrying between them
two-thirds and three-fourths of all the work in the country had
explicitly voted for the already established location in Pyengyang
and formally entered into its union, so that four out of six were
in the organization, and this was known to the Board.
A vote of the missionary body on the subject had just been
taken on the initiative of the Senate of the Educational Federa-
.£• “P?.n the receipt of this request a second vote was taken
with the fuU recommendation of the New York Joint Holding
Committee before each voter. This was done upon the under-
standing that the vote was a reference to the field for decision
and that a clear majority of the missionaries would decide the
question. TTns understanding was certified by a letter from the
Chairman of the Joint Holding Committee, who was also Secre-
£f our,Boa^d for. Korea, written to the Chairman of our Mis-
sion Executive Committee. (25) .
Alth°ugl? vote was taken with the full recommendation of
the New York Joint Holding Committee before each voter it still
sfxUFtederniaHtVM:th-lrdS ^0t? °f the entire missionary body of the
d j Missions in favor of the established Pyengyang
location. And in this vote our own Mission, carrying a full half
of all the work in the country, gave a vote of 35 tef 5 with the
majority. (26) Immediately following this our Executive Com-
mittee made full presentation of conditions and reasons to the
Board and presumed that the matter was closed. (27).
VI. The astonishment of the missionary body and of our own
M ss.on in particular can scarcely be understood when weT
favor of a" au‘hori!atively deciding the location in
ion °upon ^these issertions- ^ t0 JUStify this decis'
,*• That.a11 the Missions had unconditionally agreed to en-
a.unlon of one college ^ the country and were therefore
San m- the m,atjer' Jhis was not so. The Northern Presby-
Uninn p1?,31011 had made the condition of the already established
ab?oIutf; This,was done because the quest'on of
Mission aS *.naxtncably involved with questions of fundamental
Preshvt p.nnciP*.es-. The Southern Presbyterian and Australian
resbytenan Missions agreed with the Northern Presbyterian
Aade'St Snffitfon' o^theTmn^f J0" its Home
absolute and -the Methodist EDisconaf'/6'!//'^ ocat,on in Seoul
so indeed This lto waaWnnt a a fty'tW0 per cent v°te and
by a confusing of the issues. FofiheTe were twyr b? Set-forth
new proposition: finance organizatinn an/ itbr^ facto™s 1,1 the
was wholly a Board question • th* ™ ’ 5n£ *ocftlon- The first
third wholly * F?eW question’ FaiW0"^ 3?“d and Fieldi the
to agree on any- one of the three might defLtth partles lnterested
but failure in none could iustifv tvL u efea /he new proposition,
rights and fu^cUon.softheF.eldin o^r/t^,111 /SUrping the
institution and put a new proposition over. ‘ ^hsh an existln?
was SaUy^SSHn th^SouS’ Rd 0Wn Missi°n, but
Presbyterian Missions — the first of and Australian
in the country, and brthtf which have sL^ r/ SeCOnd largest
sistently refused to have aught to do with th •’ /e °ur own- “n-
and these two with our own St! “monat&oul;
fourths of all the work in the country.* twcKhirds to three-
decision^f ^medhi te ' casY and^tlfe ^th aS- to the
tion violated in the overriding of onr w ^ nciPles of administra-
ary body of the country. (29) This protester th® mission‘
mg with the Mission’s main contenL^ wi L re^
proceedure were signed hv fnH-tr LI*.refeanJ to the Board s
sixty-four in th~ Mission (30) fvo^g members out of
statement: ’ (30)' The protest 13 3amned up in this
conducted b^aSd though® the field"' org/ffilati^^In ^ ^ t0 be
contrary course is in violation of 7 ”j0n- In our view a
S “ 1S1< * b*»°‘ »»
forty-two to twelve in faZ of the T votin* and
union institution in Pyengyang (32) TT^bi hf? locatlon of the
final action. It justified i faction fnin? I°ard' upon this> to°k
Policy between the Mission and the PRnnrH^^TfreDC€ educational
• . ( q
the right of the Presbyterian church to conduct education Ko-
rea in accord with these principles, as in all its other Missions. It
would permit the Pyengyang Union College to be continued as a
Junior College if the Mission could carry it, but the other institu-
tion must be established upon the broader basis. It hoped that the
majority of the Mission would regard this as the best compromise
practicable and co-operate heartily in the Seoul institution by the
immediate election of Mission representatives on the Field Board
of Managers “who of course must be men who sympathize with
the objects of the Seoul College.” The Board of Managers was
authorized to proceed at once with the organization of the college
at Seoul, and if the Mission did not feel prepared to co-operate
“the Board authorizes such members of the Mission as are willing
to do so, to represent the Board in organizing the College at
Seoul.” (33). Owing to the inability of the Mission to make an
ad interim decision the college was established and operation be-
gun as authorized by the Board letter.
IX. At the annual meeting of 1915 after long prayer and careful
consideration and conference with Dr. Speer of the Board, and
only after repeated attempts to find some other solution of the pro-
blem, in view of the institution being already in operation, the Mis-
sion replied :
"Much to our regret we cannot see our way clear to partici-
pate in the Seoul College, and we ask the Board to make arrange-
ments to operate the college independent of the Mission.”
This was by a vote of thirty-five to eight. (34). To this the
Board replied assenting to the arrangement and appointing its re-
presentatives, (35) and the institution has since continued upon
this basis, supposedly being operated independently of the Mis-
sion, directly by the Board, through individual representation.
X. In the Board’s final decision it defined certain administrative
relations. (36). “It would endeavor to provide its share of fac-
ulty and maintainance without lessening the force and budget that
would be normally assigned to the mission.” “The Board will des-
ignate the college appropriations and missionary appointments
so that they can be noted separately from those subject to trans-
fer on the field.” “Our share in the college is to be regarded as an
integral and necessary part of the work of the Presbyterian
church in Korea and entitled to full recognition as such.” As mat-
ters have progressed, however, it has become increasingly mani-
fest that it is not the purpose to have the relation agreed upon
continue permanently or to make reasonable adjustments for it,
or to pursue other policy than that of constant and unjust pres-
sure upon the Mission to force it into the institution. The appro-
priations for the institution have been unknown to the Mission
but appointees upon its faculty have sought secretaries’ salaries
and house rent from Mission appropriations, qualified Mission
workers have been transferred to the faculty from the already
overworked Mission force, over the Mission vote by direct Board
action, and their place filled in Mission work with new recruits
froin home; t37)) the annual popular meeting of the institution
has been injected into the annual meeting of the Mission as a pro-
to
P-ti w ’-an(i members of the Mission carrying large and respon-
sible Mission work are called home for long periods for the institu-
EwoS6 (38U °Ut referenCe t0 the Mis3i0n’s P^ion for
In view of the increasing confusion, through a lack of proper
definition of relations, the Mission at its annual meeting of 1918
petitioned the Board to secure General Assembly permission for
the suspension of the Manual Rule, Sec. 40, that “the Mission has
fae.nne^ “^and supervision of all work within its limits, ’’ and ob-
th 1 1 i 1 f aM° " f°r £hf °Pveratl0n of the institution within
Sh “stinct de'fiSor S) y °UtSide and Unrekted 10 *
The Board replied (40) “that the Board had not deprived the
Mission of its powers in relation to the college. The Mission had
voluntary and against the wish of the Board abdicated its powers
to the college by declining to recognize it as an integral
T°rk Wlthm ltS ,bounds with which the Board and the
Home Church are co-operating. The Board agrees with the Mis-
tw Hi! lh<e resultl"g situation is ‘difficult and anomalous’ and
that it is a source of constant conflict and confusion ’ But this
unfortunate situation has been created by the course of The MiS:
sion in refusing to accept the decision properly made hv the RnarH
gnd approved by the General Assembly. The Miiilon is entirely
‘-TT® t0 remedy it at any time by co-operating with the college”
TCie actions of the Board were submitted to and approved by the
General Assembly the following year in connection with its re-
the records of the Board.” “The relation of the college to
the Mission is the same as that of other union institutions such
as the Union Medical College and the Junior Union College in
Pyengyang except that the Mission has not availed itself of the
right to e'ect representatives on the Field Board of Managers.’’
fnrmTt-the+v?Sr ?,nn!ed Pamphlet of the institution for public in-
formation the following statement is made • (41)
™ Bld B°ard of Managers consists of eleven missionaries rep-
sssrsv “ Misgri "> ^
loo ,final inference seems inevitable and the Mission is heln-
less m the matter. “This unfortunate situation has been creatid
nrono i C0UrsJe ?f the Mission in refusing to accept the derision
renfedVrt”^6 by.tbe Board and the Mission is entirely free to
NOTP * ar1y c°-?Perating with the college.”
ferred to will^ivp0U b<lSald that the officiaI correspondence re-
the matter d! glve a. much more comprehensive understanding of
PoffitT lt o^ m ^1S Kstatement which touches only principal
tions8 api oved bva he a min£tbat the Manual regula
agents’ Snby | General Assembly for its Home and Field
"The M^on W1163 the f‘SSIOn’s functions as follows:
within it! limit!0" Ah,f genferal c?re and supervision of all work
limits. All questions of policy, method and expenditure
J> (
are siibjcet to its judgment, and all requests requiring the action
of the Board should be accompanied by the action of the Mission
upon them.
Among all the Missions in the country our own had been
most strongly founded upon the policy of a self-supporting self-
governing self-propagating native church. Within thirty years
from the beginning a church of 100,000 Christians had resulted
lts,,own Presbyteries and Assembly and this
is practically self-supporting. In the aggregate of all the
twenty-seven Missions operating under our foreign Board twentv-
ofUt>io!.>,Cen£ °f ^e"atjve ordained pastors, thirty-three per cent
of the churches, thirty-four per cent of the communicants, eighty-
thr„ee Pf.r ,cent of the self-supporting churches were in the
6 but ten per cent of the missionaries and
eight per cent of the appropriations were to this country. The ar-
dent evangelistic character of the Korean church was shown by
i b® 1 a v,° thu 1 thlrty-three Per cent of all those each year enter!
T- cl}“rch among the twenty-seven Missions entered the
church in Korea. Practically all these were being brought in by
the spontaneous efforts of unpaid native Christians. As all mis-
sionaries know these conditions are exceedingly difficult to attain
nnrf aim" f0™ d.lfficult to maintain. The consistent, unwavering
and almost unanimous position of our Mission body arose from its
conviction, born through long effort and experience, and fortified
d^ect responsibility to the Master, upon this point
t knew that in this almost ideal condition, labored and prayed for
of the7h^cbSI an’rihligher- education should be made the handmaid
thi=f church, and its primary object be the making permanent of
evangelizing character in its life and leadership. This was the
great and vital hope of the country’s rapid evangelization.
. As a result no^ °ver ten per cent of students in Mission insti-
not rnmWere "?n.t:hnstlan- They were not excluded, but they dia
?r‘f)they came' they did not remain non-christians
carried out1^68 were. ardently j evangelistic and those going out
u,„ 5 • tb? Same spint- Under the system IQ 556 scholars
anTl322hffiPth^ary’f lf:SUPP°^tin^ church schooIs of our Mission
u™ k 22 um,tbe academies and college. The Pyengyang college
tion ° b> * u?, a^ tbe caPstone of the system, in the only loca-
te . n erl '^C0U d be m,ost certainly made such, and in it the svs-
thTchurchUCt WaS COmpleted and being turned back into the life^of
cent nfl'il1?, Evangelical Missions our Mission alone held sixty per
student*}! communicant membership and over fifty per cent of the
form ^ °.dy 0f the country. During four years of discussion five
eKerthTv^e^tr.T the SUbj/Ct and none fell below ^n
tinn 1 Un vote of tbe Mission in favor of the established loca-
conneet! °WeV*u eu® E?ard of Foreign Missions in New York in
the Mission^hmi ^ J°'nt H°lding Committee, established within
nrLf^u, b°u.ndanes over the Mission’s head, and against its
the iu^3 -y unfnimous protest an institution which is to dominate
the Mission education of the country and reverse fts charSct™
*
<21> Bd L 22S (A0) Ba: Appendix III.
' ■' Appendix XXVI; A. J. B. to S A M 7
(22) M,„,on Minute, 1912, Page, 61-53, Appendi vt ’
' i’oaaa k i?°- Appendix UI.A.
1261 A T 4c15;13;,Appendix VII.
(26) J. E. A to A j B 8 Vt lV ‘a'' 7'2.5.'13I> Appendix VIII.
(27) “
1XACTb° fhl'1}-14’ App-dix XXVIII.
» ".SB
(37) Bd L. «2L1 Ifis12:8-14- Appendix XXXVII.
RS &&&% il
^I)IIMMi0L.^8Utpea3; fX6?r8- Appendix
<39l4“m^<S4'°1>91ldA£P0^ XUV-
page 3?A^^nxgviC0,Ieee- Se°U'’ Cho5en’ Nov- 1318.
>3 (
THE CASE OF THE BOARD’S DEALING WITH THE CHOSEN
MISSION IN THE MATTER OF DEFINITION
OF BOARD AND MISSION RELATIONS
IN FIELD ADMINISTRATION.
(Rcfercnoe* at cod of Stalcmeat)
I. The First Mission Action.
As has been stated before, when the Board’s first decision on
the college location question was rendered contrary to the vote on
the field, a protest of the Mission was filed which covered the ques-
tion of the Mission’s proper place in field authority. (42).
In 1915 a petition to the General Assembly for definition on
this point was drawn up by the executive committee of the Mis-
sion. (43). Before presenting this to the Mission it was shown
to Dr. Speer. He immediately protested, saying that if the Mis-
sion wished to deal the most disastrous blow possible to the
church’s mission work all over the world, it could go about it in no
better way ; the Mission knew what the Home Board had just gone
through ; if it thought it must do something of the kind at least
present it first to the Board. When the petition was presented to
the Mission, the Mission voted to lay it on the table for one year
that it might appear on the minutes and so give the Board infor-
mal opportunity to consider it. The Board, however, took no ac-
tion.
II. Educational Ordinance and Conformity.
In 1914 the chosen Government-General issued a revised
educational ordinance requiring among other things, that all re-
ligious exercises and instruction should be eliminated from the
curricula of all private schools including Mission schools. This
covered all grades from primary to college. No college could oper-
ate without a government permit. Schools possessing government
permits when the ordinance was issued were given ten years of
grace in which to conform. Schools seeking a permit after the
ordinance was promulgated must conform from the beginning.
Our Board presented a very strong protest to the administra-
tion upon the extreme character of the ordinance, (44) but no con-
cession was granted. The 'Federal Council of the six Federated
Missions recommended that the Missions should not conform. The
Methodist Episcopal Mission very shortly decided to conform not
only in its new schools but also in those holding the privilege of
the ten years of grace. The Presbyterian Missions refused to do
so, and particularly was the Northern Presbyterian Mission out-
in availing itself of these years, trusting that ten years
God’s grace would bring a change and open a door for the
schools under its care, and a future for Christian education in the
country. An attempt was made to bring in the Chosen Christian
College as a previously existing institution but this request was
Qemed by the authorities, and the question of its conforming to
"^ordinance arose. (45). The agreement that it should be oper-
j; , independently of the Mission was an embarrassment and dif-
nculty on both sides. The Board wished the judgment of the
which the Mission was framing for the future of Christian educa-
tion in the country ; for it was declaredly to be the dominating in-
stitution, established directly by the Boards, for that purpose8 vet
the Mission could take no action in relation to it. The Board wrote
asking the judgment of a number of Mission members. The Mis-
sion took action indirectly but clearly stating its judgment (46)
m«vo6S were ,fent to the Personal letters, the chairman of the exec-
utive committee being particularly instructed to write in full (47)
Ry of.some m°nths was decided by the Joint Com-
mittee, the Board consenting, to take out a permit for the institu-
te,11 u,nlde,r the ordinance, conforming to its requirements in
Trn ThpVr!16 lnstltution be legally and permanently established.
(48). The unescapable and lamentable effect of this step upon the
toger question of the future of Christian education for the
Ghnst in the entire country, again forced the auestion
°^¥^lssl^n authority in field matters into prominence. (49)
HI. Revision of Chapter XVIII on the Form of Government
Entitled “Missions.”
, ProPosed revision presented to the Presbyteries in 1916
Hnn nfhHd °.ut °f, the dlscussion °f the proper administra-
HoTu Bf0ard work gave fuU power of “direction” to the
Boards as the former wording had not done, and, what was not
on tZed m 1 Horne land’ seemed to foreign missionaries
on the field to cover Foreign Missions also ; which if true would ef- ■
cJ0Se.the Question under discussion and make all authori-
thorizatfon°rei8TI lnhere the B°ard’ by constitutional au- !
This became known on the field shortly before the General
M917 atd at °nce aroused strenous objection. Artic-
les pointing this out were sent to the church papers, (50) many
missionaries sent personal letters to their Presbyteries and friends
m the ministry ; the executive committee formulated a suggested
Mission section for the revision ; a cable was sent to a fur-
^emAber’ d^PTating appealing Board actions,
thnmt l th® As®emb,y be requested to conserve field au-
vn?Pty t0 thi? MlSS™,n > these tw° being signed by some thirty-nine
5£“F. “embers. The Mission’s delegate to the Assembly, intro!
fomltt anHCthnS n, the Fo^eign Mlss,i°ns Committee, one on con- I
and ,the °ther on Mission self-government. These after
lo^ bTthe Assembly: ' “(51)" Committee were ad°Pt«d a* fol- '
is f ‘7baLini,VieW, 0f ihe n?w an,d ?erious problems that the Board
In the !ducat,ional work m several of its fields, resulting
cationannlat?t rf neW relative to government control of edu-
*tutl0u! and the ^sequent secularization of all edu-
Md rp’liii Assem.bly approves the continuance of Bible teaching
Pemfssab°e’’SerV1CeS “ 3 m'SS1°n SCh°°Is aS long as is legally
DolicvT7ai the. Assembly notes with special interest the Board’s '
y of securing more efficient local administration in the vari-
the case of the fir Missions ” ^ dlfeCti0n' e3Peclally *
iShe wteS Furloughed Missionaries,
three such conferences were held^on^611" K?f pe"eral Assembly
functions in field IZZYZS’ Z Si fild MiSSi°n’3
expressed by both narties tr. Q,~;„ *lne second, the desire was
adjustment and that S* coMb^tL^LT 'Uy sat‘3factory
the Manual ; also both agreed that thl half amendment to
would be for the Mission tn first fn,™6^631 ?°^e of Pr°ceedure
in this respect to the Board ™ tnown its desires
then take action. The Sion w!^hl°/ fwh“b tbS Board could
action at its annual meeting in June 5 53)t0 fnd ‘°ok
action occasioned the third conference f!i) At th^J-lf thlS
it was suggested that thp “ \ v . thls conference
from field administration r?que3t eliminated the Board
cruit provaSbody 0^s Tnte 3 m°ney C°UeCting' re-
nted by the mifsio^ries whl madeThe STntT at °nceiepudl-
real authority in field matters nnt jP however, that all
real authority inhered in ifie iu- rested wholly in the Board. No
current Board permission 'rv,;^1SS10n'. ^.s act‘°ns stood only by
sentatives as theTystm under Xh d» 11,6 Board ™pr£
General Assembly The nni f wblcb we worked, made so by the
Presbyterian. iSW^e this was not
that a “Brief’ be prepared lettfmr forth /Ilad,erby.Bo,ard members
and the Mission members preset? £°rth the Mission’s contention,
Mission action in sllh a waPy aS^ to & revise th*
but be more in accord with the noints Mission desire
ence discussion. Immed ate v after A,| Ugrht °Ut ln the confer-
done and the chairman of t£ Mission this Iast was
^as returning immediately to thp ^xecutlve Committee who
that committee’s apfial of the rlv^f 3 reqcue3ted to secure
Board took action upon lhe Miss on’s su^esl' a Subsequ<mtly the
Manual to the effect that it ° S 3Uf?ested amendment to the
ble with theGeneral AssemhK-’s ™Practlcable because incompati-
suggested that the question of th^'r 'l ®?nst,tuting the Board but
of Board and Mission be colsidelld It fir® pow®r® and functions
ference” with furloughed m^SJiL 3 fsT P°3t War Con-
• The “Brief,” the Missmnjx.utive Committee’s Action and
^thjKf^ *!} lhe£at inference
the Mission’s executive committee 3 Prepared by the chairman of
mittee of the Mission and “rad K?** *?e e*ecutive “m-
on the revision of Chapter XVIII in tfi *!? BoardA Tbe overtures
■ng been referred to the executive rlm°™ °f Government hav-
^utive commission of the General
fuStf°(CT|r NoWlth a" af.ompanying action of its own ujol thl
noted thlt m BoardTSs f “ wiU be
made to a number of reasons" f„r It d 436 -(59) reference is
of twenty-nine pages, single spaced tvnino- tv, ?hls ^ocument
for himself \ h* • -?pac?a t>T)ln&* the reader must study
=«3 SCsr-
MS SSSiSSi
nice upheaval 'and'opportuntty^6 Never* hasC^a3sTd'natR
• Actions of Mission at Annual Meeting of 1918 and Board
17
ltd *. '
Mission, at that time but the Rn ®/' Th.ls rwas not passed by the
Assembly met, at which time the r wa,s “formed of it before the
bers to be present at the Post War fWf invitec* commission mem-
nual meeting of the Mission thi Conference. (65). At the an
in the form of a petition to tte again made
ne^J Ueanulmous v°te. (66). All & by the Mission
need of hamg the matter settled Ieeellng the «treme
tion was as follows: d d settled to stay. This peti-
from 5m General AssSj to'paHiS^u1 of a c°mmision
ference.” y 10 Participate m the After War Con-
the conf °f B°ard ao^Mis^o^ InTelardTo3 fi°M concerninS the
contenbons that the Manual does not 2mz(e,the fo™ of the
what the relative powers anH funoH sufficiently indicate just
are and that clearer dffinitlf dM&P* &T* and Mission
conference of furloughed missionariS ^ d ,ts proP°3al for a
matters of vital moment - and he? S- fo^, the consideration of
Eou?deral Assembly “ P^cipaf of1 bothhBon Hthe «**£»£
should^be^represented, we requeSPt th/ Board St llo £ MiSSi°n’
effect that the funcCnZTius/f onginal action of 1837 to the
and instructions as Cm toe ‘ timfrn t0 f “With such
Assembly we request the RnprH ^ ^ven by the General
point a commission of five for the fnC1^011 ttle Assembly to ap-
tions and instructions mayf f ZVhf /nd that citable direc!
fan‘zat,on. both at home and aC thatt^"^3 Native or-
Att? 6ffeCtiVe,y d-harge1 Z
|be action already takenCa^suffic^'t^ * a6 request saying that
tSeer
and The11 instructiorT of tlwBoVrdf hat -•£
ar enough in advance to enable them6 if
be home are thoCwCCZlZiZ/^nff members who will
them,” the Mission tZ acSf appZt nvf to have represent
reply it was intimated that when aP„P( ? representatives. In
w?“ld Probably have enough reSaCreS tfhef.Korea Mission
without the necessity of any 1 11 ientatives at home
loughs. (69). y special arrangement of fur-
tions betwem the Mission fifth pv, 3 clarification of the rela-
techaracter of Ch™t:an CollegVa/d
Statement No. II. repIy to the same has been given in
CONCLUSION:—
t.rt offth.llS XXX.mrf »» the
nlcate, Tbe administration of the BoarfafC/h lnter'comrnu-
sented such attempts. But the infrXf t- 1 least' has greatly re-
ject that the Korea MiIfofLsfo^ US iS to the
We have been told by a prominent one ln lts experience,
mg the increasing concentration^ of fidd'S °ff China that see-
was one of the leading reasons f „ th d autl?onty in the Board
Council of all our China Missions ^p°r,fanlf li?"t of the China
co-operating Missions question” in d se^lement of the
years, has still left a soreness A foCer Th!" after the lapse of
ftss^ssaas -a."
thoritj o1 theM1’ fShXlVrw„eX'{"“re "“re *«•
sk; spins'-
thff 1 dld n0t think the Board was sfmCh? r^urns from the
thonty assumed by the secretaries aZ t?Uch blame as the au-
emsed. They adopt a suPeCr att"tudffnC°rhtro1 which th^ ex-
the wise conclusions in view of the farts it0 n* e miS31°nary, and
£SP by th0“ *> « ,« tli'XSi',
thter \ investigatio” onThe^eld60^3 70rking in Korea,
f dmSf Ves as amazed at the course whlrh haveDfrankly expressed
thndeZng with it3 Mission, and that iff °Ur B°ard has Pursued
though f by their own organization as 7°uld n«ver be
„ as?
“ 8,V«” '» «■' M-"oal -.CiitteSi
(
/<?
administration a state of confusion exists which is most injurious
to the work ; and there is no operating basis in field matters, as be-
tween field and home base, except that imposed by the Board solely
on its own authority. As Presbyters of the Presbyterian Church
of America, as many of the signers of the petition to the executive
commission of the General Assembly which these papers accom-
pany are and as apostles called by Christ to a non-Christion peo-
ple which all are, we are unable to regard this as just and right to
ourselves, or profitable to the Lord’s work. As a body of Christ’s
servants we feel that we have sought a solution of the difficulty
^nlnfiflenCe’ U.nder muchm‘sre presentation, and with entire
willingness to accept even a minimum of consideration. As the
} ears have passed we have suggested, requested, petitioned and
Pi •' 14 rmS t0 US that in none of the Board’s replies to
these actions have our positions been properly met and given the
consideration they deserve. The Board’s general position is suffi!
ciently manifest m its “Memorandum” to the General Assembly
upon the subject. It is only with the deepest regret, and under a
se"se the interests of Christ’s service, that we are at
length driven to make this statement of the situation which we
make not as a Mission but as individuals.
• mu m- (-42)^?>rotest’ 4*11-14» Appendix XXX.
mUXTcd^XL^il1915’ Q°0ted in “-17-17.
(45) Al'v Vj f' 4KOom,\tS,Ur 6.'6'15' APPendi!t XLVm.
to A J R iil5iJ'iF' a' 9’1®:15.r APPendix XLIX. J. E. A.
19 ii 10-21-15, Appendix L; 11-27-15, Appendix LI-
Appends LII; 12-29-15, Appendix UII
Append^UV. ' 191€’ Com' RePort- Sec. 26-
fasi "n \ J? A- -t. B. 10-7-16, Appendix LV.
t^A JLB‘lBia°l7' i' A' ^-Srld-rAPPendix LVL J. E. A.
^15-17J;Appe-n“lx7L^end'X LV1L A' J' B' J- * A.
A4p9pendixELX: t0 A' J' B' 3'19'17’ Appendix UX; 4-16-17,
j50!; T.he Herald & Presbyter, Appendix LXI.
J. E. A to The Presbyterian, Appendix LXII.
(®1) Minutes, Gen’l Assembly, 1917, Paee 219
I?2) ?ic°i o' ?' A- i-23-18. Appendix LXIII. J E A
A. J. B„ 3-16-18, Appendix LXIV A-
^ArA^S'^'^37’ EX' C°“- Report,
££ AAJ JBB9tl7J; AEpptd«3°ilVPPend,X LXVI- J' E‘
(561 J(F5)4 ^ aL- ,42& H?"1.8- Appendix LXVm.
“BrW,^AAppendBixWAraCl03UreS’ 12-7'17’ Appendi*
<67) ^ “36, 2-14-18. Appendix LXX.
(58) Appendix LXVIII
.... (69) Appendix LXX.
L' 456I MI’18' Appendix LXXI.
(«9i t>lf Memorandum,” Appendix LXXII.
tl v”“dU?’ pages 7 * 8- Appendix LXXII
(6S “/-"“"dum page 16, Appendix LXXII
(651 T F (!4), BrlffvrU D> Appendix XLVII.
««. 6-12-18 A^pendix Soty"' APPendiX LXXIII‘ “• L-
(66) Mission Minutes, 1918, Ex. Com. Report. Sec 9
(67) Bd. L. 468, 10-9-18, Appendix LXXV
(fiA) a nnnrvL.. T VTTTTT
k 10 (
APPENDIX I
(I.) BOARD LETTER NO. 64, JAN.
Educational Foundation
Union Bible Institute
Second College
To the Korea Mission,
Dear Friends:
I take up in this letter your actions on an Educational Foundation Com-
mittee, on pages 31-34 and 53 of the Printed Minutes of your Annual Meeting,
a Union Bible Institute in Seoul, pages 43-47, 64-68 and 80, and a second
College, pages 43 and 103.
The piinciples which apparently underlie both the Educational Founda-
tion Committee and the Union Bible Institute in Seoul appear from the view-
point of the Board to be so nearly alike that the Board's action on both is
covered in the appended minute:
Careful consideration was given to the action of the Korea Mission
regarding an “Educational Foundation Committee” and a Union Bible Insti-
tute in Seoul. The Board expressed its hearty approval of the main objects
which it understands that the Foundation and the Institute are designed to
meet and its strong agreement with the Mission that the question of adequate
educational facilities should be handled in a large and generous spirit and
in united and co-operative relations with other evangelical Missions in Korea.
The Board desires to aid the Mission in every practicable way in meeting
this fundamental and imperative need. The Board feels that there are
several basal principles to be kept in mind in developing such educational
plans, two of which appear to be involved by these actions of the Mission.
First: The training of ministers, evangelists and other leaders of the
Church in the Mission field is one of the most solemn and imperative duties
of the Missions and Boards, a duty which cannot be transferred to independent
bodies over which the Missions and Boards have no control and for whose
future policy wisdom and soundness in the faith there can be no guarantee,
except the personal character of those who for the time conduct them, but
whose successors are unknown. It is vital to the success of the whole Mis-
sion enterprise that the aims, methods and teaching of institutions of this
kind should be kept in harmony with the evangelistic aims and work of the
Missions and erroneous tendencies and divisive influences avoided. To this
end, such institution should be closely related to the Mission and the Board
and under their responsible supervision as an integral and organic part
of their work. In the case of union institutions, the control of the Mission
should be exercised through a Joint Field Board of Managers, elected by
and amenable to the co-operating Missions in the way that has been found
so satisfactory in the management of the Shantung Christian University, the
North China Union Colleges, and the Meiji Gakuin in Japan.
Second: Under the system adopted by the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church, the Board is charged with the duty of representing in
America the work and workers on the field and is made the agency which
is to receive and administer the gifts of Presbyterians for supporting them.
The Board cannot discharge the responsibilities that have been committed
to it, and cannot adequately maintain the missionaries and their work, unless
both missionaries abroad and donors at home recognize and co-operate with
it, as the agency created by the Church for this purpose. The organization
by missionaries of enterprises which are independent of the Board and
which make separate appeals to the constituency upon which the Board
depends for the money needed to support the missionaries and their work
tends to undermine the Board’s ability to maintain the regular work of the
Missions, diverts interest and gifts, causes overlapping, confusion, and the
division of responsibility, the multiplication of appeals and, if right for one
group of missionaries is right for others, so that scores of unrelated and
independent enterprises will be launched upon the home Church, the orderly,
united and responsible direction of the work will be broken up and the very
purpose for which the Board exists will be defeated. Missionaries who ac-
cept appointment by the Board become a part of the organized missionary
enterprise of the Presbyterian Church. Entitled to all the privileges and
support which the Board, acting as the agency of the church, can secure for
17, 1912
January 17, 1912.
i912”1?4^ ’*"dBS^eU^Dor,th?1 Bo™ln0°ff !°int H°ldlng Committee
throughout the entire period. °* Fore|Sn Missions for Korea
Rev. Frank M. North n n
Committee. ' ' D' was subsequent Chairman of the Joint
Rev. 8. A. Moffett, D. D was Choir™ . t
and Corresponding Secretary of the Kor»? m.° . the H^utive Committee
Chairman In the Summer of 19x7 K°rea Mlsslon 19H-1913. and acting
and Co7resCponAdinTs?c%tar}Do,Wth3e C°mmlt‘*a
Mission 1916-1918. 6 and Corresponding Secretary of the Korea"
view. But the Board is oblige^o^dea with ?he ^S*PPfars to encourage this
actions, and that text clearly thoueh rn rfnnhl °fficiaI tcxt of the Mission's
Senate" of the Educational FoundafiL Co^mkte."'. "a0"a"y' makes “The
independent of the Boards, authorizes it to raiL ? ndministrative agency
homelands/' and to be incorporated if neces^rv Tcf ° fu"ds in ‘he
Sections 10 and 11.) The Mission acMnn (Cf' paSe 33> Art. 5,
Seoul sets up a Jo-nt Field Rnnrd rC/,0n od The Union Bible institute in
Seoul as a EofyTnside K by, the Station!! S
•constituting act is concerned, will be independent^ 7i ' ,3° far as the
”,hl'e no Provision is made for relating either the Ln7 hem.u(cfV ?age 80>-
of Managers to the Boards in AmericV Th, r7-s 1 °Vhe Jolnt Board
heartily sympathizing- with and co^dfallv aLrortn^J iherefore, while most
Mission saw no alternative but to make ‘its nnnT,!!6) eeI?e.rai plans of the
ditions that the Union Bible institute shall be related ! 7uJeC,V to the con-
same way as other union institutions which a-e lncM te th*.M‘asion in the
f".1 Sc,ts and proceedings of both The Joint Bnird partlcu!ar stations;
Union Bible Institute and the Senate of the Fd,.e7 d °,f Managers of the
mittee shall be subject to the review and confrere “el.11 Foundation Com-
mons on the field and. through them of the R^erd f ‘he co-operating Mis-
way as other union institutions: thit any il,,.1 ,7 bome' in ‘he same
thTt'0'8 silal1 be made ‘hrough or with the aDDrovIlhatf Ti?5' d2 made in
that any funds which shall be raised held «nPdP d “f.the Boards; and
shall be raised, held and administered bv the Tils a1mm,st?red in America
‘hey may constitute for this pilose S’ °r by such body as
»» the'cont7fry,mw?il^mat«mlly^rtren*rth^na the',nl'eVCStiT''!jn0t; bamp- but.
° e\er>Ahing in its power to assist the Mission Board yvill gladly
i .As far as we can judge from your Minute- t" c jrryin,f ou‘ >ts desires.
Institute, the Mission meeting turned ^Don kwel^ e ,S771°n of ‘he Seoul
Missmn^regarding^ seU-supjmrt and to thPe Th^oVgtarLml^v.1501"5' °f th*
with the policy of t'he Missioy tbu‘ tahpy '"stltiut'°n should work in harmony
patstat Mar s !SSvJSs^ sjuss
inHorvCaTe S^0U^ be exercised to keeD thp TTn-nr, d u00! understand whv
fo7ran- C,nt Of the Union Theilogicnl Seminal Tim rt"- !n7ltute in Seoul
Christian Workers in Pek.ng wh.cl
[several basal principles to be kept in mind in developing such educational
Iplans, two of which appear to be involved by these actions of the Mission.
First: The training of ministers, evangelists and other leaders of the
Church in the Mission field is one of the most solemn and imperative duties
of the Missions and Boards, a duty which cannot be transferred to independent
bodies over which the Missions and Boards have no control and for whose
future policy wisdom and soundness in the faith there can be no guarantee,
except the personal character of those who for the time conduct them, but
whose successors are unknown. It is vital to the success of the whole Mis-
sion enterprise that the aims, methods and teaching of institutions of this
kind should be kept in harmony with the evangelistic aims and work of the
Missions and erroneous tendencies and divisive influences avoided. To this
end, such institution should be closely related to the Mission and the Board
and under their responsible supervision as an integral and organic part
of their work. In the case of union institutions, the control of the Mission
should be exercised through a Joint Field Board of Managers, elected by
and amenable to the co-operating Missions in the way that has been found
so satisfactory in the management of the Shantung Christian University, the
North China Union Colleges, and the Meiji Gakuin in Japan.
Second: Under the system adopted by the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church, the Board is charged with the duty of representing in
America the work and workers on the field and is made the agency which
is to receive and administer the gifts of Presbyterians for supporting them.
The Board cannot discharge the responsibilities that have been committed
to it, and cannot adequately maintain the missionaries and their work, unless
both missionaries abroad and donors at home recognize and co-operate with
it, as the agency created by the Church for this purpose. The organization
by missionaries of enterprises which are independent of the Board and
which make separate appeals to the constituency upon which the Board
depends for the money needed to support the missionaries and their work
tends to undermine the Board’s ability to maintain the regular work of the
Missions, diverts interest and gifts, causes overlapping, confusion, and the
division of responsibility, the multiplication of appeals and, if right for one
group of missionaries is right for others, so that scores of unrelated and
independent enterprises will be launched upon the home Church, the orderly,
united and responsible direction of the work will be broken up and the very
purpose for which the Board exists will be defeated. Missionaries who ac-
cept appointment by the Board become a part of the organized missionary
enterprise of the Presbyterian Church. Entitled to all the privileges and
support which the Board, acting as the agency of the church, can secure for
-2^
them and at the same time agreeing to work with the Mission and the
Board and to consider the enterprises which they project as integral parts
or the united work. *
The proposal of the Board, which has been approved by the General
0 ??lSaiSfn u1, ^ ra.lse ?n pdacational Endowment and Equipment Fund
of $5,000,000, should also be borne in mind in connection with plans for
financing: our educational work.
The Board devised this fund because of its deep sympathy with the
educational needs of the Mission and its earnest desire to aid most effectively
in meeting them. The success of the effort to raise this great sum largely
depends upon the co-operation of the missionaries in bringing united infiu-
ence to bear upon donors at home. As the proceeds of this fund become
available, the Board will gladly apportion them among the institutions
* v 5?e .or£an*cally connected with our work and under the control
of the Missions and Boards. It would be highly unfortunate for missionaries
to push independent enterprises which would impair the success of this fund
and also deprive their educational institutions of its benefits, if it is success-
ful. The Board believes that, in the long run, it will be better for particular
institutions if they retain their organic relations with the whole missionary
enterprise of the Church with the privilege of presentation in the published
reports and leaflets of the Board and the consequent claim upen the interest,
prayers and financial support of the missionary work to which the Church
is committed.
The Board is confident that the Korea Mission will cordially agree
with the Board in these positions, and it is persuaded that the Missioned
not intend to do anything that would be suoversive of them. The discussion
referred to on pages 31-34 of the Mission Minutes appears to encourage this
view. But the Board is obliged to deal with the official text of the Mission’s
actions, and that text clearly, though no doubt unintentionally, makes “The
Senate of the Educational Foundation Committee an administrative agency
independent of the Boards, authorizes it to raise and hold “funds in the
homelands, and to be incorporated if necesrary. (Cf. page 33, Art. 5
Sections 10 and 11.) The Mission action of The Union Bible Institute in
Seoul sets up a Joint Field Board of Managers, elected by the Stations in
Seoul, as a body inside of the co-operating Missions, which, so far as the
constituting act is concerned, will be independent of them (cf. page 80),
while no provision is made for relating either the Senate or the Joint Board
of Managers to the Boards in America. The Beard, therefore, while most
heartily sympathizing with and cordially approving the general plans of the
Mission saw no alternative but to make its approval subject to the con-
ditions that the Union Bible institute shall be related to the Mission in the
same way as other union institutions which are local to particu'ar stations-
that all acts and proceedings of both The Joint Board of Managers of the
Union Bible Institute and the Senate of the Educational Foundation Com-
mittee shall be subject to the review and control of the co-operating Mis-
sions on the field and, through them, of the Boards at home, in the same
way as other union institutions; that any appeals that may be made in
America shall be made through or with the approval of the Boards- and
kn any funds which st>all be raised, held and administered in America
shall be raised, held and administered by the Boards, or by such body as
they may constitute for this purpose.
With these modifications, which the Board believes will not hamper but,
on the contrary, will materially strengthen the plan, the Board will o-ladly
do everything in its power to assist the Mission in carrying out its desires.
As far as we can judge from your Minutes, the discussion of the Seoui
Institute, the Mission meeting turned upon its relation to the policy of the
Mission regarding self-support and to the Theological Seminary.
.11 > of course, necessary that any institution should work in harmony
with the policy of the Mission, but this question is subordinate to the main
question of control, for if institutions are under the control of the co-operating
Missions and Boards, the Missions and Boards have ample opportunitv in
Jheir annual review and control of the acts of the Field Boards of Managers
«> see that the institutions are kept in line. We do not understand whv
such care should he exercised to keep the Union Bible Institute in Seoul
“'Pendent of the Union Theological Seminary. The Union Trainin'- School
tor Christian Workers in Peking, which is designed to prepare fn-
yl
work men who are not sufficiently educated or who are too far advanced
in years to be ordained as pastors of churches, is conducted as a department
of the Union Theological Seminary, the plants and faculties being closely
related. If a Bible Institute is to stand for a type of teaching for which
a Mission is not prepared to assume responsibility, it should not be started
at all; but if it is to stand for the common interests and is to differ from
an adjacent Theological Seminary only in that it trains a different class of
men, there appears to be no valid reason why the two institutions should
not be kept together as separate departments of a common institution.
I wish to repeat in behalf of the Board the expression of our deep
interest in these great subjects and our eager desire to co-operate with the
Mission in every practicable way. The conjecture that the Board’s decision
will be in harmony with your wishes is strengthened by “the resolutions on
Bible Institute and Summer School work” adopted by the General Council
of Korean Missions and printed on pages 345-345 of the December issue of
the “Mission Field,” which was received after the Board Meeting.
We have had some letters from members of Seoul station containing
strong advocacy of a College at Seoul, and Mr. John T. Underwood reports
the receipt, October 2nd, of a cable asking that consideration of the question
by the Board be postponed until further information arrived by letter. A
diligent search through your printed Mission Minutes discloses only the
following references to the question:
“PYENG YANG STATION REPORT:— Mr. Holdcroft read the general
report of Pyeng Yang station. It was moved and carried that the item on
page 41 —
“ ‘Additional steps have been taken this last year to have the other
Protestant Missions in Korea unite in the College work, thus making be
referred to the Educational Committee.’
“Section 7 was presented and after almost two hours of discussion the
previous question being put, was adopted as amended, 20 voting in affirma-
tive and 9 in negative.
“Sec. 7. — We recommend that the John D. Wells Training School be
authorized to work for one year in union with the Methodist Schools of
Seoul, and to participate in two years’ instruction above present academic
curriculum, it being understood that no added expense or increased force be
involved for the Mission. This action must not be interpreted as indorsing
a College in Seoul. Affirm. 20; Neg. 9.”
We note also that your authorized list of property requests, on pages
62 and 131, does not include any request for a College at Seoul.
As the opinion regarding the inadvisability of attempting two colleges in
Korea, which I expressed on pages 190-191 of my printed “Report of a Second
Visit to China, Japan and Korea,” has been officially approved by the Board as
announced in ray Mission letter of June 9, 1916, and has now been endorsed
in substance by two successive annual meetings of the Mission (1910 and
1911), we assume that the question is settled as far as present plans are
concerned.
I may again state, however, that I have tried to make clear in former
correspondence that the essential element, in our judgment, is one union
college or university for Korea, that we have no special concern whether
it should be located in Pyeng Yang or Seoul, but that if there in any strong
feeling on the part of the Mission, or of the other Missions with which
we should co-operate, in a union institution, that that location should be
Seoul, that matter should be squarely faced in the immediate future before
making further expenditures for a College plant at Pyeng Yang.
The whole question of higher educational facilities in the Far East is
receiving our careful attention. I confess that I have an ardent desire to see
one well-equipped union University in Japan, another in Korea, and five in
China located respectively at Peking. Tsinan-fu, Hanking, Hankow and
Canton. Our Board does not have official responsibility for equipping uni-
versities at Canton and Hankow as the institutions there are under other
auspices, but we are directly related to the others mentioned. It will take
a very large sum of money — more, I fear, than there is any reasonable pros-
pect of our securing — to do our part in equipping these universities, espe-
cially when we consider what must be done for higher education in the
Philippines, Siam, India, Persia and South America Missions and the great
number of auxiliary high schools and hoarding school* u-v:io --
for a considerable fund for primary schools. But we wish to present that
‘educational program to our wealthy men in the country and to do everything
in our power to co-operate with the Mission in handling this big problem.
The constituency of the Korea institution will be considerably smaller than
that of the Japan, China and India universities. It is true that your church
membership is now relatively large, but universities do not depend for
students exclusively upon Christians and, moreover, they plan for a long
future when church constituencies are expected to be much larger than they
are at present. I agree with you, however, that the Korea educational
problem must be handled by itself, although there are men who express
the opinion that, as Korea and Japan are now under one government and
are to be more and more closely amalgamated, missionary educational work
in Korea should be confined to middle schools and that university students
should be sent to a Union University in Japan. I venture to believe that 1
shall represent your wishes if I oppose this view in case it should be
pressed. Wd wish to do everything we can to help you. But you will
see how important it is that there should be agreement in Korea and that
unless missionaries can agree upon one location, work unitedly for it and
avoid conflicting appeals and mutually contradictory plans, the question
of getting an adequate share of attention for Korea is likely to be seriously
jeopardized. We need great wisdom, much prayer, and full unity of purpose
in meeting this extraordinary emergency.
q Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(II.) BOARD LETTER NO. 80, APRIL 17, 1912.
Educational Foundation
To the Korea Mission,
Dear Friends:
April 17, 1912.
You will recall that Board letter No. 64, January 17th, regarding your
action on an Educational Foundation Committee as given on pp. 31-34 of
the Printed Minutes of your Annual Meeting for 1911 included an intimation
that we were persuaded that the Mission did not intend to make the Senate
in Korea and the holding body in America so independent of present organi-
zations as the text of the Mission action indicated, but that the Board had
no alternative but to deal with the only construction of the language of the
Mission action which that action appeared to carry. Afterwards the Rev.
J. E. Adams of Taiku was in New York and we asked him about it.
We were much gratified by his statement to the effect that the Board’s
conjecture was correct and that the intention of the Mission was in full
accord with the principles which the Board’s letter stated. As Mr. Adams
is not only one of the senior members of the Mission, but as he was Secretary
of the Educational Committee of the Mission and the one who drafted the
Mission action, we felt justified in regarding his interpretation as authorita-
tive. I now have pleasure in writing, therefore, that the Board at its meet-
ing the 16th instant took the following action:
"The Executive Council reported that since the Board's action of Janu-
ary 2d on The Educational Foundation in Korea, there had been opportunity
for personal conference with the Rev. J. E. Adams, who was Secretary of
the Educational Committee of the Mission at the time the Mission acted
and who drafted the report on pp. 31-34 of the Printed Minutes of the Mis-
sion for September, 1911. Mr. Adams stated that he believed that the
Mission was in accord with the position taken by the Board, namely that
the Senate of the Foundation Committee was to be amenable to the co-operat-
ing Missions in substantially the same way as Joint Field Boards of Man-
agers of union institutions in other fields, and that the action of the Mission
Was quite consistent with the organization of a holding body for the funds
m the homelands’ by appointment of the co-operating Boards, such holding
iody to be subject to the control of the Boards in America in the same way
ln .SS5 s'nate i» to be subject to the co-operating Missions in Korea
V a T . Executive Council also reported that at a later date, April 3d it
had confen-ed with representatives of the Northern Methodist Board, the
southern Methodist Board and the International Committee of the Y M C A •
Dr- Leonard, Secretary of the Northern Methodist Board, had stated
mat he had not received any request from the Methodist Mission
k
the Educational Foundation; that Dr. Cook, Secretary of the Southern
Methodist Board, had stated that his Board had received such a request and
would act upon it at its next meeting, May 16th; that the Conference felt
that it would be highly desirable that the Boards should act together; and
that the Presbyterian Board was requested to communicate its action to the
other Boards having work in Korea with a view to concurrent action if
practicable.
“The Board expressed its gratification with the interpretation of the
action of the Mission given by Mr. Adams and concurred in by Mr. Frank
Brockman, Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. at Seoul, who was present at the
Conference. It renewed its cordial expression of approval of the plans of
the Educational Foundation as thus interpreted, appointed Secretaries Brown
and Speer as its representatives on a Joint Committee in America, and ex-
pressed the hope that the other Beards having work in Korea would see
their way clear to take similar action and to appoint one or two representa-
tives each who would co-operate with the representatives of this Board as a
Joint Committee to co-operate with the Missions in furthering the very large
and important plans which are under consideration.”
I am writing to the other Boards having work in Korea and expressing
the hope that they will take concurrent action. It will be a great pleasure
to us to do everything in our power to co-operate with you in what impresses
us as an admirably wise movement. «
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) A. J. BROWN.
(HL) BOARD LETTER NO. 102
August 8, 1912.
To the Korea Mission,
My dear Friends:
I enclose copies of the Minutes of two preliminary conferences on Union
Education in Korea, held respectively June 27th and July 24th. You will
note that these conclusions are tentative, as it was not practicable at the
dates mentioned formally to organize the Joint Committee which is to
represent the co-operating Boards in America. These actions are therefore
subject to ratification of that Committee when officially constituted and
then to ratification by the co-operating Boards. With this understanding
the Minutes are sent to you for your information in order that your Annual
Meeting, which we understand is to convene September 8th, may know the
trend of opinion which was expressed.
Our Board has adjourned until September 17th on account of the vaca-
tion absences of many of the members. It authorized the Executive Council
to act with power on any questions which might arise during the interim.
The tentative conclusions of the two conferences referred to were presented
to the Executive Council July 31st, when the following action was taken:
“Secretaries Speer and Brown, who were appointed April 15, 1912, to
represent the Board on a Joint Committee of the Boards having work in
Korea regarding the development of union higher educational institutions,
reported a conference June 27th with representatives of the Methodist
Board, a Special Committee of the Continuation Committee on Education
in the Far East, and several missionaries of the Methodist and Presby-
terian Boards who were at home on furlough. They also reported another
conference July 24th with representatives of the Methodist Board and with
missionaries of the Northern and Southern Methodist and our own Boards.
The Joint Committee haa not yet been officially organized, as some of the
other Boards concerned have not acted. Certain tentative conclusions, how-
ever, were informally agreed to. The Executive Council deferred final
action upon them pending their ratification by the Joint Committee when
formally constituted. Meantime, in view of the approaching annual meeting
of the Korea Mission, Secretary Brown was instructed to send these tentative
conclusions to the Mission for its information, with the statement that while
the Board had not specifically acted upon them and could not do so until
it reassembled in the fall, the Executive Council regarded these conclusions
as so much in harmony with the positions already taken by the Board
as to deem it probable that they would meet with the Board’s acceptance.
We assume, of course, that you will give the whole question of educa-
tion in Korea large attention at your annual meeting, and wp shall look
a 7
- stars*
Enc g Sincerely yours,
B/GMS
MINUTES JOINT COMMITTE&-JUNE 27 1919
/IV ) „ extracts • 1912
Pursuant to the call of Eth?LUTI°NS *’ 2’ 3
the following convened at 156 Ftffh6 ^.e"tat*ves °f the Presbyterian Board
the Mason Northed Willikm™* Sldh’i 1912J
V
safl g
G“rSe Heber Jones of the Korea ili.. on™^!^?? Noble and the Rev Dr’
UnanhBoRaerd.D;- C' ”*»•""* of theKo^ea^
already sixteen11 High Schoofs o^AcademUndetT°d Stated tbat the’re were
‘7-K? the foIlowin* resoIu-
and immediate importance, and that^t ™?l e?ucati°n "» Korea is of vital
neS S P"rt°°rf
rhoaMC°nSequent dupKcatfon °Qff dforo^hL T"? dueno™'national college-
JEM «&»"«&£ ,2, *
?sd“s !&s“:
’^ssssiii
w f
r**"1 to oe presented to th»t x "v-c W1 ^une z/tn
Mich they will be presented in the ^ foLadn^ii/f^ f°Ju lt3x ratification, after
Ithe co-operating Boards for their approval P* d by the J°‘nt Committee to
Closed with prayer.
<VL) MISSION MINUTES. 1912— P. 51.53
SUBJECT: COLLEGE QUESTION
Mission of 1912. reports of the twe"ty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Korea
port^Poriec°f22EdrUeqtrn8 to™ difdUCa^°nal Commi“« re-
garding College work in Korea It 13 as fnllnl,fCUSi Propositions re-
gard's correspondence of Aug 8th (Board I etTe' imC'.22'~ n view of the
live to educational work in Korea the Educat^ r Appendlx «t), rela-
to make definite recommendation, ’but requests thi m™ f fae|s unable
following three propositions, take a balS f. tJ: Mission to discuss the
the Board as the opinion of the Mission- °n tbe SSme and reP°rt this to
Yang1' TW° COllege3 for Korea >“a‘ad respectively at Seoul and Pyeng
2. One College for Korea located at Pyeng Yang
3. One College for Korea located at Seoul S B'
thereItbeTutmo0nVeec:riegrCf“?d|dortehaat 11 ^ tbe Sense of thia Mission that
which was seconded. After* "be gin ni n g? d iscussfo n * a° ' mot " °3 * 3ub3t'tute,
“m.ro *° lay on the table. It is as follows ’ tion was mabe and
for aUKoro^uSnsuch Urn"6!: £ b? ?ade the »"* College
Yang College is insufficient to meet the {.eedTof aH Kore“” 8i0"’ ‘be Pyeng
substitute motio"? Mmdy^-Tharthe^lWe'In8^ Wh'Cv Wa3’ in fact’ a
one College for all Korea until such time asgin Pye?e YanS be made the
the Pyeng Yang College is insufficient^ to mee? the ‘he Mi9si°n-
~ objSns offeHred toant'heWsamhead SeC°nded *’ C°n3ent‘nK and ^here’beTng
of this Ml!3iQr,dUp*n, i 'tl Tiileri; fo,1 KoV*a-fl b " 'V'" sense
Ssst .‘<5»“cr ~ "■d' *" saras. i.-s;
■ 1 College Question:— The motion under discussion hv m * xr- •*
close of the morning session, namely, “That we aDnrov. p ,Mlss,?n at the
roOowT’^TNeg. 3^ an h0Ur’3 d“"" the vote wiu "taker^as
motion was ai^nded^nd^arrirf ^follows ^That it*be to,81’ the 0riginal
mOT^nand8catTledhthat 'there bu^6 one^ ConUege°*ingK “ Ke°r8<!ean?'e “ *»
Simbm^of Th” affirmative not^effig called'for. 4h ^ ^
aak all Evangehca^Mis'sions "to^unite3 withdU3anin 'urfion1 Co?/’ °Ur Missio"
Pyeng Yang. 113 m union College work at
(VII.) BOARD LETTER NO. 145, APRIL 15 19,3
UNION CHRISTIAN COLLEGE IN KOREA
To the Korea Mission, April 15, 1913.
Dear Friends:
Board letter No. 120 of December iqio
Board of December 16th on the actions recorded on m^r/o f, action of the
the Minutes of your last Annual Meeting on the CoMeg1'62’ 5.3-’ B7' and 83 of
that, In view, however, of the difference of ? Question and stated
and Methodist Missions as to whether thisPone°nrnl|tWeeni.the.Pre3byteri3n
in Pyeng Yang or Seoul, the Board deferred action' i e*,t should be located
action on the question of loca-
tion pending consideration of location bv the Tninf r
Korea’ which was i°,SbSs,:,ss »rmeAnSocna
in the location of the propMe^^io^^i^ge^n'Ko0 tbe Sues‘ions involved
ha. appeared trying to you, but we are sure fwea’ Perhaps the delay
question which ha, agitated the missionaries on the fi»U c™" feel tha‘ a
and on which they have not yet been nhlo f«n the “e^ *or several years
and should not have been hastily decided at this^enH n<J* been
to be passed upon first by the Joint Tommiffi thls end of the line. It had
B.°*rd*- As the members of this Committee Ire wMel"11"6 ,\he c°-°Perating
of the work of the Committee itself called „l" i ldely, scattered, this part
time. When the Committee had arned nnln t f°r thou8htful study, but
to be submitted to the Boards for thefr action that repor‘ had
meetings at different times. At last we have h«d th®.®°Jar<is hold their
RefTrt of the ImTcommUtee™"''™6'' “nd we therefore now enclosf^ $2
report will t^mimylif ^y^^Yo^^^aw^Athat iT di?apP°intine this
Pye"£. Indeed, the expression of mvinlw. 1 ,haVe been in favor of
pna‘ed Report On a Second Visit to ChinT $ 1° page 190 of ">y
forth some of the sharpest criticisms from ’ir P a"d Korea' 1909,” called
ever received on any subject. You are 1 missionaries that I have
respondence I defended the position that I theH3/* cba‘ ‘"subsequent cor-
everything in my power both in a en and that I have done
position of our own Mission. The situation ?ersonaI le[*€r to support the
portant particulars. 6 a,tuatlon’ however, changed in two in,!
'^"Korea06 You *wiMr0P°3n* l°T a Union College
of November 14, 1910, and February 94 io?V , 1 recal1 ‘hat in Board letters
sc? “ -sat rjassrs rs,r IS
Uid^,T?,„T,";h;pdrj7nvs,r‘i?n*' •' ■;* •«, t.J,
Xrs Board *>y ‘he necessity Of agrefine^o ‘chere,fore '“"fronted In
i»ltogether the idea of one Union CoUee-e ^iH°«f°kto-SeouI or of abandoning
-lfar'nfPyeng Yan? and a Methodist cfflege in^eo.d"8!? ^“Merian Co\-
o r i?!?"8 which 1 have explained in form!' U became absolutely
notion} °{ PF -d ‘ba‘ ^Presbyterian ‘SS
{I tbe dR:pgoa;rtwSeer0eUlhend ^ Yang- ^ are stated
toy srsssst &
v.Vw£;^
h* 7 came before our own Board T „„‘i - “°'"t Committee. When the
B', I>"johl#FOU,!nd 1 sumTnarized youralpositiontathhr?°irt WOU,d "°‘
PyemrV. f,ox tben took the floor and mSd ‘ ?? be3‘ 1 could- The
that heYadmir»M y°V I°ald have heard D*. Fox *1 think v speech A" favor of
h« was th»mirf^ y stated your views When tKo « ^ you wou^ have felt
“'inter “ho voted for Pyeng YanghethVe0tve„t ?“,■ tak“. hoover'
views Of the »h^ doin‘ Committee's Report ’ 1 hnv * be,"g seventeen to
of ‘he Board Uer m.embers and fi"d that i the vote of the ^ C°'lected ‘he
& taararvst szrssr 7" “ ~ “ t,
care was taken tn aee^liat'your'views »e rVunderl' a°a 1” llnoB’ thal
Committee of the Boards and by our own Board d °°d b°th by the J°im
I Oil Will nnfa .1 _ uo*
Va,, «r;n * 7 “,,u uur own Board
•ctionsOUoft'e Cld^p^'iVd^l^ta^;^^^^1^6'^ Raport a"d ‘he
specifically provides that the missionaries in Ko . shaikh ' aS ?he repora
tunity to pass upon the whole question. It ifSerhai?. a"?‘her eppor.
say to you, as your Secretary, that 1 caused th?, bu‘ ->us‘ that I should
and that, apart from Dr. Fox, to whom I have ^eferred''?^11" ,t0 be lndudeJ
tion in our Board to the Joint Committee’* Rpnorf^’ °? y real °PPosi-
many feeling that in view of thp lmo- °ePort was to this referendum
on the field, it would be better for the Boards' "tTdlrid d‘V‘ded “pinio"3’
out of hand and put an end to the controversy Vu^A'd ‘ matter at °n«
siderations stated at the top of page ten of Yh N g.edA however, the con-
stating that some letters indicated a belief that' J°"j‘ Commi‘i ‘e?’s report,
missionaries were for Pyeng Yang and tw ' ,i lge maJonty of tne
you an opportunity to prove it As manv of v„,r°hUld b® °nly fair ‘° g>vv
that the great body of missionary opinion \n Kotm* exPrC3sed confidence 1
Yang you now have a chance to demonstAte the^ ^accuraev „ffaVOr °f PyenK 1
“dthftyfactCan.d° S° the Wb°,e win beereaop^7h°erey?nrth0ePTighni
of letters from members thT Mi^Ion^o^to destr V Plj3S in a number !
at Pyeng Yang. It seems odd^a'l'anyo"^ s^ouId'l'maAn'n etdi,UD<;ational W0Ik
College department to another city a comparative^ .movlng the
should be considered as destroying it Movfng the qh dla‘a"ce away
College from Tung-chou to Waihsien did not destroy^ h^t r Chnstlan
it, and moving it again, as has now been decided umi,1;.1 T ‘h„er lmproved
anyone as destroying it, but rather as nlen?;A > ’ 1! n“‘ ‘"terpreted by
better advantage. Moreover, the Academy and Thl!ier® Y o'l! pow t0
Pyeng Yang which form by far the largest nnrt Tf' e°!°glc?1 Semi"ary at
there will remain as before. The Board his noPidA illA educa‘lonal work
the work at Pyeng Yang,” and it is at a w , whatever of "destroying
could have gotten such an impression. ° unders‘and how anyone
Ihas been ^iven “the whole°matterde: There* his b°Z no'd' anX‘OUS ‘bought
Iwould gladly have acquiesced. But when the mill*’ 1 bel,evc tha‘ a>l here
•lock, there was no alternative but for “hfloardsTtet C3mM° a dead'
vote on the referendum with a large-hearted anH thlAl l?>k _“p ‘he matter.
Knowing you as I do, I venture !o believe tW*™!? *u!y Chnstia" spirit. ,
Whatever the result, some must be di sap polite d* ! nd° t h Ae g<> n,‘ 0 the
whoever they may ultimate y prove to be will hW. th d faPPointed ones,
to exemplify one of the belt grails of ^ thrChrislia? rr Ce"^‘ opportunity
Lord is not going to be imperilled because foMowels o^th/^ °f ‘b'
as devoted as we are, believe that one sitP « riu 1 .e,Lord* who are
other. Dissension, however, will ' .m^rn thatraarkC°"ege iS be“er' than a"'
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN
(VIII.) LETTER BY REV. A. J. BROWN n n Tn „
D.D, CHAIRMAN OF THE E XEC UTI V Ermi A' MOFFETT,
SPONDING SECRETARY OF THE PRESRYTPrVJJ^F.oAND CORRE-
25,1913 * nr, rKtsbYTERIAN MISSION— JULY
Dr. Samuel A. Moffett, Ja*y 25, 1913.
Madison, Ind.
My dear Dr. Moffett:
tion Th^re'Vo1 gratifi-
that there was little opportunity for conference upon rtose pleasante/AbIVcri
glad toW*Peak-S°I^seemedetooSbaddthat Cthe'n^l Wn‘Ch we wou*d hat. ,een
i aw --
i f °f tcourse*undcr3^od^h^eI™ ° n C™“htngaour*positi«Mi
I >«ue ® » representative capEC*y wL^k dlscU3sln6 ‘h£ questions «
' fa” 5L0I?’ ?.nd fee“ng under social ow "B» he p031tl0n of others as tell
had led Mr. Severance to ask th»?4k obligation to speak of the thinvs tkVf
I appeared to be apeaktae wth 3^.4 C,°'U/rence be arranged for YoU »n3
was special danger that vT 4 :dl-'!erent objects in mind and therofo™ .k "d
F» -
1 was arguing for harmony among the J; b?d> however. no such thought
referendum to them of questiws 0n wh?3k tt"2"63 ln Korea- for a frfnk
. W: fes;|f £ rtr ■ ? arfJsSS
"■ !f "Of a refusal, at least a lack afro * c°.ntrary to their judgment-
, VSSMSi."^ .
SiiMiPsi
CUSS such l question aasU310"fat a11, we should go wfth^ 4?l‘r ‘ aCtion: that
>n the subject if th°J itr* doint Committee would have c a,?y on ? station. I
aaaaw
*‘‘h whom weBhaveSvoh?ntatrIjien repudiatp union Ifthe '"mnio T0" of six
lain men of „ d men. or a worldly object hut m - aot be true if we were
of Christ. T — intWen^e^a^*?
‘bat it is the wi„ of
ff^r*®^®33’8^* '^f/ir'l^J^'^'^^^^o^b^en^'^he^t^^^'^b.y^rayer
6 did not «* you to c"men?3nNewtorkgfhtine
rork for conference because we
M.sf.on y0iUfeP4rtflCU,arIyk responsible for the unfortunate situation • in Th( <
S7 o^V^'Boar^i K SS fflsSg »
.b.ut «.v«ryone else whom I have heard express an opinion «c3gnLes
ride^ Yo^ wehrVce3FkdS'u3onyhmUSt be d‘Vided bet'vecn several men on both
^rT o;Vk0 j *u 5a.Ued up?n because you were the only one of these men
™Cifcier*,^eitvafc JS 20W in America available for conference- and as vou
"w* 4^34 f3!d„°f.the Ml33ion and the leader of its dominant pa«y
to brTng^rt1 af°su“ ‘f° mfnT^e fn ' “«?.« Wif TJSfZZi
ht?PhJ^n1<>n ??°ng th® vanous bodies of missionaries. & Dr. Underwood
bad been in this country instead of you, he would have been invftefTto a
h^nfl3334nfPreC13ely the 3arae way- and I should have urged hTm to usf
his influence to acquiesce in a majority vote for Pyeng Yang if given iust
!«>nl1f83d ru,4°k U3e your influence to acquiesce in a majority vote for
bTtkL^f-4 3hould .be S'ven. We thoroughly understand that your^eadershio
i? U J£l3 a“ 13tm.k° 3en3e whatever the result of your planning but that
it is solely due to the confidence of your fellow worker/ >3 4, 4 j
devotion and experience. That confidence I strongly share iSdead^ «ri’
ously thought at one time of publicly advising the Mission to elect Jou
your present position, and I refrained only because I became s3rf that thf
Mission would in due time elect you anyway and that it wmilH Ko k **
to have it come about in that way But ^ who read the
snirit^h^h1^0^ KoJef, have. ground for real distress as we note the polemic
spirit which some of them indicate — a certain intolerance of mind Qr.
parent inability to realize that fellow-missionaries may differ with them and
yet possibly be guided by the spirit of God as well L themsdves I need
not teH you, of all men, what formidable problems and anxieties the whelo 1
cause of Christ now faces in Korea-anxieties in some efffs efeated and in
the83 43, ?33 th" ferlk ‘5eii byi an !nFushme tide of worldliness and materialism
3nth3ritk? h^k1 bad developed between the missionaries and the Japanese
authorities, the special problems that grow out of the very success of the
rh^rok a in genera1, the new conditions which are bringing Korean
Surely1 at sucf X" T th° ° ,evT te3tjn^ tha" they hafe yet known
fShonSlffS ,tlme as th,Is. we need to stand together in loving
faith and effort and prayer, and it would be most lamentable if at this Denod
nf S S?mergenCy’ ll?e Adversary of Souls were to sow the se^ds
of distrust and disunion amonk the very Christian workers whom we and
surely we may say whom God— is depending upon to meet the new conditions
Vanwk4hUS y°U 3ee’ 4uY Fear Dr- Moffett, it is neither Seoul nor Pyentr ^
XanS ‘hat we are now thinking of. We shall undoubtedly think of one of
ho,-« «fr h r tile v0te J0f the mi3S1°naries is known, as it doubtless will
be in the near future; and we must then consider what thp Tnint PnmmiH
and the Boards ought to do. But it is cert^in tha™ whichever wayThT ma
Jonty goes, there will be a large minority; and whether that minority either
for Seoul or Pyeng Yang, will accept the result in a Christian "Srit and
throw itself with a whole-hearted devotion into the common cause that is
the question which is troubling us and which the correspondence from I(3Je3 1
toeaverttitITed Wl" be engCndered unless earnest effort is^ade
It is very hard, in one sense, to write in this way to you mv dear ^
Doctor; and yet in another sense it is eas>. I regard you as ine of mv
closest friends and most trusted advisers on the foreign field I have feU
c,53e,y„dr1awn to you, and I am eager to have f3r relations become '
those of still closer fellowship It is, therefore, very hard for me as the
v^'Sik'iiT; t0,be obl,ged to discU33 such aLieties And y“ Ihe
very fact that I do trust you and love you so much makes it easier to talk
a"n ik ®Tlt« w’th entire freedom, assured that we know one another so ’
4 i ‘^k1 "rther of need ‘0 be in the least afraid to speak franklv I
shall, therefore, not only expect, but desire, that you will reply with entire
unreserve and that not only now but at any future time, ySu sri 1 u3hes”
tatmgly tell me when and where you think that we are wi-ong
long,\otaranfdue3fty joumey^to New the troubIe to maKe th«
you as you return to your great work' Ym, £ th‘3 8eason- May God bless
lovingly pray that our Fatlfer w Heaven a gTeaLt opportunity, and I
Aod so I subscribe myself'1 as”
Affectionately yours, ’
(IX.) LETTER FROM REV J F AR™UR J' BR°WN.
TARY OF THE SENATE OF THE EDFrATmv??EI-CUT1 VE SECRE-
EOKEA MI^ions, TO REV a J SS‘Vnn FEDERATION OF
JOmT HOLDING COMMITTEE-AUG U, 1^13 ’ CHAIRMAN OF
Rev- A. J. Brown, D.D., August 13, 1913.
My dear Drf Brown?31*** J°int Com' on Eduea- in Korea.
““^by the Echicationaf Senate* th<? Senate°de?I|eHtt>n t°,y0Ur Joint Com-
aTSaffnoa,fiw?°dy f Sffi." \te
°" ^Astd^itn%3Ju7^rp\here/ yeamr?,e M‘SS“S
a college will best secure fo^Sfe entmWnm?t» Ti?U personally think that
S,0n TrhyerWe°;keere3 & 5&S* e"ds Wb“b “8 Mis-
^ fAVboru?fthSe0H ""I71 ip fnvor'of Pye“gYanlTOted: °f theSe 38 voted
Committee, r^col^mendirg^e^o??^'?^’ the <=°mmun‘oation from your
same, and making a referendum tn Vi3 0"’ Pnng your reasons for the
f°PHular vote with your letter before the TOter'0^7 b°dy ^y means of a
held another meeting, and in dpfpr»mJ + voter» was received. The Senate
the Seoul location, directed that anotho *° re(lUest> and those favoring-
cated that you wished a vMe of the e„«re v^nrh ? J°Ur ind?
JJjiy . as s?me discussion upon this Doint /‘f body of the several Missions,
decided unanimously to adhere to thp v t’ ias.1 remember, the Senate
m he several missions varied to snclZVZZC' ^ ba8is <* ™“'»8
sentation would not have been nns^ihl , ? extent “at uniformity of reDre-
thought that the basis on Xh tl / secure> and was also genelalfv
all, the one which would the had been taken wis a?te?
returns It was therefore Hmfted to male and 50 »»« satisfactory
dence of not less than one year and S. wi ??",'3 on the field, of a resf-
from the t‘me the voting forms' were untout t°Tbhe kept °pen but one month
, , 1 On the hypothesis of one arts roller w°rd,ng was as follows-
be ween s , and Pyeng Yang where Ho vnrt°r the entire country, as
College will best secure for the oi?; d Y0U Personally think that a
s.onary workers we seek in Missionary eZcaHon’086 eDdS Which as Mia-
IH «n,y at Pyeng Yang?
and this question alone was rp fp 6 wnCe was P°ss»ble only on
J® tbl?k that another alternative We Slnce have had reason
rethe'nHt°ty0Ur Commits cSderationTnd y°Ur Committe?,Tn?
P .fhe determining of vour conclusion.; ’ tk- formed ™> unimportant factor
•nd (ice ruled out. There were 121 voters eligible according to the voting
conditions. Exactly 100 voted. Of these 37 voted for Seoul. The remainder
voted for Pyeng Yang. I have not received the votes of 21. I have learned
that some voters from among these on both sides never received the voting
form. Some have said that they received it and returned their vote at once,
but I never received it. Both, doubtless, have been due to inefficient mail
service. I have no means of knowing what their votes would be, but in the
previous vote, of which I have spoken, of these 21 there were three who
voted for Seoul, eight who voted for Pyeng Yang, and ten who did not vote
either time. You can use your discretion about these. The official vote is
the one given above. Tabulated according to Missions, it stands as follows:
(1)
(2)
(3)
Eligible Missions
No.
Voting
Voters
Voting
Seoul
M. E
22
20
19
M. E. S...
14
10
8
C. P
10
6
s
N. P
44
40
6
S. P
22
17
1
A. P
9
7
l
Totals . . . .
121
100
37
‘ (♦)
(S)
(M
(7)
(1)
Voting
ii & iii ii a lit
II AS.
II Neg.
for
Both
Both
&
&
P. Y.
Neg.
AS
III Neg
III AS
1
u
0
1
0
2
3
2
0
1
3
6
0
0
0
35
14
5
1
17
16
9
0
0
7
6
3
0
0
4
63
46
7
2
29
(*)
n a in
De-
cline
8
4
0
2
1
0
15
It will be seen from this that out of the 100 voters there was a ma-
jority of 63 to 37 favoring the Pyeng Yang location, on the referendum of
the question which your Committee made to the Missionary body. Of these
46 stood for one College as more important than location; 7 favored two
Colleges under any circumstances; 2, while favoring one College at Seoul
believed in two rather than one only at Pyeng Yang; 29 while believing in
one College at Yyeng Yang stood for two rather than one only at Seoul; and
15 declined to define their position upon the two College alternative. The
relation of the various positions to the membership of the different Missions
may be seen by a glance at the table. The weight of the vote for Seoul, the
bulk of the vote one may say, is in the two Methodist Missions, although half
of those so voting say they put one College ahead of the question of location,
and but one favors two Colleges rather than one only at Pyeng Yang, it is
in these two Missions that 12 out of the 15 so voting, decline to define their
this point. The votes of the Canadian Mission are equally di-
vided, and are unanimous for one College. The weight of the vote for Pyeng
Yang is in the three other Presbyterian Missions, and is there almost unani-
mous, 57 to 7; something less than one-half put the desirability of one College
ahead of the question of location ; 29 stand for two Colleges rather than
only at Seoul; and but 3 have failed to define their position on this point.
It will be not only of interest, but of profit, to your Committee to know
how this vote is distributed, geographically, in the distribution of Mission
work, over the country. The Missionary work of the country naturally
divides itself into three sections geographically, South, Central, North Politi-
cally also, it divides itself this way, and socially. The conformation of the
country makes it easy. Politically Seoul is the center of the country It is
also the center of what we term the central section. Pyeng Yang is in the
southern part of what we term the Northern section, although geographically
it is about the same distance from the extreme northern limit°that it is
from the extreme southern limit of the country. Tabulated geographically
the vote stands as follows:
VOTE ON COLLEGE
Southern Section
S. P. Mission
N. P. Mission
A. P. Mission
Population
No. Christians
15,268
17,847
7,170
Seoul
1
2
1
P. Y.
16
10
6
Total
40,285
4
32
32,673
6,817
10,075
49.565
15,695
2,242
68.566
9,688
23
24
Central Section
M. E. Mission
M. E. S. Mission
N. P. Mission
Total 3,573,364
Northern Section
M. E. Mission
M. E. S. Mission
N. P. Mission
C. P. Mission
ToUI 4,052,760 96,091
the Seou M o c a t i o n ' i n ^ t h e b Ce n t r^l U jfec t i o n en^ W ?flhe vote ^
<9r512°041 T bStsei/^^fhe'VhrisUan c^uen^y (136 3?! £^565)
*" “ ■ " ■ “ » « t. TO. .. mniT'Ji rtJ IK
union work. This is shown in he table beloT V. ^T36* P°o1 ,of the
sion, with the exception of those for noon for «ach M'»-
lished reports. They are divided and na»i Jill?1* are tS^en, ^rom t*le'r Pub-
in the ratio of the vote of that Mission’s memher°s S“n or Pyen& Yang
concerned only with the final column mbers. Your Committee will be
M. EL M E. S. C. P. N. P. S. P. A. P. ToUI.
College Vote
S*ouI
Pyeng Yang
Ratio of Vote
Seoul
Pyenir Yang ...
Population ...2
Seoul 2
Pyeng Yang..
,500.000
.250.000
125.000
1.000.000
800.000
200.000
1.200,000
600.000
600.000
*•0 of Churches.
Seoul
Pyeng Yang..
444
423
22
291
233
68
310
155
165
oi unican t*
10.373
6.912
2,260
**yeng Yang..
9,854
519
5.530
1.382
2.280
1.130
rV7*‘ Primary
Schools .
131
46
36
p>enK Yang..
6.
5 37
6 9
18
18
V f* Scholars..
4.239
857
929
>’>.», Yang..
212
686
171
464
464
3tud'1*
206
222
165
Yang. .
10
178
44
77
77
598.125 134.765
89.475
4.934
84.641
7.746
967
6,779
1.000.000
142.857 3.526.747
857.143 8.136.253
1.792
255
1.627
991
1.645
22.125
46.850
8.207
8.377
592
1.259
80.2%
68.8%
87.6%
62.4%
82.6%
67.4%
33.5%
66.5%
42.6%
57.4%
82.0%
68.0%
68.0%
'£p. o/ t he ‘againsr Vhe ST' Io“tion ^P^sent
Ur ^■engYa^'ag’s’J"11?'^"1 mernhcr3h<iP of the'cLrch^as^gainrtOT*^
“ V«n,t 66-5%^3somrth^hiees7tL7n042b67^ of’ih arYCih°01? °f the count^y
“ “^‘nst 57.4%- anH oo?/ ** VJfn of the scholars in those schools
•rainst 68%. X°' and 32% of the academy students of the country a.
36 (
If calculated on the basis of Missions instead of an individual vote the
ratios are somewhat more unfavorable to Seoul.
We have appreciated the strong position taken by your Committee on
the point of but one institution, we thoroughly agree with you that the
question is one that ought to be settled by the voice of the missionary body
on the field. We have appreciated greatly the course you have pursued
in seeking to ascertain this point and if clear, making it determinative.
It appears from this vote, that in answer to your Committee’s referendum on
the question of the location of one union college for the country, the mis-
sionary body, by a very large majority (whether of votes polled, geographical
distribution, or vested interests brought to the union) states its position
as that of endorsing the Pyeng Yang location.
This completes the report which I was instructed by the Senate to pre-
pare and forward to your Committee, immediately on the closing of the
.poll.
The cheerful concession, and acquiescence in, the principle of majority
rule is so fundamental and so essential to the success of any co-operative
undertaking; the fact that the present vote would seem so decisive on this
point; and the further fact that of the 37 voting for Seoul 29 either failed
to express themselves on this point, definitely stated that they believed in
one College wherever located, encourages me to think that the suggestion
made in your Committee’s letter is a feasible one, and that “an effort at
compromise, led by the Educational Senate, may be successful.” To this
end I am writing the members of the Senate, proposing that a statement of
the results of the vote be prepared and sent to the members of the minority
by the Senate, and that an appeal be made to them, in view of the results of
the vote, to concede the will of the majority. I hope shortly to be able to
write you favorably of the result. Believe me, with every prayer for the
guidance of your Committee,
Yours in the Service of the King,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(X.) LETTER FROM REV. A. J. BROWN, D.D„ TO REV. J. E. ADAMS,
DJ).— SEPT. 15, 1913.
Sept. 15, 1913.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D.D.,
Taiku, Chosen. (Korea.)
My dear Dr. Adams:
I have received your letter of August 13th, addressed to me as Chairman
of the Joint Committee of the Boards on Education in Korea, communicating
the result of the vote which was taken at the request of our Committee’s
report. You will understand our very deep interest in it. As far as I am
personally concerned, this vote of the missionaries settles the question of
location and I shall cast my own vote in accordance with it. A very serious
question remains, however, as to whether the minority, which you report as
constituting one-third of the total vote, is willing to acquiesce in the ways
indicated in the closing paragraph of your letter. It will be very hard to
make much headway in this country in securing support for a College if the
College is to be opposed by one-third of the Missionaries, and there would,
also, be difficulties on the field. The development of a College is a hard
enough proposition even when it has the full support of the Missionary body
upon whose good will it so largely depends. I am, therefore, very much
gratified by your statement that you have sent an appeal to the minority “in
view of the result of the vote to concede the will of the majority” and that
you hope shortly to be able to write me favorably of the result. Knowing
the situation at this end of the line as I do, I think it will be the part of
wisdom for me to defer the question of calling a meeting of our Joint Com-
mittee and presenting the matter to the Boards until I have your report on
this question, otherwise, I fear that a decision might be reached that, while
the vote on the field shows that the Union College, when the way is clear
to proceed, should be in Pyeng Yang, the state of feeling among the Mis-
sionaries is such as to make it inexpedient to proceed with the matter at
present. If you could read all the letters that have come to me on the sub-
ject you would understand the danger of this action, for these letters, I am
feeHn^ha3y’bMn1CdevelopS?ChIhh^ea\o^°heart'fro^^e that con3iderable
promptly as Boon as I do. ^ h from you 800n and will act
With warm regards, I remain
Cordially yours
^ (Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
D.D.-™.F20°?913EV- ^ E- ADAMS' DD- TO REV. A. J. BROWN.
Rev. A. J. Brown, D.D September 20, 1913.
My dCear™anB^dS' Joint Com- ** Education in Korea.
of the field" vote *on °coUe^ location* ‘and ‘your^ette"^"0"1^ the receiPt
^^Vpoke^fbeingn^atifi^\tmy0p^^^f"°^•*^e^*™***a<*^“ty®'“, Matter
a"d ih5t.you would ^lay calling a me/tin^of8^" a,ppea* t0 the minority,
you had heard of the result. You hav flo, ,' 6 , J°‘nt ■ ^mmittee until
SSf y0U °f the fai,Ure ‘o^-ni ZSStfS* Senate^uthorizSg
wished their pos&^be unde™tood*M °Pp03‘nB the aPP*al,
Yang" °TPhre0yPOdTdd ST t S»
referendum to the missionary body fina l tha?T» i ® letteJ as makinK the
after it had again passed through the Jofnf r„deC‘-3A0n becamc fi"al only
opposed an appeal to the minority as « nrefudSn rM®' They therefore
time, though they were quite prepared to lilSj0* °f the question at that
tbe d°lnt Committee might make. y y accept any decision which
that you have p e r hT p " °m a gn ffi Th e° s t r e n n n ° * ’ but I am incl>ned to think
senting that of the entire minority There ua °PP°slt|on of some as repre-
who probably will never be reconciled to havinv th r »" the city of Seoul
nor cease to agitate if a decision contrarv TiF th Colle^e ln Pyeng Yang
T f- an®, however, relatively few, the bidk ‘of ‘the 3y °f thinkinS ia made8
r-‘kiham. and it is scarcely proper that the Iw, m‘no^ty do not stand
should be made to drag on account of their strenuous °J tha .Lord’s chariot
My statement that thev He n.( strenuous opposition.
oh’’0*™, °u1’ 1 think’ if you ^11 examine8 the V 1l b“h °f the min°fity will
object of the last two questions to the » tal'y sheet of the vote The
ou^of"?!,01"1^ Snd minority voters on this point ^v8 out the P°sition of
out of the minority of 37 voters iq po , Y°u will observe that
t£naif di th®™selves as putting the desirabilitv°of thanrhf.lf» have distinctly
tion of location, and that if it is located at pL°f CoIleSe above a ques-
J,fTi?°Ilege in Seoul. At the worsf t h£ £ ^ th^ wiI1 not favor
recorded themselves on the subject and amnn«r fk es but 18*' 12 have not
are not such opponents as you speak nf Ag tbese are several whom I know
are Of that kind. Amonf, tC reaming suTrh’ h°WeJer- that MtfSu
two Colleges rather than one only in Pvenv r e‘Bhtecn' two v“ted for
sny circumstances. Of these last (I„, YanK. four voted for two under
Ca es of the Seoul location — two are not. ° ardent and influentia°l advo-
Ind ‘tw° VOtt'nB ^ "second^college rather than16""’ e‘8,ht fr°m the tweIve-
fi*?AfRSa^S2WRSB
tu““ as ~ V5 “
M 38
with comparative positiveness. When questioned upon it in the Senate,
while not making so flat-footed a statement, he gave it as his opinion, from
an intimate knowledge of their Secretaries’ position, that they could not
consider the Pyeng Yang location. In arguing the Seoul location before the
Senate, he also based his remarks upon the fact that the proceeds of the
sale of certain Methodist Board properties here in Seoul c-j-ld be available
for a Seoul institution but not for one in Pyeng Yang, and most of his
remarks were based on the above assumption.
If this is the case, I think that simple honesty and justice to the mis-
sionary body and to all parties concerned in the question alike demand that
it should be known, and publicly and officially stated. Otherwise referen-
dums and negotiations are simply of form and not of fact, and are so much
valuable strength and time but illy spent.
I feel that I am not out of place in speaking thus freely, in that the
missionary body, which the Senate, and I as its executive officer represent,
has now spoken decisively on the subject.
Believe me.
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(XII.) BOARD LETTER NO. 177
October 21, 1913.
In Re Union College Location Question
To the Korea Mission.
Dear Friends:
I append a copy of a communication, which as Chairman of the Joint
Committee on Education in Korea I have sent to the Rev. James E. Adams,
General Secretary of the Senate of the Educational Federation of Christian
Missions in Korea, regarding the pending College question:
October 20, 1913.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D.D., Genl. Sec.,
Federation of Christian Missions, Korea.
My dear Dr. Adams:
The Joint Committee on Education in Korea held a meeting in New
York Oct. 9th and considered your communications June 28th, Aug. 13th,
21st and 28th, and their enclosures regarding the votes of the missionaries in
Korea on the College Location Question. Your cable of Oct. 8th arrived
during the Committee meeting. Unfortunately only three members of the
Committee were able to be present as the month of October is an exceedingly
difficult month for a committee meeting, on account of the many meetings
of Synods and Conferences, and the membership of the Committee is, as you
know, scattered through a number of widely separated cities. There were
letters, however, from three of the absentees and another was represented by a
colleague who was present.
After long and careful consideration it was agreed that the questions
involved areof such magnitude and difficulty, including, as they do, not only
a wide difference of opinion among the missionaries, but virtually a differ-
ence between them as denominations, Methodists and Presbyterians, though
with some exceptions being on opposite sides, that it would be inexpedient
for the Joint Committee to take final action until the questions can be more
carefully studied and a fuller meeting of the Committee can be held. It
was, therefore, voted to aadjoum until the Annual Meeting of the Foreign
Missions Conference of North America at Garden City, New York, January
13th-14th, as it is expected that all the members of the Committee will be
present at that Conference.
I can therefore send at this time merely an acknowledgment of your
official communications and this tentative report. It is evident that some of
the Boards feel that very serious difficulties are involved, and members who
reside so far apart as New York, Nashville, Tennessee, and Toronto, Canada,
cannot be assembled before the Annual Conference referred to. It is desir-
able also that there should be time to exchange letters with the members
of the Committee who reside in Australia.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
In this connection I wish to acknowledge in behalf of our own Board
the receipt of a communication dated September 4th and signed by Samuel
Welbofnt'A.' JMmShaErTo^raSndNcrhasanAn Wm. B. Hunt, A /
been carefully read by the’ members of our” r?arkfe' T^s communication has
Dr. Speer and myself, are members of the S r' C°U,?cl1' two of whom
our Board will not be prepared to take „„ ,k Committee. Inasmuch a.’
the report of the Joint Committee which cannot^11 “"Va'1 ha3 received
for reasons explained in my letter to Dr Adam. Presented until January
acknowledge the receint nf co • Adams» I can only at this
whole matter will have frefsh\n“?a“UfulCaconsiHandHaSSllrv you that ‘he
mit.ee is prepared to present its report consldaration when Joint Com.
rnh^o8roraoef 1“ rr ialIvive, 10
members of the Committee, who represent Li? e?*. Yang- but there are
“a ,‘nat °n Poge 10 of the communication of ™e j„t <£ ^ remind
25*.\ and addressed to the “Boards haSin» « °\?t- Smittee» dated Feb.
which was sent to you with Board Letter 14? ? £orea»” a copy 0f
ih18ll8KDt5nCeoWhich Was Passed upon by all the°Board^ 1«w’ thera apPeared
shall be for Seeoul it shall be deemed « Sli **?ards- If a majority vote
that prompt effort be made to secure f£nds for^th^n °Vhe q,Jestion and
the erection of buildings as soon as the • Purchas,e of land and
upon the estimates which are to be submitted Committee sha 1 have Passed
tional Foundation in re3Donse tnthn n d b/ !he Senate of the Educa
24th; but that if the miX“y shall pro^trL^J S Join‘ CommittetjS'y
reconsider their decision and no further steD3 be t.lF„yeneJang{. the Boards
such reconsideration. It is urged therefore that P«n*n* the results of,
templated by that section must now be given ’to the ^ reconsideration con-
this reconsideration and in view of nil ?he aJr th wh®Ie subject. Pending
appears to be no alternative but to hold the matter *v,* situation ‘here
Committee can have reasonable opportCty to* compute it^w^^6 “**
Cordially yours,
(XIII.) LETTER REV. FRANK M. NO^TH 1)R™tV’REV0WN-
J. E. ADAMS, DJ). ' ’ ° KEV-
The Rev. James E. Adams D D February 24, 1914.
Secretary of the Educational Senate
Taiku, Korea.
Dear Sir and Brother:
Korea in the mYt*^ of‘ tL“5caItio°n o^th^ropoTed'ff * on Education in
statement was adopted by the Committee with P Unlon College. The
been adopted by the following Boards: thl MethodU?'?' S-ntlnK ,vote- rt has
hccou °( Canada, the Presbyterian of the Uniter! „ Episc°Pa h the Presby-
tb® United States of America. The Board of th^it’ ,\he Presbyterian
Church, South, has not yet reported. Its Secretaries^ Methodl3t Episcopal
at the meeting of the Joint Committee and concord 5 Were present
former vote was in accord with the present decision 1.'" the, action. Its
therefore, that its vote will be given in approval of t'h a 13 3afe to ass™',
Committee. Each Board will communicate with iu leC13’°n of the Joint
field concerning this action and its relation thereto representat'res on the
Korea s need for Christian education mav nnt L f the challenge of
. On behalf of the Joint Comm.Uee and wdh rh 8 P°3tP°ned.
missionaries of the Boards they represent, Tlm^ Kreetmg to the faithful
Yours cordially,
Enel. (Signed) F. M. NORTH
FMN
E 6
Joint Committee on Educational Work In f.
tk.
.. / . H o
haadd b^re"1 ."^TareLl fep'ues^fr^^th edUC3'
5ionanes to the letter of Apri 115th and February 25th and* a great deal
c(/0™Prdfi?Ce, from, fidd presenting valuable commented had
bad the benefit, also, of full statements from Dr. Mott, Dr Goucher Dr
Pinson and Dr. Stanley White, giving the judgments which they had formed
?°mm?«ntrfat!0ni, “"I conference during their recent visit to 1 Korea The
Committee feels keenly conscious of the heavy responsibility which devolves
opon it, and having now come to a substantially unanimous view desires to
express its conclusions, if possible, in a way that will assure all the mi.
jionaries in Korea of its full appreciation of the complexity of the problem
which faces them and the Boards, and of its gratitude for the depth of their
conviction which the Committee believes it shared with the missionaries with
re?tr.d JV116 fundamental principle which cannot be compromised fn^he
jbghtest degree, that all the educational work supported by these Boards
must be unqualifiedly and powerfully Christian, and be designed to render
the largest service to the cause of Christ among the people of Korea
It is cleaer that on both sides of the important questions which have
been under discussion there are strong convictions enlisted. It was inevitable
“d it is desirable that it should be so. In no mission field have such rttal
problems arisen without the most earnest thought and discussion The
Committee has sought to enter with full mind and heart into all the points
of view and counterbalancing considerations which have been presented
mid as it has done so has been established in the belief that ten or fifteen
years hence the spirit which is now one in us will be marked with a sub"
jUmtial unity of mind, also as to the wisest system of education™ oiganiza-
In particular the Committee wishes to emphasize its accord with the
desire of those who are eager that the Church in Korea should ha™ a de
voted smgle-hearted, capable ministry, that the evangelistic character of the
Church, for which it has been notable throughout the world should be
maintained and that men should be prepared for its DeroetuaHnn Qr.ri
richer development. The Committee woild be satisfied with ?o plan whfch
of ?heVChich. mlg 3eCUre’ m it3 Judgment imperil this vital interest
There is also another set of considerations which the Committee has
heavdy upon its heart, and in this it speaks out of the long experience of
he Boards in dealing with educational problems in many lands and in
facing the issues not of the ecclesiastical situation of a particular decade
Le™ generation, but of the life of nations, of the relation of religion to
the whole temper and destiny of a people, of the enormous task which
Christianity is called to meet in every land both of the West and of the
East, in the interpretation of the steeady flood of new truth in tim. ef
Christian faith and experience. Nowhere in the world are thweprSlemTmore
real or pressing than in the Far East. Christianity must meet her resnons?
van Lm-tlU3 matVV’tal, t0j herTVe^ ,lfe' “der almort hopeless S-'
vantage in some of these lands In Korea we have an opportunity to fav
l°'LUp°n °lT Preblems at the beginning, or almost at the bepnmng U
would have been better if we could have acted three years ago but it i,
D°t yet too late if we act unitedly at once. * ’ Dut 11 13
It is certain that a new era in Korea has begun. The Drohl^m
development of the Church there, which for so loT^a time was u^comofi
«ted by the intellectual and industrial conditions of Japan and of the
west, is now plunged into the same great complexus of issues which we
teow m every other land and in which Christianity must fearlesTly stand
ren heeaa lta restlmony and do the work which it alone can do and which
ren be done by it only through efficient educational institutions raising on
Chnstmn leaders in Church and State, men who in all the services
& Christian men will win other men to Christ buildup a^ exTend
u>® Church, and fashion the order of a Christian society P tend
into m.nhl3 K«n?ral view of the present conditions and without entering
the J associated considerations this Committee votes to recommend to
L,' Boards which it represents, or their executives, that they unit/^n .1,2
kf^f'd'ahment of a Union Christian College at Seoul In the assurandn»w
P will vindicate the wisdom of this decision, the Committee, deeply^
(XVI) BOARD LETTER NO. 196
Report , 7”e Kr°"a Co.lege Question 24' 1914‘
To the Korea Son ' C°mm,ttee- January 14th. 1914
Dear Friends: <
Korea, dated Febru ary* 25 t h^arnT tran s m*i t tod” t Committee on Education in
146 of April 16th. 1913 expressed S fl0u Wlth B°ard letter No.
but closed with the folloWinfr/coLendatfon? JUdgment in favor of Seoul,
of sentiment among" the^issionTrierThe fact* th ^uJJtion» .the wide division
in referring the matter for final actl0n of the Senate
upon by the Missions, and that the votes thus far £b.ard! t has not been passed
or the Senate so that it is not definite^ 1 ket? ua\e been by Mlssion3
majority of the Missionaries in Korea W ^he loi^r h locf,tlon the actual
as a partial compromise that the boards m’t/V “ Committee recommends
be located at Seoul. With ^understanding that0” to th3t ‘e" Umon Colle8e
institutions shall be middle schools That o th 4 °ther existing or projected
equipped academy or high school or „„4 “If pollcy sJha" “elude one well
department at each station That in Drovin™s°wl, 8Tade Wlth an lndustrial
sions at work such academy at a given station ® tW° °I more mis'
the present medical college and nufses' trafn n^ „v.a ^'°n a^ademy: That
Union College in such ways as may later he fmm«fCh' °°1 be affihated with the
question of affiliating the two th^logicM college?^ Ft' lcabJei And ‘hat the
e.deration; that this dec, sion, i app^ved bv fhe ' h f°r fJurther
mitted for ratification to a popular vote o^ III ,1 d’ *be lmmed|ately sub-
Korea together with a copy of this letter F.lu,4*1* votmg missionaries in
her vote to the Secretary of the Senate of Fd mlsts,onary ending his or
shall collate the result and transmit coniel to fPducat,onal Foundation, who
to the Boards at home; that if the maforitv°vnto C?'<?Ipe/at“B Missions and
be deemed a final settlemenToIThr^stron and^ that3 be for £eouI it; shaI1
to ««ure funds for the purchase of land and thh Pr?mpt effort ba made
soon as the Joint Committee shall have n»« d th Crectlon of buildings as
be submitted by the Senate of the Educational Fn?°d ®?tlm.ates which are to
request of the Joint Committee, July 24th ’ but tht Tto response to the
prove to be for Pyeng Yang the RonrHo the majority shall
further steps be taken^endin^g the result of tl,°v,3lder thj,r decision and no
It afterwards transpired that the ql t 5UC,h reconsideration."
m Korea, on its own initiative, had^lready taken1^^^3^'01131 foundation
was 71 for Pyeng Yang and 38 for Seoul ’ 4te result of which
request of the Boards, the Senate called for IT !''1 however, with the
was reported in a letter from the Rev Dr Jaml^F id4®' T£e resuIt ot this
SenaFr dhfed A,Ufrust 13th’ 1913- To be asJfoUows: Adams’ Secretary of the
and 63 fbr Pyen^Yang* ’ "Umb" V°4i"* ^ whom 37 were for Seoul
together °f ‘his Joint Committee
the field, including the printed p^phlet'SW^ra^WttS
June 28th^Vu^t013tqhUe211s°tn’andn28thrand<thmS' °ffi,cial communications of /
addition received considerab e corr«nnnd™ 'T enclosurea- Each Board
the other Boards received as ma™ ?ettl ' fr°m its own missionaries. I,
respondence is exceedingly voluminous m,S| I" °Ur Board did, the total cor.
has been taken without full inflation °ne C3n compIain ‘hat actios
fun attendance was^rradered imdrecUcablcThv ca*'?d f»r October 9th, but ,
and missionary conferences the timp nnH ir vanoua ecclesiastical meetings
tee whose members fredTwLely repareled ‘al "o' hal aSShe'nblin? a Comm!?,
annual meeting of the Foreign Mission. had to be considered. The
January afforded the srst practicable time fm L'n ^°rth Amenca in
An explanation to this effect was sent ,„ n aj 3 adequate representation,
in my letter of October 2Wh Terhaps the deHvw8’ S/CIetary of the Senate, ]
time for further study and corresponded y 33 {ortunate aa it afforded .
13th, iTh anflTh rLp^tfv^^AU SSb o^rd d N*W York’ January 12th. 1
represented by the full number of members to whieh't^ W°rk in Korea were
cept, of course, the Australian Boards A? toe tnee ?nt,tIed’ e*‘
session there were also present by invitation tolgf „ d m?st '“portant
had made a special study of the ouestinn „ii’^fv the following brethren who
visited Korea: John RMottLLD™heRev Ww' phem hav'pS recently
dent John F. Goucher, D. D., (who also a« m * Pinson, D. D., Presi-
Tayler) the Rev. Stanley Wh te, D D and Dr T H P^T °f Dr' S' Earl I
The Committee would have been kind if u 1 Saller- ft I
of the missionaries as a decisive settUmenf of C*' l ha^e accepted the vote
this relieved the Committee of further responsiffifit?1163^0" °if '?catlon and
parent, however, that only one member ofPtk? P«™ '» j^ly became ap-
this view. All the others and alUf the consnlH^K feIt, able to take
is, ten of the eleven men present felt thlt mftf' rethre" referred to, that
of m that fashion. It is always, a difficult i itJ?31461 c?,uId not be disposed
views expressed in a discussion of wh* h no ieM«.nh'y *° re§reSen4 the
and especially when some may have regarded s(fv”°Braph,c record was kept
weight and validity. Knowing however vnnr in^ ap?uments as of varying
you have a right to know reasons for’ toe J.n'T634 ln.*he matter and that
attempt a resume as follows: be conclus“n that was reached, 1
aries who were “fgfble^o0 vote*on ihe^^sls Seed PCr Cent’ °f mission-
strong effort of the Senate on the field to break to r Up0I\ II? spite of tbe
mittee s report and to secure a vote forPyeng Yan » mil °toth® J°"?t Com'
a clear majority, it is too close to ram to„ r 'If' V blIe this is technically
body. When 48y’per cent of Missionarie, »iWe?ifbt °f the Missionary
Yang or too indifferent or undecided to vote one wayirihe^to03^ y0 DPyens
fr°m the re3P°rr3it*ility 'of' reviewin^the
a way that it iIma'denup1oyf ^nodtV^nU^to^MiS^wh113 Miss-ions in 5ucb
for Pyeng Yang, but the minority included almost toe ^ rj maJ°r'tie3 were
toe Northern and Southern Methodist Missions Such »d ?embersb'P of
not taken on the straight question of location oo^ff0? .^at the vote was
quested, but that it was confused with other Questions J°"1it ,90mmittee re-
bility of two colleges for which there was no ’warrant ’and" U|d'"f vthe possi'
college desired. If any Missionaries voted If e and als» the type of
lateat idea that if their choice for location should not'nl for,Iocat'on with the
might be established, they voted under a Tnisannrehln1’” ai,’ja aec<“d college
mittee deeply regretted that the Senate pu?Pfn OnesHe, an' ,the J°i"t Com-
they were possible alternatives. As for the tvSe of lonll ILand 111 as if
•vidantly under consideration, and each was idStified'to to*’ ^“‘YPes were
iwith a particular city. Some voted for Pyeng Yang m!1' ““ds of voters
they really preferred it as location, but because to™ ‘ S.° Jmuch b«rause
Icollege which they believed that Pyeng Yang wool? I-Wa"t5i tbe type of
Med the arguments on this question which hTd bee^T' f ?e Committee
but was unable to regard them as valid. In the iudtmem f v0m the fie,d.
station institution is, of course, largely influenced Ifv the1 ,°tot he Committee
cue station personnel-
S Sr'X; &&? „* srs: r,£ tv
heve that the same men would conduct one kind of * rvnQ ^ Sc , *)e'
another kind in Pyeng Yang. The MUalSnaries ™ll b?i!kflV?o havi
type of a college that they want wherever it is located Thp rn
noted that the Senate in its “Supplementary Statement on Jh Committee
Pyeng Yang Location,” would respectful"? ^ a3k ih%?lde, of the
consider a Young Men's College down i^ the red wufT.V ^'l "0UM
Clark Street, Chicago,” to which the Committee would reply ^ that it°doeS,°Ut^
regard the differences between Seoul and Pyeng Yane a« tL dlw ‘ does Pot
tween “the red light district of South CkT sieet Chicayo be;
“In JSJS&W ,ta«
JU3‘on fiTd'" (^a^Sno^t^,rde^^^ stated^ ^but^'no^ne^can'^read^th^'fette11"
ErH- - ^,on“SS2
tion of type was regarded as more determinative than the question of Inca
electorate^h^J^jin^C^innhttee'teir'^ha^the^ot^did VeFt ^ h^U° t^e ^ 3
majority would stand “ vote had bUn taken as the Rn°?dWh/re “a"31
the uncomplicated question of location and that ’if Li* Boapdf desired, on
be made Warding V k,nd°of10aCaColi;gaen thlt^U Sues'
tion of location might wear a different aspect P ’ Cae que3'
rf-
the question of location settled by the missionaries on the h
and that as the correspondence indicateTtoo ^eat inte^sity of feelinif’
make another referendum practicable and the delav airoo°/ f?e in£ to
duly prolonged to the injury of the work the IWU LSa ^ ^
duty of re-considering the Lin ques?°on on its merits”, IheVa^L^
much' larger .thC^ W°U‘d d° CVeD “ the ^ng Yang °had been
unioi^ college ^t ^^^^uugevms^r^iLsdileLi^ theLmpte'reason^hat^he
would S bXindripenslbXto a PunioL^lcgr fLlmg6 that10 th C°'°P |7tion
Ipossibly go there for higher education. Of fourse the others id Ch°U d D°i
that they would not go to Seoul: but aDart from nnJnthc6” c??ld have 3al<i
would have meant no union college atLl and™his hi ImmiiH?10"' thaI
the abdication of our Christian opportunity Ld duty M d have, meaat
Christian leadership for the new Korea as two rnlh>J? °btam an adequate
deemed wholly out" of the question for’ reasons which hIXaX.Tr*
given in former correspondence. Indeed the mislionaris. th™ bae'J
rassjjjaa. £
Yang?" and “do you believe two colleges rather than °r °niy at, ,PVene
the 85 who voted on these qSestiongs £r Adams states ^t
would be a majority of those who voted on this matter) stoorffe, (^‘ch
as more important than location,” and that “1.5 declined tolled T C°' ?
tion upon the two college alternative” r* _ .7lea to define their posi-
if ../weight was to b! att“ t»at
to the fact that a majority of those who voted on f’hA f ^ must be given
voted for one college as more important than location At°aCnverat que3tlon
nence has to be given to the fact that aceording to Dr Adams' ren^f°m,,J
7 missionaries favored two colleges under .n» ,1™,, ,, report only
.consideration was the strong conviction of the rl^ X363' j A further
brethren who had been called in consLation. tL^faTt™ which weref
|les, independent of the opinion or control if the Lss "nLLTndZL0,
I
. •#■/(
impea-odvdy require a Christian College at Seoul, the metropolis the in-
tellectual as well as the political capital of the country, and the fountain of the
influences which will dominate the life of Korea. As all the Boards and a
^rge majority of the missionaries themselves had voted that one Christian
College should be deemed sufficient for Korea, and as the considerations
iwrl,had 6d t0 that conclusi°n are absolutely decisive, the Committee felt
khat there was no practicable alternative but to put the union college in Seoul
/fhere was no disposition in the Joint Committee to modify in the
lightest degree the Christian and evangelistic type of the college or the di
m2 Comm°itt2ePf'Tthlv,h 11 sha” su3tam to development of the Korean church,
riw. eonSS U’ h°wever' that thls, P°mt was °ne which was fully within
withlXm n thTe,mi33l°nar;es themselves and of the Boards in co-operation
r2«-.h ’ D Jobn K. Mott, who was very strong in his advocacy of Seoul
ha, at my request put the substance of his position in writing as follows-
“After consKienng carefully various printed, written and oral statements
regarding the best location for the proposed Union College for Korea I c2me
to the conclusion that it would be decidedly preferable to locate it at Seoul I
believe this will.be best from the educational point of riew® from the «0:
SfOaLTan,fymIcarnedafr0m ** P°iDt °f °f the a"d ^ce
yea/3 of work in Colleges and Universities has shown
d<mpm?\irim ^pstlan, character and fruitfulness of an institution does not
depend primarily or chiefly upon its location, but upon its ideals, its leader-
•hip and the policy adopted and followed for cultivating its moral and
religious life There is much more that I would like to say, but I would nre-
& quesrion ”aCe t0 ^ W,th 3Dy PCTSOn wh° wishea to confer ^th me on
. . ^I°tt 8,30 urg?d ,that thf alleged irreligious influence of the capital
^„ri,°L„eimfg„ani JeCg0n t0 ‘°Cating the college there' i3 really a power-
ful argument for it, as Korean young men will go to Seoul anywav since
it is the place to which they will naturally turn to obtain that whkh appeals
to ambitious young men, so that if we are not represented thereof,
Christian college, we shall simply turn the most^ VoSg* Korean youthS
over to the government and Roman Catholic institutions. Dr Mott believes
that there is no reasonable hope that any appreciable number of the leading
young men of Korea can be induced to go to Pyeng Yang and
go either to Seoul or to Japan for their higher* eduction mey can be
trained under Christian influences, if we put our college there- nthoL-
they will be lost to the church. ^ re’ °^°erwise
Attention was also called to the fact that Seoul has forty-five churches
and chapels within fifteen li of the center of the citv not inelndfng »hv
M. C. A. and Roman Catholics, against twenty-two churches and ehanRi '
in fifteen li of Pyeng Yang; that there are four^ MiMtaS?n Seo^ pP2 ™ '
mg the Salvation Army, the Oriental Mission and the Y. M. C. A ’ as against
two Missions in Pyeng Yang, one of which is almost against
college there; that there are two Bible Schools and a Thhenlnmei5! ogaiP3t a
in Seoul against one such institution irPyeL Yang aL tT.t - S™‘"ary
per cent, of the graduates of the Presbytorian Academy fn Seoul a Ja^''0^
m Christian work against seventy-one per cent of Le iLd„ "5 5E
Pyeng Yang Academy. The opinion was therefoW WresfS^ 0%*** ‘be
no valid ground for believing that the Christiln^ ^influenceHroLd tt„d2ote •"
Seoul could not be made quite as strong as those which i students in
bear upon them in PyengVang, especiaV/as the ^,^1 bl^ette^
by the Missions or their elected representatives selected
b,
deemed responsible for my memory or my version of what was said The
reasons I have named may not have appealed to everv mmu lMi „Xhe
mittee with equal force, and some members may hlv? had other re C°m'
which thev regarded as even stronger, but XL were presented ?3^S
meeting which I was unable to attend. I am simply endeavoring tnlif4 the
some idea of the thoroughness with which the whole matter was poX'3?11
voto honVt6hea fieldta,°finnar a'3° Why the Committea Mt unable to rlgardThe
' • rlTgf and c.are,ful, consideration, a sub-committee was an
pomtcd at the third session to draft a report, and at the last session this re
p0tt WifS adopted, every member of the Committee being present except mv
retrt^at asnfod.lotws“mC ^ th* Very Cr‘tlCa' illne3a »f »f
“The Joint Committee on Educational work representing the Boards at
"0r .'"K.0™ has earnest and sympathetic consideration in repeated
meetings to the important and urgent Droblem nf hio-w reP®aiea
tion. The Committee has had before ! the careful i from ?he “Ca‘
anes o (he letters of April 15th and FeLua^ 25th! ^d a great dea°of
l°ZZPZtnC„\ Jan iht ficld Pre3entlng valuable comment, anfhas had the
benefit, also, of full statements from Dr. Mott, Dr. Goucher, Dr. Pinson and
ey dWhlt#' g,vlnf the judgments which they had formed from ob
servation and conference during their recent visit. ~
feels keenly conscious of the ?hea^ respoLib^
“df ,2 n°w com« fo a substantially unanimous view Saairel to* express its
them and the Boards, and of its pTatitiiHp fn* janiv # . • ces
organization. ° 33 to the wlsest system of educational
desire^rthose'' "ho'areTj^ \ZS\t3 ‘o *mphasize »■ record with the
devoted, single-hearted “capable mbiistaJ' tK ,n K°raa ,sbould have a
the church for which it has been nntah’l Vjv4 ‘he evangelistic character of
maintained and that men should be oughout tne world should be
development. The Comm ittee wouldh/7, t a lta Perpetuation and richer
ever else it might s«uta would °n Us fud^ien^ Wlth.,n° Plan which, what-
the church. n lts ludgment imperil this vital interest of
heavily upon^ts'hea^^n^inVhis^^spe'^s^mt^f 7hh'Clh the Committee has
Boards in dealing with educational n?nhi» Ut- f the loPg experience of the
the issues not alone of the e« e? iastical rifiuL'T7 lands fd ]n fad"g
even generation, but also of the life of t a Particular decade or
to the whole temper and destinv of *tnLS5tl0n*’ tbe relation of religion
Christianity is called to meet in Tver,, P]6° a e,». °/_ tb? enormous task which
East, in the inUrpretatioTof the steadv"^0^, 0f tha West and of the
Christian faith and experience Nowherif in^h»°£ "fa* trutJ?. ,n terin3 of
more real or pressing than in the Far East thri7i , d these Problems
responsibility m this matter vital « ast' Christianity must meet her
disadvantages in some of these lands In KoH ‘fe’ vUndcr almost hopeless
lay hold upon our problems at the h(ei™”»K°r'a , e bave an opportunity to
would have been better ?wt could ^hfve ae?idVm°St at the bePinning I‘
yet too late if we act unitedly at once ** ye3rS 3g°’ but il is not
d e v e 1 o p m e nT ^ t h e * c h u r c h" 1 7e r e** hi c 7 'for3 s o ^1 o nv The prob,em of ‘he
by the intellectual and industrial ennditinn * ? g ‘'"l6 was uncomplicated
Plunged into the same ~eat comXv,,. nf°fcJapan !/d of tb.e West, i, "ow
other land and in which Christianitv mn«f°foISiUeSi w*llc^,we know in every
mony and do the work which it al7rI^USt de3rlessJy stand and bear its testi-
only through efficient eIcaLLfinstituLn°,aral,7h'Ch *51 be .done bV »
in church and state, men who in nil th. « ’°ns ™,s.'”g up Christian leaders
’ men who in all the services legitimate for true Christian
fashion the orde^of amChrL°tianhrsoriet7.lId UP 3"d extend the church. and
many assorialed^oL^d^arions! thTs^cImmittle^vote^ tWith°Ut entering into
establishment of *^0^0,^^ Colw^rt^''68! “’l*1 ‘he
time will vindicate the wisdom of thederisfon She'r ' I",,the assurance that
ing the conviction of the missionaries whn f.l/ Comi!!lttee. deeply respect-
would I not recommend an ™ disturbance of th7 L 3 .college .at P>'eng Yang,
such blessing at that station, but deems it wise th^th"0'? b?ln? done with
ment there should not be advanced with 7, n 4 „ the standard and equip-
mittee believes it to be best that ihe develoL^1^1?16 ,',deals- The Com-
-ted co-operation of the whole missioned b^y ^^lat th?,^
proceed ^^“th^re'qi^auf practS«l° meLSSTfactadh ‘‘ be authorized to
such ^orgemzati0" a„d legal incorporation as and
seek contribuU^i'sIfor th^ac^ui^f rionUofhUnd^for th tC au/horized at once to
for the other needs of the Union College " * 4h erectlon of buildings and
they mi’ghtXm The JoiTcommlri ' B°3rd3 .for 3uch action a,
“ « Sass 5KA"
The Canadian Presbyterian.
The Southern Presbyterian.
The Northern Presbyterian
tion lias £? 5?^?^ h^U°J^dedVf« while official notifica-
stood and the Declarat.o^s of its ?w0 Secretaries D^p0’ i3 30 Wel1 und"-
are so confident, both of them having S S’ Dr- Plnson and Dr. Cook.
Joint Committee which adopted the report rndronenifaththehmeeting of the
of the sub-committee which prepared It thJr ^ f them belng 3 member
no doubt of the result as soon as theneVmeetTnV1"6 as3ured ‘hat there is
formal vote. e next meeting gives opportunity for the
discussion and an^rptenation* o? thrattiCtudneteodf January ^‘h and after brief
was referred to the Boards1 Committee on 1, 0Ur.,0’x7’ fission, the report
with instructions to go carefully into the matter V"d theDExecutive Council,
meeting, copies of the essential correspondent in h!"' PreP3r?tory to this
ments from the field as to the argument fo^ Pven^v C3Se' lncluding state-
members of the Board’s Committee .n th/, g Ya,ng' were sent to the
re-study of the question. The Committee a/d th?' r m‘gh,t be alded in their
The following were present: The Rev J RnwQf^001101 IIlet February 2nd.
H. Jowett, D. D., Mr. John L. Severance v P* D * the Rev- J-
LnUn.uer^°od’ ^ecretaries Speer, Brown Esq' and Mr- J°hn
t on, the Rev. Charles R. Erdman D o’ TW 3nd H?laey. and by invita-
cussion. Great hesitation was expressed ahmlt t* pW33 fu 1 and careful dis-
nhr “I accord with your wishes Pbut th, r t ^!ng 3 Position which was
^bilged to come to the unanimous concision thTihe* a/d the .Council ^lt
Wes to approve the report of the Joint clmmiH»/h a ^.y Practicable course
ma nenme?tln5 of the B°ard the same aft in/h^B 30 recommended
main points of your position were brought nn? -' , the Board meeting the
the discussioiL .proceeded them,S * ,n0ele3r statements. _But as
ever/tt,e^ming that when- the -rote was-tato, f|w/0Ul lmPressed alias so^
B'ar Dr. Brown: “February XOtb, 1914
h tisz srjBfas
,)'}
s
|& f
oil ege should be located at Seoul Thp rv,_ f+g ln New York, that the
lance* in v,ew of the fact that th^anLoua ^^0“ ou^Misi^3 W“h
of the location of the college at Pyeng Yang WpwSiM *!? T** favor
College inWL“dara8sta;il,th3teet tto"&5Sta o°f ?£““* *"*«,* Ch"3tia"
come by combining the efforts and resources of all the**™*6 !” years to
ing work in Korea, and that it will reauirp tL L^; gellCal forces hav‘
Mission Boards interested in the enterprise to s^to7i?U3 1Cti!?ni_of a11 the
proper development of any such institution rfCUFr' tbe ?a^a'>Iishment and
that it would be much better to hLve l umon is convinced
JSiteSt ???>• ~<~
jjtsgJggj^aga Ipj* &{& >■ ar&.*s
prejudiced standpoint perhaps thin would >.ih „ er°^,nd .from a more un-
who have been involved in the discusTionl whirf ' °?‘bIe for any of ‘hose
: different Missions on the field in regard to thThm1nhaVe r?nStn between the
formed that these brethren have very ,matter- Our having been in-
. St some
I our iSv5
wflege^afleoijflogetherlvlth ^hel'act^thlt^any bb®
we may make to the institution will probablv he contr,bution which
those of the other parties involved Ll« , be a one compared with
that might in any way hinder the Speediest DoslfhT l‘° take any action
lishment of the school. peeaiest possible development and estab-
scquiesces‘haes “tilted "hove,8 i^?hf ^ Snlf Foreign Missions
location of the College at Seoul * of the Jomt Committee fixing the
Fraternally and truly yours
Executive Committee, Foreign Missions.
1 tu. q , (Signed) S. H. CHESTER, Secretary ”
J'ote, also states^hat the Boa?d hlsftated^ol ‘a" B°3frd i” ‘"“wmitting its
rmssiormries whose vote it did not like to undlre0?"4 v°f 4te act'“n of the
Ithe Board felt that it should approve the report bTU- ^ nevertheless
The Australian Board has not yet beenT , / J°mt C°mmittee-
time required for correspondence wifh it- h?ifh«ai2? fr°? ,°n account of the
cerned have now adopted the report of the EtafV* th-Lsix boards con-
need of early information is urgent it anne-.^ a ^0’?!Iuttee' and 33 the
votee wUhout further delay and fhe ‘he
the questfoTof^nce^with1" vi?ew “to™ earl!est Possible moment
Korea in getting the new institute," started S with the missionaries in
decision will be to many of you” anTvrtw “4 'l334, h°W disaPP°mting the
aviate the difficulties thit IVo^Z FjrlX. «
as inseparable, as yo^ expUmedS1anf)VOte<i t0 ^ Union and location together
: Boards and their J^nt Committe. fedttJf44*? bad emphasized* Bui
•erved between them, that one o™the six nartfi dlstlnction should be ob-
{?dfe. ,a Question which from the nature of rt, t0 3 un,ion should not pre-
that if we are going into a union aU wlh» ,lfe Ca'l for J?int action,
SUCh ' qUeSti0" aa >°cation^f1l,th7seSwtdhI0ve^rmucWh,r1i^et'0* ‘n°
—an open mind, a willingness to abide bv ma^ •ctarryint° “ tha union spirit
a majority alone can decide, a readiness v?tes.on Questions which
responsibility but also our full share of rt.lf w not only our ful> share of
as a distinct entity into a ■ r„sk' We cannot carry one Mission
pud,ate union if the majority of tho^irit^whomV"!! Board,3’ and thcn re.
ated ourselves does not coincide with T maTorirt, have voluntari'y assoc,.
Union means that mission and board linefare oM'i °.Ur J Particular Mission
the union and that all concerned become one bodv ^nf ^ f°r Purpose of
be true if we were dealing with body- P.f course, this would not
aTng Christian men of presumably equaHntel fy 0bi<!Ct: abut thi3 is 3
tion to the cause of Christ." y equal intelligence and equal devo-
— ^It “hMsiie “thatla 'sm n the- mis3ionary b»dy and
voted for T’yeng Yang; but the Mission!" tndt? majority, of missionaries
enterpnsee, and when we come to conaMer th«B w aIe partners in this
anes and Boards, ydir^rTTeTYl^t^the hM the combined votes of mission-
J™, been an immense relief to soro^of us iFthl0 '"'3' 4° S.eoul- It would
could have been so nearly united as to have mad missionaries on the field
c.a.ve; but as they were not and as their v^e ltheir JudKment more de
”heUmattert0asC°^ethey™ouaid!n*’ the^ Boarda fe‘t that"' th^had totake^
thf stepblhouM be°a motton th Tih*’ January 12tb. I
?Wea«d- however, as I have PakAd“ indicite/ ‘th»^ Yang' 11 t>ui®kly
fil l thnr? ’,8htest chance of prevailing for the Ve^ 4 4h.'v Pr,°P°sal did not
|'ned- While it is the duty of a Christian min d 4.haJ have been °ut-
to a certain point, there is a point bevond wh;4? tdvocate 1113 own view, np
fusal to submit to an adverse vote ceare b ?•“ ln313tence and his re-
regenerate stubbornness and pugnacity I felt ?h3Vaik-and become mere un-
in our discussions here and that it was therefore 4 th'e P°mt was reached
the judgment of the majority especially 1. ft ’ my 1 duty to acquiesce in
in that way could we secure the lmon refil WasJeLrfectly clear that only
cause of Christ require in Korea Continl? !fee wb.lcb the interests of the
nothing for PyengVang^urmlght^^ bave gained
rL C.0Uf3e' where questions of essential rithl Je0Pardlzed any action at
Clmstian s duty is independent; but this is not d WT0I?S are involved, a
one of expediency and judgment between ChriV}9 h Mufat>°n. It is merely
best for the Lord’s work. You hare earee^fi l i1 br,ethren as to what is
pirn point for Pyeng Yang. Now thlt TJ fl ol and Valiantly tried to carry
inpSeou,, we confidently cherish the hope that'yo" wiU
1nre“ c°lleee aTapyetngaVlrn°™ i^ft w^t^be^red er3°nal ,°Pini°n has been
®“.e’ and even for the kind of a union th1tw«Pv, d Tu'nateIy a Presbyterian
%UiPJ d4h? Meth0di3t3 were “mVto sray but tw' 4,° S» 0n aad da
mg» and if we could securp nno 1 _ . ?[’ out that if they wgtp no
m?£tning 4ehe question of locatill, we ^hllld14^!.0'1 fvr a" Korea only b'
liege as far more important than fho « d deem the getting of such i
alternative is precisely the one that we^fi quest>on of location. This lattei
ss
S-I, re:" -ifet XirrHs ? '*
You will note that the report of the Joint Committee has tried to guard
in every way possible what were felt to be the reasonable interests of tha
institution that we already have at Pyeng Yang. The Committee has been
greatly puzzled by references in numerous communications from the field
to the idea that the destruction of the work at Pyeng Yang was involved No
one in America has the slightest intention of destroying it. Even if th«
whole institution should be moved, which is not contemplated, no one here
is able to understand how moving an institution should be considered eequiva-
lent to destroying it. The best Christian college we have in all Asia, the
Shantung Christian University, has already been moved once from Teng
Chou to Wei-hsien, and is now to be moved again from Wei-hsien to Tsinan-fu
.1 ar from destroying the college, which was originally at Teng-chou the
coUege has been strengthened by the removal that has already been made
and there is unanimous agreement that it will be still further strengthened
by moving it to Tsinan-fu. But the institution at Pyeng Yang is not to
be moved. Almost everything that is there now is to stay and most heartily
do we hope that it can be given much better facilities. We understand that
the great body of students at Pyeng Yang are not in the college, but in the
academy which no one proposes to disturb. You have reported only 47 stu
dents in the college proper and we are told that about half of them are hi
It tl whl e aJ ‘be college property is needed for the academy
It is the earnest desire of the Joint Committee and the Boards that the
m a" firriaclas«d hCith°na dW°^K sb°UM be g?Ten a11 Practicable development
“ ? first-class, high-grade, thoroughly equipped middle school, carrying its
students quite up to the point of the requirements of the best coliegifs of
ttirmiodf .for .adlT'ls3,on to the freshman year, and even if it carried?them
:trih„5tfre3hma,n ylV tber? would Pr<,bably be no objection. Doubtless
it! p,Tl!Lbv cona'derab]e number of students who wish to go directly from
the Pyeng Yang Academy into a Bible Training School or the Theological
S™‘nary' with a view to evangelistic work or to ordination for the m°ififtty
Students of this kind can continue to be trained at Pyeng Yang for vour
evangelistic work. They will not be obliged to go to the College at Seoul
thireSnih*e/^W13h t0 ?ecure the kind of college work which will be developed
nn!to rL t0 Fuepa/e tll.em3elves for other callings or professions. The way is
L f tberffore for you to train at Pyeng Yang as many of your Pres
byterian students for evangelistic work as you desire within tho
caare°fu?het^" ^ w™k>entk«ed in the Feport ’^ho^who have maSe
stS sK-ES
steps as will insure an institution that will do the kind of work that is desired
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XV) LETTER OF REV. J. E. ADAMS. D. D. TO REV. FRANK
M. NORTH, D. D.
Rev. Frank Mason North, April 6th, 1914.
180 5th Ave.t New York.
My Dear Dr. North:
At that timeYh^L^ion'oVthe^oint CoSm’itteeli “V* 2°-21st- ult
an informal way. The action a. ule ommittee had not reached us, exceDt in
ever to have been substantially the action of thp"^6 at Ahat time seems how-
action as follows: y e actIon of the Committee. The Senate took
dedd^up'onone^amTnd arience “ue^fo/ 20f21’m2- having
lCe0g^eJd°,th^ma"lttee in A“ thfqStfta; location
m itt ee^o f d a"t e ‘ F e b r u a ry° 24th ? 1 9 M statingVhat Cb?‘™an °f the Joint Com-
j1 t-°.the Boards, and though’his letttr dtd nor60'510" had becn reached
2Ltbe decision we are creditably Informed that it is the nature
This Committee votes to .l i 1 13 substantially as follows-
the establishment of I Mion Chnat,a„ r„n Board3d etc., that they u„ ite fn
that time wiU indicate “e wisdom ' f t h °, /e - ln Seo.ul- Ia the assurance
respecting the convictions of the missioiarie^who0?’ th® Con;jnittee. deeply
not recommend any disturbance of 7hH m T a c?1IeSe at Pyeng
"acb hieaaing at that station, but deems it wise that 7ifk "ow beiPe done with
ment there should not be advanced to n ■ ! tb! 3tandards and equip-
beheves it best that the development ofcol wf 1ldea1?- The Committee
be aaaa-a‘ad with°Itk should^bebprojecttd'in
to the referencPmldeR^rthUtafy.^nS concludePth« °f fhe J°'nt Committee
panying^^ter^h^tf/us^tobbet^ve^haththe^actf C°mmittee?^nd y0ur accom-
no wise based upon the reference of the stna?e t°f y°Ur Committee wasTn
mention is made of this either in the action a l) your Committee, as no
ia».v i. sparer isrjsx
your Committee on the explFcit undersUnLl t, ^ T?fer1nce was made to
a perfectly open solution to ail parties in *?at .e,J;ber location would be
no reference was possible. P S ,n the Jo,nt Committee. Otherwise
mittee easSefonoewsa‘ ^ ‘3te meetin* Wa* ^‘meted to write the Joint Com-
a£tion it has gone beyond tL^'atte^referred /“‘Pt Committee that in this
stitut.on of the Senate as adopted bv^h. .1d by this Senate. The Con
Sec. 4, reads as follows: P by the a,x ^derated missions, in to ”
Schools? SbCeh°f°1S'Arta Colleges, Technical
‘h® constituent missions, their correlation foUjded or maintained by any
This ConstitStfonT”^ by the Senate” ‘he delimitati°" of their
Boards at home in the same way as X. h® field' and through them of the
Th'3 section specifically deFegat?sh tn tt°n«nStitUtion3-" H
functions ifthis maSn^®
JO
inimical to union effort. What made the question of location a difficult one
was the desire of all parties for one collegiate institution. If more than one
institution had been considered, no question would have been rasied, no
reference made. No difficulty would have been experienced either in number
location or correlation. The question would have settled itself along natural
and existing lines.
The Senate, therefore, sees no course open to it, but to take up this aspect
of the question as they come to it, with such added light as we now have
and seek their solution in constituted ways, by which in as short a time as
is possible we hope to have them reach the Boards.
Believe me,
Yours in the service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
APPENDIX XIV
Minutes of the Senate of the Educational Federation of Missions in K»r»
Meeting of June 13, 1914. *’
(XVI.) APPENDIX
II. Joint Committee’s Decision by Direct Board Authorization
The second view on which the decision may be regarded is that the Joint
Committee acted upon authority derived directly from the Boards and there
fore the decision is binding upon the Mission. It is now without question that
this is the basis on which the Committee ^proceeded.
In a sense this relieves your Senate as the matter has been virtually tak
en out of its hands. We wish to point out however that this view in other
respects places your Federation and Senate in a position of even greater dif
ficulty and embarrassment than the other. This is the more true that the
Joint Committee has not related itself to field operations through the estab
fished channels of Board Mission organization but has undertaken the exercise
of direct authority in field matters. This will be clear in the following —
I. The Constitution of the Educational Federation contains the follow-
ing:—
PURPOSE, To unify Christian education as conducted by the various
Christian Missions, into a single system, regulated from a single head
ORGANIZATION: The work of the Federation and the administration
of its functions shall be conducted by a Senate.
. . POWERS OF THE SENATE: The location and number of High Schools,
Arts College, Technical and Special Schools which shall be founded on or
maintained by any of the constituent Missions, their correlation and the’de-
limitation of their territory, shall be determined by the Senate.
That such funds may be secured the Senate shall take steps for the or-
ganization of a holding body in the home lands and for incorporation as mav
be necessary.” J
II. This Constitution was ratified by all the Missions and also by all the
B°nar2VnothC.year 19U’ Thl,s ratificati»n by the Boards on the basis of
which the Senate was organized, and upon which all its operations have been
conducted was without qualification except in the case of the Northern Pres-
byterian Board which qualified its action as follows-
„ 'Tbe B°ard therefore while most heartily sympathizing with and cordially
approving the general plan of the Mission saw no alternative but to make
its approval subject to the condition that ... the Senate of the Educational
houndation shall be subject to the review and control of the co-operating Mis-
sions on the field and through them, of the Boards at home, in the same way
as other union institutions; and that any appeals which shall be made in
America shall be made through or with the approval of the Boards, and that
any funds which shall be raised, held, and administered in America shall be
raised held, and administered by the Boards or by such body as they shall
constitute for the purpose. J y
III. It seems evident from the above that the very minimum of mutual
relations agreed upon as between Senate, Missions, Boards and such future
tow"*.? d b°dy 35 m,ght be or«anlzed at home- may be summarized as fol-
,, 1^ The Senate shall have the exclusive direct field exercise „f e„nc
((((
Phe exercise of these functions is however limited In ^
“• arm of
of financial mdatte« ^nlyany J°mt b°dy at h°me c0°t«®Platcs the handling
mer ^^PP^^^P^ba^been^^rtended^to6 th^field^iTfo^Uow/-^3111"
‘h0ri(^ee shal? b^in'the^coimtry04^ ^ ~
authorit^) 6 deC1S10D based n0t °P°n Sena‘a reference but Board
correlation.*"03 a3SUmed Up°D the Same ba,is 10 determine their location, and
(See same Committee decision).
purc<s::SS site and
site Union College SeouT c'onsuuTdamrNobk1") ^ P°Ssession Pr°P°aad
and reserved ulfimatc'decishm the'same ^ tHe draftm& of a Constitution
(Official Letter, April 25th, 1914.
The Joint Committee has done considerable work • i
committee and then in thp «pc«inn wflof„j e w° , ’ “rst throu£h a special
suiter ^
fe^^e 'shortly^i^wiU not *b^li^^^'V^dl y<” ba doubts
be sent to Kor^ .n ordef t^tThe Tnfn^ Prese"ted to ‘he Boards but will
SJfflTS
viouslVa^ngTdtnd C,°nS,’5tent wdb the pre-
concerned. It takes from tL Federation of M?“ “al re,at‘°n foral> P^ies
and does so with no agreement or formal n^Hfi^.33 °n3 an<i *rom *ts Senate,
P^^
ticalness of Minion' policies the ^
through field organizations operations should be conducted by and
b.r3 ®*a^^^theirSfimcth^^oiiljf as^lmy ar^difiy^nno^t ^I*ss*ons-
these organized Mission bodies It exercises th«. d rep,rclentativcn of
the Constitution given it by the respective Mil.ioo n j0"3 °n!y by virtua °f
ltItC»n3ti']ulnt Mission bodies unite in directine°iTtn^nS™tUt,°n 13 altered'
|j°n i t s"r esp e c t i o a ref rrec t* °t h 4 3 ?onstituent Missions that each peti-
‘h'se questions may be du“y settled hv Scon’lsten?y of authorization, that
a»d still authorized We ™ .FreV'°Usly c°"’tituted
Permanently and satisfactorily settled. ? h,ch the present tangle may
LETTER OF REV. J. E. ADAMS, D. D., TO
REV. A. J. BROWN, D. D.
My Dear
j — 1 Dr. Brown: — ’ **'•*““» &o, xvl*.
Taiku, Korea, April 23, 1914.
a/
»
$?>
\ tSil action
Eloper
the S^XrVl 3 «a, cause for
•ense for the mutual misunderstanding of to. n ' d Senate- and in a larger
£7K
ate organized, certain field^tpetctst0fythVirtUe °r the Con3titution of the Sen
(and^controL - ^ *■ «g* o^S
our own MissionUand1inethearIenateCwnS1htent’ and are bound to clash. *In
Letter No. 64, authorizing the Senate defining .ateer®dour course by Board
the Missions in the exercise and control of re'atl°n to Boards through
consistent with these, the functions of he till u"ctlonfV aad also defin.ng
have been organized. 1 tne Jomt Committee when it should
tion ono"uorrwL"ndthisysame fenTe^ It “VT1 Committee of the ques-
regardless0 *an^y reference tbein^maded^^^t^yt'd^t^a o/it^osra alit’hority
invalidate the reference. This is the litrht*** tb?b ,such a situation would
Ts^ZTY3 aCtionJ You will remember that‘s o^ fieJd re?ard3 ‘he
last Summer, I expressed apprehension on this poh$t °f my >e“ers of
ttoVtotoe S* iVe“i'!e forth th^n'rindp”, °th^t ^houH’ for,our Board took
as authorized by the Boards in the light of 1 ct'on of the Joint Committee
««
confronts us.” It may be that missionaries h °Ly- blIt a condition, which
£f“v J *.m mclined to think, however that Anglo'^’1 SrIy strenuous lot of
Presbyterianism, as well as missionar;.™” An£lo-Saxomsm, Americanism
DP. At any rate, it is something thi von’V£mp°n6nt parts the ““k”’
of wh!teS' aS a" 65tisting situation. And let me"™^" 1,35,6 to face. with
a .Ttat/r Jiha^ conce,ve my personal position to be to->tP°n you, re&ar-dleas
a situation that cannot be resolved and « De* that you realize it to be
moved, (no invidious references intended! ht n?dy ™en who will not be
It is^too serious ^matter, in5vol7ing0too Ur^ls ^ ^3^S6r°°^aaa^orit^
a body „f « ’»^e« £#£%
by tba Protest signed
letter. I presume that vou will nlcr» k -e ^oinmittee s reply to your
Started by Seoul station seeking Mission' the circular Mission vote
proposition; also the Mission vfte on X Senile-."™ t0 theJSe?ul College
will give you much light on the situation Rnt%h rec°mmendation. These
cations, necessarily speaking formally1 Manv to^/. *** f°™al communi-
personal letters and even then thTv m»v k. y- 1 jgs can be 3aid only in
the speaking cannot be conveyed in vTtfne 7“r3t°°d, The quality of
the Secretary in New York, because of hm rLt? °f your be,ief that
is better acquainted with a field situatiLth.n rresporlde.nce w‘th all parties,
field. But may not the very fact that" it hf. y slngl® missionary on the
the part of those writing, that most bSsv men C°^6spoadence. .voluntary on
inchne to write, make possible such a noritln; t« k th convictions do not
astrous mistake. Whatever my record of tot A \become » source of dis-
give of weight to my opinion, I wish you to m,? th„h have led y°u to
ment: I am profoundly convinced in view tf tfwu"!10:!.6 °t.'t on thl3 state-
of the situation here that to. ...j* 0XjllihatJ3_patenLon the face
that by long years of patient effort" t, calculated to wreck all of union
— will not attain even the end sought FoJwMk And 11
one to an Episcopal mind, men bred in the PreVh^toW be a Proper
fall in with it; much less will the t™ of ^ ™ •* SyStem Wl11 never
. With here. It can only result in eve^ continui? you"D' called, on to work
long as it is pressed. 6 contlnning and increasing disaster so
out h^w^ome fhingTaTe ieg^de^ere.1^1 y°“ W‘U bear with (me if I Point
flections in yourbfettllTon^TaWt^e 5°"} the matter, and the re-
ling of the vote. The first seems very manttesf an/' th? Senate's ^nd-
effect has been made, no mention is made of ft. Jlf yCt n°- statement to that
action in yor letter,’ or in the "etter of the Comm?t?2“ tbe C°mmittees
self. It has been quietly eliminated w;tk Committee s Secretary to ray-
uncalled for and did no/represent the reatVisto™ Ahe Second the>' were
reasons why the other two questions were addf/w kthe matter- 83 a>l the
reasons forced upon the field by condit on,? Z bacaU3c ‘hat they were
also was widely known, with the result that v^n6 J°mt Committee. This
thmgs created an unfortunate impression “ ‘ y ^Presentation of these
, by,‘ a J^f Commnfi;0eehaiVne„brdeenrtthoe trltlTblTf^ tb6 fi6ld ™te
; ^nd'fo/ha'nd'hng a 'no^'voUng' f/cto'r1 anion ^ th P^ctmg^a'vo/e"
well known to all educated men. They mav be°fonnH the franchise, are
hamentary order. Where the question hf anonfn d '" ar,y manual of par-
a majority vote, the non-voting factor is usual £ n Dues‘10n to he decided by
, v!salways counted on the side of L " L“allInot counted, but if counted
'•SrtTl a question. In reporting thTvoto l ol , TX qUeSti°n waa that
fctFn,t*t*d the difficult conditions of getting toe It. 6 n5n-voting factor;
Committee in its representation of the vite eon J A, a"d now the J°>°t
factor on the side of the minority It thus’ sordid tb® 6ntlre non-yoting
rote to a 62 per cent, basis. If the non votingUfCe?da -ln emasculating the
toy recognized basis, it makes the vote a 70 nfr ™t°r 13 counted at all, on
Goucher, when here, set -forth the 52 per ?ent tote™* f°n, the otrher side-
m> little amusement even among those who ft t- laterpretation. It caused
nehy' 'T'th ‘M an extraordi^ry^nteroreto^ he^d860/ He was a3ked
P rcentage of the other side would be on fho o’ "e a^so say what the
told nothing. There was nothmg to be sa.d 'i”* ba8,S- 3PDttered and
totonVf63.1/ l.h6 Committee. You can understand how/ h® cWas lhe father
- *for,th SUC^ an interpretation as the so)p Kq eveil' ^ow the serious
srasa.*"
SS"2“”'i' A’™ d' yiu^llt^rof of the
you “ar66,y b* »a>d.to explain except that it n,,u f m ®xPttoation. It
motive. The difficulty was with y- ttoCn'ea,i
Dr. Underwood’s money is in New York nnf hoi-* „ .
his possession, and cannot be suddenly called at^£f°mi r®* ra*h?r th*n in
Dr- ,?lalk' The fir3t -it* 8ought "t now apTeari w„ * .am ^ormed bY
at all, the government refusing to sell hot j a?, n<?t 115 the market
though no price has been fixfd Neither of tiff0 d 81te 18 now Prom‘3«i
market, nor so far as I have heard in «fv “i weTe especially on the’
and there is no rumor here of paying a quarter nf It dan,Ber °£, beln? lost,
Gouchers information was calculated to ^mplish wha U^n 5”siblJ Dr-
known conditions here, it could onlv be interpreted “ • . l5 m new of the
—a nailing down of the sTuati°o7byemeMat S^SJA! S3?pli»h
the field part of our organization usurped the functions of
loaded with T'V*0’ wba" 1 "as
for one college, up to the present both in th ’ J“d ,when 1 waa eathusiastic
on the field, and in the Joint Committee °Pmg pha3e3 of it here
that the two systems under which MeXdismXd6 pfffh J617 eTldent to me
so diverse in their practical principles and method |byt a“lsm work ara
make possible common directPo“eXn “ 'work tZZ'Z’ \3 to not
two distinct types of minds, at least here in Ko?e7 fnd Jtly bave begotten
of work we have not yet gotten to where wf I “• ln rth,e dlrect conduct
bulk of your Mission, and of the Presbvterian r?lx- .1 believe that the
have worked out to this same clclusiom Few oT”s haTkt^ the COUntrY
If I have said anything in this letter tw uS “ad years ago.
I beg your forgiveness. Believe me, 8 been not pIea3iag to you,
Yours in the Service,
. y v 1 1 1 \ JAS. E. ADAMS.
0 or..LETTERS FR0M REV- J- E- ADAMS, D. D.
SECRETARY OF EDUCATIONAL federation
KEV. A. J. BROWN, D. D„ SECRETARY OF JOINT
COMMITTEE OF BOARDS
To the Secretary of the T“kU’ K°rea’ December 25, 1912.
dX"s£?— f°r Chri3tian Educational Work in Korea.
Missions hT Koref,OheltdeDMenmbeer0 20-2*1 ^te'follfwing^6^ ti0° °f Chri3tian
of one cLYsUhnecXeeforWK^0eaeed l° V°te °n the of the location
Senate, inc^VX^e^o! N°7 the vote of the
General Secretary. absent m<;mber34 to be obtained by the
Committee the’resulte'of the* votes* takmTbiTthl S° t0 f°^vard the Joint
In Pursuance of this action I beg to report as follows-
being secured, the "vote "stand? u follow? *nd the Votc °f absent numbers
For Pyeng Yang:
vt North Mission — W M Rnirrf t v a a „ .
N. C. Whittemore. * u» J. E. Adams, S. A. Moffett,
Presbyterian, South Mission — W. A. Venable J 9 Mi«w
^bytenan Australian Mission-D. ^ Lyall ^
C. Ruf?seriCan Methodist Episcopal Mission-A. L. Becker, B. W. Billings, W.
L Cerdine, W. C. Cram.
with such notes «plE*£?, °0f thLTsTL^eeZMe to^Sre^ 5UbjeCt'
ber, 1912^ rn R163^31-18" Ml33ion. Annual meeting Minutes, Septem-
AT
s*°y;raa
Negative, 36. 33 taken 83 follows: Affirmative, B;
«nseTof 'tbit MisUsbnThafDthberen!el0but one c°oU?m f “v0" lthat U be ‘he
and earned as follows: “That it be e£ io? Ko,rea) was amended
there be but one college for Korea.” ^1S310n that for the present
it be in Pyeng Yang"* 'uZ-as carried^6 A bUt 0ne coIlege in Korea, and that
number of the affirmative not beeing called /oX Wlth 81X negative votes, the
to
“ °ld on« in our^ission. ^Fronfa?/ ^wii'afce^ain^fh^M3*’'0" i3 e3sentia"y
has come to it through an agitation of some Z?' j 3 lts P°31ti°n. and
2-12.>if.OUthera ****•*» Mission. “Xn^SneXXinutes. August
the Union College ofPyeng6 Yang” outllninK our Policy of co-operation with
Mr. C. E. Sharp,
Chai Ryeng, Korea.
Dear Brother: —
. Your letter to Mr. Cont, of Mav 11th loio i,„ v . .
Sion body for action. In reply we wish to e.ll'J! b??n handed to our Mis-
'ite°by ourMisri^n Comm“ttee^hich was
at Pyeng6 Ya^g! Ji^,t^etS^,,io,, C°"e?e Work
polic^toXcate'a'maif th^ere1 a* soo^"^^ p^sible6*! ''{"tlf it^^our
pnate J126.00 for running expenses. po33lbIe> (c) that for 1912 we appro-
from fulfillfng our desires" ofXl^ing theTonege^ast11’ budget Prevanted us
we have appropriated J125.00 again this year the y6ar 33 ’? (c) ab»ve,
part of our Mission so far as we can aee^nowbf^tM 13 “J* desire on the
stated above, and we regret that the inrnmnio*W t0 W1. ^aw from the policy
schools this year prevents us from sending a^rZn""10^ 0fu?ur own academy
are in favor of one college for all Kore» to Ey311? Yang. We
one college is at Pyeng Yang. ’ nd deid that the place for that
teXrlwXtL^c^sIXZf °l”: ^ ^ »e:
not recorded, l am of the opinion that there \Xe no vo"td th° *Xact Tote was
the action of the Mission, as shown on the atXhed 5egl3tered against
C. Australian Presbyterian Mission r"acl).ed extract.
r "M-Enge. moved and Mr. Lyall seconded CthI'?1°fUth3’.?eptember' 1912-
^'Xn waZ approved. ’C’°"0PeratC With the Uni- College1 inVyeng” The*
rommunicS?rn of^hfs* aec3Uon*t V“I "ma^y ^dd' tha" l"knhe Sfnate’ 3tate3 in h'3
Mission but what is in favor of Pyeng YanvA .hi °f no opinion in our
Rbe voting members on this question were the eiohf Iocatl°n ,of the college,
of whom were present. The motio”was cairieS °f, the Mi3sion- a"
Marc?’, l^enC*n Meth0d'3t Episcopal Mission* ^ “c^ence Journal
‘■Concenung College work we recommend:
Jbe third session of this conferZnZ" rlZlded^n the Fd"'8 .?olIege3 taken at
Report page 14 of the minutes of 1910, as follows- Committees'
*»“■» MttliVto Korei. °f lbe Ml5'15" ,h,‘11 b- lo eve it, .upport to only on.
*7
Korea. expreS3 our Preference for one union Christian college in
i 2w Ze ?xptre83 our P«f«ence for Seoul as the place of location
6- .™a‘ we instruct our members of the Educational Senate working
through that body to bring the question of location before the Mission work®
ing in Korea, and to ask them to take a vote on the question k'
8. If practical unanimity cannot be reached by this means that the o„o.
tChlrc0hidn3Uf“iAi0n3 °f the Meth°dl3t Ep-co:
conferenceVd SSSSL **
In explanation of this action I am in receipt of the following from tw
bTthm^btsthofthTEducnat,3e3ent,ng tWr Educational Committee™ £$
Dear Mr. Adams: —
Our Mission has taken two votes on the union college Question an,l ~
vote" to** the ^olnt* CommYt *° PreVeDt a"y PJ°S3ible mistake "ort" out
vote to the Joint Committee or any misunderstanding on vour nar
cernmg the attitude of our Mission or its Senate representatives.
The first vote was taken on the resolutions, page 100 (given ahov*i «f
the conference minutes of 1912. a codv of which mn?.MV?Ven ahove) of
You will notice that the primary ^ssue there ^s dearlv “nnW posse3sl?n-
Christian college," upon which we were Smously agreed Vir® "m°5
proposition is concerning choice of' location of one unioifchristmn r»ii. "d
« awaressarw* ssr4** fAi
Yang 6. One has not voted because he savs he vLl f qS i *5, Pyeng
This vote is not on the question of the location of “ ' S??uUl- Iast SprinS-
for Korea, and should not be reported to the Joint* cSmSe.0'13” C°"ege
Very sincerely yours
Arthur l. bekIler,
Chairman.
W. CARL RUFUS.
CbarcK s"33
"Policy for College Work:
for oS^CM,!ssionTo undertake 7n7e%Z^°TTn ^ “ wou,d ba “
the question of our co-oDeration with co!|e?e work, and since
fore us at this an™ "^."fa5“thSrfo^ ”‘?es°olvedha?hbre> ^
of this annual meeting that while w reco^i™ rh ’ ^ ,*.1? tbe 3en3e
ready established in Pyeng Yang and bid thm CnH^ne3^'13.!!13 WOr,k aI'
feel that the situation of our nfission work Sf?d m ‘Jen-work, we
ourselves as favoring a union college to Seoul express
ourselves in favor of having the college outside tht ei°tod expres/
ficient ground can be obtained to makpgit nnVL'nfi.*. clty /walls where suf-
atmosphere for the institution ” possible to create a proper moral
this ^ctio^^mp^n^T^Hh6 °n the Saaate’ ia 33"d‘^
■ * waa p— ”y unanimous."
wJfn»elhntafKV® fr°m thls Mission attending the Senate meeting and
not knowing who their representative was, I wrote the Rev W R Foote of
Sbn fh. Mi'."* h'y1 ,tot secure the representatives’ vote, and send me any
action the Mission had taken on the subject U\ z> ^
l 'Ub5eqfrtly a3cfrtained that the Rev. D. M. of Ham Heune
the* following:*11’6’ B"d corresP°nded with him. From Mr. Foote I received
«Dear uif. Adams: gq
while^I wafsaInrthee aame to ba"d
decision to hivTonlyoneTn^^re^rthink" ^ Ml3Si°"’ a"d ™ce ‘he
%£££.'*'" W°Uld °Dly ba a VehvetenhtaVo? ^“pr 'hill
Believe me, very sincerely yours
Dear MrmAdams“- 6 1 3UbseqUently received ‘he following:
to han^and^^y'returnedT^evening^efore^I61 of January 9’ 1919. came
to iiohry^Md„| ^ - fr^^pei^-ab,
Without delay y my 0Wn personal vote, but that of the Mission,
‘^Votl S reCfiV M by teleiUaph from him: Y0U” SmCerely’
,V“lSf'°“'-, Majority vote of Mission same. Mljtae ”
this MUrion’s actionCan g’Ve °Dly this V6ry limited ‘"formation concerning
Sena to' forward^ to y^lT'i Tave^eTefvid" £hieh 1 wa3 / instructed by the
Australian Mission, however concerning rhfd ‘f CO,m!"u5lcatlon3 from the
the question of location to the . ^ the a.C.tlon of the Senate >n refemng
final" and ha?e be^equeMed ^ to“«pr°eTnt ‘?heif n "\aking y0ur dacisiof
representative was not present when tC Sene t . P°3ltl0n to you- Their
&^ly 8end you 8 t-scri^^
‘T’o the General Secretary of the Senate
Dear Mr. Adams: —
of thtf location y°U my Vote on the ma“«
unemmous decision of our Mission f<fr Pye^g YanJ. accordance mth ‘he
my previous leUcr^wit^e^ ™e,r 1 w,ah to add to
E^catfonal^eder^rion'^w^dic^^t^wft^the constitutl^83^^?^^ ^^°^a^aeibba
good of the whole educational work of the MiS ° °n before us. For the
of oiy autonomy, but always with the unHeraS*6 surrendered a portion
and vote in the decision of all matter^ ^ touching e^n8. that, we had a ™i«
have the spectacle of an imporUnt ^ work- Now we
being offered to an outside body on which we have no^fferti V‘tal'y ,nterestcd.
This seems to me to be a violation of th* e2™lve representation.
I wish to go on record as protesting aglinst t »! tf' constitution, and
and I should personally favor the course of our ^er Proceeding
altogether as a Mission. 6 of our Wlthdrawmg from the Senate
the Joilft ^Co^m1taeV^°Th*y 'wufrnotnwisheto°art°n *3 tf appear3 to me, to
volved. In deciding the maTter our M^ssfon’? “J“tly to. a"7 Party in-
equally considered with others! M p01Dt of view should be
Yours faithfully
The second is from the Rev. G Ent^l LYALL."
My Dear Mr. Adams: — S , e secretary of the Mission:
YMg.^^ga^°^' °Py0°f ™ard^33i^ ar a^°“? the Union* Colfeg/ at* Pyeng
the ^stralia^^esb^erian'Misrimh' met i™'sessiSonfathM ^'33'0n Council of
of September, 1912, after being duly’ consJuted by^ ‘ DrayerSanP0 °n the 18th
fid 2- tJptTX Union'll lege ' P -
the sense' of'the^ Cmnm il tTaUt should'c^ri D' f ^fcSdS’ thlt
Union College in Pyeng Yani.^1^^*™^^^".1. with th!
There was no division on the question and approval means therefore
unanimity on this question. The motion implies that our Council does not
favor the establishment of a college in Seoul, and it was worded in the above
form so that in the event of the Methodist Episcopal Mission North deciding
to have a college of its own in Seoul, our Mission is committed to co-operation
with the college in Pyeng Yang.
Our reasons for being opposed to a college in Seoul are that though
more central, the influences are more hostile to good discipline, and especially
inimical to good Christian influence, being evident too that there is danger
of the students dabbling in politics. On the other hand we have in Pyeng
Yang a large Christian community, with every advantage for good discipline
and Christian influence which has already been tried and found solid for
good, to the seclusion and suppression of political agitation. The claim that
college work has been done in Seoul for some years past is to be disposed
of by the single statement that if it was it has not been known and there
are no graduates, whereas Pyeng Yang college has already a goodly num-
ber of graduates.
Further although the personnel of the college staff could be transferred
to Seoul, a building cannot be shifted from one place to another. This pro-
posal should have been brought forward before the erection of the college
building was commenced. Now that the college exists with the name “Union
Christian College" chiseled in the stone above the portal, it seems preposterous
to raise the question of removal to Seoul. Here the stones speak louder than
any argument of human tongue, removing the question from the arena of
academic discussion.
With kind regards,
Yours very sincerely,
G. ENGEL.
I append these two rather lengthy letters, that the views of this Mission,
which has not a representative in your Committee, may be known by you and
given such consideration as is due. Believe me,
Yours in the Kings’ Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(XIX) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
March 31, 1913.
Secretary of the Joint Committee for
Christian Education in Korea.
My Dear Dr. Brown: —
On the 22nd and 24th of this month the Educational Senate held another
meeting and finished the various matters for action on which your Com-
mittee has been waiting. I think that in my former letter also neglected
to inform you of the Senate’s action.
At this meeting of the Senate it also took the following action concerning
location and directed that it be forwarded to your Committee.
“Action on the College Location Question.”
In view of the fact that the votes received by the Senate on the loca-
tion of the Union College were the votes of the Missions and not the votes
of the missionaries and noting in the minutes received from the committee in
New York that the following action was taken — the location of the college to
be determined by the co-operating Boards after the judgment of the majority
of the missionaries shall have been ascertained — we request delay on the
part of the Joint Committee until information can be furnished in conformity
with the above quoted action.
We also suggest that since among the co-operating Missions are the
Canadian Presbyterian and the Australian Presbyterian Missions, that the
votes of their Board representatives be secured before decision is rendered.
Therefore, be it resolved,
1. That we request Mr. Jerdine and Mr. Moffett to each prepare an
article setting forth the considerations that should weigh on either side of
the college location proposition. The General Secretary shall have these
printed in circular form, and sent to the members of the missionary' bodies
who are expected to vote on the question.
2. That the following form for vote be attached:
Individual vote on the one college location question:
as set forth “Jbo?”,8^ 5?.nsi.d« ‘he question
Th“ object of 'this'is'not'^to^ secure‘ aTndTJVt Tt\ -swe”
'“’Question-”6 °Pini°n “ the ®i3^onary body t0 ascertain the con-
a college s^bestVe'cure fo^th?en^c^^dth y°U’ p,er30na,15’. think that
“7 workers we seek in collegiate educat.M th°Se 6nd3 which 83 “*ssion-
8 “““‘h from the6 Ume’ofbsending'and0 he ^shau'tra'nscr’b S!?,retary ^“un
send to the Joint Committee. U “““scribe the names and
* Members of the Mission body voting shall he i;m:* a . i
les who have been not less than one yeafon the^ed-'^ t0 male missionar-
It was considered that this would k. . tle d; , ,
of the question and give your committee even TreaTer ‘ ™,uab'e cr°ss flowing
of the missionary body than the maioritv !at J i\?ht on the real opin on
although these are of course the auThorS ve?^ °f th,e lndlv,dual Missions,
on the field. It was also felt that it woufd ctmT’i S° 1ar,as authority exists
the missionary body itself. It might Iven aSw ‘tL'" ^ -^e 8ituation “
at a decision on the field. This is greatlv to ba p.0S3JblIl‘y of arriving
factor in securing that hearty co-operation and bT 5,deslred- , 11 is no small
is the essential thing in the success of the iSstitutbn8 °f “ partics Which
Episcopal7 Mi™i1n,reJ>o°iIttht,0was L"id “Thl 7e°' been Vr1*6 1°*' ll°f th° Me‘hodiat
the college location quest on. I have been lat»w" pract,c8% unanimous on
ber of the same Mission that it stood s“ or sevL f„°n?6d -by/nother
No record of the vote seems to have been madT fnTY w-m- faVor of ScouL
lt is a question of memory. Both seem to beenSlS' Mlssion minutes and
In the case of the vote of the Canadian "y SUre\
you will remember that my information ta? limited"* °n Same <luestion
been since informed by a member of thaT MissTon tb*.. 8 tele?ram' I have
to five in favor of Seoul with three members not the vote stood four
He also informed me that there had been a mistake / °pp°r‘umty to vote,
bve on the Senate. The situation seems r^hereJ?? to.thair rePresenta-
have the correct information in a few davs and JSw!,aed,ebut 1 hope to
formation. Believe me, aays and w111 ‘hen forward the in-
* Yours in the Service,
/.yi . JAS- E- ADAMS.
(XX) LETTER A. J. B. TO J. E. A.
The Rev. James E. Adams, April 28th, 1913.
Taiku, Chosen. (Korea).
My Dear Mr. Adams: —
aa I ®m deeply in-
a trip to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend the (Vn,.r dr°m the office and then
answer at once. d the General Assembly, I send a hurried
Educations lTsenaTe^ to Te1 the channel of comm ’ 63 ?Cneral Secretary of the
mittee in this country.I learn this moaning o“fanuf™°n T‘th the Join‘ Com-
8 c°py of the Joint Committee’s report to3b/ 8nd Wlth some dismay
Mission, No. 145, of April 15th was n„t m^?i i1" Wlth my letter ‘o the
course, you saw it as a member of 'Taiku separately to you. Of
honal copies for your official use as General Sen?1/011 °^eht to have addi-
Senate. I therefore enclose these copies heritrt?h 8ry °f the Vocational
,,0ne question that is not quite clear is a, .a
the Educational Senate require confirmation bv^b 6x1681 ‘° which actions
to »„eT-ple,7hfn-the Senate ™ted to refel ?he OUe,H0‘°Prat;,ng Misa'ons.
miH i°‘nt Committee with power, were wl to inT£wL . col,eke location
S,‘‘t66 h,ad settled the matter finally The Mas ons In ‘f °U^ Join‘ Com-
Portjid the position which your Educational Senate J ?? ™wouId have sup-
poses in connection with the budget and list ? ^ same question
nrnTT pr636n‘ letter. Are we to regard them a. m 7 "i6 3 Which you sent
Pr°val 13 concerned, before they are Cefe’bfthe 'tiiLt?3 ^
until fhe co^e/e^^ “l^Ue *?"*"$ PL?
run, are as(ced for apart from tL college proper b^it t
when we start out to get such large sum3 of money we must be rnn
to submit a unified educational program I hoDe this will ho maA ^ ^
clear to the Missions As long L t^ey^re so ^de^d^de^arthL ^
n0"' *’ the correspondence indicates that each side is unwilling to vieM
fcttro fo their S?in?a^*tV “ Io"?, as Jindividual missionaries are wning
d'epreciating^he^other, ?t oT^h^ T
where ^he** missionaries Sa
^mMm^e°en inbAfmeeri ahe W^are helrtily gtd rf the- Join‘
facilitate an'^earlie^decUion * ** ^ ^ “dW 5= S 3£
aSSBQSS*1 nasnsas
l.A?u^t;Mirie^Ci and mth "aDy PrayCTS ,0r
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XXI) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
Rev. A. J. Brown, D. D., Jnne 27> 1913-
Chairman Boards' Joint Committee on
Education in Korea. •
My Dear Dr. Brown: —
AspIcS $££ £&&&&?!& *£ h^n^Vo^
egnacrrn Va" °f ^ Se"at* ^7^1 £«£ &
inqui^as'to^e powero^lh^S^nltT t instructed 10 an3wer ^ Browns'
have ratified the constitution with the ifower^thp^ s? Missions
the delegation has been limited in ihe r ‘ilerei" delegated, but that
Mission alone by the Board Letter No 64 oth%^0rthei’11 Presbyterian
pretation of this letter where it reanirea thatTfi™ 7. ask an “‘er-
to the review and control of the co onerAHnLaiSrV°"9 °* 7 ®enate be subject
authority of the Senate is final on the field S Asld? S°™this the
to point out the difficulty of field operation iV .n fv, rcque3t the Secretary
passed on authoritatitvely by each of the^ndi^iiliiM e questions are to be
meet annually." y 1 tn mdlv,dual Missions which only
and riSified,6 ^tEhS^'^t^the^excepHon^noSd1 /bo pa3led b.7 the Missions
Boards. Sections 8 and 10 deal mPth Senate, re, t-’ by a,l of the home
matters of finance. You will see that Section « n 7 ‘ft 9 and anth°rity in
authority for the direct financial suDDort admin,' 5?Vh* re^ P°nsibility and
mstitution in the hands of the indivXaTmissiT tl. qen ?nd W°rk of ««b
Mission so wishes, on special occasions aS fn? «nte?.? te as3lstln?’ if the
directs the Senate to seek to «?ure a nd a£hori«i fP”po3es: .S«‘i»n 10
for the maintenance and development of the general* d to administer funds
its care which work is desi^Xd in Sections 1 4 J !d“catlona> work under
pursuance of the meaning of Sections 8 and 10. of Licle'fi^h^ Senate iS
making out the financial estimates which were sent to the Joint Committee
aa representing what was needed for the further “development of the gen-
eral Christian educational work in Korea under its care,” carefully deducted
the value of the present plants and the amount of present income. These
already belonged to the individual mission. It was also recognized that
any administration by the Senate of the funds secured must be general.
Section 8 clearly placing limitations on using this matter. The Senate con-
siders that in the matter of the estimates presented the authority of the
Senate is final so far as the field is concerned, and so far as we know the
point has never been questioned here.
You apply the same inquiry to the Senates’ authority in referring the
one college location question to the Joint Committee. Is the Senates’ author-
ity final on the fields? It may be answered “Yes” and “No”. You will ob-
serve that Article 5, Section 4, of the Constitution, subscribed to by all the
Missions, places absolutely, this authority in the hands of the Senate. There
is no qualification, and no exception except the one quoted above of the North
Presbyterian Mission Board action. The North Methodist at its annual
meeting of 1912 first set the “one college and that in Seoul,” ball rolling. Its
action, as given you in a former communication, explicitly excludes authori-
tative action on the part of the Senate, and provided that unless practical
unanimity was found among the Missions, it should be referred to America.
In the October meeting of the Senate of the same year, the resolutions intro-
duced were, I understand, two fold, indorsing the one college proposition, and
providing for determining whether it should be in Seoul or Pyeng Yang. The
first was adopted and the second rejected. The Mission representing the
bulk of the missionary interests on the field having already taken action en-
dorsing the present location, their representatives on the Senate, exercising
the Senates^ authority, refused to open Panders’ box.
At theJanuary) meeting of the Senate the matter was again introduced,
and its members were made acquainted with the fact that the Cabinet of the
North Methodist Mission, then sitting in session, had taken action to the
effect that unless the Senate at that meeting consented to make some pro-
vision in the matter, the Mission would withdraw its educators from the
Pyeng Yang institution and center them in Seoul. The Senate had full
authority delegated to it by all the participating Missions, (with the one
exception noted) but it became manifest that to exercise it, was to run itself
upon the rocks, right in the beginning of its usefulness. It stood for many
other important interests beside the one college question and therefore it was
considered wiser to give way and refer the question. The Senate therefore in
view of this, feels, while nominally referring the question with full field
authority, really refers it with such field authority as it is able to exercise.
If the exercise of the authority delegated it, had been freely conceeded, there
would have been no need of a reference. It could easily have been settled
on the field, not only did a Senate majority of 7 to 5, and the Missions repre-
senting two-thirds of the missionary interests of the country favor the pres-
ent location, but as was then contended, and has been lately demonstrated
in the Senates popular vote, practically a two-thirds majority of the mis-
sionary body also stood for the present location.
j The popular vote in the Missionary body on the question of the one
college location, which was decided upon by the Senate at its March meeting,
before the Joint Committees action was known, was completed about the
time the Committee’s recommendation arrived. The number of possible
voters was 128. It was limited to men not less than one year on the field,
109 voted. Those who favored Seoul were 38. The rest voted for the pres-
ent location.
In view of the request of the Joint Committee, however, that a vote of
the Missionary body should be taken with the recommendation of the com-
mittee before the voter which should be made the official vote it was decided
to take a second vote. That vote is now being taken in response to the
committees’ request.
The action of the Senate in the matter, at its recent meeting, was as
follows :
Whereas the Joint Committee in America to which the question was
referred, has requested that a popular vote be taken on the question,
with the recommendation of the committee before the voter.
I?'
(.3
s,onaRry0body'affa„UoWwaa ‘im® put the 1ue3ti°“ to a vote in the mis-
have been on the S notTesYt'haYo^y’Saf® members of the mi33i°ns who
of the time they are sent ou^by htm^ °f ^ Secretary within one month
?i i Tn® T.°i.te ?hal1 on the following questions-
tween Seoufand P?eSg Yang* Xrfdo'you®8® f°F ‘V ®Yirc country as be-
will best secure for the enf.'re countrv Z perso"a,lyuth'nk that a college
workers we seek in collegiate education tb ®nds Wh'ch 33 Missionary
(3) Ik! you bel.eve °°e °nly,at PyenS Yang?
4. A copy of the Joint Comm itfee’s letter ^ °°ly at Seoul?
voting form to each voter alsoY suDnlem™t h 11 *b? submitted with the
either location, if so desired by one whom tht cY7 3tateme"t on behalf of
6. The General Secretary of the u™ fth i?*,?ate may auth°rize.
them, and submit a copy of the tabSlftiSYtn* th ‘ Q®C®‘Ve the vote- tabulate
the Missions and to the Joint Committee1 ‘ tb® SeD3te members, each of
the cLmitteeere3Ult3 °* thU vote are 18 1 "ill forwaard the same to you for
Yours in the service,
It should be said that the EyppuHvo . JAS. E. ADAMS.
■an Mission subsequent to the reference filiSYnt®8 °f-lfe North Presbyter-
had exceeded its authority in maki™ a “ ‘ e *lth the Senate that it
[ of that Mission had reserved finally o/dSsion'tn'If1 f/13' ? that the Board
were concerned. (Board Letter No 64 mm 30 far 33 its interests
(XXIII) lexter qf e a ^ b
My Dear Dr. Brown: June 23, 1913.
was raised oT?hat8passage £* Vl/«JU"e 19tb’ 3 qUestion
!2aVf Stt the^yo^Tptk'o? St’m.’S
iocation nfor°UtherecPoTlSeegeUtT03u “ J°iDt C°mmittaa toendoYsfthe'leoul
agreeing to”* ^leoul SY^YIiband'onSu!- °fT B°vard with ‘he necessity of
co ef Bnd«0f !’avine 3 PresbyteSnTolfege ,?n & th5 idea °f one Sion
college in Seoul. It became absolutely clear "iw®8 X,anK and Methodist
one union college is more important- tL! ‘bat our Board believes that
The Joint Committee’s”ePtter takes very uq-Ulstlon of location." th3t
i ^f® M y ProPosition. It repudiates the ^ gr°Und on the “one col-
B^aM 6 °"e' WhJch neither the members rf^the pf® p.r°P°3iti°u as an im-
Boards concerned will consent to consider** It i« Committee nor any of the
- b! raacbod- In tnew of the strong position tlko not.f? alternative even to
' - ftuYYd ® frnnk ?ouraK* with which you staYe the h‘3 P-?'nt’ 1 cann°t but
nuenced our Board and representative*™ fi r- considerations that in-
a way that you knew was contraY tn tb. Y Jomt Committee, to vote 7n
your Mission. This frank setting ^rth of thlYe3' unaninious conviction of
, that as a party in the question we also if0"3 to U3- in recognition
I make necessary that the reasons shouM he 8 lntere3t3 involved as to
toward reconciling us to your position r™ ^® k"own- goes a long ways
j surrender of a lesser for the attainment £ Slderat,on3 of expediency the
' mmi"g considerations in a decfsion °f 3 greater' are often the deter-
in the present caL,thaeyv^yyfundimpntPrinci.pIe '3 involved. Unfortunately
I are agreed that the question ought have beeeT*'?!? j3 involved' All parties’
willing: minority, however, insisted udoti _ n_sJtt ed uP°n ^e field. An un
way and consented. The majority^™'
be referred as a pettoaly open question unite n.nLM . <,Uestl°" should.
PjrtlM in either of its alternatives; that it should he ®d °f ,S®tt'ement i?I_aM
“"I™114** upon its merits; in view of the 6.1°. b® decided by the rtfeTie
on the Committee ought to dotermine in the clse^touYan^re';'; the mind
u can readlIy see that
capable of rtference^urtte an open^questToY and 'th®' t quC3tion to be
“ 0nTheeSeanate atththrefehrrmK part'83 agreement d th® r®fCr®e mU3t 3ettle
remember it was® -n7m“L^
it means that the Northern Pre^bvterian R^ri' B5)retation of the same. If
tion, because there was no airerpatCto a Un l rSn mfluenced in its posi-
Presbyterian College in Pyene Yamr®»Wa . m 9?lle§,e‘n Seoul except a
Senate wishes to state that thJdofs not rep'/esM^th ° ®?e ■" Bt°ul- the
question was referred, but that either location U to h tb® Y6 ln whlch the
alternative for all parties.” cation is to be considered as an open
restiveness on y o u r Y w n° pa rt t h^ s to a Yo n ? a'n d S ° " 3 ' indi?ate3 30me little
referendum is a recognition of the prindple spokeY ?°Y 333,3tance upon the
tion that the actual field facts tha^ should he J»?»Y,abo^e’ anv f determina-
Ibefore the decision is made finaL No exception c™ ‘hY'Yv ShY1 be elicited
mmded man to the position taken in your letter to me *b tLak®2 by ?ny fair-
you have your personal preference as to locaHno m •°„the effect that while
support the location which is favored by the maiorto'Yf alMh W1“ Str0ngly
"• ■* i> >“■ irs“a tu’h"i
Yours in the service of the King
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(XXIII) LETTER FROM BOARD NO. 167 ’
In Repower of the Educational Senate
To the Korea Mission and the * July 30th, 1913.
Educational Senate.
Dear Friends: —
Senale^^tos1 dat^oTjYne 2nh® rt'an®®'^3^ °f the Educational
^ - »» a"d ®XP,ainin« the
mqu,r^setdo ^Votr0:?^ ^ »-s
ratified the constitution with the powers5^ tlfereiY 5 i the 31,x MlS3>ons have
delegation has been limited in the case of the North de,e|ated- but that the
alone by Board Letter No. 64, page 3 We Presbyterian Mission
this letter where it requires that actions of t^e Se„ 3f k kan mterpretation of
^w and control of the co-operating Missions" b® !l?bject to the re-
of the Senate is final on the field & We also rpnnilf ^0moth,s the authority
out the difficulty of field operation if all the 2., the Secretary to point
authoritatively by each of the indYidLl M ssions whiY "i® to be Pa33ed 03
.._ The question of the Senate is a very natYfl h h °? y meet annually.”
difficult to answer. Indeed, I doubt whether it f. ®m"1 y,et one that it is
ematical accuracy the precise powers of a "W® j°- L1?”'4 with math-
feaS* °f th® b°dy b°di®3 tbat aPP0in"emd1t®.®
deemed® valfd^unfes® "they arYS^ed^^/^YiYc'ho S®nfte aV® not bo
Korea and the six co-operating Boards ^t home If fh ii?g Ml3Slons in
Educational Senate have placed this construction th« ' Mission and the
Board, to which Dr. Adams refers we nromnH, • ?P°n thc action of our
Position would destroy the efficiency oMhe EducaTiona!'! cYY ‘S Such 8
fuch an amount of red tape which would be worthYof ?en,ate and involve
■ocution Office. One is reminded of the sriirt^ „iy ' V ^he traditional Circum-
^mrt regarding the persons who had authoritv to taimh® medleval Spanish
joyal family, so that when a baby Prince fetf V mLember of the
burned because the numerous servants Y the room Sid tbe.fir,e,he was badly
° b3d aatb°rity t0 touch tba ~y«l Person. Kef like®
other committees, has presumably been appointed in the interest of efficiency
and efficiency would be impossible under any such interpretation of our
Board's position.
The other extreme is to regard the Educational Senate when once con-
stituted as virtually independent of the Missions and the Boards, so that it
has power to do almost any thing that it desires to do. Our Board feels
that this alternative is quite as undesirable as the other. It would be espec-
ially objectionable in educational matters. One of the most solemn duties
and responsibilities of the Missions and Boards is the training of the youths
who are to form the future ministry and laity of the church. The Boards
and Missions have neither the moral nor the legal right to abdicate that
responsibility and turn it over to a body of men who could adopt any policy
they pleased without being considered amenable to the Boards and the Mis-
sions. It is not a question of confidence in the particular men who, for the
' |time, constitute that Senate. Even the best men sometimes do unwise
things, while we must have regard not only to present membership but to a
future membership. It was because our Board believed that the first draft
of the constitution of the Educational Foundation, which was submitted to
the Board, adopted this extreme view, however unintentionally and virtually
w made the Senate once constituted independent of both the Boards and the
Mission; it was because of this construction, I say, the Board took the action
that it did. Painful experience in several other fields has shown that the
tendency of large educational institutions is apt to be centrifugal to the Mis-
sions and Boards which develop them unless they are kept in very close and
vital relations with the Missions and Boards. While the Board therefore,
deemed it necessary to guard this point, it did not intend to swing clear over
to the other extreme.
You will understand, therefore, why I said at the beginning that it is
difficult, if not impossible, to draw a line which shall delimit with mathe-
matical precision the respective functions of the Educational Senate in rela-
tion to the Missions and the Boards. It seems to us that there must be a
kind of twilight zone here in which each side must trust the other. The
attitude of the Board toward the University Council of the Shantung
Christian University may be used as an illustration. The University Council
has been in existence for a number of years and is the Field Board of Man-
agers for one of our largest and best educational enterprises. It is com-
posed of members elected by the co-operating Missions and it is amenable to
the Boards at home. As a matter of fact, however, while our Board re-
ceives the minutes of the University Council just as it receives the minutes of
the Mission meeting it is not our custom to take action on anything that
does not directly and in an important way involve the responsibilities of the
Board at home. We leave that University Council a very large measure of
discretion in handling its problems.
The same principle governs the relations of the Board to the Missions.
Theoretically the Board has complete power, practically the Board proceeds
upon the supposition that a Mission is composed of wise and able and devoted
missionaries who should be given the largest possible measure of discretion
in handling their local problems and work, and that the Board should not
over-rule a Mission even when it disagrees with it, unless the matter is one
on which it is necessary for the Board to act. If you will eliminate actions
of the Korea Mission which call for money which the Board is expected to
provide and on which, therefore, it must of course decide whether it can pro-
vide it, and if you will also eliminate questions which the Mission itself asks
the Board to decide, I think you will find that the Board passes on an ex-
ceedingly small proportion of your Mission actions. Even in the case of
some questions that you have referred to the Board I have repeatedly advised
the Board to acquiesce in the Mission action for which I would not have
voted if I had been on the field, because as I have explained to the Board
many a time, while the Mission action does not impress us as desirable, never-
theless, it does not affect the responsibilities or expenditures of the Board
and as the missionaries on the field are the ones directly concerned by it
and as they are good men and women who presumaably have had reasons for
their actions, which may not have appeared in the correspondence, I think
the Board should not interfere.
way? L is composed of very ab e Expe rienced S“bstantia"y ‘he same
nonanes. Let os trust them and nit msls ^w aDd_I^presentat've mis-
must have the specific endorsement of dVJl ®Ter?thmK ‘hat they do
six different bodies at home. On the other & b°dles on the field and
Educationa'fs'ena'te but* hVrdly*^'' w^atd^T t0 i?e Suestion of the
glad to discuss the matter further if ert her ti. «-co-uld wnta- ‘ "hall be
sires me to do so. u eitner the Mission or the Senate de-
Sincerely yours,
,„IV. ARTHUR J. BROWN.
— - aSKHW SS,. u—
The Senate of the Educational »■ . . June 1.3th, 1914.
to make the following statement ofthes,tua\0.L°of,h "'“"n ‘D Korea desires
tion, and its position on the same toth»/?.I °f tl!e c°llege location ques-
The mutual relations of s?vera° bodi« Sf7 b£y °f the ““try.
are concerned in the matter. On the field tU ?n.the ®eld and at home
.ions as represented by this Senate there »l‘S S® Federatlon of Mis-
Missions, each carrying its own a*re a 30 seParate organized
h°-e Which it aglonSe?s7oicerneddUals w:rrt\3'hand “3 relationsTthe
m the Federation. At the home end there b, lng » constituent body
B°ard3’ ,and,each separate individual Board Joi"t Committee of the
own mode of organization, of its oum MWnth i"?- b°dy' aft« their
m mind, and their proper individual interests Jna rt.at'0ns mu3t be keP‘
Senate marX0"3' be giVen fu" consideration in' S^oTSm* to
°f the Boards in
!«oi^
Mission This decision may be viewed ’in two^;6”// Boa.rd to its individual
derstanding it is exceedingly desirable that riT° lghtsi, and for clarity of un-
each considered in itself. tbat tbcse two should be separated and
stituent Missions. a declai°n binding upon all the con-
May we prJ't ttTJ&ZdZ*™' Committee.
erence oVt^ ? lt3elf “able to accept the decision ' / tbe Jolnt Commit-
by thi3
we^r ith™ttto"oiCh ^‘w'ViteWMiMy Storoe* We P°sition- and of ‘he
‘he f°,l0Wing Presentation^^lMeadayoUCto3agreentwi^h3us>nin
°«horitv3tia" Co,le?e?foc ^iT Korea, deemed’ 1^ wfse"8*® ha,vi"g decided upon
c'sion nt cons‘>‘u‘ional!y delegated to it to do to^/?®r’ •" tbe exercise of the
* America ,body’ and 30 referred tha't «.,°?t-ion & the *
“erica. Its action was as follows: P lnt to the Joint Committee
0^
... ci,«SS, Ja„
N.rii,m Ui'.bn,"1."; m,j- ,h* „, ,„,
following action °" pa33ed and communicated to the Senate! the
that in its acUo^l^refeTe^c!! o'! The^u t?-poin) ,out to the Educational Senate
Committee in America? ^1^,2335^ to the Jomt
does not lie within the rrov^re of the Sena^ t ^ tha‘ 1 Committee final
Board ratifying the constitution of the Senate* “ dfc'de- Zhe action of ««t
to participate included the following- “*“* d perm,ttm« ®ur Mission
live bu?to maaked iU^olaTsXe^^'fhe7”^1^2^^- ' ' ‘"ersa-
ceedings of . . . the Senate of theVni.^J- condl‘lon that all acts and pro-
to the review and control of tt|hmE0dDmtS!f1M?™d8tl® 3ha11 be subJect
through them, of the Boards at home vh B M,3310ns on the field, and,
stitutions.” S at bome’ ln the same way as other uni in in-
of the s!nateC th!r fim tL^mVendltSn”'? fe?d‘ng .*? the Secretary
in Seoul and calling for a field vote on the m „!L0-lnb ®{,m™,ttee for location
to h,s own Mission on the subject ‘^n th./leTtef wa’s ‘tt° f"SI,ld-ed his ,etter
We were therefore confronts „ letter was the following passage-
agreeing to go to Seoul or of ahaed"1 -0Ur “lT0 B?ard with the necessity of
College and of having a PresWter!an^o?levt08etper theJdea °f one Union
d.st College in Seoul It becamf abso^ elf £ Yang and a Metho-
that one Union College is r^^imnortant tht tv that °Ur Board believe.
This was brought to the attenTion of thlh| ‘t6 duestion of location.
mh"Pas1sida?h tbenSenate took the follov^g^Hon;8* meetmS °f Ja°«
his attention to th^pats^^^B^ Dr' Brown- drawing
aent the General Secretary! aid ask for to lit °‘ V5.’- a C0Py of which wa!
means that the Northern Presbrterian n" l". pretat‘on of ‘he same. If it
because there was no alternative^) a UnhTrJllV m.flu|nced in its position
byterian College in Pyeng Yang and a m Seoal exceP‘ a Pres-
wishes to state that this does not ten tv C° egC “ S*0®'- ‘he Senate
tion was referred, but that either locatfm U*£f kCn3e which the ques-
alternative for all parties ” location is to be considered as an open
r tha,‘ n° »tb3r ba3is for a
bisis of the referring parties’ Agreement16* mUSt 3ettle the 0nes«O“ on the
Joint Cornm^Uee!' concern!ng3’the aJ13Wer ^ a fflwry of the Chairman of the
field vote, to a licS 7n Pyeng Yan tbe- -nonty in the
cording to the tally sheet forwfrded tfie^^i P°lnt*d ou‘ that ac-
6 "'T"e!hearifwteeveenr°aUtf°afctao,r1 ^
hut of the reality of which I am wen"?8 Whlc]1 1 am not fully informed
militate against Se unton project much ZIT ' Td ,which 1 con!id™to
any field condition. It is the unwilfimrili % ahove, and more than
rd6Vhe PJeng Yang licatiin YoiTou*W ^fthod“t Board to con-
Goucher who is out here and attended th^ l v& ck y* Spoke of this- Dr.
pnvately of the same thing and with comna™*?™ Sen,ate “eeting. told me
honed upon it in the Senate, while not mSdnl ^ fl P03,t‘TeJne3s When ques-
It as his opinion, from an intimate kn!!wlld! flat-footed a statement, gave
that they could not consider the Pyeng YmkJlto" Secretaries’ position,
‘o the Mis-
‘ 8h0U,d be kn0Wn- and pub,ic|y and officially8 ^tated!°n <^therv4™^eferen!
dums and negotiations are simply of form and not of fact are so much
valuable strength and time but illy spent.
I feel that I am not out of place in speaking thus freely in that the
missionary body, which the Senate and I as its executive officer represent,
has now spoken decisively on the subject.”
5- Dr Brown has sent to the Secretary of the Senate a copy of his
Mlss;°n, letter containing the decision of the Joint Committee of January
15, 1914 and his Board. Speaking of the meeting of the Joint Committee he
says:
“As soon as the main question was taken up, the fact developed that a
Union College at Pyeng Yang was impossible for the simple reason that the
Boards could not be united on Pyeng Yang, some, whose co-operation would
be indispensable to a union college, feeling that they could not possibly go
there for higher education.
In view of these facts the Senate can only regard the reference of the
location question, made by itself to the Joint Committee, as having been
invalidated; the conditions on which the referring parties agreed, and the
sense in which the reference was made having been impaired. We may also
say that in substance this would also seem to be the view of the Joint
Committee, in that the certified copy of the Committee’s decision sent the
Secretary of the Senate is in no wise framed as a reply to the Senate’s
reference; no mention is made of the Senate or its reference in it- nor is it
referred to in the accompanying letter of the Committees’ Secretary The
decision is expressly based upon direct Board authority, and later the Joint
Committee itself expressly puts it upon that ground; (Official Letteer, April
25th, 1914).
"The Joint Committees’ Report had no authority until it had been sub-
mitted to and acted upon by the constituent Boards.”
No position is left the Senate therefore but to hold that neither itself nor
constituent Missions, as parties in the reference, are under obligations to
accept the decision.
V""'/ uuimn, juuu V/UIUIUI I 1 HEi
The Rev. James E. Adams, D .D., May 19, 1914,
Secretary of the Senate of the Educational Foundation,
Taiku, Chosen. (Korea).
Dear Dr. Adams:
20th 5vahy olth tbe mi"u‘es ?f.th* meeting of the Senate, March
20th and 21st, and the Secretary of the Joint Committee, Dr. North received
a few days earlier your letter to him of April 6th. We had already seen
?°°\ an°thcr source a copy of the action, but the Joint Committee did the
Senate the justice of deferring official action until the arrival of an official
acH^,Ufi'ftv °cn^r°m flu- Vlf J°lnt Comn,ittee has now taken the following
distafhnv/nl fhp °f thl3 letter be,ne. sen‘ to you for your convenience, in
distributing them among the co-operating Missions:
ra -The Joint Committee of the Boards on Education in Korea has given
tfo?f,Un '°"3lderatl°n to the action of the Senate of the Educational Fo!nda-
Rev i v aa me?i & Moarch 20th and 21st and to ‘he letter of the
Mac J !vE^A4an2,s’ D- D-’ Secretary of the Senate, to the Rev Frank
Jason North, D D Secretary of the Joint Committee, dated April 6t’h * Dis-
rmt atte^fvi3 °f fthe J°‘nt Coiomittee, except the Australians, who could
Joinftr^nd tl>e conference in New York have been consulted by letter and the
oint Committee now makes the following reply, the full text of which has
been passed upon by all the North American members:
holdin!!lrnf:a3 I* as to ‘he protest of the Senate against the alleged ‘with-
eardin! vh d,- *! £e,ay ,n pving official information’ to the Senate re-
delav"gthJ %r,evPlyrube made ‘.bat tbere wa3 no ‘withholding or
diet Jf pi a official letter of the Chairman of the Joint Committee having been
of the Boards”181 ed ,mmcd ,y after the receipt of the vot« of a mfjority
|ence''^a°nd: ,That 83 to ,tbe ac‘ion of the Senate ‘in concluding the refer-
‘er refoi-dd6.110."!.8 lile rl?bt of t,,e Joint Committee to go 'beyond the mat-
i t0 l‘-.by -the Senate,’ reply be made that the Joint Committed
cs not derive its jurisdiction from the Senate in Korea but from the
boards which appointed it and in whose behalf it acts, that the Committee
is empowered, subject to ratification of its recommendations by the Boards,
to deal with any and every subject affecting educational work in Korea
which concerns the co-operative relations and activities of the Boards, that
the action characterized by the Senate as that of the Joint Committee was
the action of all five of the Boards in North America, the Australian Board
being too far away to be heard from in tune; and that this action stands un-
less and until it shall be modified by the Boards which adopted it and which
instructed the Joint Committee to send it to the field.
“Third: That the Joint Committee deeply regrets that partial and un-
explained accounts of its report reached the field from private and unofficial
sources before the report had been acted upon by the Boards, and therefore
before it had any authority, and that the Senate made these partial and un-
explained unofficial accounts the basis of official action.
“Fourth: That the construction which the Senate has placed upon the
action of the Boards, in ‘interpreting the reply of the Joint Committee as
meaning that, in their judgment, one collegiate institution only for the entire
country is not "a feasible proposition and that there are to be two/ is radically
at variance with the intent of the Joint Committee and the Boards, the
Joint Committee and all five of the Boards in North America having no
intention whatever of supporting two colleges in Korea, so that any plans
that may be in progress in Korea on the supposition that two Colleges will
be countenanced are proceeding upon a mistaken assumption.
“Fifth: That, wnile the question of two types of College may be a
practical issue in Korea on account of present differences of opinion among
missionaries who are now on the field, this issue is not a practical one from
the viewpoint of the five Boards in North America and of the Joint Com-
mittee, as they will support only one type of College in any event, and that
type one that is pervaded in every fibre of its organization and personnel
by a Christian evangelistic spirit and which will make its chief object the
training of students for Christian leadership as ministers, teachers or laymen.
“Sixth: That the difficulty of securing funds is so great that the utmost
united efforts of all concerned will suffice to provide only one institution for
Korea and that on a modest scale; that the Joint Committee and the five
Boards in North America are cordially ready to do everything in their power
to provide such a college, that it is clear that it can be provided only in
Seoul, and that if the effort to establish it shall fail because of opposition
on the field, the missionaries concerned must be prepared to assume full
responsibility for losing the present opportunity and for failing to secure
for Korea a Christian College which will meet the urgent needs of the situa-
tion and obtain respect and support at home.
“Seventh: That in view of the tone of the Communication from the
majority of the missionaries in Korea as expressed in the action of the
Senate of the Educational Foundation and the protests of March 23rd and
April 2d of 44 members of the Northern Presbyterian Mission to the Presby-
terian Board, the Joint Committee deems it impracticable to take further
steps toward financing educational work in Korea until the coming annual
meetings of the Missions shall have indicated the further mind of the Mis-
sionaries and show whether they can harmonize their differences, it being
quite out of the question to expect givers to make large contributions for
education in Korea as long as the present divisions exist.
“Eighth: That in order to afford a concrete basis for such a determina-
tive vote of the Missions, as well as to render it possible to proceed without
further delay in case the vote shall justify progress, the enclosed tentative
draft of a Constitution be forwarded to be filed for such action as the
Missions may deem practicable, that the Senate and the Missions be reminded
that this constitution has not yet been officially acted upon by the Boards,
the Joint Committee desiring the criticisms and suggestions of the Senate
and Missions before asking the Boards to take final action, and it being
futile in any event to expect the Boards to commit themselves to the proposed
expenditures unless they can be assured that a union college, if established,
will have larger support from the missionary body than present correspond-
ence indicates.
Ninth: That the Joint Committee, in line with its action of April
22d as summarized in Chairman Brown’s letter of April 25th to the Rev.
Dr. James E. Adams, Secretary of the Senate, feels unable to approve or to
^1nfiSeouiaV/rrhh97rtl,reS{,0“ibUi^ Provisional action that was
«*•»„“ Sr?ii M J h £7th at a meeting of “those interested in the Union
CiTiatian College for Korea, the Joint Committee holding that the union
^ vefsY bu bv the whTgrY b/ °ne 0f the Parties t0 ‘he present "in
jroversy, but by the whole body of missionaries acting through their re-
if M»ile°eer ln 8.pP™v“f .* “ew constitution and electing a Field
Board of Managers as indicated in the preceding action ’’
By order of the Joint Committee,
ARTHUR J. BROWN
S. H. CHESTER
ED. F. COOK
JOHN F. GOUCHER
R- P. MACKAY
FRANK MASON NORTH.
ROBERT E. SPEER
(The Australian member, Dr. Paton,
could not be consulted on account
of distance )
(XXVI.) BOARD LETTER NO. 228. JULY 8, 1914
B^ply of the Board to the Protests from the Mission A^ns/ihe^Action
of the Board February 2
To the Korea Mission.
Dear Friends:
toryraHo?’™ taking J“ne 25th the foU°™S “If-explana-
. Executive Council reported conferences with the men who had
been asked to constitute a deputation to visit the Korea Mission in aicord
*“* with the Board s action of June 15th, that it had been found very
££cult to make arrangements for an immediate carrying out of the plan and
that, irrespective of the feasibility of arranging for such an SSS.
deputation, grave doubts had developed as to whither a deputation Yhl
particular juncture would be opportune or effective nntil the Missions havl
reconsidered the whole question by themselves in the light of a clear state
ment of the Board’s position. The Executive Council therefore felt that R
^oMd seek further instructions from the Board. After discussion i? was
n.ed to authorize the Executive Council to defer arrangements for a derate
b=u until the September meeting of the Board, the Board believing that the
rep.y of the Joint Committee of the Boards, May 19th to the Senile If ihl
Educational Foundation in Korea, was a wike renl/and that it U !
t^; the course indicated should be followed ’untluhe coming annuaf meY
curs of the Missions shall have indicated the further mind of the missionaries
a— show whether they can harmonize their differences.’ Whether a denuta
then be,necessary can be determined at that time dePuta-
Meantime, the Board believed that it was due the Mieo:nn Q j *
K-YYn,vmheX,P/Ynt ‘I thte T,terest 0f a Clearer ““‘ual understanding thft
~P~y was" therefore* adopted" ^ °f the Miaai°“’ the folding
&F&SSS we? f&'sxrt iS SM
jt-s-!ed to all the members of the Board several weeks in advance"!* Y"
Cwtmg, so that the full Board has had ample opportunitv ta&Y thls
of the protestants. Conscious only TanSe,/^ P°31:
*~h is best for the cause of Christ, to remove mUaVorehenlinn. « t ‘Y
J^jrd s attitude, and to make its position more intelligible tho I l°
Y?-tSStlons are submitted for the thoughtful consideration if the Eom
^he protesting missionaries apparently overlook the feet tw i . M,ssion.
*u°t dealing solely with a majority and m,nlntv of n, r „Y M °ard
£=*. Board and the Mission having agreed To enter into « Z! Mlssl°n’
^.-arivc of the Missionaries themselves, the Board is n^w dealing with «he
B;' 1116 Board roust cSYalTXYr^^
whose responsibilities are involved. Of the six Missions in Korea, the vote
of 1912 was three Missions for Pyeng Yang, two for Seoul, and the vote
of the sixth Mission was a tie. The vote of the Senate of the Educational
_Foundation in Korea in 1912 was a tie and lifter the votes of absent members"
were obtained the poll stood seven for Pyeng Yang to six for Seoul. Of — *
the six Boards, all five of those in North America voted for Seoul. While
it is true that the numerical preponderance of our own Mission has given a
majority for Pyeng Yang in the polls of individual missionaries, these other
facts may be fairly taken into consideration in arriving at a balanced judg-
ment. The Board must be governed by a broad view of the entire situation
as developed in joint study of the whole situation in conference with all the
parties concerned.
“The Board observes that the protests attach essential importance to
their belief that ‘this is a field question’ and that the Board has no ‘moral
ri^ht’ to a decision on it other than to ratify the vote of a majority of the
missionaries. In the exercise of its trust as the administrative foreign mis-
sionary agency of the Church, the Board always gives large consideration
to the judgment of a Mission, leaves to it all practicable discretion in the
local supervision of its work, and does not set aside its^judgment save in
exceptional cases, and then almost invariably where the obligations of the
Board or justice to other Missions are seriously involved. The project now
under consideration is far from being merely ‘a field question.’ It involves the
Board in responsibilities for the expenditure of large sums of money, the
appointment and support of missionaries, relations with other Boards, and
a variety of other responsibilities which are inseparable from the discharge
of the duty which the Church has committed to the Board. The Mission
itself tacitly recognizes this when it says that ‘all it (the Pyeng Yang
College) needs is more encouragement from the New York end’ and ‘a
stronger support/ The kind of ‘encouragement’ and ‘support’ needed is
evidenced by the Mission’s call upon the Board at its last annual meeting
for another professor in addition to the four already maintained and for
Yen 260,000 for new property and endowment. In the circumstances, the
Board is obliged to consider whether it can assume the financial and other
burdens incident to the maintenance of a College in Korea, except as these
burdens will be shared by the other Boards which form the union. The
Board confidently expects that the missionaries will recognize the reasonable-
ness of this position and that they will not cherish the feeling that the
Board does not ‘trust their judgment’ because after full consultation with
them and careful consideration of their views, it feels bound by its sense
of duty as an administrator of trust funds to express a conclusion as to the
financial and other burdens that it can properly assume.
“The protests apparently assume that the issue is now whether there
shall be a union College in Pyeng Yang or two denominational Colleges.
The Board does not regard this as a practicable alternative. The other
Presbyterian Boards are understood to be unprepared to give large financial
support to a College in Korea wherever it may be located, so that a Pres-
byterian College in Pyeng Yang would have to be mainly dependent upon
our Board. The Board believes that it would not be morally right or finan-
cially feasible or just to institutions and missions in other fields to under-
take to support a denominational College in Korea. When every considera-
tion of efficiency, economy and Christian statesmanship calls for one
union College and when it is exceedingly doubtful whether a denominational
College could be maintained even if the Board did vote for it. The con-
viction of the Board, as epitomized in its action of June 6th, 1910, and re-
peatedly reaffirmed in substance since, is that for a comparatively small
country like Korea, with a railway running the whole length of it in twenty-
four hours, with a population for which Presbyterians are responsible of only
six or seven millions and a total population for all denominations of less
than double that number, without limited resources in men and money, and
with our immense educational program in twenty-seven Missions and for
100,000,000 of people, one union College for Korea, with its affiliated and
auxiliary schools, will be all that there is any reasonable hope of financing
from America.
“And the Board believes, as it understands that the Mission also be-
lieves apart from any question of type or location, that Korea does not
need two mission Colleges. It may be reasonably assumed that in the
72-
United States the general diffusion of education and the gTeat number of
preparatory schools, the proportion of young men Who go from the lower
pchoola to College is at least as great as could be expected in Korea, even
when full allowance is made for the scholarly ambitions of the people,
jot experts report that of two hundred children entering primary schools in
America, there will be found an average in the last year grammar school
80, in the fourth year high school 16, and in the graduation class from
College, one. On this basis and that of the official returns for all the
Protestant schools in Korea, there would be at the most 500 or 600 College
students. Any increase in the number is likely to be fully offset by the
educational plans of the Japanese, who regard education as a function of
the State, who are rapidly establishing government schools, who are pressing
gorean parents to patronize them, and who, planning an elaborate develop-
ment of these schools, and, in time, a government College; while the Im-
perial Universities in Japan, among the best equipped universities in the
world, and how easy of access from Korea, are already drawing some Korea
college students and are likely to draw more. Graduates of all the govern-
ment schools in Korea will be urged by the Japanese to take their higher
courses in the government College when established, and until then in
Japan. The prestige which a diploma from a government institution gives
its holder, and the avenues to official favor and position which it opens will
make it increasingly attractive to Korean young men. In these circum-
stances, the student constituency for College grades will inevitably have
to be divided with the government institutions. It seems reasonable to as-
lume, therefore, that one Christian College could easily handle all the sec-
ondary school output from Mission schools that can wisely be counted upon.
“Moreover the Board long ago in common with othqr Boards definitely
committed itself to the policy of union in higher educational work and has
adopted it in many fields. Missions in many countries have been active in
promoting this policy, and the Korea missionaries themselves, before the
present issue as to location became so acute, voted by an overwhelming
majority that one Christian College would suffice for Korea. Absolutely
no reason has emerged for abandoning this policy except the inability of the
Missionaries to agree upon the location and type of a union college. This
is not a reason which is likely to impress givers in America, who, as a rule,
strongly favor union institutions and who prefer to place their money in
those which represent the united efforts of missionaries. Money and men
for a College in Korea would have to be secured from sources which are also
sought by many union Colleges, professional schools and academies in
China, India, Japan and other countries, which represent a harmonious
union of the co-operating Missions and nearly all of which serve populations
far in excess of the population of Korea, as, for example, the Shantung
Christian University whose territory has over 45,000,000 inhabitants, the
North China Union College for a population of 28,000,000, the Nanking
Christian University for a population of 30,000,000, etc. In these circum-
stances, a denominational college in Pyeng Yang, four hours by rail from
another denominational college in Seoul, would have small chance of sur-
viving; nor could the Board, consistently with its own judgment or in justice
to other Missions, give it adequate support or honestly commend it to ’
donors who might ask its judgment as to relative needs.
“It must also be borne in mind that the whole system of Mission primary
schools and academies in Korea is in such dire need of better equipment,
teaching staff and annual financial support that it is in imminent danger!
Jt will tax to the utmost all conceivable effort that can be equitably made
jot Korea to obtain even the minimum that will suffice for these schools and
tor one modestly equipped union College and the theological, medical and
normal schools required. It is not within the bounds of jeasonable proba-
ndity that a Christian College can be financed in Korea unless it has the
jouted support of Presbyterian and Methodist Boards alike. Fewer institu-
tions and better sustained ones must be our effort if Christian education is
J° respect and hold the leadership in this new era. The two-college
■nlution’ of the present problem in Korea would therefore not be a solution
"tall. It would mean not only harmful rivalry but struggling, half-
jp^.PPed institutions which would sacrifice economy and efficiency to con-
oicting ideas which ought to be harmonized. The Board carefully recognizes
73
(
the right of the Mission to ask the Board not to force the Missionaries
to co-operate with a College at Seoul against their judgment; and the
Board is sure that the Mission will as cordially recognize the right of the
Board to determine what financial and other responsibilities shall be assumed
for the Presbyterian Church in its foreign missions. The Board is ready to
proceed on the basis of one union College; and if the missionaries are not
ready, the monetary and other consequences of their differences should not
be devolved upon the Board and its constituency in the home Church by the
requirement that the Boards shall furnish men and money for two Colleges
where only one is really needed.
“The Board is surprised that the protests should assume that it has
acted ‘in feverish haste’ or without understanding the conditions of the field.
The Board reached its conclusion after very long and careful deliberation,
copies of the Mission’s own presentations of the case having been mailed
by Secretary Brown to the members of the Board and before the meetings
at which the decisive votes were taken and the votes having been preceded
by discussions which brought out both sides of the question. The question
of one or two Colleges in Korea has been discussed in Board actions and
in letters for four years. The particular question now under consideration
has been before the Board at various times for nearly two years and the
correspondence has been exceedingly voluminous.
“There are a number of misapprehensions in the protests from the Mis-
sion which relate to various details of the discussion and correspondence
which, while important and deserving at some time a fuller explanation, the
Board would defer in order to deal now only with the central difficulty of the
situation.
“Pending some further arrangement, the Board is not disposed to with-
draw the support which the Mission is now assigning to collegiate work at
Pyeng Yang within the limits of its present force and annual budget. But
this must not be construed as implying an acquiescence by the Board in an
indefinite continuance of the College at Pyeng Yang, unless it shall be found
within a reasonable time, the duration of which the Board shall determine,
that the one union College for Korea can be developed there. The Board
cannot approve any effort on the part of either party of missionaries to
create decision as to the location of a union College at either Seoul or Pyeng
Yang and the Board would regard such efforts, if made, as a breach of good
faith, the Board agreeing with the Joint Committee of the Boards that the
union College should not be organized by one of the parties to the present
controversy, but by the whole body of missionaries acting through their
respective Missions in approving a new constitution and electing a Field
Board of Managers. It would not be just to other Missions or to givers
in the home Church or consistent with the established policy of which the
Board has been for many years one of the most prominent advocates, with
the full knowledge and approval of the General Assembly, for the Board
to pledge an increase of appropriations or re-enforcements to Korea on ac-
count of a denominational College or to appeal for or accept funds for such
a College or for parts of two Colleges where one union College would more
effectively serve the larger interests of the cause of Christ. The Board
will gladly consider a compromise on any other phase of the College ques-
tion, but the policy of one union College for Korea as against two Colleges
should be regarded as a settled one and no adjustment that is inconsistent
with it should be considered. The Board adheres to its repeatedly expressed
conviction that there should be developed one well-equipped Christian College
in Korea and that this College should represent a union of the Methodist and
Presbyterian Missions. If the effort to provide such a College now shall
fail on account of disagreements among the missions, it would be better to
wait for some agreement rather than to project rival institutions from com-
ing generation on the basis of present differences among missionaries who are
now on the field.
“It is painfully apparent that the differences that are pending prevent
the successful establishment of a union College under present conditions.
The Board fears that long postponement would jeopardize the future of the
Church in Korea and the opportunity to secure for Christianity its rightful
place in the development of Korean thought and life; but it feels that the
correspondence from the field indicates states of feeling there which must
be reconciled before any prudent effort can be made to finance educational
work in Korea.
“Meantime, the Board was gratified to learn that the Methodist Episco-
pal Board had not authorized its Korea Mission to withdraw the use of the
academy building at Pyeng Yang, and that it had cabled and written to its
Mission urging the ‘maintenance of the union status at Pyeng Yang' pending
•special efforts at conciliation.’ This action of the Methodist Episcopal
Board, taken in connection with the action of our Board June 16th and at
the meeting today, were considered as answering the Mission’s request in
the Rev. Dr. S. A. Moffett’s official letter of May 30th and Rev. Dr. Wm. M.‘
Baird’s letter of May 19th for an immediate appropriation, or for authority
to appeal for the money for an academy building at Pyeng Yang ”
In behalf of the Board, y ng rang.
ARTHUR J. BROWN,
Secretary.
(XXVII.) LETTER OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO BOARD
SEPTEMBER 4, 1913.
_ .. _ . , „ . .... , , „ Seoul, Korea, Sept. 4th, 1913.
To the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in U S A
Dear Brethren:
The vote taken of the Missionary body of the country, on the location of
the one Arts and Science College for Korea, on the referendum to us of the
question by the Boards’ Joint Committee, has been concluded, and the results
returned by our Educational Senate to the Joint Committee. The question
will doubtless again come before your Board for action. As the Executive
Committee of your Korea Mission and representative of it, we desire that you
have certain facts pertinent to the question fresh in your mind when your
action is taken We do not suppose they are entirely new to you but we
your°mindVe y°Ur fonner vote was taken with them clearly present in
Before proceeding to these, we would draw your attention to the propor-
tionate relation wtoch the work of this Mission holds to the entirety of
the work of the 26 Missions which your Board operates We do not do
this m any spirit of vain glory, but that you may have in mind that there
is such a proportion of your work here, and that it has developed in such
character, and that the number of your Missionaries is such as to com-
mand more than a passing consideration to the question, and more than a
passmg consideration to their judgment. an a
According to your last annual report there is 11% of your entire body
of Missionaries here in Korea; there is 16% of your entire force native
agents here; there is 31% of all the full church communicants which voS
report, and 41% of all those who were added to the church membership last
year. In Korea, even under all the conditions we have been meeting durtog
Ire m T y,ffv8’ ^ere are 42% of all new converts or catechumans There
are 68% of all the Sunday School scholars attached to your work, and 60%
of the Sunday Schools. Thirty-one per cent of all ordinary Schools wbi/b
you control are here, and 77% of all those which are self-supporting The
Church developed here, in Church and Congregational expenses in hniMi™
and repairs, and in Home and Foreign Mission! gives 31% of all von
from the field contributed to these objects. But 9% of vour tntaT rt
propriations come to this land. ' 01 your totaI ap-
Again we say, we do not speak of this in any sense of elorvinc »v.
have compelled us. Bear with us therefore though we sneak iY..
These data are enough to show that the location and establ?«hm« / °i3’
College here is for at least one-third of your entire develoDed °f *
As your representatives here in Korea, we realized far more ?“ns.tltuency-
ably, than yourselves that as a question it means far more tha'^elen^hii'
For the roots of the question, go back to those principles aid miiV^a
which, we do not hesitate to say, have, humanly sneaking nlaSJ? meth°d3
part in securing for you in this one small land th^oMttt^eH,'?'
your entire constituency and, having done it, relatively at so small °f
to your budget. If you will bear this assertion in mfnd we hi’~
you will find it amply vindicated further on, where we make a -hat
of the relative efficiency of the churches developed in this sam! S '?"
the different policies obtaining in the various missions at work here™ AH
Missions in Korea do not pursue these policies or adhere to these principle
In the matter of this College, we are convinced from the communication
of the Joint Committee, and from the vote of our Board on the same, that
we on the field and you at home have two radically different ideas in mind,
and are looking at two radically different things. There are two fundamental
principles which determined the policies of your workers here from the
beginning. One has been the direct preaching of the Gospel— the putting
of spiritual things first — the putting of them clear ahead of everything
else and keeping them there — the retiring of possible grounds of ulterior
motive — the retiring of even necessary secondary agencies far enough into
the rear so that in the mind of the developing church the spiritual standard
would be high and clear, and there would be no possible confusion on this
point. This has been in the belief that there is in the Gospel itself an
accompanying superhuman power that works salvation. The second has
been, while continually seeking to secure an increasing dominance of the
first, to encourage, inspire, enable the growing church to stand on its own
feet, to hold this Gospel as its own, not ours; to thrust upon it a sense of
all those responsibilities which before God are involved in this position and
to ourselves retire into the rear.
Except you yourselves had been here, and intimately acquainted with
the development of the work, it is impossible for you to appreciate in how
many ways and how providentially these principles have been rendered
applicable, aa they have not been possible in other fields, and how they
have ramified and determined the policies in every department of our work.
We realize that, while perfectly clear to us, it is even impossible for us to
clearly set forth the extent of it to others. In their outworking they have
entirely dominated the system of education which we have developed. With
us the Church throughout its entire rank and file is the evangelizing organi-
zation of the country. Education is strictly the handmaid of the Church
Education as a direct evapgelicizing agency— the Alexander Duff idea— is
unknown among us. It ha3 no place among us. until the system of educa-
tion, developed under the application of the principles which have given
us what measure of success we have been accorded, is completed in the
establishment of a collegiate institution of such a character as will close
the circuit and direct the system’s influence back upon the life of the
Church again. The Seoul proposition, and that which manifestly is in the
mind of the Joint Committee, and, we think, in your mind, is that of the
great universities which have been developed under the relatively hard and
different conditions of other mission fields. They are predominantly evan-
gelizing institutions. The Pyeng Yang proposition is for an institution where
every influence and every agency shall be bent to the service of this great
Church— to make it permanently, through the leaders and influence which
this institution provides, in all its life and activities which we have indicated
above. There is no question but what Pyeng Yang is the location in the
country for an institution of this second type. Practically a two-thirds
majority of the entire Missionary body of the country have declared them-
selves on this point and in doing so have declared themselves as to the char-
acter of the institution which we need.
It is because among the missions of the country our mission has been
foremost in the practice of these principles, because we have developed and
gTown as no other has, and because, in consequence, these problems have
been thrust upon us earlier, that we are worked out to an outstanding posi-
tion on these points. Yet until 1912 no question had ever been raised in the
missionary body as to the propriety of the present location and viewed on
any basis, the present institution does not suffer in comparison with other
institutions. The Joint Committee’s Report has mentioned some Hang
Chow College has 117 students, 31 of whom are in the College course- Soo
Chow Uni h&s 305 stud6nts, 45 of whom arc in the College course* Pyeng
Yang College has 392 students, BO of whom are in the College course How
different the situation and the problem which we face here, and how dif-
ferently it demands to be considered, as compared with other fields will be
evident to you from the following: In Soo Chow University there’are 305
students; 50 of them are Christians. In Forman Christian College there are
490 students; 25 of them are Christian. In Illahabad Christian College there
are 302 students; 19 of them are Christians. In Pyeng Yang Union College
there are 392 students; 392 of them are Christians So comparison can le
made between the principles which determined the location and character of
3uch institutions and those which are to determine here. One man’s salt is
the other man’s poison. We believe that your large body of missionaries
in Korea are in a position to know this question better than you. We say
it with all deference. We are practically a unit on the subject. The bulk
0f the Missionary body are with us. We protest that what your decision
would give us is for us and for our work not salt but poison.
Again, we would point out to you the position which your Mission and
its work, relative to other Missions, holds in this country. While in organi-
zation you are our superior body, there is, we think, a higher relation — a
sense in which you, at the home end, hold in trust for us your Missionaries,
our interests upon the field. In a case where your missionaries are so large
a proportion of the entire body; where in this particular line their work has
become developed far ahead of that of any other Mission; where the fruits
of their work may be said to show some degree of wisdom on their part,
it seems to us that the repeatedly declared position of your field force on an
important field question, affecting their large work far more than that of
any other mission, should be given such weight by you as to make you very
slow, if not really constitute an insuperable obstacle, to a decision contrary
to their position. The relative strength of the six federated missions in
Mission units (men and single women) is as follows:
Mission Members
Canadian Presbyterian
Australian Presbyterian . . .
Methodist Episcopal South..
Methodist Episcopal North.
Southern Presbyterian
Northern Presbyterian
14
22
43
51
56
81
Per Ct. of Whole
6.2%
8.27°
16.17°
19.1%
21.07°
30.4%,
100.0%
You will note the order of strength of the six missions. You will not
fail to note that your own Missionaries constitute nearly one-third of the
entire Missionary body of the country.
What is true of the Mission force itself is far more true of the churches
which have been developed in the country under the respective Missions
These stand as follows:
Mission Communicants Per Ct. of Whole
Australian Presbyterian . . .
Canadian Presbyterian
Methodist Episcopal South.
Southern Presbyterian
Methodist Episcopal North..
Northern Presbyterian
1792
2260
6912
17173
10373
39475
2.6%
3.3%
102%
10.57°
15.37°
58.17°
100.07°
Again you will note the sequence, and you will not fail to note that
your own Mission holds 167° more of the total communicancy of the country
than all the rest of the Missions put together; thr it also holds 43% more
of the whole than any other single Mission in Korea. When you recollect
that with missionaries in Korea the College question is one of church up-
building rather than an evangelistic one, you will appreciate why your
mission has stood, and stands, where it does on this question It is a
question which effects the future life and character of the Church in this
country, in which church we have a larger stake than all the rest of the
missions in Korea put together.
There is another point on which we have great diffidence in speaking
Comparisons are always invidious, and we fear lest some should interpret
ms as boasting. Nevertheless we feel that we would not be doing justice
to our position, neither would we be doing justice to the real interests of this
fare church, whose members are the children of our labors our prayers
turn we believe, in some considerable degree of those policies to which so far’
, ha»e clung through all changes of weather and in which, so far you have
always upheld us. ’ ’
. At the time of the Mott Conference, one Commission prepared data com
paring the amount of money used by each Mission for certain objects with
'hat contributed by the native church attached to that Mission for the same
T-7
object. In other words, the parallel efficiency develoosd in tbf church as
compared with the foreign money still being used in it. Zulr. Moosl ihe senior
member of the Southern Methodist Mission, was the < — r^innan c ihe Com-
mission and presented the data. They were referred back as hardly be-
lievable, with instructions to carefully canvass the sub;^m again They sub-
sequently issued this report. The figures are theirs. _ne perrsriages are
ours because only by percentages can one tabulate r-^mtive rams.
The amounts spent from foreign sources and coum_outed fnn Korean
church sources for propagation and sustentation (whan zb commnly classi-
fied as evangelistic work) is as follows:
Mission
Mission Money
Methodist Episcopal North, Yen. . 33976.00
Australian Presbyterian 2594.00
Methodist Episcopal South 25570.00
Southern Presbyterian 13834.00
Canadian Presbyterian 5000.00
Northern Presbyterian 17540.00
100.0%
Korean _nurch re Cent of
Mlroey Efficiency
6*t_ i.00 2.5%
&4-00 3.6%
72.-il.00 3.7%
5^-100 5.67o
577D5.00 15.1 %
920»I&.00 69 5%
Again please note the sequence, and note that our church t*et member,
for that is what the percentage means, has developed -t.f times tre efficiency
of the Mission nearest to it, and 28 times the efficiemm of the bnrch con-
nected with the Mission farthest from it. You will ate. notice irzz this last
Mission is the one having the next largest constituency- to oursel~es in the
country.
In the report mentioned the same comparison zs made ir developed
church efficiency in educational matters. It is as follows :
Mission
Korean _ nurch
Per Cent of
Mission
Money
MLrmey
Efficiency
Methodist Episcopal, South
. . 34634.00
213.vZ.00
3%
Methodist Episcopal, (North.) . . .
. 32774.00
1LLT~ 4.00
5.1%
Southern Presbyterian
8820.00
31.3$. 00
5.3%
Australian Presbyterian
2847.00
2S22.00
11.5%
Canadian Presbyterian
4900.00
Tl_Do.OO
21.5%
Northern Presbyterian
9019.00
34l^Z.OO
55.7%
Again note the sequence and note that the effic:eri:y per number de-
veloped in the church nurtured by our Mission, as cormpared wzr what the
Mission itself does, is 2.6 times that of the mission niearest n it and 67
times that of the Mission fartherest from it. Moreo^sr this i* rot due to
the fact that these Missions specialize on education minr-= than orrselves, for
the actual aggregate of educational work, whether in -number rf schools or
number of students is far greater in our Mission than m any o±~r.
Among the missionaries in this country, theoreti -z.lly no cc=stion has
been raised as to the college question being a questr_m of c'mh nurture
rather than a directly evangelistic one upon a heathtsr studen :ody. The
Mott Conference unanimously declared all education bere to ie so. Your
own Mission comprises nearly one-third the entire missionary body. Its
product is 587o of the entire communicant constituemry. Or ire average
each one of this 587o has 71.2% of the church efficirHncy and of the
educational efficiency of the whole. As the Mission -with th€ rrerwhelm-
ingly largest interest and the work most advanced -w-= have ibeady built
up an institution that whether in the total number cn= its studm body or
the number in the College department, ranks with me grea: diversities
quoted in the Joint Committee’s report, and in that T*eculiar ibaracter of
a Christian institution developed under the conditions and tb= needs of
the work here, it stands unique in the world. We relieve iizz it is an
integrral part of that system of policies which has rontribned so much
to produce what our Mission has. The second lan-g-est Msr.in in the
country, the Southern Presbyterian, unanimously bimiis us ir this posi-
tion. In its annual meeting it has recently passed a. unanirms vote for
one college and that in Pyeng Yang. A third connrides. A fourth is
equally divided. The strength of the opposing tfeeiry and position is
found in the two missions third and fourth in the or-ber of stmgth. One
of them has the next largest native constituency m oursA-ea; it has
((«
different poli^M VomVu^Tw^ftand* yeL.both Priming distinctly
developed church efficiency whether ■ at the extreme minimum limJt of
tiou. On the recent popcfar vo?rPracTicanrf or »
for the present location! P actlcaHy a two-thirds majority stood
lor the interests^} comm^ty^fedlration1^- 'Snion^^F^if33 3acrifice
p!vn.2Ur^ev?,loped work to the AuItralSns S? «We, have, cheerfully
mth the M. E. Mission we gave concession^ fin,f oomity division
the interests involved; in the interest of Z™ ? S? a11, Proportion with
equal control, because it was inslstfa f Union,.,ln the college we granted
burden was assumed; L the Educalv?. lD,Qalth.°Ugh but a third ^“the
^onstitaency, the agreed basis of rep?eSent!t,non 'win to Z
" accorded to the M. E Mission fn, we accepted half that
question is not such as these it lavs^irioW \ reason- But this college1
iustitution of that system that his gi^en us what wPOrL the completing
the cost of life and strength and years n.“3 „„at. w.e bave secured at
?Cj?I and theory. It locates it where the ends w'/ 3* ^ another char-
indiffierently attained, if at all. This* i^pircts^ 1 1 ^ £? ap-
proximately one^third* of' “ST'yoM ’’devdope^ 'Yn'toe ?h'Ch represent3 ap-
field, we do most earnestly present these Vet, T Upon the fore,Pn
»hen the question again cornea before you for d Jlyour consideration; 0
body"1 but Tha?CtT1iVsVtVereCststoaft your m* DOt
thmg^ut small, and that you hold in trusf for TeTt^i^tVrUl upV
mittee* The JoiS? Committee and l° J°int Com-
tSLW tbe referendum on to the mfsslonarv the‘r positions,
Where it should have been decided in th? first I,bo<lLon the field,
body in two consecutive votes has given a p ace- The missionary
tenor of which cannot be misunderrfood v ?n ,tbe subject the
the question closed. Our own M^sion and eiTeW °f thl3 we consider
missionary body at large has borae Xh and^t*,!?534 majority of the
mmonty, until forbearance has ceased to be t conce33>ons to, the
snd honor equally permit of but two alternatives !? ' proprlety. justice,
hke this, either to cheerfully accede the Xessarv IsJ”1 f°my- in a case
or to withdraw. For the msioritv t„ „ necessary law of majority rule
^ what they regard as th? ?ri»t L, g° ,further would be to be false
K>og- It is Waly fo? the saTe if7h«eSt3-C°mmitted to them by thl
‘tt suV8
“tabhsh it. We will give them all the frateXfh f° their way and
?cyanyBCuatDitat nT?nar5eafs0ornthe7t T ^
$ coontry!
<^ra?ged in their train. e succea3ful policies, should
Yours in the Service.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE MISSION
7 ^
CHART SHOWING PERCENTAGES OF
COMITY POPULATION.
N. P. 35.0
A P. 7.8
C. P. 11.6
9. P. 17.3
m. e. 8. ae
M. E. 18.8
N. P. 59.4
A. P. 3.9
C. P. 3.8
9. P. 10.1
M. E. 9. 8.7
M. E. 15.1.
w E^closive Comity Popolation.
Northern Presbyterian 4,725,000
Australian Presbytermn 1,034,000
Canadian Presbyterian 1,540 000
Southern Presbyterian 2291 000
Methodist fpi3COpa!' South 1,126200
Methodist Episcopal 2,600,000
Total
COMMDNICANTS.
-13,238,000
Northern^?e^ranMe"P-
Australian Presbyterian
Canadian Presbyterian ...
Southern Presbyterian
Mftk°j!3J |P!sc°Pal. South
Methodist Episcopal
.42,913
. 2,109
. 2,776
7,290
6292
10,882
72262
STUDENT BODY.
M. E. S. 7.8
M. E. 27.
t J||
^0PtKhe™ Pj^byterian ! ilS?
Sf S EPlsc°Pal, South *■ 1
Methodist Episcopai 6288
Total
21,775
FROM EX. COM. OF MISSION TO BOARD
Pyeng Yang, Korea, April 14, 1914.
id
Bev. A. J. Brown, D. D.
156 5th Ave., N. Y. C., U. S. A.
Dear Dr. Brown:— (£11*)
Your letter of February 24th (L96) is at hand, bringing full informa-
tion regarding the action of the Joint Committee and our Board on the college
question. A careful reading of the letter shows that the information which
bad come to us from various sources was in the main correct, but we are
glad of the light it gives on some of the details of the question, and the
reasons given for the action of the Joint Committee and the Board.
At the same time it is very disappointing in that it in no way enables
us to change our previously expressed conviction, nor doe3 it in any way
provide for a solution of the difficulties that face us on the field.
If the two great principles of Mission government, viz., the settlement of
field questions on the field, and majority rule are to be set aside, the reasons
must indeed be weighty. The reasons you give are very unconvincing to say
the least. To refer briefly to some of them.
First: The alleged small majority for Pyeng Yang. You figure out
:hat only 52% of the missionaries on the field are in favor of Pyeng Yang
while 48% are either opposed or indifferent. By the same process of reason-
Jg only 30% are in favor of Seoul while 70% are opposed or indifferent
s-ven though we accept your figures we cannot understand why 48% opposed
or indifferent to Pyeng Yang is sufficient reason for ruling Pyeng Yang out
while 70% opposed or indifferent to Seoul present no difficulty in the way
of locating the college in Seoul, but we cannot accept your figure that only
52%. of the voters favor Pyeng Yang. Perhaps you did not all have before
you the information of the Senate's Secretary, Dr. Adams, given in the letter
sent to you August 13, 1913, reporting and tabulating the vote. Dr Adams
wrote you page 3, “I have not received the votes of 21. I have learned that
some voters from among these on both sides never received the voting form.
Some have said that they received it and returned their vote at once, but I
never received it. Both doubtless have been due to inefficient mail service
I have no means of knowing what their vote would be but in the previous
vote of which I have spoken, of these 21, there were three who voted for
Seoul, 8 who voted for Pyeng Yang, and 10 who did not vote either time
1 ou can use your discretion about these.” In the light of that information
we cannot understand your decision that all of the 21 non-voters shall be
counted as opposed or indifferent to Pyeng Yang.
But setting that all aside, we are astonished to learn that the principle
was apparently followed of counting non-voters with the minority. We are
aware that for certain reasons that practice is sometimes followed in the U
m Congress, but those reasons do not exist here. In the "Rules of Order for
Religious Assemblies,” by Barton, is laid down the following rule “The
member not voting either for or against a measure must be understood as
acquiescing in the vote of the majority.” If we count those not voting as
-avonng Pyeng Yang which we had not done, then the percentage for Pvemr
lang is much larger, 70%. ge ior ryeng
1“ the second of the reasons you give for the Joint Committee’s and the
board’s action you say the vote was not distributed evenly through the Mis-
sions. We grant the fact but question the conclusion which you deduce from
that is, that the Boards should therefore take it out of the hands of the
missionaries, and decide it regardless of the wishes of the missionaries We
araw a different conclusion. The fact that the voters divide so nearly along
denominational lines is a serious fact, and at once raises the question whether
Perhaps there may not be vital interests on both sides which are im-
perilled, and whether it is not possible that the time for union is not yet
mpe, and hence injury may be done by forcing too insistently the union
%aestion. But more of this later.
The third reason that you give for your action is that the question
4 Jocation was confused with other questions in the minds of the voters by
edding questions II and III and that the vote did not show where a real
majority would stand if the vote had been taken on the uncomplicated
^estion of location.
(
SI
fomlttS'it1 m®y be answered, first, that it was the action of the Joint
lt.3e_Lf which made necessary the adding of questions II and III
'5“er S{ Senate's Secretary, Dr. Adams to Dr Brain, August 13? 1913
p^ 2 t Second, we deny any genera] confusion of the question in the
mmds of voters, though we freely admit that in the minds of many there ia
“l4*!!3 at2ltH21 a C °?e COImectlon between location and character of the
Bchool, of which more later. On the question as to where the body of mis
Rnard W tha coIlege to be located> if the Joint Committee and the
?oard p f3 confused', we are sorry, for there is no uncertainty here on the
tiesdaa^otTvhaiCHlm°t Ujde/Stuand wby the "“certainty of the home authori?
\ what tbe n?lnd of the missionaries is on certain points should be a
sufficient reason for ignoring them on a question of such importance as this
to sa^the” W,*t° “aT3 *5 US -that il wouId have been the safe thing’
We *? hFA delayed action until that attitude was understood6
We S understand the reasons for such haste in deciding the question
the laree?fyo?t V'aa collega which is doing good work. It has just enrolled
M in its history, even after the withdrawal of all but 4
E» 8tudents. All it needs is more encouragement from the New
haste to^Hestrn^'^w 3UpE0rt of ‘he Present institution and less feverish
of wbieK de3tro7, wha‘ we have and start something different, the success
of which is problematical, seems to us to be more in order. success
No i^°tbe,ri,refa3an given f°r deciding in favor of Seoul, page 4, Board letter
reason that the c0 at Pyeng Yang is impossible, for the simple
”as?n ,, boards could not be united upon Pyeng Yang.” In other
l 0rdsJ 4^e Methodist Boards made it “sine qua non" of union that the rnl
lege be located in Seoul. We most solemnly pro?est aga,n?t anv weieht
'"E t0r^at att‘tude ip deciding the question. Thf questio/ wIs m
dVu ^formation reached the field that there was such an
attitude on the part of some of the Boards, the Secretary of the Senate wrntp
• JomtComrmttee explaining the meaning of the reference by the Senate
and the Senate’s protest to the Joint Committee as follows?
fhi «a m'63 .Sre agr.?,ed that the question ought to have been settled
iL majority gave w^TndTon^rn^^b^rpon th?explic?tP^eemlTtlet
A question to be capable of reference TiSt"^ *° reference ™3 p°33ib'3-
referee must settle it” on the' l£eeme'nrd ^
ing toI'?tnemb^' ^t^aa ^rnanitnou^^a^rrepresent^ive^of ^all^M^is^on6 agree-
s?IS
means that the Northern Presb^erian Boar] "pret.at'on ot the same. If it
because there was no akernativetoaTIn^nn^u ln?ue"ced in its position,
byterian College in Pyeng Yang a£d a m kI '??, m S.eoal ex,cept a Pres-
wishes to state that this does not . .1 4 Co ege ln Seoul, the Senate
was referred but that either War'reP^e9i.eni. 4be aease ln which the question
tive for aTpkrties ” ‘°n 'S to be considered as an open Ilterna-
assumption efther° tha^’th^ktter6^" m^befor^th011! *C{'°r °nly on th!
the Board or else that the Joint before the Joint Committee and
been known on the field tha that haS 3et allde 4he Senate- Had it
the Joint Committeethe* ref erenc e’^wouhl nZ h" th<L m,nd members of
knowledge that such an attitude * ? not haxe been made, and the
the field and an entire unwillingness to »cr^t Tt,'3?!? “ .3to™ °f Protest on
mittee has exercised authori t y^Tnc o n s i s fe n t P^it h6 tht?' 3 ' ? " ’ .^e Joint Com-
the Boards to the field. Y mc0n313tent that already delegated by
land P&j* Yang Vs'^nteVs of'chr^ia^^eH 0 comparia»a betweeen Seoul
foard Letter n! l^.Te
spiritual activities of Seoul surpass those of Pyeng Yang, and that the
spiritual atmosphere of Seoul equals or surpasses that of Pyeng Yang
is amusing.
Again a great deal of weight seems to have been given, in the Joint
Committee to the opinion of certain eminent men who had visited the field and
had arrived at certain conclusions in the matter of college location. We
baye great respect for these gentlemen, but this is a field question and re-
quires a full and accurate knowledge of field conditions if a correct conclu-
sion is to be reached. Of most of these gentlemen it may be said that if
they, while oj the field, made a serious effort to understand this question
from the field point of view in all its bearings, we were not aware of it.
The unhappy impression created by several of them was that they came here
wnth their minds already made up, with the intention of trying to get the
missionaries to adopt conclusions that had been arrived at in New York,
furthermore, of the educational policies of some of these gentlemen it may
be said that they are directly antagonistic to those worked out by this mis-
gion as an essential part of its general mission policy.
We must take exception to the oft repeated statement that the question
of the character of the college is not affected by the location. As an ab-
stract theory, viewed from a council chamber ten thousand miles away, or
by one simply passing through and so unable to gain an accurate knowledge
of the deep currents of mission activity, that may appear plausible. But the
actual facts in this present case, viewed by men on the field who have them-
selves been factors in the creating of these currents, that statement has little
weight. The Mission has followed out a policy of work in Korea which has
proved eminently successful. This policy is the result of years of toil and
labor and conflict. It has been a continual struggle to maintain it. As an
abstract theory our missionaries unanimously approve it. But in practically
applying the policy to living situations a constant if unconscious effort has
been made by some to break it down. This College question is a part of
that struggle. It is not a question between Pyeng Yang and Seoul but be-
tween a policy of Mission work, developed for the past twenty years, by
very great labor and pain, and a method of work approximating to methods
hat are older, which were perhaps the best policy under other conditions,
n other lands and with less experience, but which for this land and this
Mission, would be a turning of its back to the light, and disloyalty to the
lruth. In the present case Pyeng Yang and Seoul are not merely points in
h-orea situated at different points on the map. They stand for different
Pki ®un*cer "ill as a spot of ground near Boston means little. Pos-
S,D17 theTf are some in those days who wondered why those fighting farmers
made such a fuss over the possession of that hill. But they understood
^nd we today understand that the contest for possession of that ground was
contest for a great principle of government which is being recognized more
It m°re, the world around. Pyeng Yang represents the established policy
n our Mission and Seoul represents a vital change. We are not surprised
wWky0U m W yYOT\ ^re ,.unable t0 appreciate this but it is a fact with
wV01?-^11 ^'mafeiy have to reckon. You say the missionaries can
Tave the kind of college they want in Seoul. We were also told that the
Xr°fonT^ i f°fCat? t 7horce wisbef (See in extenso Dr. Brown's
havp fv.° ^T‘ Jniy 25, 1913, which says, “The missionaries now
22. t] he,°l PPortumty to iocate the college where they want it.”) But the
aide, Ti!a\fbee^ deeded contrary to the expressed wishes of the mission-
neprtf; ^13S1®n.3 on field, and their Senate have beeen informed, and
’avftions are being carried on for the purchase of a site at a large out-
W; without reference to any constituted field authorities. What
13 b,here that other questions which may arise as to policy, etc., will not
c<-eive the same treatment!
0Wri present situation in the field may be summed up as follows: Your
C.“'3S1°" stands practically unchanged in its position on the question of
oniJ and there has come to be an intensity of feeling such as is found
'•ote, V' ere strong men are making a stand for vital convictions. While no
,nfo?m?/!.b!er’ taken in other Presbyterian Missions we are creditably
'hanv^d u?,4 'P, thcn? t0?> the opinion on the location question remains un-
^■n^CommiUe^rs llefZl^Zut" the Way the d™ tb*
i>
[
Although the Joint Committee recommended that there be no disturb-
ance of the work being done at Pyeng Yang, the Methodist Mission last week
drew out in a body all but four of their students in the College department
and all but two from the academy and they further inform us that they will
sever all connections with the school in Pyeng Yang in all its departments
at the end of the present term, this being their interpretation of what is
required by their Board’s action.
In the light of all the facts, the only action possible seems to us to be
along the line of the Senate’s recommendation, that is, a Presbyterian College
in Pyeng Yang and a Methodist College in Seoul. An effort to force union
in one college now in any place will be fraught with disastrous results to the
work, and to the cause of real union as well. Feeling as we now know the
Methodist people to feel we oppose further effort to compel them to go to
Pyeng Yang. Likewise an effort to compel the Presbyterian bodies to go
to Seoul is equally out of the question and bears in it the possibility of con-
sequences which we cannot bear to contemplate.
(Signed) The Executive Committee of the Korea Mission
of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
SAMUEL A. MOFFETT,
JAS. E. ADAMS,
NORMAN C. WHITTEMORE,
a E. SHARP,
CHARLES ALLEN CLARK,
A. G. WELBON,
W. T. COOK.
APPENDIX XXIX.
Rev. S. A. Moffett, D. D., Chairman Executive Committee and Corresponding
Secretary of Mission to Rev. A. F. Brown, D. D.
Pyeng Yang, Korea, April 18th, 1914.
Dear Dr. Brown: —
It is with intense regret and great sorrow that we feel it necessary to
send you the accompanying protests. Some days ago I sent you a cable
message as follows:
“Forty-four voting members sign protest action college also protest
authorizing individuals to purchase site.” Ex.
The “Ex” added to the last word means as per agreement that the
Executive Committee sent the cable.
I transmit herewith the copies of the protests with the original signa-
tures— the protest signed by 39 members — and the protest prepared separ-
ately and signed by five members in Syen Chyen. Others there are who
sympathize with the protests but did not wish to sign.
We prepared copies of the protest and of the letter of the Executive
Committee of September, 1913, to be sent to each member of the Board but
remembering your request of some years ago that when so desired that
copies should be sent through you, I shall send you all the copies repuesting
that a copy be sent to each member of the Board and Council as soon as
possible, that they may have sufficient time to carefully consider them before
the meeting of the Board which is to deal with them. Also the Syen Chyen
request that you prepare copies of their protest and send to each member of
the Board and Council.
The protest was prepared before your letter was received but all who
signed it did so after your letter was received in each Station. Your letter
but confirmed us in the desire to protest. As the protest was prepared be-
fore your letter came it is not a reply to it, but the Executive Committed
has nearly ready a reply to the letter which will be sent you in the follow-
ing mail. We desire that the Board action be not taken before that
reply also is in the hands of the members of the Board.
The copies of the Protest and of the Executive Committee letter of
September, 1913, should reach you shortly after the receipt of this but if
not received within a few days we request that copies of them be made and
sent to each member of the Board. We request this careful individual con-
sideration by the members of the Board because we realize that the interests
of our whole life work is involved. In earnest prayer that the Board may
be guided by the Spirit of God.
■ Yours sincerely,
(Signed) SAMUEL A. MOFFETT,
Chairman Executive Committee.
m
*/
(XXX) PROTEST TO BOARD
Pyenk Yang, April 14, 1914.
Resolution of the Executive Committee to the Mission, for transmissal
to the Board.
Resolved: That we recommend to the Mission the following items of
protest to the Board as opposed to its action in the College location question.
1. We do formally and solemnly protest to the Board as against its
action in approving the recommendation of the Joint Committee of the
Board’s locating the college in Seoul, contrary not only to the desire, the long
and carefully built up policy of the Mission expressed by repeated and over-
whelming majorities, but also to the desire and judgment of two-thirds of
all the missionaries in Korea; and we do earnestly request the Board to re-
consider this action.
2. We also deprecate and formally protest the acquiescence of the
Board in withdrawing from the authorized channels of its own field organiza-
tion the field administration of this matter; authorizing individuals to pur-
chase directly a site for the college without reference to the Mission; and
even before the Mission had received notification of the Board’s action.
3. We do formally protest the proposition of the Joint Committee
authorized by the Boards and already inaugurated, to establish and operate
the institution from New York outside the responsible field control of the
regular line field organizations. In accord with long and frequently de-
clared policy of the Board, this Mission has resolutely refused to permit
in the past the control of such institutions by self-perpetuating independent
field Boards. In like manner it does as resolutely refuse its assent to their
direct control from the home end. The general principle is clear. Field
operations are to be conducted by and through the field organization. In
our view a contrary course is in violation of two fundamental principles of
Presbyterianism— democracy in direct operation, and government by graded
courts.
Mission vote on the above was — Affirmative, 45; negative, 13; not voting,
4; total, 62.
(XXXI) S. A. MOFFETT TO A. J. BROWN
_ _ Pyeng Yang, April 22, 1914.
Dear Dr. Brown; —
Continuing in the necessary but painful duty which falls to me, I en-
close the reply of our Executive Committee to your letter of February 24th.
Copies of this letter for each member of the Board will be sent you as soon
as they are ready possibly in this same mail.
On April 20th I received from Kang Kei the following telegram:
“Kang Kei unanimously protests the discontinuing of Pyeng Yang col-
lege and Board’s method procedure.”
The three men there had not signed the protest sent you so this makes
47 members who have protested.
Mr. W. E. Smith has also signed a formal protest, the action of the Mis-
sion which will be sent you to be filed as the formal official Mission action
He had not signed the other.
‘ This means that 48 members have protested and still others may sign
his protest; but at any rate three-fourths of the Mission, 48 out of 64 have
Hready signed protests. Will the minority finally consist of two men
Again I plead that you stand with your Mission and ask the Board to
reconsider its action and to accord the Korea Mission the confidence it de-
serves and to leave it free to exercise the rights in decision of field Ques-
tions which all just principles of Mission practice should accord to a Mission.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) S. A. MOFFETT.
Chairman Executive Committee.
'XXXII) BOARD LETTER NO. 208
Union College in Korea.
April 25th, 1914.
1° the Korea Mission.
“ttr Friends:
April 8th, we received the following cable:
a„M.,,F.orty-?our ,T0tin8 members sign protest action college; also Drotest
authorizing individuals to purchase site." * ’ protest
.. „ L?”*en‘ed ‘hi« ;ab’e a±. the next meeting of the Board, which was held
action- ln8tant’ an<* the Board, after fall discussion, took the following
"The Board gave careful consideration to a cable, received April 8th to
the effect that forty-four voting members of the Korea Mission had sieved
a protest against the action of the Board in adopting the report of the
Joint Committee on Education in Korea, and also against authorizing in.
dmduals to purchase a site for the College. Secretary Arthur J Brown’*
official letter giving the full text of the report of the Joint Committee and
making the necessary explanations, was dated February 24th, which was
immediately after the votes of a sufficient number of the Boards had been
received by the Joint Committee to enable it to know the result. The Board
tba^. tbc Executive Committee of the Korea Mission met March
5th and 6th. Whatever action it took must therefore have been taken be
fore the arrival of Secretary Brown’s letter. Allowing for the time required
to circulate a protest among all the stations of the Korea Missions and for
the Executive Committee of the Mission to obtain the replies which were
summarized in its cable, the Board deems it probable that many if not most
of the votes of the Missionaries were recorded before the arrival of Secre
tary Brown s official communication. Unfortunately, fragments of the Joint
Committees Report were sent to Korea by others in personal letters some
weeks before the Boards had acted upon it and therefore before it had anv
validity except as a recommendation of the Joint Committee to the Boards
The Board therefore assumes that the Mission must have acted on this in-
adequate and unofficial information without having before them the full text
of the Joint Committee’s report or the explanations which were necessary
to its intelligent consideration. The Board therefore voted to defer further
consideratmn of the cabled protest until the arrival of some Mission action
which is avowedly based on the official communication of the Joint Committee
and the Board for the present and pending any further consideration of
the subject, the Board authorized its representatives on the Joint Commit-
te,Ve£reta;1C,S Sp'erand Brown, to proceed in accordance with the actions
?oitoeM0aru 181,2 (confirmed September 16th). December 16th,
1912, March 3rd, 1913, and February 2nd, 1914.
"The Board regarded that part of the cable protest referring to the pur-
'ba3„! by individuals as sufficiently covered by the Joint Committee’s
letter of March 21st to the Rev. Dr. James E. Adams, Secretary of the
Senate of the Educational Federation in Korea, copies of which were sent
to the Mission in Board Letter No. 200 of the same date, explaining that
in view of a reported emergency opportunity to secure a suitable site for
the College and the impracticability of organizing a Field Board of Managers
before the annual meetings of the various Missions next summer, the Joint
Committee had deemed it essential to the interests of the college to appoint
a committee of three able and experienced missionaries to take such tem-
porary action as the exigencies of the situation might require, this Commit-
tee to be purely temporary and to deal only with the question specified ’’
As this minute appears to cover the ground for the present, I need add
nothing more at this time except to refer to the enclosed copy of my official
letter of this date, as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Education in
K.°r®a’ a ddressed to the Rev. James E. Adams, D. D., Secretary of the Senate
of the Educational Federation. On the receipt of any official communication
iTom you based upon the official communication from the Joint Committee,
the whole matter will be carefully considered.
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XXXIII) BOARD LETTER NO. 214
May 18th, 1914.
In Re Receipt of Protests.
To the Korea Mission.
Dear Friends: —
We have received a protest dated March 23rd and signed by 39 members
of the Mission and a protest dated April 2nd, and signed by five other mem-
bers of the Mission against the action of the Board of February 2nd, regard-
ing the proposed Union Christian College in Seoul. We have also received
copies of the communication of your Executive Committee of September 4th,
1913. accompanying letter from the Rev Dr 9 a ^ ^ •
0f your Executive Committee, requests that the*. aa Chairman
members of the Board. He states hoiveveV that the n f Tailed 5° al> the
before the arrival of Board Letter No 196 tbe pI?tfst was drawn up
tores were attached after the'aShta * of° “iWh ^
Executive Committee of the Mission was . , adds that the
letter which would be sent in the next mail PanH thUf th r£P y the Board
tee desired that no action be taken unrif hat r.nit ^ E,cecut,ve Commit-
of the Board. This is May 18th and this las^lJrw ? S°’ Wls in the handa
mittee has not yet arrived I am therefor! kJEr °f J?ur Ex*cutive Com-
comes so that all may be mailed together holdinS the Protests until it
I am leaving today for an absence of two week* in TWoo.,* u r
to represent the Board at a Conference with thJ AoJ £h! wh.ere 1
mission and then at the annual meeting of the CentrSfIAb y S ExeciitlVe Com-
instructions with my office staff that if the A3Sembl>-' 1 ha*e left
during my absence it is to be copied and sent with^he^fh™™11410" arnve3
to all the members of the BoardP together with tha com™un‘catlons
respondence as seems to be involved It will h. n cop ?3 of ?ucb otber cor-
ticipate what action will be taken I mereTy send^h^Urif ?"*
the receipt of the documents referred to a^ t!? „ S etter to, acknowledge
have careful attention at the first practicable .5** that they will
the arrival of your Executive Committee's expect^ letter. °f he B°ard after
Sincerely yours,
ivyttvi (Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XXXIV) BOARD LETTER NO. 218
Official Reply of the Executive Committee. Apri. 14th. ^H^taBo'a^Letter
To the Korea Mission. ^ ^ °f 24th’ 1914‘
To the Korea Mission.
Dear Friends: —
214 IfVTy1 lh8tVh! bitten °on the eve denari my ?°ard Letter N°
Assembly. I now write to state that on mv return ru°T tbe General
Dr. Moffett’s letter of April 22nd with Sta Chl5a?° (find that
Committee’s letter of April 14th in replv to Rnnndr d..C°PiX of thc Executive
24th, arrived May 20th and in accordance vrith ?hLette.r N?’- 196 of Feb™ary
left with my office staff the Executive Committee’s inatruct>ona which I had
rest of the correspondence was mailed to all ettfiu together with the
do not yet know how soon it m“y be possible £rm,t,mbnrs °J the Board’
the matter further. I had hoped that theP matter mL-hf6 B°ard to act upon
rnee mg following the receipt of your Ex^cuHve C^mmitT® U? ,at the first
meeting, however, was held Monday June 1st and „ m,ttee 3 Jetter- That
of so many of the members and officers of the °”c of 4,he ab3enc«
t was impossible for all of them to read the nrmtt d at ,tbe General Assembly
mg, while some members of th^B^rd who areT P?"den.Ce before the meet-
ter could not attend the meeting at all I am now t y .mterested m the mat-
for a meeting of the Korea Committee anTthTr tryi"? to arrange a date
‘ime before the next meeting of the Board Ju^e 15th tlVe Counci1 at 30me
rifef^^^^^^^G^^^^that^h^mernbershan^hol^ce^344?1!!.3 ^ce*v(ng very
matter without prejudice and In ^ 3 °J *he. Board will go
?hich is best for the cause of Christ I shall nnt faT.n®st desire to do that
understands the strong feeling of the maioHfl H !?e tllat the B°ard
tolte ^th y°u in prayer that God will guide us al^aright * MlSS10n and 1
Sincerely yours.
«»V) BOARD LETTER NO. a"™™ J BH0W;'
i- m k "rz,:r“ - - »«•<“» ,m
ear Friends: —
Protest, .,d
»• Council.^ Aa.r«*zri
meeting the following resolution was adopted yesterday the 15tn.
member of the Board voting for it.
“The Board has given careful consideration to the protests from tb.
Korea Mission against the action of the Board, February 2nd regarding »
Union Christian College at Seoul. In view of the serious differences Lh
misunderstandings that have developed, the Executive Council is instructed
to arrange for a deputation from the Board to visit Korea this Summer in
order that there may be personal joint conference and prayer. Pending the
report of this Deputation the Board directs that all plans for the future de
velopment of colleges at either Seoul or Pyeng Yang shall cease, as the Board
does not deem it practicable to support or to accept funds for a college at
either place until further effort has been made to secure substantial agree-
ment on one Union College for all Korea in accord with the historic and re-
peatedly declared policy of the Board for union in higher educational work
As plans for separate colleges are understood to be in progress a cable was
ordered to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Mission to eiv*
immediate effect to the action of the Board.’'
Several men were asked to serve on the deputation, myself among them
but I declined to go for various reasons, among them family conditions which
make such an absence impossible at this time. I am trying to secure the
consent of others and will notify you as soon as possible whom you mav ev.
pect, perhaps by cable. *
In behalf of the Board,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
APPENDIX XXXVI
Extract from the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Korea Mission
August-September, August 28th, 1914, Page 51.
Educational Committee: A substitute to parts 2 and 3 of Sec. 15 of the
Educational Committee’s report to strike out the same, carrying with it all
actions taken on the same this morning, was put and carried.
In lieu of the articles stricken out, resolutions were presented which
were adopted for transmission to the Board. The articles were considered
separately. On article 2 a ballot was taken resulting in 42 affirmative and
12 negative votes, and 1 not voting. The remaining articles were adopted
viva voce. The resolutions are as follows: —
1. Recommend that the Mission record its conviction that the question of
Primary, Academic and Industrial education is now more important than the
question of College education and that we urge the Board not only to re-
consider its purpose to lay aside these matters until the College question is
settled but on the contrary to make every effort to meet the imperative needs
of a situation which is daily becoming more and more perilous to the whole
scheme of Christian education in Korea.
2. Recommend that the Mission reaffirm to the Board its frequently ex-
pressed conviction that the College needed to conserve and further strengthen
the work already built up by our Church in Korea should be located in Pyeng
3. Recommend that we express our appreciation of the Board’s defer-
ence to the conviction of the Korea Mission, that the College ought to be
continued in Pyeng Yang, to the extent of the Board’s being willing to con-
tinue the work in Pyeng Yang for the present.
4. Recommend that in accordance with this permission of the Board,
l®^ter Number 228, we continue to co-operate in the Union
Christian College in Pyeng Yang until such time as the Board shall order
otherwise.
(XXXVII) BOARD LETTER NO. 249
To the Korea Mission.
Dear Friends: —
December 8, 1914.
You are aware from former correspondence that the Board deferred
final action on the questions relating to the proposed Union College in Korea
in order that the Mission might have further opportunity to consider them
at its annual meeting m August, the Board to take the matter up again when
it received reports of the Mission’s action. The manuscript copy of the
minutes arrived September 2nd. As it was a carbon copy whose sheets ar-
rived by different mails and we were not sure that it was complete we
deemed it prudent to await arrival of the printed copies, which we knew were
committee and the Secretary of the3 Mission of ^our executive
by sending in an official letter dated Sen 1°™^?'!! tbe penod of waiting
0f the Mission on this subject’. This letter arriv^n C.0?le3 ®f the actions
its assurance that we had a complete copy the Bnorrf ?ftober, 21st and with
on Korea and the Executive Council, at once toolf UD the^0^eh !ts, 1 Committee
The whole subject has now been carefuRv s atudy of the Question,
the Committee and the Council, and at twoymeItfr^e.d V ,Si?Veial “eetings of
in addition, received large attention in Dermnni Hoard and has,
Snversations. We were^tffied to note“‘ seeme^to^b Prayer “d
desire to have the question settled in some way in and. ,^.1" earnest
judgment that still existed. The fact that on the dlfference of
otes you used the expression; “pending final decision b°* °f y°U,T prmted min-
the Board,” and on page 51 the° wreSon'bm?!^,!*6^ th? M,lssion and
otherwise, led the Board to feel thaf you expected aid a 3ha11 order
the long-standing controversy should be brought to „ fid de.emed *t best that
certainly felt that the time had come to do thm not b«fiDa l3?u,e‘ . Tbe Board
est desire to speak in any authoritative wav •' hm wt??® 11 bad, the sliKh‘-
vexed matter had to be settled sometime bv ecau se it felt that this
byterian system makes it t^dutToftheVoaTd to^n^e th.e Pl-
eases of necessity, the Board could no longer evade tb. .! final dec,3»on in
the General Assembly and the Church expect it tnt»?J?e*P°“lblIl?y which
administration. Accordingly, at the meeting of m mi331°nary
7th instant, the Korean Committee an“the Executive B°ard ye3terday, the
following report, which, after discussion, was adopt'd ^houtT Stffig*
careful consideration ^^p^nding^qufsimM^reg^idmg thV6 g'Ven long and
Christian College, which now comes up for fin?! h -g- tbe Pr®P03ed Union
received the actions of the Mission at iS a^Sual 83 *?e Board ba3
plana tory letters, chiefly from members of th?m?m??t g.uand Tan°us ex-
have also received the resolutions which '? the Ml33ion. We
members of several missions at Seoul September^??? by a c0^erence of
work be resumed in that city without further delay23??;. ®t?g th5‘ Colle«e
•ion were presented to the Committee and the CoeJS ' n ^°f the Mi3‘
Board, November 2nd, postponed final action %j2.U?Cllxrn 0efober and the
then until today, in order to afford amplf time to atndwbember 16th’ and
its bearings. Meantime copies of the actions of -the que3t,on >n all
•U the members of the Board Aitel Cther 5* ^1S3I?n were “ailed to
subject, the Committee and the Council desirl to the whole
November 2nd, to substitute the following- t0 Wlthdraw tbeir report of
It is clear to the board that there iA . .
*? to the character of missionary educational work °^/.lew the Mission,
»ittfd byethe MtaiS^rHd?' K^tobtr*. ^ ^
lhe°Mi>/sionI1advocate^ an^ «fucattonaT policy^whi^^ ^hat ^the&nmj
young men of the church.’ Dr Bai?d sLs that S J coIlege to the
Christians is not our commission, that ‘an education of non-
80 °ear the kingdom of heaven that his influpnrp l!?re aPd there might
'hurch school even though he were not let ? ™ bU,d be harmful in a
Baking exception here is a dangerous thine tbe church, but
U^d b/.?lmpIy. a Part of the church studying® Vbf1 , the.?13sion school
s&sr ,h“ * “ **— •A.tttat's;
>i?fyA7aia-j7A!g.B »..«.«»
the ChuJcb elther at home or abroad None of .bi t°i1Cy.°/ the Prcsby-
th? loll? °f tbe ABoard llmit their schools in this exclusive*®1 Ml33'°n3 under
frithin Cgeu m- A,m*nca connected with the College RonX? ^ay’ nof do any of
“ SUCh "gld b°Und3- Tha Position ofCtte^eBs^derIaVUcL^r„hnTht
subject from the beginning is expressed in the message which the General
Assembly of 1838 addressed to its first missionaries in non-Christian lands
from which we quote the following:
“We recommend to your attention and to your unceasing prayers the
children of the heathen. We are far from despairing of the conversion of
adults among them It will be your duty to preach the Gospel to all
classes, in every form, and by all tue means in your power.... But still we
consider the children and young people as pre-eminently the hope of your
missionary labors. The greater susceptibility of the youthful mind, the
durability of impressions made in early life, and the comparative ease with
which habits are changed which have not become inveterate — all recommend
diligent and perservering efforts to form the minds of children and youtn as
among the most promising and probably productive departments of mission-
ary labour. But this is not all. Parents themselves are never more likely
to be effectually reached and profited than through the medium of their
children. They will of course, regard them witn favour whom they see to
be labouring for the happiness of their offspring; and when they see their
children growing in knowledge and in good habits under the instruction of
the missionaries, this will form a new bond of attachment and open a new
avenue to their hearts. We exhort you, therefore, next to the preaching of
the Gospel, to make the instruction of heathen youth, in every form wnich
you may find practicable and expedient, an object of your constant and dili-
gent attention. But let all your schools and instructions be strongly stamped
with a Christian character. Let the Bible be everywhere carefully intro-
duced. Let all your efforts for the benefit of youth be consecrated with
prayer; and let the excellent catechisms of our church be as early and as
extensively employed as possible as formularies of instruction. Recollect
that it is our object to raise up, as soon as practicable among the heathen
a native ministry. The attainment of this object will require the most
vigorous efforts to educate the young, the selection of the most promising of
their number for special culture and, elevating the means of their instruction
as far as circumstances will admit.’
The educational missionary work of our church has been conducted in
accordance with this policy for three quarters of a century. The Board be-
lieves that the restriction of mission schools to Christian pupils alone or the
church alone would abdicate education as a missionary agency involve loss
of the evangelistic power which schools ought to exert upon non-Christian
pupils and their relatives and friends, tend to develop a spirit of caste among
Christian pupils, deprive them of a training in character and service which
they need to meet the mass of non-Christian people into which they go upon
leaving school, deprive the church of the opportunity to secure leaders from
students who might be led to Christ during their college course weaken the
influence which the church ought to exert upon the educational and intellectual
life of a people, deny many promising youths the privilege of a Christian
training which might make them Christian leaders, and force them to seen
education under non-Christian influences which may make them leaders
against Christ instead of for Him. The Christian character and influence of a
mission school can be and should be preserved without resorting to such
an extreme method. The Board believes that the best policy for a mission
educational institution requires that all teachers and a majority of the stu-
dent body should be Christian, that the missionary spirit and aim should
pervade every class room; that consecrated effort should be made to pre-
sent Christ to every student; that conversion of the unconverted and strength-
ening the spiritual life of those already converted should be recognized pur-
poses of the college and that the claims of the Christian ministry and of other
forms of Christian service should be kept prominently before the students
as one of the main objects for which the college is maintained. Experience
in many fields has shown that some of the mo3t effective missionary
work has been done in schools of this kind, and that some of our best native
ministers, teachers and evangelists have been produced by them.
“If a majority of the Korea Mission still prefers an institution at Pyeng
Yang on the restricted basis of Christian nupils only, and can maintain it
within the appropriations and missionary force that the Board shall make
available for ordinary mission purposes, in addition to such support as may
be given by any other Missions and Boards that may unite with it, the
Pfon tTi't Srron" ‘nshaeneben a Junior tZ “eVhV
AmeT ic a n “co 1 liege ^ ^
a*
Board is not prepared to support a denominationll college “aoIrTfram thT
understanding, at any place in Korpn nr nr.^ tL,* >oliege, apart from this
equipment and support, whatever its t^rmin^y"0"11"31'0"3’
of Christ in°Korea3 requ^re^n’inrtTfuUon^hkh^wilt^ave"^^^1^ °f ^ T"
this, which will give a wider training evILt ' have a broader basis than
the evangelization of Korea than it will be DosTlbwTeT^V'if mflaence in
stitution of the type that the Mission desires m'
urgent need of a college of the type sanctioned h^ ‘here 13
college which will be in no sense secular buf thoro^ghllrarhiutemb V’ 5
missionary in the sense referred to in a preceding Chnstlan and
Board feels that it may justly press th^rl^nf ^ 0^ tt,ire.P°rt- The
to conduct educational work in Korea in accordane?*®^ chur,ch
which are in operation in all thp nthor r«;c ■ rdan^e with those principles
represent the established policy of the Board 'and °th °Ur chur.chA and which
their missionary work-abroad* °^e Board adheres to Tts^' ASfT,bly in
pressed conviction that this college should be a Union r„ll r®Peat«dly ex-
of Korea and that it should be located at Seout for the whoIe
have been stated in former actions The BoS'h capi‘al. for reasons that
of delay in its desire to secure a degree Umit
years having passed since the question was raised " the field- °ver two
nothing is to be gained by further dela7 and no,w evident that
would be gravely injurious to the interests whirh Tlf'^iT'k P°3tPonement
Christianity simply cannot afford to abdicate hi? should be safeguarded,
mission in Korea. The Secretary for Korea TJS h,gher National
form the Mission and the other Boards having woA in Kn™ '“.f?',?11 1° ,n‘
is ready to proceed in aiding to found and maintain -“tt • rearihat thls Board
in Seoul, if the sum of $50,000 gold? ?eferTed to hv tY"' d" Ch£.1Stl£,n college
Underwood, shall become available as our share r the Rev. Dr. Horace G.
flonaf contributions3 soS thhaaYn«ieW°totalinsumrepIedre ‘"Vcde'e” TddU
fiarassr *• - *■ inftnaiArrrs
faculty and0ma^inTenanceewlthrout>lcj3enfneThe'lO^'!' 10 Ptoujde its share of
be normally assigned to the mission- although f°.rte and bud&et that would
parantee this irrespective of any conditions Th»tbe Board ca"not of course
fusion, the Board will designate the Col We „.?* ma^ anse- To avoid con-
appointments so that they can be noted separate!^*1™*1' and missi<>nary
ect to transfer on the field. It is understood f W^ 0^ th°Se that are aub-
to be regarded as an integral and necessarv iln °uc share in this college is
tenan church in Korea and entitled to full reco^if**16 W°rk °f the Presby-
management of the college will be vested in a fieW Ro Z 3U,ch' The ,ocal
Jhe manner customary in such cases, as indicated in tk B, ard °f managers in
Constitution submitted by the Joint Committee of ?he Boa?df1Ve draft °f the
this action as the best compFomis^that* U praTtfcabl ^ ML3sion wMI regard
have so long troubled the Mission and that th? due3tions that
the Board to make it as its final decision wilf n? 11 "h'ch has prompted
“eeerhv .kartiIy Th. th? colIeKe at Seoul, through The pT®. MJssio" to c0-
pf’hy the immediate election of our proportionate ™ Execut,ve Commit-
fieM Board of Managers, who of coursemust be IT ^Presentation on the
.“e objects of the Seoul college. The Board of ° who. s>rmPathize with
set to the concurrent action of other c? ope?at^ ^f3 '3 authorized sub-
heei?ed St »nCe with the organization of the colleg? T i ilon? and hoards, to
epnning of such college work and the acquisition S and the Prompt
resources may permit. If the members
Mission do not feel prepared to do this, the Board does not desire to insist
that they shall act contrary to their judgment, and in that case, the Board au-
thorizes such members of the Missions as are willing to do so to represent
the Board in organizing the college at Seoul in co-operation with the repre-
sentatives of other Missions. The Board would deprecate a resort to this
course, however, unless the Executive Committee of the Mission shall necessi
tate its adoption.
“The Executive Council is instructed to confer with the Joint Committee
of the Boards as to the desirability of placing the college, Medical College
Pierson Memorial Training School, and any other institutions at Seoul that it
may be deemed expedient to include, under a separate Board of Trustees in
America, elected by the co-operating Boards in the way that has proved so
satisfactory for Nanking Christian University and that has just been agreed
upon for the Union Christian University in Peking. This might remove some
of the difficulties of administration that now appear to be so perplexine
to the Mission. * B
“The Board notes the desire of the Mission that the question of primary
academic and industrial education should be deemed more pressing at this
time than the question of college education and that immediate effort should
be made in behalf of the institutions which represent these forms of educa-
tional work. The Board recognizes the importance of primary and secondary
school work, but it believes that the proper development of college work
on a union basis is equally vital and that it should not be minimized in com-
parative importance. Christian work in Korea has reached a stage where it
needs a large and more highly qualified leadership by Koreans than present
methods can provide and the money that has been pledged for a College at
Seoul does not lessen any other resources. The Board deeply feels the need
of better equipment and support of the secondary and industrial schools in
Korea. Unfortunately, this is a need which is common to the schools of all
our Missions, some of which have poorer plants than those in Korea The
Board will gladly continue to do what it can for these institutions in' every
held, including Korea. But in the present financial situation and in view of
the necessity of concentrating appeals upon the great amount required for
the fund, it is not now practicable to authorize additional appeals As for
primary schools, the Board sympathizes with the anxieties which the Mission
is facing, but the Board feels unable to undertake the financing of these
schools from America under present conditions, except in so far as each Mis-
sion may find itself able to grant some measure of relief within the limits
of its regular budget. Beyond this, the Board sees no alternative but to
continue the policy of self-support in connection with these schools ”
You may be interested to know that the only question raised in the
Board regarding this report was in the form of a motion to amend one
sentence; but as the amendment was not seconded, the report was adopted
as it stands without a negative vote.
We are communicating this action to the Joint Committee of the Boards
having work in Korea, and we shall communicate with you again as soon"
as we have received the action taken by those Boards. The Rev. Dr. William
F. Oldham, Secretary of the Northern Methodist Board, informs me in con-
versation that there is no doubt whatever that the Methodist Board will take
favorable action, as it has been strongly desirous from the beginning to co-
operate in a union College at Seoul, and as its Secretary for Korea, the Rev.
Dr -ank Mason North, now, as you know, in Asia, has written a letter to
tht . ^int Committee urging early action.
It appears desirable that steps should be immediately taken in Korea
to get things started, care being exercised, of course, not to incur expendi-
tures except as they may be covered by announcements from time to time
by the Board or Boards concerned, that the necessary funds are in hand.
But matters can be shaped up on the field so that when the formal actions
of the other Boards are received the Union College can be gotten under way
without delay.
The Board did not take action on “the amended Constitution and by-laws
of the union Christian College at Pyeng Yang," a copy of which was sent
with the Rev. R. O. Reiner’s letter of September 28th, as it was assumed
that you would desire an opportunity to revise it in the light of the Board’s
action; especially as your adoption of this Constitution, the action at the bot-
tom of page 61 of your printed minutes, and the election of a Board of
Mrae3t hope Of^he Board that Tf M — *'Ve renewed expression to th’
km^rtouble^^^^/g^o^at^s practicable ^n^the^jimstions action
“^U«Xnydgo^Ct0on"h™ted,tmtO cooperation St*Th !,fjrit*
mmrnmmi
that the Junior^College" a^'pven'13 vf the e*'3tin8 schools of the M •
authorized by the Board Yflng m the form that it« enjJt*SSlon
than it now possesses The a more adequate plant “J muance 13
construed as indicating any wfnt of ann3 “?t desir' that its report To
desire to see them met Snt of appreciation of these °rt should be
fa behalf of the Board,
(Sl8ned> ARTHUR J. BROWN,
Vm° MINUTES ANNUAL MEETING, 1915 SecretaT.
u 33- Sec 8 of ?bim£tee 8 .recom>nendation was lost ? air 8 substitute
of thAe"^enD/Yan^0rnnLo.etter aN°’ 24® the continuance or non-continuance
I? ; ne College, under certain limitations was left to the
No°79°/ tL^R5810^' ,Th?t dfT'on was rendered. (See Ad Interim Action
o. 79.) The Board also decided that it would co-operate with other
Boards m starting a union college in Seoul The organization nf rhf. “
was to be effected in one of two wavs First if tvi» d -? °V.i. c°*lege
commended itself to the judgment of theMissionas a wse^ecision undtd
sS*?8® xf'M sfas; sses &,•*«;«-
«*»s Jits
°i the College’ which waa- that such individual *in the Mission
B5S^sa»M.wj£Jsurss
it M‘ss.'°.n having failed to decide immediately as to whether or not
ft T ,ud partlc,Patc m the College, certain individuals in the Mission feeling
that they were free to proceed, represented the Board and in co-opera ion
m ohperat.roenPre3C other Missiona Parted the College, and it is now
aion ^eels *,ha? I1 is due to a11 parties concerned that the Mis-
sion at this time make a decision as to whether or not it will participate in
^0f€“
the afteMont Draver *°
oth" r°solution°of t'hetprobletn repfyatt>ether*Boarddtlfaten^c^ tn
ZboTh1 fSee "? W3y C’ear t0 P-rticUteit ?heat^ltcXCget0andrwre?sk
M.ssfon m arrangements to operate the College independent of ?he
The meeting stood adjourned with prayer by Mr. Sharp.
(XXXIX.) BOARD LETTER NO. 316
In Re Minutes of Annual Meeting. February 10, 1916.
To the Chosen Mission.
My dear Friends:
• J *
p- 4^5» Union Christian College at Seoul.
The Board took the following action:
“The Chosen Mission having reported that to its regret it could not
hating ™.a.u CJefh t0 Participate in the Union Christian College in Seoul and
.itt”’Kfl,a3kRd '’a6 B.°ajrd.t0 auPP.ort the College independently of the Mis-
nr Rnrt6 Br rr J0ted J° c®mP’y Wlth the Mission’s request. The Rev
EL.W. • G' Unde™oad and ‘he Rev. E. H. Miller were designated as the
Presbyterian representatives on the Faculty, and the Executive Council of
the Board was instructed to see that the budget of the College ' for the
ensuing fiscal year was made separate from that of the Mission Action on
the expenses that are being incurred during the present fiscal year was
deferred until further report from the Field Board of Managers and The
Joint Committee of the^Boards as to the exact amount that wilf be required.
(Signed) A. J. BROWN.
tXL> BOARD LETTER NO. 432
Re Enlarged Committee on Education in Chosen. JanuaiY 25, 1918.
To the Chosen Mission.
pear Friends:
Paragraph 40 of the Manual reads as follows: ' Th Kond action of
u.iss;prie“:t0nthaeSTn853t^? aU W JBS^hSM benzol
omted counsel and may promote the interests of the work as a whole Tt
Kk s°hoCu°ldrbe heaTVand" fuTlylonsi dXedTnd ?f S*"d!n* their »«»tion
sw.rsrcffiS'iis
rhnwhl r, Fan lntefral and necessary part of the work of the Presbyterian
Church in Korea and entitled to full recognition as such”* that m,0 a
work for Mr. Rhodes is absolutely vital t^ the purposes for Pf
ege was established and is maintained; tX a n^mTfrlm America could
totlmftwhSiJ*ir« BS lt reQjUir?S °ne who has been on the field long enough
evangeUstic wori^That8 the ‘ F^fd^BoartV “M^nageTs*' b™evesP' "hal^Mr"
.crept it Weneno|, ZtolVr, uTatTe" :M,arsioPn°Sl'ssrg1,etdhah1mh\doCtSToeSMl
hTfsk^r at Kangk.ei ,nor t° any other station for which 'the Mission
naa asked for a new missionary on its preferred of rnm,00tn mission
enforcements but to Syenchyun^where Ih^ wTs no Heaney XthT Nation
‘a® and no hou.3e for h™ and his family to live in except during the tempo
tary absence of another member of the station on furlough who i , XL
unwKlirT*7 ta>k t0 the fi,e,Id' _We are inclined to believe that the Mission’s
unwillingness to assign Mr. Rhodes to the College was k,,
clear to nartiein^t**1"""?’" 59l5.,that “We <the Mission) cannot see our way
ment,4 t P rt Pfl A" S^°n College and we ask the Board to make arrange-
S?, °. operatethe College independent of the Mission.” That actfon
K - impracticable for the Board to refer the present question of Mr
,sn da3.. transfer back to the Mission or to await further word from it
'specially as the appeal of the Field Board of Managers to our Board w!..
on the field to have been taken nearly five monlhs ago Au^fst 30th
”d“r' ?ehod^ des,r,e was, also w?'l known so that thereXsbren ample
it dcsiled to doSs3o°n ma any fUrth6r rePresentations on the aubjeTif
Board" t^CSfe cir?rStanAeS’ ‘here appears to be no alternative but for the
10 5? ac‘on th,e PaPdl"? apPeal 0" its merits in harmony with Paragraph
lb ,of. the Manual The Committee and the Council therefore rernm^oSd
and* aPPeal of Mr- Rhodes and the Field Board of Managers be suS^nld
that the action of the Board, December 3, 1917 on the ouestiTn rhll
&/Trdin? ‘he proposed transfer of Mr. Rhodes from SyXhyun
P'ation to the evangelistic work of Seoul Station be amended by transferring
iMr. Rhodes from the Syenchyun Station to the Seoul Station for the pro-
fessorship referred to in the Chosen Christian College. In the Board’s action
|of December 7, 1914, already referred to, the further statement was made
that the Board will endeavor, as far as practicable, to provide its share of
faculty and maintenance without lessening the force and budget that would
be normally assigned to the Mission; although the Board cannot, of course,
guarantee this irrespective of any conditions that may arise. In harmony
with this policy, we also now recommend that the Executive Council be
instructed immediately to select the best available candidate adapted to
evangelistic work and appoint him and assign him to the Chosen Mission
to take the place in the Mission work made vacant by the transfer of Mr.
Rhodes. The Executive Council is already in correspondence with a suitable
man for this purpose, whose reply has not been received at this writing,
and we recommend that his appointment be referred to the Executive Coun-
cil with power.
This report was unanimously adopted. As it was drawn with a view
to making it self-explanatory, I need only add that an essential element in
the matter was the immediate appointment of a man to take Mr. Rhodes’
place in the work of the Mission. I confidently expect to be able to an-
nounce his name within a few days, as we have approved his papers, have
asked him to accept the appointment and now only await his reply.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XLI.) BOARD LETTER NO. 458
Transfer of the Rev. Harry A. Rhodes and the Return of Dr. O. R. Avision
June 4, 1918.
I presented these actions of your Executive Committee to the Board
and read Dr. Adams’ explanation. The Board instructed me to refer you
to the reasons stated in Board Letters No. 421 of December 6th, No. 425
of January 8th, and No. 432 of January 25th and to add that whether the
word “appeal” as descriptive of a technical mode of procedure was correctly
or incorrectly used, the essential facts remain that the Field Board of
Managers invited Mr. Rhodes to a professorship in the College; that he
stated his desire to accept that invitation; that he was more urgently needed
there than in the station to which the Mission assigned him where, indeed,
there was no vacancy; that the Mission was unwilling to transfer him to
the College; that the Field Board of Managers knowing this voted unani-
mously “that the Board press for the appointment of Mr. H. A. Rhodes to
the faculty of the College through the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.”; that this action could only mean an
appeal to the Board in a matter on -which no relief could be secured from
the Mission; that the President of the College informed the Board that
the action of the Field Board of Managers was intended to have this effect
and that there was no other recourse; and that the Mission voted in 1915
that "we, the Mission, cannot see our way clear to participate in Seoul
College and we ask the Board to make arrangements to operate the College
independent of the Mission.”
As for the return of Dr. Avison, he did not come on a denominational
errand but as president of a Union College whose Board of Managers on the
field and whose Co-operating Committee on Christian Education in Chosen
in North America, representing four other denominational Boards beside our
own, deemed it imperative for him to come on the business of the College.
The Board simply acquiesced in their request, and it would have been a
breach of comity and even of Christian courtesy if it had taken technical
advantage of the fact that the President of the College is a Presbyterian
to refuse such permission.
In both of these cases, the Board simply acted in conformity with
the request of the Mission in 1915 that “we, the Mission, cannot see our way
clear to participate in Seoul College and we ASK THE BOARD TO MAKE
ARRANGEMENTS TO OPERATE THE COLLEGE INDEPENDENT OF
THE MISSION.” If the Mission desires to rescind that action, the Board
would be glad to know of it; but as long as that action stands, the Board
cannot be justly blamed for following the course which the Mission itself
has requested. The literal phraseology of the Manual regarding the powers
of a Mission must necessarily have a generously Christian interpretation
other d^nominational’^s'sioM'^nd^'oar^’^Md °whe^ With
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XLII.) MISSION MINUTES, 1918
in 'n,o^eCUtiIf Committee Report, Section 10.
Board of the College. The only action of that Board was as follows:
Christian College Board of Managers, 8/26-30/17
. “ was “°Jed and unanimously carried that the Board press for the
appointment of Mr H. A. Rhodes to the faculty of the College through the
Board °f P°hrcr M,S.S10nS 0f thS Presbyterian Church in U S* A.’ *
« w jj° .S. Writes me 83 Chairman of the Committee:
„ „ . i d!d not “OW until Board Letter 432 arrived that my letter to the
, Board actl0n based on Par. 40 of the Manual, providing for a
w„^ ,tnPr °Ver 8 M,as'on action t0 the Board for final decision surely
would call for more preceding history of action on the field than is shown
sn^h action ',e^mn/eShtly “?ne °f c5£dition3 imposed in the Manual upon
that: ‘ to have been raet The actl0n of ‘he Board to the effect
Board to circum3tonces there seehis to be no alternative but for the
of tv,. m 4 i Si® P?ndln? appeal on its merits in harmony with Par 40
.. Manual The Committee and Council therefore recommend that the
does 111 Mr’ Rhode.3 and the Field Board of Managers be sustained.’
rvi i??\ S m 40 us ln accord with the provisions of the Manual.”
tALIII.) MISSION MINUTES, 1918
... . Executive Committee Report, Section 5
the ..... of„th.e ad-interim action of the Mission No. 163 disapproving
return of Dr. Avison to the States Mr. Koons presented to the Committee
Or. Brown’s letter of October 17th to Dr. Avison in which he savs "1
a.wgr \T- J°n,es to tell Dr- North that I am in favor of your coming
SmmitatteeIfh°Pe hew 3tr.etch his authority as Chairman of the Joint
t0 3c"d you a cable, even though he cannot consult all
he. ?9thb1917f«wS?^i.lt4p'. A S° * Cabie raceived by Dr- Avison, Octo-
was ’jIZ’. Ret,urn approved. Brown agrees. North” It
the »v, d chat Chairman be requested to write the Board in view of-
, ab°:e “^formation and express our conviction that this further accentu-
^irman wrote 17 °f definltlon of re,atlon between field ond Board. The
arv iwsel™3 ™-u3- tbat tba Pi-itnary and fundamental relation of a mission-
ary wJb. hlA M,33,on and Board, under which he has been commissioned
Arrangement of work which he cames for these comes first, and
tnust h»th. n-d lT ?vut extr?ordinary claims upon him the meeting of them
3ubject.f° the permission and provision of these bodies. The Manual
Nations on the subject seem clear: ‘All requests requiring Board action
should be accompanied with the action of the Mission upon them" and, ‘Any
other leave of absence other than the furlough (regular) thus provided for
will be by vote of the Board on recommendation of the Mission.'
“Dr. Avison had asked leave of the Mission for an entirely other purpose
than the College, which had not been granted. No request was made to the
Mission for this purpose. There was no action either on the part of the
Mission or his Station. Nor was the Mission notified of any such request
being made. The Mission has never been informed even of any specific
Board action on the matter. Apparently the only request made at home or
on the field was one directly and personally to yourself, and was handled in
the same way. Undoubtedly Dr. Avison would have the right to prefer such
a request to the Board; he would also have the right of appeal over adverse
Mission action; without question the Board has power to authorize his
return; but the mode of such action is provided for in the Manual, and does
not seem to us to have been that which was pursued.”
(XLIV.) MISSION MINUTES, 1918
Apportionment Committee Request to Board with Regard to the Chosen
Christian College
In view of the confusion arising from the lack of exact delimitation of
the relation between the Chosen Christian College and the Chosen Mission;
and in view of the further fact that the work as now administered is in
conflict with the Manual rule as regards institutions within the limits of the
Mission; and assuming that the Board proposes to continue the institution
although in opposition to the judgment of the Mission:
Resolved:
That we request the Board to continue to do so only in case it secures
the permission of the General Assembly for the suspension in the case of
the Chosen Christian College of the Manual rule (Par. 40) that “the Mission
has general care and supervision of all work within the limits”; and obtain
its authorization for the establishment and operation of the College as an
institution within the limits of the Mission, yet wholly outside and unrelated
to it.
The reasons underlying this resolution may be stated as follows:
1. The present system of operating is a source of constant conflict with
the recognized work of the Chosen Mission. Without reviewing again the
circumstances which led the Mission at its Annual Meeting of 1915 to request
the Board to operate the College, if it was to be established at all, as an
institution outside of the Chosen Mission, it may be pointed out that the
Board’s assent on this point without accurate and authoritative definition
has given rise to a difficult and anomalous situation.
It has left the institution in the Mission but not of it; its budget a part
of the assigned income of the Mission, but separate from it, and the
Mission with no relation to it; its faculty full members of the Mission with
all privileges and rights towards all the work of the Mission, but the Mission
specifically excluded from any authority or rights towards theirs; and the
; istitution established and operated outside of the only field superintendence
•cognized by the Manual regulations or authorized by the General As-
•mbly, and in opposition to the repeated and nearly unanimous judgment of
jtne Assembly’s agent on the field. Proceeding upon this basis without distinct
[separation and definition' by Assembly authorization has produced much con-
tusion and conflict, two instances of which may be cited as follows: .
1. The acting President of the College is also at the head o
the Severence Medical College and Hospital, an institution connected
with the Mission and perhaps the largest of its kind in the Dnen .
The position is one of large responsibilities and onerous duties, ana
work is done under the assignment of the Mission. The Manual r _£U
tions require that any leave of absence other than the reJu*‘Jr fw;,-:on
shall be by vote of the Board upon recommendation of the missio -
(Par. 18c.) During the past year, after having applied for
absence for medical work which was not granted, he dropped h
Mission assignment on the invitation of the Chairman >f t jnjr
mittee in America, and returned to America contrary to ,thj/jnsaPpf;°^
action of the Mission, and so far as the Mission has been inform^
without specific Board authorization, for nearly a yea
tion to the College interests.
. 2' . At tbe Annual Meeting of 1917 the Rev. H. A Rhodes reouested
rte Mi^fdeedeined°totedChin| the Ch°3en Christia" Colleg^ Th^
* SifiS declined \° do.- He was an experienced worker; there were
i^ tho H?rJ tdMVaCanC1CS !n tbe Mlssion; end he was greatly needed
its o4ndauthodtvS1t?AnVs°frk' ■ ThK Bo?rd subsequently took action upon
its own authority, transferring him directly to the College This less-
ening of the Mission’s forces of experienced workers has not onlv
SSbSraM^d*thei.Miiiio? in its WOrk but made ifc much more difficult
Sus^bylhe death ^ rf^TuSS^*0"1 Stati°n’3 eVa"Be,‘3tic ‘
p^rimary°up
chmmate religious instruction and exercises from their curricula New
institutions must do so at once; old institutions have ten years of grace
The Seoul institution was classified as a new institution and the Administra-
tion in granting a charter required that, with the exception of the Theological
department, all departments should be secularized and no student should
matriculate in any but his own department. ‘ snouia
• A t„h/.?,CCei5-anCe °f 3 .cbarter under the new ordinance would, in the
tha Ml.SSJ°?’ p[eJ,idlce a" the educational work of the Mission
is sufficiently indicated by the fact that although it approved the application
for a charter for the Severence Medical College on the ground that “A
Mfeh,Vher°veierfian^3 °n,a s°mewhat different plane than other institution!
of higher general education with regard to religious instruction for the
(M,Anut53 1916>' it ^ specifically refused permission for
1 *K?n Academy at Chairyung with the statement that,
Because of the possible effect on other educational institutions of the estab-
an academy, since it would have to be established under the
new educational ordinance, and we do not approve of applying for a permit
under these ordinances at the present time >• Ior 3 permit
for theColle^ hf'e applied for and secured such a charter
X S?’iCge’ al! ‘he educational work of the Mission is now laboring under
the handmaparismg from this action, and it is only fair to the Mission
the dl3t‘nctlon between the College and the Mission should be made
tP°V' e.rnmf.nt Vle" of the Assembly resolution of 1917 coun-
sehng that the educational work of the Mission should be carried on with
religious instruction as long as it is legally permissable.
S. With no intention whatever of discourtesy and with all due resDect
or our superior body, the Board, we would point out that the imparity
od“n,US10n °f tha pr.ese”t situation, which must necessarily increafT, din
a-T-
of if- # r®^UIatl01Js for the direction of its operative agents in the conduct
its foreign work. The Manual rule (Sec. 40) provides that the Mission
bfX3 C3re ,3ni °VArslght °f all work within its limits *
'Board Letter 249°)fthat ChnSt!a,n C°llege thc Board action stated
in f the Mission did not see its way clear to co-operate
memLZl tabl,®h,n|r.an.d °Perating of the College, “the Board authorizes such
-iwr» -er.s Hie Mission as are willing to do so, to represent thp RnnrH in
^ffg operated on°th?^h -Th-,S WES at f°*5?e done and the institution is still
tionf fo? 4 ■ th b,a31s ln apparent disregard of the Assembly's regula-
? sSsr8 "r«3ysssSM! fews.-aras
Vlijsi y X n i10! be transferred to independent bodies over which the
• ssion and Boards have no control • • • . . Tf • V,'y, ‘■ne
of the whole missionary enterprise that the aims methods andhtearh"
aLd3=' 4ltl0nl °ff Vl,'3 wnd.should be kept in harmony with the evangeh
b!. ,3™8 and work of. the Missions and the Board; and under their resnonli-
J''if*„Uberv?slon 33 an tntegral and organic part of the work In the
hint S S SST*™1 °f ^ 3bould be exerciL"d trough °a
“^ssions " B d { Managers elected by. and amenable to the co-operating
(
qi
The Mission at its Annual Meeting of 1915, after the College had been
organized as above, requisetd the Board to make suitable arrangements
for its operation separate from the Mission. As yet this has not been done.
We therefore respectfully request and, in view of the increasing confusion
and injury resulting to the general work, we feel constrained to press the
request, that, if it be operated at all, proper authorization be secured for
the independent position of the College within the limits of the Mission, and
an authorized definition of its relation to the Mission’s work and workers
be made.
(XLV.) BOARD LETTER NO. 473
November 6, 1918.
The Mission and the Chosen Christian College
To the Chosen Mission.
Dear Friends:
In acting upon the minutes of your annual meeting October 7th, the
Board considered your action on page 78 regarding the Chosen Christian
College. Second, there was also presented the statement signed by fifteen
dissenting members of the Mission. After some discussion, the Board voted
to postpone action for two weeks and directed that copies of the full text
of the two documents be mailed to the members of the Board so that each
one could have opportunity to study them. At the meeting October 21st the
matter was taken up again and a draft of a proposed reply presented. The
Rev. Dr. Charles R. Erdman made the point that the reply did not sufficiently
cover some of the points which he believed the Mission deemed important,
and that these points should be more definitely and adequately cleared.
The Board therefore referred the whole matter back to the Chosen Com-
mittee and the Executive Council with instructions to confer with Dr. Erd-
man and report at the next meeting, November 4th. In consultation with
Dr. Erdman the last sentence of the proposed reply was changed and a con-
siderable section added so as to make the whole report more complete and
comprehensive. This revised and enlarged report was submitted to the
Board November 4th with the unanimous recommendation of the Chosen
Committee and the Executive Council, in which Dr. Erdman concurred, that
it be adopted. I have explained this process in order that you may see
that the Board does not act hastily or unadvisedly in these important mat-
ters, but that it goes into them with care and thoroughness. The report
as finally amended and enlarged is as follows:
“Consideration was given to an action of the Chosen Mission to the
effect that ‘the present system of operating the Chosen Christian College in
Seoul is a source of constant conflict with the recognized work of the Chosen
Mission,' that it ‘has given rise to a difficult and anomalous situation,' and
that ‘assuming that the Board proposes to continue the institution although
in opposition to the judgment of the Mission,' the Mission ‘requests the
Board to continue to do so’ only in case it secures the permission of the
General Assembly for the suspension in the case of the Chosen Christian
College of the Manual rule (Par. 40) that ‘the Mission has general care
and supervision of all work within its limits, and obtain its authorization for
the establishment and operation of the College as an institution within
the limits of the Mission, yet wholly outside and unrelated to it.’ The
Board also received a communication entitled: Some Reasons Why Fifteen
Members of the Chosen Mission Voted Against the Resolution Concerning
the Chosen Christian College.’
“The Board replied that its actions regarding the College were reported
to and approved by the General Assembly immediately following. Four
years have elapsed since the essential actions were taken in 1914, during
which period the institution has been formally opened and legally chartered
by the Japanese Government-General; a valuable site has been secured with
the assistance of the Government-General; missionaries have been assigned
to the faculty and are at work; students are in attendance; large sums have
been secured for buildings; plans for their construction are well advanced;
and obligations have been incurred with other Boards and with the Govern-
ment-General which cannot now be honorably evaded. The Board sees no
■reason for reopening the question at this late day, nor has the Mission
Igiven any new reason for doing so. Paragraph 40 of the Manual, to which
Ithe Mission refers, is not involved, since the Board has not deprived the
Mission of its powers in relation to the College. The Mission voluntarily
and against the wish of the Board abdicated its powers In respect to the
College by declining to recognize it as an integral part of the work within
,ts bounds with which the Board and the Home Church are 00-0™™°^ T^
Board agrees with the Mission that the resulting situation is ‘difficult and
anomalous- and that it is a 'source of constant conflict and ‘coSusioS-
But this unfortunate situation has been created by the course of the Mission
Kerthe3Genetr°aiaCAePt ‘m deC‘Sj°n,.pr?perIy made by the Board and approved
by the General Assembly; and the Mission is entirely free to remedy it at
8DL r b^C0"Tra,tln? with ‘he College, as the Board very cordiX desires
it to do. The Board commended the statement of the fifteen members of
the minority of the Mission as a fair and dignifi.d .r.fmrnt nf thc _Uuu
tion.
. 0i'jT° X re<l“<-st _ of the Mission that ‘if it (the College) be operated
at all, proper authorization be secured for the independent position of the
College within the limits of the Mission,’ the Board replies that toroDer
authorization has already been given in actions of the Board which were
ccimmunicated to the Mission in Board Letters Nos. 249 of December 8 1914
and Si® of February 10, 1916, the latter having been based ra the action of
t^r3,4rsath' year =veodf
. ftArtlter request of the Mission that ‘an authorized definition
of its (the Colleges) relation to the Mission’s work and workers be made’
oso ycbnS'Veri,tbao ''J'n ®oards action which was quoted in Board Letter No
249 of December 8, 1914, stated ‘that our share in this College is to be
garded as an integral and necessary part of the work of the Presbyterian
Ph^CMWe^n tl? Md ?nt,?led to fuI1 recognition as such.’ The relation of
the College to the Mission is the same as that of other union institutions such
Pven„e CoIle^ a"d the Junior Union CMlege In
Pyeng Yang, except that the Mission has not availed itself of its right to
P t..™pres^ntatlves on the Field Board of Managers g
The relation of the members of the faculty to the Mission is in har
mony with the policy ,n many fields, which the Board see noadequate“eason
for modifying in Chosen, namely: that all regularly appointed Presbyterian
m ssionanes assigned to union institutions are members of their respective
hi aln fu aa.u regular standing on the same plane as other missionaries
m accordance with paragraph 39 of the Manual which provides that ‘a
Mission consists of all foreign missionaries under appointment bv the Board
S“5pe-Clfied territorial limits,’ Any change in the* re“„ of the Chosen
Colgem, ssionar.es to the Mission would necessarily apply to the mission
gar* sras?<^^rK^ars
^lss*ons on the field have their voice in these institution*
ap their right to elect representatives on the Field Boards of Man
fhe r nnd th-e 05 y r,ea.s°n why the Chosen Mission has no voice in managfng
Mp S?llege m Seoul because it has voluntarily chosen not to™^™";?
Meantime, in deference to the wishes of the Mission the BoarXI. fnlwid
course stated in the Board letter referred to (December 8, 1914) namely
f, cult? J W1!1 endeavor, as far as practicable, to provide its stare of
j-tolty and maintenance without lessening the force and hnd<L»
^la^ej''^iaS^aape*°'v^of^any'condttions^hat^may0 arise anTotavoid°Hne
6s 3houJd he noted that while the Board did 'not guarantee to nrnvid.
Slgdt'tb t°f fa,T'^ and ™aintenance without lessening the force and
Bet that wouId be normally assigned to the Mission, Respective of any
conditions that may arise,' the Board has actually done so thus far. No
money has been given to the College that otherwise would have been given
to the other work in Chosen; the only missionary transferred to the College
(Mr. Rhodes) was promptly replaced by a new appointment; and ‘the Col-
lege appropriations and missionary appointments’ have been ‘noted sep-
arately from those that are subject to transfer on the field.’ ”
• ••***•**••
This report was unanimously adopted. As it was intended to be self-
explanatory, I assume that I need not enlarge upon it. It represents the
matured and careful judgment of the Board and we earnestly hope that it
will commend itself to your judgment.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XLVI.) EXTRACT FROM A PAMPHLET OF CHOSEN CHRISTIAN
COLLEGE — NOV„ 1918, P. 3.
Field Board of Managers:
Consists of eleven missionaries representing the co-operating Missions.
Northern Methodist Mission: Rev. W. A. Noble, Ph.D., Rev. A. L. Becker,
Rev. B. W. Billings.
Northern Presbyterian Mission: A. M. Sharrocks, M.D., Rev. James S.
Gale, D.D., Rev. H. E. Blair, Rev. Harry A. Rhodes.
Southern Methodist Mission: Rev. J. L. Gerdine.
Canadian Presbyterian Mission: Rev. Milton Jack, B.D.
(XLVII.) BRIEF
A Brief on the Subject of the Desirability of an Adjustment Between Home
Base and Field as Relates to Field Administration
Introduction
" November 17, 1917.
The Presbyterian system is essentially a representative democracy ex-
pressing itself in a series of graded courts. In these courts of the Church
two distinct types of authority are exercised. These are judicial and admin-
istrative or operative. In applying the principles fundamental to Presby-
terianism as they exist in the relations of these bodies to the organization
of our Foreign Mission system, we must not forget that one is ecclesiastical
and the other only administrative or operative. But these principles apply
to the administrative functions of the Church bodies as much as to their
judicial functions, so that we may set the judicial aspect of the one aside
and compare them only in the character common to both, that of administra-
tive organization in religious effort. In this they approach so nearly that
the application of the fundamental principles of the one may clearly deter-
mine the degree of harmony or disharmony of the other.
I. The Organic Principles of Presbyterianism as an Administrative System
In the Church the direct and characteristic series is the congregation,
the Session, the Presbytery and the General Assembly.
A. . Each Has a Sphere of Exclusive Original Jurisdiction. — Each has a
certain sphere of operation in which it holds exclusive original jurisdiction
in its relation to the other bodies, whether superior or subsidiary. To
illustrate: the Congregation has exclusive original jurisdiction in the electing
of Elders, Deacons and Trustees for itself; the Session has the same over the
communicant membership; the Presbytery toward its ministerial members;
and the Assembly to matters of order and doctrine. No superior body can
intrude to exercise these functions or to dictate their exercise.
B. Each Has a Larger Sphere of Ordinary Original Jurisdiction.— Out-
side of the sphere mentioned above also is a larger sphere in which eacn
body currently exercises original jurisdiction for many functions, but
which it does not have this so clearly as an exclusive prerogative.
C. When Properly Exercised This Also Becomes Final Jurisdiction.
There is a sense also in which each body, certainly in the first and I commonly
in the second sphere, exercises not only original "functions are
practical purposes final jurisdiction as well. For all these functions
exercised by each under a recognized established body of regulations,
that so long as their exercise is conducted in clear accord with those regu1
tions, the body is protected from intrusion from above and its decision
become power of Review and Control.— The completing factor is the
power' of review and control which each holds over its subsidiary bodie .
work within its ~~
graded bodies. Each3 holly “s ^ protected fromTi8^ distril>uted amo"
of its appointed functions. Each is guarded from' th the proper «ieise
them. In so far as character of organization *1™ th ,mPr0Per exercise of
and glory, that of Presbyterianism 1?.. he™ can, Klve strength and success
democracy. It is the peculiar source „f .&h\5h* that °f represenUtive
ism that, remaining of the DeoDle th* • 3nd success in Presbyterian.
istration is such that it can and dope inJ ^anizatlon of its operating admin-
? .??hpbhdS °f % Stries most directly wncer^WhatV f°f- each funct»on
fore the body with the most intimate knowlpdJf functl°n, and there-
e‘nndduementqUentIy the Stron^ claim Sn^d
II. Comparison with This^Operative System of Our Foreign
de3 ■ reco^!«d
York. e Mission; ' and^he &38\? &
tluee may* be ' said^o* \e "framed"' on" a^insmTe^t^Pr °h J°Ver'nB the fir3t
the local station, composed of all activ^workers In'th6"^ “i1 directl°n of
in it each has a vote. The organized Miff- ers- m the ‘mmediate field and
ind direction of the work of all the Stations witv”1-*1*?. superintendence
‘a76 ™ss.onary .is a voting member in it ^!£hln lts, bounds, and each
conducted with limitations and regulations ^ork each body is
tnd the Mission's Rules and By-taws* established m the Board's Manual
h-When we come to^he^onLction'ofHorn Reljtpn,0,f Field and Home Base
methySfiem ‘S abruPt|y broken Th? ^iTsion^th “ d oreanization, however'
n the field composed of all the workers within’ its h sup,reme operating body
Board f h m8 W°rk' at once ceases in its reUUon tn"-/ 8nd superintending
“card to have any authority whatever Li .™ to lts superior body the
uperintends. A well-establfshed b0dv o? it3elf over ‘be wort it
iatl™ to its subsidiary field bodi^ andf the^r a-I°"Se dcfine tbe Mission’s
om No regulations of any kind exist definhi<r th‘ltM?f the,r mu‘ual opera-
tes and its jurisdiction in relation to the R^frdthef?IlS8,?n sPbere of opera-
iny timeeX,lnC'Sed by field bodies is only by cuien?rInn'dalIy field j“™dic-
■eal .f? ’ uP°n aRy matter, which its own Board Permission. At
source in which real operating au°horitv inSS* s£ direct* the only
• t directly and without regard tn fho • a ln^eres, the Board, mav exer
bne.3 both of^olicy “and6 work ^nd ^ fi,?ld -SaHom
1 j and final jurisdiction. k’ and 13 equally true both for
distinct! "’"^s3 connect k)^1 be^«enr¥"eIdatMd Hom^R*"'8" and dem°-
tthetRatlyJautocratio- The field organisation beelJmT6 ®a31 “ becomes
•xcent “ard zeroising jurisdiction as it ,?s 31n??ly ‘he creature
rasteg '■«" i» flu o,
:-'4tmo°fCr/Cy '"thin the field bodie? thlmsd'ls^for**' P03s'bility of any
exer?k?m°C"ahy ‘bat the functions and authority whinh u8 .fundamental
' a sune!-88 88 inberent in themselves, and not bv^h blCb bodies exercise,
btem P«‘°r; Scientifically defined, the firrt on?v e, CUrent Pe™ission
second, by virtue of thec^racterof^. I® a, democratic
, As p«ta "BtlC °"e throughout its entirety f ‘ bead' a3 c|early
$ jo relation to the Board
body Of established r^latfaS.^^
jurisdiction in field matters becomes final. Review and control is the only
Presbyterian factor left and in the absence of the other two this ceases to be
distinctly Presbyterian.
III. Misinterpretations of the Above Statement to Be Guarded Against
A. This Is Not a Criticism of the Board. — The writer wishes it to be
distinctly understood that the above statement is in no sense a criticism
of the Board in New York. He is a loyal and sympathetic co-worker with
it, and gives place to none in his admiration of all it is accomplishing in
the Church’s great work of evangelizing the world. It is a criticism of a
system. The Board is not the author of the system but simply an agent
in it, whose place and responsibility in it has been defined for it by its
superior body. The author is the General Assembly and the system is
its system. Since the Assembly’s organization of the work in 1837 when it
determined that it would "Of its own proper authority superintend and
conduct the work of Foreign Missions by a Board,” and the Board was ap-
pointed and "charged with the duty of organizing and superintending the
work of disseminating the Gospel in unevangelized lands” no further defini-
tion or distribution in administration has been made. Responsibility has
been left where it was then placed, solely in the hands of the Board.
Authority cannot be separated from responsibility. The two must go hand
in hand. Hence the present system.
B. The Present Relation Is Not in Itself An Improper One. — Nor do I
wish to be understood as saying that this relation between home and field
is in itself an improper one. It is not. The fact that the Foreign Mission
work of practically all denominations was organized on the same essential
basis sufficiently indicates this. But conditions are largely the determining
factor in propriety of method, and changed conditions call for adaptation of
method. The days of new fields, of small Missions, of simple evangelism
and of inexperienced field forces were, and under the same conditions may be
still, the days when such a relation is the proper one; even though it is
Episcopal rather than Presbyterian. Paternalism is proper during years of
weakness or immaturity. But when fields have been long occupied, the field
Mission large and well organized, the working force numerous, tried and’
experienced, the work complex, differentiated and interknit with multifarious
field conditions, to continue wholly in this relation is not only contrary to
the genius of Presbyterianism, but unjust to the larger bodies of the
Church’s presbyters working in the foreign field and, when occasional differ-
ences arise, may involve actual disaster to the work.
C. The Present Method of Operation Not Ordinarily a Dictatorial One.
— Nor do I wish to be understood as saying that the current mode of
operation in the home-field relation is a dictatorial or arbitrary one. It is
the opposite of this. In ordinary current operations large discretion is left
with the field organizations in almost every line, and even when there may
be minor divergence of judgment, not infrequently the judgment of the field
body is allowed to stand. This mode of ordinary current permission, how-
ever, does not affect the principle of the system; nor does it affect the system’s
operation in fact, when real and serious differences of judgment arise
between field and home base as concerning field matters, as at times they
needs must. Responsibility is vested solely in the Board for all matters,
great and small, an in such case it is but proper that responsibility should
have the final and authoritative word. Proper regulations and definition as
between operating bodies are not made for the times when they all agree.
They exist for those times of serious difference of judgment which occasion-
ally cannot but arise. They are the prohibitor of confusion and dissension;
the guardian of harmony and efficiency. Would not ultimate confusion and
even dissension be inevitable in the Presbyterian system if the subsidiary
bodies were so placed as to not only have no representation in the General
Assembly, but had no definition or recognized regulation of their administra-
tive functions in relation to the Assembly's authority over them. If the
first were necessary, as in the case of the Foreign Missions system, so much
the more would efficiency require the correction of the second.
D. Does Not Mean the Elimination of Board Authority in Field Matters.
PNo more do I wish to be understood as advocating the elimination of Board
thority from field matters. I do not agree with the Report of the Com-
ittee on Principles and Methods of Administration in the 1917 Conference
Foreign Mission Boards of North America to the effect that it should
authority. To not do'sV’Is toTe^de^rlcate^as “much1 shouI^t?!so mclude
present method. For the Board hks source. “ythln* m the
single field force possesses quite as much as fielddfnicdSh°f wl3dom which no
of wisdom with regard to its own wrt whh-h th. n rce.,has 30urces and kinds
IV. The Above Illustrated in Th. Board cann°t possess.
The truth of all the above is welf iuLtrataMn* th°f *he K°/e?, Mi?sion
Mission. This Mission by comity ureement hi. ,th case of the Korea
a territory of 5,000,000 people. Glides its own e^nn'^el'i6 Fesponf lbl.l>ty in
territory is a self-governing Presbyterian Church i *ion 1StlC work’. 111 this
a Christian constituency of 107 858 with its nwn°pVK°r.C0"gregatl?.ns and
Assembly, the product of the Missions ™k “Z, \nd General
the Mission is most intimately bound un In ittfli .wI?1<* the work of
Mission hospitals and eight Mission academies It W, ^1°"? 5 has 3even
relations with five other Missions involving a theolnodcal federated and union
college and two hospitals, an arts confge Bible* in. tiffT1"*/7, a medlcal
those 41 are presbyters of the home church Mmv Ttw'hi “"h °f
laboring in the field between 20 and 30 vears nnH 4-1 iSe have been
have been there more than ten years The work is ra^efnfw*1^6 ma}orlty
superintended on all lines upon a thoroughly ftesbrteriin hn°^Banf1Zed
bodies m all of which every member has a voire b i3 of gTaded
a vote. Its annual budget runs into the hundred.*11? fkery a‘jtlve member
All that exists has developed nSS the hands of th«°USands °f dollars-
in many true senses is the intimate fruit of tl • , kese missionaries and
Boards there is possibly nolMn^fn the home churrWW 0uf,3ide.of ‘he
large efficient operating organization carrying so diveSified^dire’cfw^k
But organically it has no defined position and when difference r ■ ,
ment arise between field and home on any field matter i t Jadg'
inherent in itself and conserved to it by recognized reflation £ fun‘tl0,Vs
it administers simply by the current Dermis.mn of t ? lat'on Organically
| permission at any'tLe? in a™bje?^^
structions issued or field decisions reversed In n wnrL- f ’ in*
complexity and interknit field conditions, which oAy the b/d^of
tors can fully understand, it is scarcelv more _ body of field °Pera-
conditions to realize the operative weakness of the method*1"7 t0 St*te the
V. The Point that Is Being Pressed
Princ^lesPOofnWesMePrianism. lari" “fi- m°3t fu?dam<mtal
to°it1 tteir^xercfs^cons^rved telit, amfon 'fhe 1*^3'*^*^
feSS “ " UnJU3t t0 the fi6ld *»“ and “ d»ea noincJhnedu?e°?oet^Sbee^
VI- Suggested Solutions to the Difficulty
&Th“^
Ui33fon' tt! Exmcutilve>Committeetpresen^(f the^^o*low[ng^sif °f ^ Korea
* ».on and it was laid on the table for one yea? SEE V 3 !“°" to tbe
!tUo»"?ted minUteS and 30 3tir consideration The proposed action waY as
hde H,e'.thl?ore? Mission, do respectfully petition the Board that It „
*hat- athough 23 m the past the Board under its authoritvnV'v P
» Von'rol” possess the power of veto over the act ons of ?hL ■ reV,ew
LyIELD MATTERS ONLY, in the rare cases where th tha Mission, yet
^ it necessary, the Mission would have the right to act a™;S‘°n W°.?d
tCr VOted' and- should it repeat its former X bj l tZthZ7 nz-
jorUy the Mission's judgment shall finally decide the matter, subject only to
appeal to the General Assembly.
n, Iocat|OD a?d assignment of all missionaries commissioned by
the Board to work within the bounds of the Mission.
does'not^nsid^ufubTe for fhe work™^3 Wh°m ^ C°rP°rate MiSSion
bounds o?^ Mis"ion0 ^ 6Xerd8ed by fie'd committees w°rki»e within the
s' £!?e "upefinlendence and control of all existing field institutions
il.nl initiatory in new institutions (subject to Board vote as to actuai
step) as to number, character and location.
Mission operations"**8 °f SClf-SUPP0rt in th® nativ® ^urch as related to
denominations °r federatlon upon the fieId in work with the Missions of other
jhe IIis3‘on and its members to the Korean Church
, Thla proposal related only to the Korea Mission. Ordinary relations are
Kft ?*■ tkey aT® a"d. the difficulty is sought to be solved through the idea
1? the Mission a sort of referendum authority in strictly field
matters. The exercise of this, however is confined to cases of practical
to be 'necessary! An<* °n'y When the matter is considered a» impo
B‘ of 1917.— At the 1917 Annual Meeting of the Mission this
proposal was taken from the table and the following substituted and passed
secure that? Q Board t0 SeCUre 3 revision of the Manual a° aa to
aa ordinaJi,>' organized in foreign lands shall be the agents of
Assembly for the ProPa^ati°n of the Gospel and the planting
Within ^Th:;he M!ss‘on ,to have the direction of the As.-emblfs work
to^t* Ro=.rH d3’.Snd by.‘he P°Wer of review and control to be cubj-ct
k. l?M d .ot.heI authorized agent. The Missions are also to have
the right to appoint Commissioners to the General Assembly ”
The 2ll aPProaches the problem by direct and comprehensive definition
tions imf.ahnin 8 V 'l e\Vln 3 defiJed Place in the Church's foreign opera-
tions. Something which it has not heretofore had In field matters it ha-
exc'us.ve original jurisdiction, and when its actions are withfn the scope
both the two meet on a parity of representation P
snS SS «xs&sssxt
cne i»l/ Umference of the Foreign Mission Boards of North America
The subject of the report is “Co-operation from the Home Base in Mis-
sionary Administration on the Foreign Field " It says- “ W
administration ^nisMonar^wor^is8""6™^!^^ 'a^f^ritimaUlv^'
ifrthLyt “,tl?e.f®re‘P1 fifld;,and' secondly, that a legitimate and* vital "art
of that administration should emanate from the Home Base "
To remove any remaining anxiety in the discussion of the topic two
observations may be made, (a) The co-operation and supervision proposed
relate only to larger questions of policy. It is recognized that the routine
administration of missionary work belongs properly to the foreign field
(b) A second reassurance may be found in the fact that the
anfid,SaUPe^,0n/r°p0Sed t0 be extended from the Home Base
to the foreign field will be advisory, suggestive and persuasive, rather than
mandatory.
d j' Protwsa' °f Certain Furloughed Missionaries in Conference with the
Board. The following suggestion, first made by Missionaries of the Korea
Mission on furlough, in conference with the Board on the action given above of
the 1917 Annual Meeting, has since been unanimously endorsed by the Execu-
lib
and perhaps sim^le^ waj^th^centrriThough^of 'thenMeXpreS3ing *” another
the Annual Meeting of 1917 The Rncrd’.Ar1 tbe Jdl3s.lon ln its action at
Assembly, in Section 40, &ab wifh The' ^ower", by the General
to its work and subsidiary bodies hut fr v° u f tb? Mission m relation
various times that it doe? not define th. RnVj’tr auth°r,>tativ®>y 3tsted at
posed to amend this to read as follows- B°ard-Mlssi0“ ^“‘‘ons. It is pro-
plicitly placed the^owe/o^inTtiative ^in*1 the hhand™6!**’ h?waver’ that Fft Sex-
^limits the exercise of
wjt-i , , _ . . Conclusion
thought of the Korea^Miss^on^and wafsuch tn8 th b'6’ t'*”3 ‘I tgle central
Meeting. The Home Base has a general knowledge jfk0" *of the AnnuaI
wisdom which the Mission does not possess Tkl f d therefore sources of
be such that the Mission may not p ifsh ahead iolli f 6 f ® systeni should
Likewise the Mission has pLticulfr Lowkdgf aid ?k 'V™ jud&ment-
wisdom concerning its own work which the He ther®fore sources of
Therefore the system should be such tw n* BaSDe does not Possess,
ahead solely on its own jur^ment ^ When differed?6 BaSe may not Push
projects far better to wait at the posts of her door ?f13e “n^rning new
known the voice of Wisdom. Whether this would h»‘ c.on<=urrance makes
Missions or only for the larger ones I do not I f jb® adm‘ssable for all
Assembly of 1917 took actiontothe ^ect that: ‘° 33y' The GeneraI
^b,e Assembly notes with especial interest thp Rnort)1 i-
more efficient local administration in the variousmi^^? « 1C^ °,f securing
largest amount of democratic self-government in ili “m— d3’ including the
mends that whenever conditions permit or rpnl Missions, and recom-
lodgment of the Board, further sfepTbe takenfn th ‘ advan‘ag®°®3 in the
-'ally in the case of the larger Missions." " tbe 3ame d,rection, espe-
proposition t^MsSel?IriI™m^ b!liehve lbat a, reasonabIa
Home Church. e aPProval of the Assembly and the
[bat U6s in the assurance
lency m the common service which we render to 3 Ad ,mcreased effi-
Petition that consideration be given it and surh n„ t ?inf* An£* we earnestly
J?.tem be devised and brought to the next GenP^djiUSimentV?f the Present
^factory to both Home aid ^ %
CorresDondinp' Rp/»rs»f av» — > m.
- . C Cbmm itt e e° o f *1 ^le" a3 1 C ho^i c nf xr °f tHe Ex-utive
Jjiasion6 aat it? meetin^of^ovembeh/nJo Committee "of the Korea
u>
T 25 Madison Ave., New York,
0 Sis Excellency M. Komatsu, June 16, 1916.
director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs,
Vlv j Seoul, Chosen,
oear Mr. Komatsu:
^'■ved ^^n^tfme" Your'°ExcMlency™yiettMIOof e^^j*ng Mclostog'an
‘raniilation of certain ordinances and instructions recently issued
by the Government-General of Chosen regarding private schools. Your
Excellency s article on Ordinance No. 4, entitled “Revision in Regulations
for Private Schools, and copies of the Seoul Press of April 2nd and 3rd
Rd^i")11” Your Excellency’s articles on the “Separation of Education and
kid I? A. th? °rd;na,Ices and regulations affect the educational work
P?.t ?nly of the Board with which I am officially connected but
of all the Mission Boards having work in Chosen, and as I assumed that
Y°" intended to notify them through me of the character and
scope of the Government s requirements, I have consulted with the available
“™be,rs of the Committee of Reference and Counsel, whose names appear
upon this letterhead, and who as a Committee represent the Mission Boards
of various denominations in North America. I have advised also with a
few educators of international eminence whose opinions are of large value
fi r. .T'v m C“mmi%e that the Sub-Committee of which the Rev
Dr. Frank Mason North is Chairman should correspond with the Boards
directly concerned, and that meantime I should write to Your Excellency as
L5S,W do> ‘he ><:tter being personal, like Your Excellency's to me, but written
the^con-espondence. ^ aPPr°Va‘ °f °thers who have a right to kn°» of
imn^ItdetPliy aPPrefiate Your Excellency’s kindness in sending to me such
SeP^ubrertdanUHnbvtSt'h 1 ?“ lmPres3ad bY ‘he evidence of careful study of
are set forth O^i^ere^3™3*3 a",? 3trength ^ which the conclusions
t^t I interest is naturally very great, and I wish most heartily
verLJ; da aIL opportunity to discuss the matter in a personal con-
monv1 .M,' Y°n£ Excellen.cy ls aware, the Mission Boards are maintaining
many schools in Chosen, and expending upon them and the support of the
Wh.°, c0"dact them, a very large sum of money Pp1a„s have
been made for the better equipment of some of these schools and in par
ticular for the development of a Union Christian College in Seoul The
Boards were led to make these plans, partly because of our conviction that
the interests of the people of Chosen require the best tVe of Christian
education that it is possible for us to aid them in securing, aid partly becais"
oapbeart.y de3're to comply with the reasonable wishes of the Govern-
ment-General of Chosen that all schools, including those conducted bv the
Missions, should be worthy of respect from the viewnninr cby.
educational standards. Your Excellency may recall That* wheiTl15^0"!!
Chosen in 1909, I conferred with you in this sub ect and Jt 1 tZS
Director of the Bureau of Education and you have douhtlesl lIS0 h thj
that when the present Director, TheHonTahle "feiSbSS SekiyY^aTil
«Le V".1* jd S.ta?es last year, I had pleasure in inviting a number of dis-
whT Irea’\„d0pfa0c0t1ceTedidne TheX^s
would not countenance for a moment anv instrnrtm« tLofCe‘ ® boards
^oS^SeS0 the constituted
It might not be proper for me to write in detail reeardino- nii th*
ordinances, instructions and regulations for I do not nrofp^t k °j the
tional expert and I recognizf the fact* tit th? Gove^eXaZr^oi
Chosen is entirely within the limits of its own authnrito a?. »• “
chi,rknlngf Th rulcs as it deems suitable fSTUJS^^icH^SSSTttS
children of its own subjects. I mav onlv sav that o -**£*?. eaucare tne
of the rules impress me as excellent. Reeardinp- othprs onsiderable number
clear. Much would depend upon the construction that ls not s0
them by future officialsYho will ■b^chSK^t^^^Sh^g.,^
gnage of some of these articles is susceptible of an interpletatiin that might
cause serious concern. Perhaps such an interpretation wdi lit j
upon them, and I gladly admit that we should Assume that th?nlf P !w
has been pprsued thus far by the Imperial Gnvomm„ . aJ , e P°bcy that
Government -General of - Chosen raises a ^ reasSf nreelf JaPan \nd the
equally broad policy will be pursued in the future Indeed *hat an
have assured me that this is likely to be the case. ’ missionaries
' lt>4
ss^SaSSE-E
each'telnglpixrsuecf in^ts'ow^speci^^way^ndependen^'of^fe' other au'th^>^
are mixed together, students who believe m a ce ain , l ? : U they
be unable to enter schools of different faith, or the/will hi Wed to'hol"111
in a faith which is not their own, or, in other casls they will K / b !
abandon the faith in which they be ieve In thi! j be fo/c,ed to
will be hampered and the prog^s of ed&ation iZetedifXZ.n**™"*
The authorities are very appreciative of the valuahlp pnnf^;K°f Sma
religious schools in Chosen to the development of dlilizathYlld ’’ed'3'*?' by
but they cannot allow the present state of education in rhnJIdf educat,on'
for long, for if they do, those evils above referred to continue
mixing up of education and religion, are sure t/ appear s’oIHw ot fataTlt'E
with the purpose of preventing those evils th., rh. r °I iater', “ 15
for private schools have been effected. By these revisions Sn>rivatgU aK1°'ia
giving common, industrial or special education in ChdsIJ. ™ p"ya.t( 6 ?c.ho®ls
their curricula in accordance with regulations contnflKn J Ted t0
schools, higher common schools or Government special ?omm°n
prohibited to them to include any course of stSdv Ither than i’ “ bel?g als°
by those regulations. In other words,
industrial or special schools are required to conform ,1 ,1? ° » d’ com,mon'
for them In consequence, in all thise scho“lfTis prohiffiCMre?Ulated
bgious education or observe religious rites.” 3 prohlblted to give re-
Such declarations naturally cause no small concern .
Christian education. Your Excellency will understand the !d?/f
are likely to have upon the desire of the Board, hi e?ect wh!cb ,they
sums for education in Chosen, including the new College in “sel ,addlt‘°.nal
apparently indicate an abridgement of the freedom of ttfese*^ h6°V ' aS t!ley
.ous matters. We have been proceeding upon the supposition th»r ?I3 rC'hg-
=on°aI
the same liberty that similar schools enjoy in Great Britain
.ion Is* r/unXIf
cation must be nationalistic." If this be understi^id I! 1m i *ordA’ edu'
State should not be indifferent to the education of it/ ™p{y,n8 that the
should provide free schools, it is in entire accord with fhP hP‘e. ^ that *
Practice of the world and with the prinlfples whilh Imde ^i-be!t educational
and British public school systems. In America ahndhGrMt BriIahi°n A. mer,can
this recognized responsibility of the State extends onW ’ however'
of public institutions for free education and to their —mi I® the. p,rovl310n
o«end, nor is it believed that it should extend to the 11 does not
schools The free public schools are supported by IlSl tl 0,f pnvJte
«08e who wish to attend them, and in most States thp^loE ”era* ^xatmn for
jehool age to attend some school. But the school attend^H°mpeiS chl dren of
Pnblic at the option of parents and pupils Citizen! mn.t be f r‘Vate or
whether they patronize public schools or not, for thes^ULl?7 SC”°o1 taxe3
*s a public benefit and necessity. But if citizens in /jufJ?00 ? regarded
Jpsh to incur the extra expense of sending their chllifren tl°n t1eir taxes.
^ Government interposes no objection whatever. 4° pnvate schools,
Your Excellency’s article in the Seoul Press states:
“There are, of course, private college* anH /.
cctnmon education is entirely managed bv the Cnvol'1'33 l’n America), but
schools ranging between thosl fiving7 elementlrv ^ ' e ™6 curri<:ula
higher education are arranged h! fi!,m^ary_ education and those
^ng higher education are a ranged b? ZToveZ X'X" and thosa
£hgious teaching. It is true, however, that ce-S. Si6"1- fnd l,nclude n0
Pcdiea have established private colleges and unTv e r I d i e?J u 9 ‘3 and religious
fef S founding these institutions was n “the propiwktUn of 1e a,m,.they
ot the promotion and spread of education itself A? it i1 reI'gion
is, with the excep-
tion of theological scholars aiming at the study of religion, no school in
the United States gives religious teaching.”
Your Excellency has not been given accurate information on the subject.
As a matter of fact, there are not only private colleges and universities main-
tained by the churches or by members of the churches, but there are a great
many private schools of lower grade, including kindergartens, primary
schools, grammar schools and high schools. All these private schools of
every grade have absolutely no relation to or supervision by the Government.
The public schools are maintained by the State, are closely supervised by
it, and exclude religious teaching, although some of them permit the reading
of the Bible and an opening prayer. Private schools, however, are entirely
free to teach what they like and how they like, religion included, the Gov-
ernment giving itself no concern regarding them and making no regulations
for them, although it freely grants them charters to enable them to hold
property as legally incorporated bodies. My own sons and daughters were
educated in such private schools. While the masses of the people send their
children to the public schools, a very large number of the well-to-do classes
send their children to private schools, partly because they believe that sound
education includes religion and they wish their children to be trained in
the schools which recognize it and teach the Bible, and partly because many
of these private schools do a higher grade of educational work than the
public schools. This latter fact of itself is significant; namely, that with no
regulation of the State to enforce a standard, private schools are doing the
highest grade of educational work in the United States. The Government
acts upon the supposition that the law of competition is an adequate protec-
tion. These private schools are numerous, and as they uniformly charge
tuition fees, usually rather high fees too, while public schools are free, the
private schools must offer superior educational as well as religious ad-
vantages in order to get students. Our American experience, therefore, is
that the State runs no risk whatever from private schools.
Your Excellency has also been misinformed regarding “religionists” on
the teaching staff of American schools of the best grade both public and
private. A large majority of the teachers, professors and presidents in
American institutions are Christians, and a considerable number are clergy-
men. The President of Princeton University is a Presbyterian clergyman.
President Hadley of Yale University, whom you mention is indeed not a
clergyman, but no one who knows him would ever think of speaking of him
as “not connected with religion” for he is active as a Christian layman.
He maintains regular preaching services in the University Chapel, often
preaching himself, and is widely known as one of the most influential Chris-
tion leaders of America. In like manner, Dr. Woodrow Wilson, now Presi-
dent of the United States, was, when President of Princeton University, as
he is today, an elder in the Presbyterian Church and he held religious
services in the University Chapel. I could give Your Excellency a very long
list of presidents and professors in the best private and public colleges and
universities of the United States who are devoted Christian men, while in
nearly all of the private schools, like the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania,
the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut, Blair Academy, Blairsville, New
Jersey, the Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, the Philips Academies at
Andover and Exeter, and hundreds of others, the Bible is in the curriculum
and attendance upon religious services is compulsory. Indeed, most of the
American private schools will not employ a teacher who is not a professed
Christian and a member of a Church.
In short, the American plan is one of absolute freedom in education.
The State maintains public secular schools at great expense for the multi-
tudes who want them or cannot afford private schools; but Churches or
voluntary groups of Christian individuals can found and conduct private
schools without the slightest difficulty and make religion as prominent as
they choose.
These statements are substantially true of British educational policy.
The best schools in Great Britain, including not only Oxford, Cambridge, and
the Scotch Universities, but such secondary schools as Eton, Rugby, Harrow
and scores of others, though popularly called “public schools,” are not Gov-
ernment schools but are privately controlled and are subject to no Govern-
ment relation whatever, although the Royal Family and the high officers of
the Government have educated their sons in these schools for generations.
members of Ihe facultfes.^ Wh°'e ChHstian WOrld have been praparad by ‘he
.. , A? tbe Ordinances, Instructions, Regulations, and Your Excellency’s ar
« lW efb<Tl,n publlshe.d ?nd therefore are not private, I have sent ^optes
to a few of the most distinguished educators in America together with
preliminary draft of my reply, and asked for their opimon as trthe accurtv
r1li%ntalTpTeU^e?rrVVeptlie^h00,S ‘he ""States ar'e^e*
versi?y“NewTork; LLJ>- °f ** Teachers Columbia Uni-
usually^) welfinforrned^orf matters^duca^on^HrTtld^cou^ry0^ hould^m0 k'9
thd Thatch °rthLnklnVH there are few private schoobln’ this io^try
oil, teacb!ng °f religion is debarred from them. As a matter of
Thl 1 ? \hlS Onion places any restrictions whatever upon private
fates thaT thlre arererfir47fn4 n ??!ted Stfas Commissioner of EdScatfon
states mat mere are 1,647,104 pupils reported from private schools This
h^d"^0^6^ °T’ beC3USe prlvate schools with us are so free that
they do not even have to report to the Government As for teaching of
:ebgl°nipnva£e spools throughout this country are free to do as they p”ease
I have never heard of restrictions being put upon any sect whatever Pmnre
°UrJtates ‘he teaching of religion inVon sectarian ^
p“ad m,the public schools, and in others specific provisions are made
whereby pupils in the public schools are permitted to receive Tnstruction bv
teachers of their own faith in connection with their regular school work
this teaching m some instances being carried on in thp onkn 1 u ’u- ’
and in other cases the children go to nelrby churches PThe d^"®
generally in this country is tha® sectana7teach^
at public expense, whereas any form of religious instruct on may be carr ed
on at the expense of those who desire to promote it. Y e carrled
“Sincerely yours,
w. . , A A m „ “JAMES E. RUSSELL.”
President Arthur T. Hadley, LL.D., of Yale University, writes:
., liav* read with interest the papers submitted bv Mr Komatqn -nj
draw LpTtaffrom^dufatL^re^elprisTs ^ ‘° fth-
mdi ^Guir^al^on Cem)neous^ gTo^ndsrniFeeling°asdI on t^islifid^0^
you. y haVe fU permisslon to tell him or show him anything that I write
“Very sincerely,
n tp, t, “ARTHUR T. HADLEY.”
Chancellor Elmer E. Brown, LL.D., of New York University writes-
I am deeply interested in the question regarding nnKliJ1 ’ e3' .
chools in Chosen, which was discussed in ourre8centCOnfernce IlP^?te
Jo me of importance that the general attitude of our nuKHr
oward education in this country be well understood and the matte^ffonJ
'hat may easily present some difficulties to any student of ediioaH™ 1 d •
“‘ration who has not been himself brought up unde? the A meri™ ad”,n'
It is doubtless generally known that we have no national s,ystem;
educational administration in this country. Our schoo" systems °f
‘ems of the several states. They are pretty general W of one tL tbe.e8y3'
ofeEdm°r varia£?ns amo.n? them- One national office. the F^emrLrea'u
di Education while exercising no authority over these svlttm 5
distributes information concerning them all. systems, collects and
Ill
tl 4/
IJc latest published report of the Federal Bureau of Education cov-
ering the statistics of state school systems for the year 1911-12, shows a total
enrollment in public schools and colleges of all grades of 18,376,257. The
JonSff t^recwere enrolled in private schools and colleges of all grades
1,»U2,183. The figures for the same year for elementary schools are as
iL°^SjonPuy,C eIementary schools, 17,707,577; private elementary schools
1, 505,637. For secondary schools, the figures for the same year were as
H! ZSi: f?J,U£«“C?S!?ary lCh°°ls Jhi*h, 8ch00l3)' 1'126'791i Pr‘vate secondary
scnoois, f 11,256. These figures for elementary and secondary schools are
included in the figures for all grades as given above.
. , /V? situation in this country may be illustrated further by reference to
the statistics of two of our leading state school systems. The latest pub-
lished report for the State of New York, that of the year 1912-13, shows a
total enrollment m schools and colleges of all grades regularly reporting
to the State Education Department, of 1,956,365. Of these 1,329,925 were
T public elementary schools, and 180,000 in the public secondary schools
According to -the same report, it is estimated that in addition to the above
there were 225,000 pupils enrolled in private schools of different grades
iqin *or tg® State of Massachusetts, the statistics are at hand for the year
Wl.'of TufSS«. th"? Were enrolled in the public elementary
pupils and in the private elementary schools of
the State 114,192. At the same time, there were enrolled in the public sec-
schools * academfeal'etc.1)3 ^7,429^ 8Ch°0'S) 76,62°’ and in the private secondar>'
tn,.,ZaA0fihes.e sta,tis’ti;cs lie considerations of fundamental importance
touching the educational policy of this country. It is a well-known American
t0 iPr°u'dj free. educat,on at Public expense for the children of all
11™ Tk Pt' Wuh° do. not choose for their children some other form of educa-
fo, tv, J"e taachlne ln these public schools is non-sectarian in character and
lh(k. Vf non-religious, although not anti-religious As it appears
Thlcb J bave racorded, ab°ve, approximately nine-tenths
ffnnH.P P i . educated in such schools. At the same time, it is also
itenet 0f 0Ui AmerJca? system that there shall be freedom
®:?ouca‘*0n , As appears from the figures quoted, about one-tenth of our
pupils are educated in private schools or schools carried on by certain
nn 'fheU«tdteI’(0mKnau0n3; Pur comPulsory attendance laws, which are found
of their rooof b°°\S th®. m°st of our States, permit of the satisfaction
publicly provided.6 by attendance of PuPila on schools other than those
Choaenhf« tiS'^Iu fact in view of the discussion of the situation in
taught SAthft ,n the of these privately conducted schools religion is
another pr0P°r“°P of th®se schools are carried on by one or
and denomif ?• denomuiation, or by the adherents of such denomination,
Sol, t doctrines are systematically and freely taught in such
“b?°i8„d Wol PrlVat.e scho°'3; religious doctrine is taught in more gen-
Lh lkl L varian T\ "hlle ln a relatively small number of such
same LtbtLlt i- u 'Lc<?ndu.cted on a non-religious basis, substantially the
same as that which obtains in the public schools
School, Hir°pU,fWbe ddfed thiat Wuhile this freedom of religious teaching in the
freedom di 1 y/ff.ectu onlJ abo,ut one-‘enth of our school population, the
frh, C°1duct education along such lines is a vital element of our
1 Itbaf al?° th!s great public advantage which is widely
™Plzed- t|jat J lends to the education of our people a variety, a flexi-
a?? a. freedo™ for both conservative and radical initiative which is
thoroughly in accord with the constitution of our society, and undoubtedly
adds much to the enrichment of the American character.
I have written somewhat at length regarding this matter, because it
has always interested me deeply, and because I believe it will contribute to
a.,tru.® understanding of American education that the facts regarding this
situation should be clearly presented on any suitable occasion.
“Very sincerely yours.
“ELMER E. BROWN."
I have also conferred with Professor Paul Monroe, Ph.D., LL.D. pro-
lessor of the History of Education in Teachers College, Columbia University,
New York, whose high authority in the educational world has been recog-
nized, as Your Excellency is doubtless aware, by the honors that were given
b,m during nis visit in japan ana Dy the translation, by the Japanese Society
for the. Advancement of Civilization of his notable volume on the History of
Education. He manifested deep interest in the subject, read all the documents
that Your Excellency sent to me, and, at my request put his views in writing
gS follows: 6
“My Dear Mr- Brown:
“Herewith I answer your inquiry of June 10th and make some comments
oD the communication from His Excellency, Mr. Komatsu, Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Governor General of Chosen. I am much interested in doing so
^First, because of my friendship for the Japanese people, my respect for
the great work which they have done and are doing, my admiration for
their culture, and the intense desire that I have that they take no action
which would alienate the sympathy of the western nations; second, because
of my belief that the mission schools have something definite to contribute
to the life and the advance of the Orient.
“May I preface my remarks by saying that I am familiar with the
work of the Japanese schools by actual visitation and believe that Japanese
education has something to contribute to American education just as their
culture has something to contribute to ours, and just as I believe that the
Occident has something very definite to contribute to the Orient.
“The position taken in these regulations governing private schools by
the Governor General of Chosen is so radical that I am convinced that his
Excellency, the Minister, was quite misinformed concerning the status of edu-
cation m western countries, and it is only that his misinformation may be set
right that I take the liberty of commenting quite specifically upon his inter-
pretation and comments of these regulations.
“First — May I state that I do not believe that there is any country hold-
ing any portion in western civilization which forbids private schools as this
regulation proposes to do. Nor any which presumes to determine absolutely
what shall and shall not be given in those schools as subjects of study. Of
course, many of them regulate the minimum of what must be given but none
of them take the position that other subjects cannot be added. I make this
statement sweeping regarding all nations of the western hemisphere. Per-
haps I should qualify it because I do not know personally of the conditions in
those countries under the Greek Catholic church; and yet even Russia permits
the Jews and other religious sects to maintain their own schools and school
their own children In the countries under the dominance of the Roman
Catholic church, taking Spain as the most backward, private schools are per-
mitted. The royal decree of February 3, 1910, restricted the inspection of
private schools to the hygienic conditions of the premises and to the preven-
tion of words and deeds contrary to morals, to the fatherland, and to the laws,
it was the attempt of the ultra conservative government there to inspect and
even to close private schools which led to the Barcelona rebellion and even
to rev°lution and to the overthrow of the Canalefas ministry. In German
and Teutonic countries of Europe, which the school system of Japan more
ciosely resembles than that of any other country, private schools are per-
least six per cent of the school population of Germany attends
Private schools. The higher education of girls is nearly altogether through
Private schools.
, “In commenting upon the situation in Europe in the article in the
PnZ1 °{ ^pril 2:, \915’ ‘be. Honorable Commissioner has mismter-
Pjeted the French law and I am taking the liberty of pointing out the basis
jn,b,3„ m'ai"terP”tat'on, wb'cb was very easily made. The French law of
oiy 7, 1904, which he quotes, is a suppression of teaching congregations
“,ot of private schools, nor even of schools taught by the clergy so far as
:?es.e clergy are not members of the monastic order and do not wear the
^erical garb They are even yet permitted to hold schools. On this point
cell* 1 qu.°,te^fr?m ‘h,? art,c,e on th,e French system of education by His Ex-
cHency, M Gabriel Compayre, at the time of writing. 1911, Inspector General
4ni v Ins‘ructlon of France: “Further, a large number of the closed
orde. SvaVe been ;e°Pen,ed w!th a lay or secular staff; the members of the
faers having exchanged their ecclesiastical garb for civilian mufti fin
Se l, 1909, there were 3,069 re-opened as private lay primal schools 922
and2'°;7 for girls. The private schools are^sUbTs^edand’main
,#'“ed by individuals or by associations The State leaves them free in re-
pect to curriculum and method, but the same qualifications as to age and
4 /<3
ability are demanded from their teachers as from public school teachers.
The formalities for opening a private school consist of a declaration made
to the mayor of the commune indicating where the school is to be established.
(Monroe’s “Cyclopedia of Education”, Vol. 2, Page 662.)
“Regarding secondary education, M. Compayre has the following state-
ment to make: The dispersion of the congregations, the suppression of the
colleges of the Jesuits, Dominicians, and Oratorians brought back to the state
schools a part of their clientele. But only a part, for a number of free
colleges were reopened under the protection of the bishops or civil societies,
and gathered in the heritage of the congregations. The number of pupils
who attend these schools may be estimated to be about 50,000. (Monroe’s
“Cyclopedia of Education,” Vol. 2, P. 665.)
“On the same point, may I quote from a more recent statement of the
situation in the French schools by Dr. F. E. Farrington, Professor of Compar-
ative Education on our faculty: ‘In spite of the dispersion of the congrega-
tions and the suppression of the schools under control of the religious bodies,
the successors of these schools under private control still contain nearly as
many pupils as are to be found in the lycees. The graduates of these pri-
vate schools, however, must pass the baccalaureate examination given by
the state in order to enter the university or any of the higher state institu-
tions learning. (Monroe’s “Principles of Sedendary Education,” P. 87.)
“(Pardon my reference to works of my own, but naturally I can put my
hands on the statements much more readily and am assured of the validity of
the authorities.)
“May I also take the liberty of correcting the misinterpretation of His
Excellency, the Minister, regarding American conditions, though I understand
again how he could very readily misinterpret the general statements of Presi-
dent Butler’s article. In the first place, as is well known, the national gov-
ernment has absolutely no control over the schools. Further than that, not
one of the 40 commonwealths prohibits the establishment of private schools
or ever has done so. Not one of the 48 commonwealths even demands the in-
spection of private schools or holds that the state has the right to do so.
The statement in President Butler’s articles concerning this has a basis only
in the early colonial period — conditions which have passed nearly 150 years
ago.
“Second — Regarding the matter of the teaching of religion in private
schools, may I venture to correct more of the misinterpretation or mis-
understandings of western conditions involved in the article of His Ex-
cellency, the Minister. Nowhere in America, that is no commonwealth or
local unit of government, has attempted or would attempt or does now pro-
hibit instruction in religion in any private school according to the views of
those maintaining the school. It would be considered a grave infringement
upon fundamental principles of liberty. Furthermore, there is the mis-
understanding concerning the existence of private sectarian schools of the
elementary gTade, the so-called parochial schools. These exist in practically
every state in the union and have an attendance all told of probably two
million children. I am not defending these, and do not necessarily believe
that there should be built large systems of parochial schools competing with
the state system of schools, but simply give as a fact that such do exist and
that any attempt to prevent these in this or any other advanced western
country would be considered a grave infringement of liberty. In the field
of secondary schools, there are private schools in every State in the Union,
and a great number of schools of this character are controlled by religious
denominations.
“Regarding colleges and universities, a recent investigation of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching shows that two-
thirds of the 750 institutions of the United States and Canada, which are
appropriately termed colleges, are organically controlled by religious de-
nominations. There is a great variety of forms of this control, but I will not
take the time to go into this matter but simply quote this general condition.
“The conspicuous feature which His Excellency, Mr. Komatsu, states and
quotes from President Butler to verify, namely, that the college presidencies
of our great universities are no longer confined to men trained in the Chris-
tian ministry, is a fact, but it is due to other reasons than those inferred.
It is due primarily to the fact that there has now grown up a special profes-
sion of educators, and men especially equipped in administrative lines are
present incumbent, is the first in a long line of two hundred years who it not
a clergyman. His Excellency is also misinformed in believing that there is
any restriction against a clergyman holding any of these Nit ons ,
universities. At the present moment I do not reLll any yefin my acquaint
ance I know of several presidents who have been eleven Certamfv it
doe® n?fc £?’d.to the staff, because you will find men on the staff of almost
rtance^here^re hmlfo," frade,who are clergymen. In Columbia, for in-
stance, there are both Christian clergymen and Jewish Rabbis.
• ■ "Third— May I take the liberty of pointing out what again I feel is •
”‘t£neTf%tl0,\by HiS Exce"ency of the whole tendency o® western civil*
Theie i. »d„ l4f slt“at,on. regarding the relation of education and religion
There is a profound conviction in which most of us share and a verv marked
tendency to separate the Church and the State and make the Church abso-
lutely free from the control of the State, and vice versa the State absolutely
free from the control of the Church. That has been the fundamental Amor
.can position. As His Excellency points out, that ,s Hme i“reg”r3 to Japan
but when he carries this idea further and interprets our western situatin'
a ??p.aratl0n °* rellK>on and education, that is, that absolutely
forbids any religious control of even private education, or the inclusion of
religion m education in any form in which it may be organized I am pro
foundly convinced he has misinterpreted the situation as it exists in anv
of western civilization. As I have above cited, no country of wh*ch
I know attempts to forbid the teaching of religion as it may be viewed bv
religion. There are very few commonwealths in which there is anv leeisH
tion against the reading of the Bible in the school. There are many where
,t*r‘af”^UCtl°n 13 f°rbJdden and there have been nume?ous1udic.ri de"
£‘3‘ jD3.,m otbers against the practice of reading the Bible. On the other
fe“/!,V1tbere- have been judicial decisions maintaining the right to read the
Scriptures in public schools and to have simple religious ceremonies so far
SsSHSS*'
SS55£« MfeasES E
mssmm
& :H£S3s-3 -
^ning private schools. Of course^ in Great Britain it U ‘ih.ngpand mAin:
their place is very much larger than in the United Stale.13 7* r known that
*nd the United States, and to a somewhat less deme an Vl,inTGrfat-Br,tain
tries, very much of educational advance has come throne!? Teutonic coun-
Private initiative. May I point out that the kindergaften manuaTtrafning,
*rain,n^». much of scientific training, the education of the blind
the deaf, the educational treatment of the various dependents and delinquents
in fact the addition of almost every new feature to educational practices, has
come into the. public school system through being tried out and demonstrated
in private schools. In other words, the existence of the private school, or
rather the non-state school, is the sine qua non of progress. This is merely
in accord with the fundamental natural law underlymg all evolution and
growth; that such evolution comes from the selection of variance, and unless
you permit this liberty of variation, there is very little hope for progress.
May I venture to suggest in this connection — and I do it with the very
greatest of sympathy and good will — that most of the foreign critics of the
Japanese educational system have pointed out as its weakest spot, — though
it seems to be a thing which seems to give it its greatest strength at present
— its tendency towards absolute uniformity, hard and fast restriction and
prevention of variation; and while many of us simply have in mind the feel-
ing of greater freedom which exists in the educational systems of western
countries many of them also have in mind the more fundamental thing, that
progress, growth, is finally dependent upon this right or room for some
variation in activities.
‘‘On the part of the mission educators, it would seem to me that they
could not object to the following requirements made by the Japanese Gov-
ernment in Chosen:
First— -That all schools should give a minimum curriculum requirement-
this to include the essential elements of the government curriculum or what-
ever the government might require.
“Second — That they should submit to the inspection of schools to see
that they comply with government standards not only with regard to curri-
culum but with hygienic conditions and other matters.
“Third — That the graduates of mission schools would be required to
conform to the government standards for admission to various professions
such as medicine, law, teaching in government schools, or for admission to
other government positions.
“Fourth — Even that the teachers should conform to certain minimum gov-
ernment standards, although I do not believe these should be the same for
private schools as for government schools.
“J* seems to me that the Government might properly require any or all of
the above conditions, though to be sure none of our American state govern-
ments do and few European governments, if any, require conformity to all of
these conditions.
“It is also to be recognized that the location of Chosen, the general
conditions there, and the importance of this as an outpost of the Japanese
Empire, make the conditions there somewhat unusual. I think the right of
the Japanese Empire to protect itself and to secure the development of this
people not only for the advantage of the Koreans but for the safety of the
Empire would be fully admitted. It seems to me, however, that His Excel-
lency, the Minister, has so misinterpreted the matter of government control
over education as it has existed or at present exists in other countries that
ms attention might well be called to this matter, and the question raised
whether such extreme action was really essential even from the point of
view above stressed. Not even in Alsace Lorraine nor in divided Poland, or
m any other country so far as I know in any recent times, has this control
been carried to the extent proposed by these new regulations in Chosen.
“I have prolonged this letter somewhat unduly, but it seems to me a very
fundamental matter. May I call to your attention my well known attitude
of friendship towards the Japanese; that His Excellency, Count Okuma, has
done me the high honor of entertaining me in his home and I know is assured
of my friendliness for the Japanese people and my admiration for their
culture. Many prominent educators of Japan could gnve His Excellency, Mr.
Komatsu, the same assurance. In my own classes in Columbia, I have my
students each year read Dr. Nitobe’s “Bushido" in order that they may have
a more sympathetic comprehension of the ideals of our Oriental neighbors and
thus each year make hundreds of friends for Japan among influential
school men of America. If you wish to assure His Excellency, Mr. Komatsu,
of my conception of education and my estimate of its present tendencies, you
are at liberty to refer him to the Japanese translation of my volume on
the History of Education, which is included in the series published by the
upanese Society for the Advancement of Civilization, of which His Excel-
lency. Premier Okuma, is President.
ul am,
Sincerely yours,
, . . .. . . , , PAUL MONROE."
It is not the desire of the Mission Boards to make it impossible for “stu-
dents who^ believe in a certain cult or religion to enter school of different
frith” or ‘to force them to believe in a faith which is not their own," as
Hr. Sekiya intimates m his article in The Nagasaki Press. Missionaries could
^t, if they would, force any one to be a Christian, and they would not if
they could- The statement, that “it is only when the demarcation between
the two forces is clear and one does not infringe the domain of the other
that the object of education will be attained and religious freedom assured,"
* contrary to the assured results of experience in both America and Great
[Britain. The Christian people of these countries who are maintaining the
sessionary schools in Chosen hold that education and religion are not only
Entirely compatible, but that they are indissolubly related. From the be-
ginning, education has been an important part of missionary work in Asia
is the history of that work not only in Japan but in China, India, and other
gantries abundantly illustrates.
It has been said that if the Government-General of Chosen permits
Christianity to be taught in the private schools the Mission Boards maintain,
4 must also permit Buddhism to be taught in any schools that Buddhists
nay desire to maintain. We have not the slightest objection to this Mis-
nonary work asks no special favors whatever, but only absolute religious
liberty. Since the Imperial Government of Japan has recognized both
Christianity and Buddhism as religions of the Empire, we are at a loss to
understand why the adherents of either faith should not be permitted edu-
ational freedom as well as political freedom.
In this unhappy era of international anxieties, I fully recognize the pe-
raliar character of the political questions that are involved in the effort of
the Japanese Imperial Government to assimilate a people of different na-
tional history and occupying that part of the Empire at which Japan comes
mto contact not only with China but with some of the powerful nations of
Eorope. I believe, however, that history and the experience of other coun-
mes conclusively prove that the true interests of the State are injured
‘wu-i.c ted by any restriction of the freedom of education and re-
,P°S: tWk'le the government school of Chosen seeks to train a child for
ha MlssJon school seeks to train him to a high type of Christian
character and manhood; and I need not remind Your Excellency that such
u ».ifer S«nd ™a"h°°d form the securest possible foundation for the State
Highness3 Prince^Ito^0*1 1 have often <Iu°t«d the public statement of His
opposed Lhe„e,f"'y da/? of..Japan’s reformation, the Senior Statesmen were
pposed to religious toleration especially because of distrust of Christianity.
»iiimnbpHght!t/ehement -y for freedom of belief and propagation and finally
«a?ti£ 4- 1-My* reasoning was this: Civilization depends upon morality
upon religion- Therefore
I should be making a poor return for the kindly frankness of Your Fr
I gency m writing to me on this subject, if I were to conceal the fact ^ that
a ChosenCemeiM °f Jhe Pj!raflon of religion and education in private schools
loosen would undoubtedly have the following results:
Cr‘PPle if,n.°ut completely close the hundreds of mission
Ssde for " Cho,sen’ compeI the abandonment of the plans that are being
biaj, °r their enlargement, and paralyze the missionary work which de-
r-ier loPan fbeaf schools for the training of its ministers, evangelists and
tWderr -Th- ChrIst'an PfoP'o of America and Great Britain firmly be-
fcj thevVo'w Jo” a"rlnftif?rai and indispensable part of a sound education,
&es, do not deem it their duty to expend money on schools in anv land
blade1 the io° iLhe namei °f Ch"st and with unrestricted freedom to
“e v1*5*® in the curriculum and to conduct religious exerrispq in
reSS? I school work. No financial reimbursemenri Lwever large
h t®nTUld “m.Peasate the Mission Boards for the grievous effect up
r whole work ip Chosen, for long experience has clearly proved that
A
1
I schools from which religion is excluded do not yield the native Christian lead-
ers without which the Church cannot live.
Second, it would be construed by the Christian people of America and
Great Britain as a disapproval by the Government-General of Chosen of those
generous and wholly altruistic efforts which the people of the United States,
Great Britain and Canada have been making for the advancement of the*
people of Chosen.
Third, it would throw the educational system of Chosen out of line with
the best educational policy of such nations as America and Great Britain,
which give unrestricted liberty to private schools that combine education
and religion.
Fourth, it would be equivalent to a denial of that educational and re-
ligious freedom which we had supposed it was the pride of Japan to accord
and which is universally practiced in the non-government schools of America
and Great Britain. A school that is not permitted to teach the Bible does
not possess educational freedom, and religion that is not permitted to have
its own schools is not free.
Fifth, it would gravely affect the standing of Japan among the enlight-
ened nations of the world and cause deep distress to the multitudes of
friends and well-wishers of Japan in western lands who for many years have
spoken in high appreciation of the full religious liberty which prevails where-
ver Japan rules. Your Excellency has already seen published utterances of
mine in which I took the position that in the struggle between Japan and
Russia for the possession of Korea, my sympathies were with Japan prim-
arily because Japan stood for a liberty in religion and education which Russia
denies. Are we now to be proven wrong?
There are some matters of detail which I cannot view without con-
cern, as for example, certain provisions in Ordinance No. 24, but perhaps
they should be discussed at another time as this letter has already become
quite long and it may be well to confine it to the particular question that I
have been discussing. It will be a great relief to us and to the many friends
of Japan if the Ordinances, Instructions and Regulations referred to shall
be so modified as to permit mission schools to continue to exercise the free-
dom which they have hitherto enjoyed. We gratefully recognize the con-
sideration that is implied in giving the Mission Boards ten years in which to
adapt themselves to the new regulations; but Your Excellency will appreciate
the fact that if the regulations are to be enforced at that time, the blighting
effect will be immediately felt, and it will necessarily operate to destroy our
educational plans. An order to discontinue an essential part of our mission-
ary work at a fixed date is none the less vital because the date is a decade
hence. We cannot reasonably expect givers in America to put money into
land and buildings, or competent educators to go to Chosen, for instructions
which will be rendered useless in ten years unless we abandon a vital part of
the purpose for which the instructions are conducted.
I need not remind Your Excellency that the Mission Boards have
no selfish interest whatever in maintaining schools in Chosen. They are
spending much time and money for the sole purpose of doing good to the
people with no thought of advantage to themselves. It is our earnest desire
to co-operate with the Government-General in every way possible, and we
give this assurance with no reservation whatever, except freedom to con-
duct our religious work along its four allied and inter-related lines — educa-
tional, evangelistic, medical and literary.
Knowing as I do the openness of mind and the high conception of duty
,which characterize Your Excellency and the other high officials of the Gov-
ernment-General of Chosen, I have written freeely and frankly, as I am sure
that Your Excellency desired me to do. I gladly count myself among those
who have most hearty good wishes for the Government and people of Japan
and who wish to co-operate in every way possible in promoting the welfare
of the people of Chosen.
Again thanking Your Excellency for your courtesy, I have the honor
to remain, with assurances of distinguished consideration,
Very sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(XLIX.)— LETTER OF A. J. B. TO J. E. A„ SEPTEMBER 15, 1915
September 15, 1915.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D.D.,
Taiku, Chosen (Korea).
My dear Dr. Adams:
I have just received your letter of August 19th with its enclosed copy
of y°^iettoeur “ v;ugust Vth t0 the American Ambassador in Tokyo Mean-
(inje, Mr. Sharp has sent me a copy of the Japan Advertiser which gives
Cril °Kbe a? lntervle^ Wlth you On the subject. I have Sot yet
bea.rdJ» >StSUv,ln..r?P y t0 my letter t0 him and you will appre-
ciate the interest with which I am awaiting it. I am verv glad indeed to
Wve the information which you have sent and I shall be^ateful to dyou
(or Prompt information regarding any further developments V
With warm regards to Mrs. Adams, I remain, as ever,
Very cordially yours,
A. J.
BROWN.
1915
(I») . BETTER 0F J. E. A. TO A. J. B., OCTOBER 21,
gev. J. Brown, D.D., ’
156 5th Ave., New York City.
j(y dear Dr. Brown:
Y°“r ie“';r of Sepb' ,15.th has iust been received, and I am writing you,
frll! 5 „ , concerning educational matters. Here
a* ^-ational Senate had a meeting on the 14th and 15th of this month
° f Lhal a *°ne conference with Mr. Komatsu, and on the 17th
, Committee of the Senate waited upon Mr. Usami, director of the depart-
ment of Internal Affairs, and had an equally long conference, both on the
iarne suDject.
, ^°r?a^su’ in the cour3e Of our conversation, spoke of your letter
T* “w. ,Bt , w?s, Preparing a reply, a copy of which he would send me
,lso: a n?,S™ have £urther meeting but were unfortunate not to
meet again. His position was a position to which I rather drove him in the
((inference, that in the Japanese Empire there was, strictly speaking no
pr” "i '0!; Hef he d that(the fundamental education in the empire
was the separation of religion from education as was also the drift of
the modern times throughout all the world. He admitted that while in
Japan proper private schools of higher instruction were allowed to give
S* TiJ yet thlS- 33 an exceP*u°n> and because they were
but as a drop in the ocean in the empire s educational work, but that in
Korea this was not true therefore they could not be permitted. (His state
BeniiS SClrCe,ly d f°°d. because in Japan proper one-fourth of all the
middle schools their teachers and their graduates, are schools which have
1 right to avail themselves of this privilege if they so wish). I enclose you
* '°fy ?u;the conlmlftee report of its interview with Mr. Usami. You will
see m this report that ultimately all we asked for for new schools and
rniir1 ^?ouIdf a>3° J*e that wbich the established schools would have at the
"P‘rat'°,n of the tea yea« °f ^ace, was that Bible instruction might be
permitted as a purely optional course in the school. Waving all questions
t un.dertakmf «ligious liberty and the distinctive
te ? 1 church and State, it seemed to us that this would accomplish the
administration s professed purpose in the ordinance: namely, that of mak-
|wonldTe„u„Pl«ve t ane,\Ube °f ,®d“catl?n “Pen. to all, and at the same time
, would also leave to us the religious instruction of at least the children of
Christian parents; this, however, was refused.
The question of the position of the Seoul College in relation to the
Jrce ca!?e up m tbe Senate Statements on the subject did not agree
m th. « V" !PP01?-tld t0 wai‘ UP°" ‘he president of the College
EiV<i? thlS i'd- n.°u I?ake St clear- and the committee was
S ed to incidentally ascertain the facts from the authorities. The results
w rep0rt’ 1 kad. h„eard the .same statement before concerning Dr.
Voucher, but was surprised to hear it of Dr. Speer Before he left nur
^Sa' Meeti"g. ta g.° d0WT1 t° Seoul he stated emphatically that the Board
3t00d ‘he question m Japan, and that if it could not
3 3<lhoo,s Which were thoroughly Christian both in name ad in fact, and
given recognition by all as such, it would have none
I heard from Mr. Koons in Seoul that the College was expecting to
«rtly receive its permit as a separate institution. It gives me the most
Vm- con.ce™ that it should operate under the revised ordinances as a con-
'••^d?ng 'r ^ T' °ccuPyi,ne it does such a prominent position and
Riding for the head and front of Christian educational work in Chosen.
fcJ?or* disa3t™u.3 break in the defense line of the general situation could
Bower institutions are almost helpless in the face of it, and it greatly
113 the possibilities of what we may be able to obtain through agitation
lalong various lines of pressure and possible change of administration before
Ithe ten years expire.
The Senate, however, while it has a responsibility and relation of authori-
ty toward other schools in the country, has not such relations towards this
one, and I therefore simply bring this matter to your attention.
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(LI.) - LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
Taiku, Korea, November 27, 1915.
My dear Dr. Brown:
Enclosed you will find a copy and translation of an instruction which has
come down from the Government-General in Seoul to the various local offices
with regard to private schools. In the one that was sent me from North
Pyeng in Province 9 (for they have come to me from several provinces) this
had been added as explanatory, in the office of the Provincial Governor.
“The expression ‘The school buildings may be used for religious pur-
poses' means that this may be done in cases where the church and school
are using the same building, or, perhaps, where the church building is small,
and the school building is temporarily used.”
There has been some diversity of opinion as to whether this instruction
was intended to be more strict than the original ordinance, or whether it
was granting a concession. The first idea was on the basis that religious
instruction was not to be allowed even as an optional course outside the
regular curriculum; the second on the idea that this granting the use of the
building was intended to permit religious instruction, not within the school
but informally in connection with the school. This explanatory addenda,
however, if it stands, seems to clear up the original ambiguity only too
well.
However, even on the original interpretation I cannot say that I see
anything desirable. It is not at all a question in any respect of opposition
to the Administration. Some have tried to put this interpretation on it.
It is only more confusing and prejudicing. It is not a question of frank
recognition of the very grave problems which the Administration are trying
to solve. It is no more a question of recognizing the propriety of the Ad-
ministration’s purpose to assimilate and consolidate into one people in intelli-
gence and patriotism. It is still less a question of holding an attitude of
sympathy and co-operation towards these things. This may all be taken
for granted as commonplaces among us, if it were not for the fact that some
continually seek to represent it as otherwise. It is not immediately a
doubt if it will. The immediate question is a single and simple one. Under
the present situation of the number of middle and higher Mission schools
which we have as established schools and so coming under the ten-year pro-
vision of the ordinance; with the present extreme reactionary administra-
tion; with the good prospects of gradual relief during the ten years with
changing times and administration, is it the wiser for us, looking toward
the ultimate solution, to open new schools or to refrain from opening new
schools at this time? The opening of schools is a voluntary acceptance
of the conditions on our part, and destroys any point of vantage for future
efforts. Refraining from opening new schools is our privilege, and keeps
us in a vantage position for future requests and petition as opportunity
opens with changing times, ideas and personnel of administration during
these coming ten years. One may ultimately negotiate much better terms
from an unevacuated position than they may hope to get toward the reoccu-
pation of a position which they have themselves already voluntarily vacated.
In my judgment, there is no question as to the course of wisdom, and the
course will largely determine the ultimate result for the future of the
Church in Korea.
It is not only a mistake, but it is wrong to confuse such a position
with one of opposition to the authorities. Neither has it anything to do
with the authorities' determination to amalgamate. The teaching or non-
teaching of religion in private schools has, in fact, absolutely nothing to do
with these things. Nor has it anything to do with their accomplishment or
non-accomplishment, except in the minds of the extremists who now happen
to occupy office. Those ends would have been accomplished just as well by
broader and more moderate-minded men without this point ever having
been raised at all. They are ends which cannot be accomplished in a day.
*v ° * “'-j "*** oe worxea out oy men wno
are nearer men of the times than those now in office. The elimination of
religious instruction from private schools which these men think necessary
involve positions on their part that are not permanently teneable, in that it
does violent injustice both to the religious and civil rights of private parties
The psychological atmosphere of the entire educated world is too much
one in this day, too closely knit together, for such extreme sporadic cases
doing violence to the whole current of world-thought to long continue Suc-
ceeding administrations will not stand for them.
I count myself a pro-Japanese man in Korean matters. Their coming
in here was no fault of theirs. Their declared purposes of assimilation
are entirely proper and indeed necessary. Their problems of working this
out are difficult and urgent. In the main, the methods they have taken
for the solution command my admiration. The measures they have adopted
for the development and strengthening of the Korean peeople are in the
main sound and praiseworthy. As the purposes of the people of this world
go, their purposes are good. I have always held a position of sympathy and
co-operation toward their work, and have utilized many opportunities to that
end. At the same time, granting all this, this is no reason why I should
be simply plain foolish, and turn over to them for the mere asking anything
they may happen to want, and everything for which I stand and which I
represent here. We stand for something here as well as they, and the two
ar? n?ifc ,®ss4en.tia]Jy mimical. We need only to stand and wait and we will
get all that justly comes to us. Why tear down our house with our own
hands . At the present juncture the course of wisdom, looking toward the
ultimate solution, is to refrain from opening new schools and wait.
« 4_l ^ ^n receipt of a letter from Mr. Komatsu enclosing a copy of his
letter to you. The same came out in the Seoul press a day or two before as
an article. I enclose you a copy. This is the most naked expression of in-
tention that I have seen. You will particularly notice the concluding para-
graph. In view of the fact that the ordinance not only covers common
(elementary) church schools, but all schools of higher grade up to colleges
operated by Mission bodies, it is very significant of the present administra-
tion s reactionary character.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(LII.) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B., DEC. 21, 1915
' December 21, 1915.
My dear Dr. Brown:
I enclose some translations which have come into my possession and
which will be of interest to you. Copies of the originals were sent me
from the Kwang Ju Local Magistrate’s office. I am not sure but that I sent
you* copy of the first. The first should be read and then the last, the
Addenda. From Syen Chyen these two came to me together. I sent
them to Drs. Imbrie and Ibuka for their opinion. They both replied that un-
questionably the instruction was intended in a friendly way, while maintain-
ing the principle of not having religious instruction in the school yet per-
mitting it in connection with the school, and that we should go ahead on the
assumption that we could have chapel and Bible before and after school
hours, and particularly advising that we ask the authorities for no clearer
definition of the instruction.
You will observe that this subsequent correspondence was within a few
days after the first instruction was issued, before the missionaries knew
anything about it, and that the interrogation was in the hands of Mr Usami,
the Director of Department of Domestic Affairs at the time of his interview
With Dr. Speer, or within a few days after. This correspondence has been
sent down to all the Local Magistrates as instruction for their procedure
It would seem evident from this that it is intended that there shall be no
religious exercises or Bible teaching inside or outside the regular school
Work which is intended specifically for the students of the school. At least
hone is to be permitted in the school premises. This is quite in accord
With everything which has been said to me by the various authorities in the
Various interviews I have had with them. Since last spring I have had long
discussions of the matter with Mr. Sekiya, Chief of the Bureau of Education-
Mr. Usami, his superior, the Director of the Department of Domestic
i
Affairs; and Mr. Komatsu, head of the Foreign Affairs Bureau. All have
said that they thought we could do all that was necessary in a religious way
through the Sunday Schools and Churches, and have never suggested or met
any suggestion that went farther than this.
It was thought that when Dr. Speer was here he secured some conces-
sions from Mr. Usami in the way of permission to use the buildings and
teach the students of the school outside of regular school hours, if a clear
line was drawn between the two. But there seems also to be a more or less
unanimous opinion abroad here that in his Seoul conferences with the authori-
ties he rather fell into the hands of the Amalekites, and they did him in the
eye. At any rate, this correspondence effectually destroys our hopes in that
line.
I am more and more convinced that the course pursued so far, including
emphatically your letter to Mr. Komatsu, is the proper course for us to follow.
That, having pointed out the indefensibility of their position, that its extreme
character was not even necessary for their own interests, we should refrain
from opening new schools under the revised ordinance; we should assume that
:he conditions contemplated as being imposed ten years from now were im-
possible for us to meet, and then, confessedly holding that position, we wait
m hope and faith for a change of times. It will come before the ten years
are out. and if it finds us in that position we will probably get what is
properly due us.
I am sending you a copy of the minutes of the last meeting of the
Senate. I speak of this same matter in my report printed there.
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(UIL) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
Taiku, Korea, December 29, 1915.
My dear Dr. Brown:
I enclose herewith a printed copy of the minutes of the meeting of the
Educational Senate, held Oct. 14th. My report of the year, especially that
part relating to the Revised Ordinance for Private Schools and also the
statistical table, will be of interest to you.
After the receipt of the two letters, copies of which I sent you in my
last (the ones passing between Mr. Tachibana, Mr. Yamagata and Mr.
Usami) the Southern Presbyterian Mission at its annual meeting decided
that it would not renew its application for a permit for the Soon Chyen Boys’
Academy, but upon the receipt of an order to that effect would discontinue it.
They so informed the local authorities. That was in the early part of
November. As yet no order for its discontinuance has been received. So
far as I know, the same is true of our Syen Chyen Girls’ School. I presume
that possibly the authorities are a little loath to order a Mission school closed
on the direct issue of religious instruction.
It is recognized here that the question with regard to elementary and
higher schools are on a different basis. The Japanese looks upon the teaching
of patriotism as as much the function of a school as the teaching of the
“Three R’s.” They center upon this particularly in the elementary grades.
For this reason, largely, they make education in these grades compulsory,
and gather it all into Government institutions. Private institutions are prac-
tically eliminated. The reasons that determine this policy in Japan are
manyfold more cogent in Korea. The entire probability, therefore is that
the real purpos'e is to eliminate the elementary church schools. You will
see that Mr. Komatsu in his last letter to you is frank upon this point,
not even differentiating higher schools. I myself think that this is what it
will ultimately come to.
The main objective of our effort must be to secure relief for our higher
schools which are practically all run by Mission money and forces, while
hone goes into the elementary. If they directly forbid private elementary
schools they are within the precedent of their own national system. But
when we get above the compulsory grades the arbitrary unreasonableness of
their position multiplies and increases with a bound; it is contrary to the
current of the whole times in Japan; the whole civilized world can offer
no example of it. Here we have ample ground fdr the exercise of confidence
and faith, in the strength of which we can hold on and wait with patience.
The idea that has been expressed by some that we will secure larger
^deration and concession by going farther than we might properly be
(pected to go is amusing. The Oriental is not built on that plan. One need
"no further than the rickshaw coolie to find it out. They will take all
:.<y can get m the way of securing what they want and with no sense of
'ligation in the taking. “The fact that we are fools enough to give it is no
„json they should be such fools as not to take it. Also the fact that we
,,-e fools is no reason they should be in return. If we cannot look after our
..erests, why should they.”
Courtesy and consideration, accommodation and a willingness to help,
jjpreciation of their problems and sympathy in them, recognition of the
4id work they are doing, cheerful compliance with all they require con-
sent with our essential interests — these will all be recognized, appreciated,
ci in due time have their effect. But when it comes to a question of essen-
interests, to hand them over voluntarily, before we are even required to
j. so; to do so without protest, effort, or waiting to see the outcome; to do
c in the expectation that it will bring us greater consideration; this' is the
zoning of the idealist, not of the man of practical affairs, and will in no
rst draw consideration from such men, particularly of this nationality.
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
LIV.) MINUTES, 1916
Executive Committee Report, Section 26
26. Academy at Chairyung. — We recommend that in reply to the over-
are from the Whanghai Presbytery relative to the establishment of a
fission Academy or Branch Academy at Chairyung we express our in-
iility to accede to the request; first, because of the lack of funds and
ten make it impossible to establish other educational institutions of any
rade at the present time; second, because a branch academy cannot be
■gaily established, except by applying for the same under the new Educa-
lonal Ordinances; and, third, because of the possible effect on other Mission
Questional institutions of the establishment of such an Academy since it
ould have to be under the Educational Ordinance, and we do not approve
' applying for a permit under these ordinances at the present time
Passed.)
|LV.) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
In reply to a letter from Dr. Brown to certain individual members of Ed
a Senate asking their judgment as to the possible Christian character and
jUence of the Seoul College if established with a permit under the Revised
•finance.
..watt, nn Taiku, Korea, October 7, 1916.
A. J. Brown, D.D.,
156 5th Ave., New York City.
*7 dear Dr. Brown:
The papers which I enclose relate to your letter of July 23, 1916 en-
a copy of your letter to Dr. North relative to the adoption of the
rJJ Lollege Ho jin. In this connection, please refer to my letters of
. n 26th and July 26, 1916. The present letter is a personal one On
^receipt of your letter mentioned, assumed that it was sent to me as the
^etary of the Senate of the Educational Federation, and took steps ac-
^mgiy. Subsequently, however, question was raised on this point Your
^munication did not seem to be clear. It was addressed to the Presbyterian
.^sentatives on the Senate, and stated that official Communication would
-'through Dr. North. It said that your letter was for their information,
'J not prefer any definite request for action. Therefore while the
if ? of y°ur letter seemed clear, when some objected that no direct request
- tome to bodies for official action, the statement could not be gainsayed
the object of the letter seemed clear from the Board action quoted
Y enclosure.
1 will relate the development of the matter since my letter of July
u.i91®- I went, carefully over the papers received from Dr. Avison and
,,m™ evident that the information was not sufficiently explicit on several
ijr5 of importance, and that also questions of interpretation might very
« in':ol7<!d- 1 therefore wrote to Dr. Avison again, asking particularly
‘“ether information, and to Mr. Usami, the official head of these matters
< V («
'-1
You will find these in the enclosures. I may say that my letter to Mr.
Usami was written before receiving Dr. Avison’s letter of August 7th, 1916.
The papers were sent around to the members of the Senate and a
special meeting called for the evening before the meeting of the Federal
Council. At this meeting objection was raised by the representatives of the
Southern Methodist Mission that no direct request for official action of the
Senate had come to us from the Board. Your letter did not represent a re-
quest, but explicitly said that official communication would come through
Dr. North. Those who were in favor of the College were opposed to any
action being taken; those who originally were opposed were loath to take
any. So, as there was no direct request, as the hour was late and it would
not be possible to meet again during the Council sessions or immediately
after, as Mr. Usami had not been heard from, it was decided to leave the
matter over until the regular meeting on the 19th of October. Meanwhile
we would hear from Dr. North and Mr. Usami, and perhaps yourself. The
Senate finally agreed to recognize the request as coming from the Presby-
terian representatives on the Senate to whom you had written.
The next morning the Executive Committee of the Federal Council met.
I was the only representative of our Mission on it. I brought the matter
up. After considerable consultation it was decided that it was not a matter
for the Committee to take up. No request had come officially to the Council.
If Presbyterian representatives to whom the letter had come wished to bring
it up on the floor it would be entirely proper. Having done this in the
two bodies, I felt that I had done my full duty, but Dr. Avison, anticipating
action by the Council on the basis of your letter, I suppose, had sent the
same documents to the Council Secretary, who brought it up, and the matter
was referred to a special committee, on which both Dr. Avison and myself
were appointed. In the committee the same position was taken — the proper
way to come before the Council was for some one who had received the
letter to bring it up. I stated what I had done in the Executive Committee,
and frankly said that I had done all I was disposed to do. The letter had
been addressed to other Presbyterian representatives on the College Board
of Managers as well as to me on the Senate. I would not father it in
the committee. Dr. Avison said as frankly that he was opposed to the
Council taking action; that he thought that if the Board wanted information
they should have sought it from the men they had put in charge of the
institution, and that he had written you to that effect. Finally the Committee
reported, and it was adopted by the Council (I quote from memory), that
as regards the communication from the Presbyterian Board which has
come before the Council relative to the Seoul College, the Council is of the
opinion that the judgment of the missionary body can be much better ascer-
tained through the Missions than by the action of their representatives in
the Council.
It was also felt by some, I think, that it was not a function of the
Council to pass upon the character of institutions already established and
being operated by some of its constituent bodies, and that the Council was
already on record as to the general question. The same spirit seemed mani-
fest as appeared in the Senate — an entire disinclination on the part of all
parties to enter into the question. A perusal of the enclosed correspondence
will make some reasons manifest.
The Mission representatives on the Senate, in making their annual
report to the Mission, refer to the matter. It will be found in Section 3 of the
report in the Minutes which have been sent you. As stated therein, I ques-
tion very much if the Senate at its October meeting will consent to give any
definite answer to your question. Nor can it.be blamed. As I stated in the
Senate, and in my letter to Dr. Avison, and as abundently evident in the
enclosed correspondence, “The College question was a past issue. The Col-
lege was established. But the history of the question was such that we could
not go into the question now presented to us and give it such a thorough
investigation as the rendering of a conscientious opinion made necessary
without laying ourselves open to misinterpretation and criticism that would
not be just.” And so long as the properly constituted field authorities of the
institution were strenuously opposed to such investigation, it was not proper
for us to pursue it.
So much for the progress of the matter to date. When the Senate
meets on the 19th inst., if further action is taken I will communicate it to you.
llth, 1915? I presume° there'can teme?t. “P*. Avison1. letter of September
gone very thoroughly in^ tht matter ha" d °"e who.leel3 that hc haa
■umi
bTi't Ch°asef LPrOPOfiti0" ^ a s \ oT ™ee n * of% a rtTc u 1 a r* i n t e re s t ‘to mS
tion It is principally in^ha?
SS& conversations ‘whWSd £th Dr^n in' Se^fV™
letter?
U W°ThiXsUsand the i"diVidUaI jUd8ment 33 t0 which vie™ tatS1 °“
B‘Wear!ra^^
It is true that religious instruction cannot bp given in „n, j
§
The second view is:
»nd schools of theology— some’ pface founder f.°u Blble instltutes
negotiations.) You will remember that in my letter Vjulv ?SqTi5i°i'
£ conjecturing .the grounds of the granting of the department Th’.^
as one hypothesis, and said that it might go through tb‘3
S;,S"T£ ss?
...Nevertheless, it must be carefully kept in mind that th„ .„n, ...
a"1? granting this Semmon Gakko (special schoolfof religLm' a.uth'?Fltle.3-
;“e institution, have rigidly quarantined it off in it. * ™lleious ln3J™ctl°n in
;?P .cd the regulations* on the point of religiois instructionTall^h'7 ^
Partments with the same rigidity they have applied them in fn th6 ,othcr
^ools where this sort of arrangement is impo« hie In five denart ‘"T
r °f 3,Xl *ccordm* t0 th* ordinance, no chajTel exercises can be held ^th
I /Zj.
the students of the institution as such. Five-sixths of the institution, as such,
is as strictly secularized as is the Severence Medical College under its new
Hojin, or the Methodist Pai Chai School. Whatever privileges of religious
instruction the students in other departments are accorded, are accorded
them not as students of the institution but in the capacity of their “outside
the institution personal liberty." The institution in all its parts is established
under the full concession by ourselves, and the full regulation of the Revised
Ordinance on the particular point of the separation of religion from educa-
tion in private Mission schools.
j Two points need to be considered: one is the outworking of the arrange-
ment in the institution itself; the other is its effect upon tne outworking of
the more general question and situation in the country. The latter I consider
so far the more important of the two, that the temporary, or even per-
manent, fate of an individual institution is not to be given great weight
in comparison. This the Southern Presbyterian people believed when they
closed their Soon Chyen Boys’ Academy, and this also our Mission believed
when it closed the Syen Chyen Girls Academy; and these were a question of
existing institutions, not one of voluntarily opening a new institution.
As regards the outworking in the institution, I can prognosticate no
better than another, but I confess I do not see any particular prospects of
accomplishing what I take to be the determining purpose in the establish-
ment of the College. My idea of that purpose is that the Boards proposed
securing larger Christianizing influence in higher education than what the
Board conceived the existing Mission institution gave; reaching out for a
much larger proportion of non-Christian students — bright young minds of the
people — and training them in a thoroughly Christian institution, with thor-
ough Christian instruction. And because this purpose could be best accom-
plished in Seoul, the institution was located there. I do not give so much
weight as some to the mere declaration of the purpose of the College and
the guaranty of Christian instructors. There never was any real question
on either point. Both would have been conserved in actual practice, whether
in the Hojin or not. The real point is, as relates to the purpose of the insti-
tution, that it is strictly forbidden as an institution to formally or statedly
apply any religious pressure as instruction or exercises in five-sixths of its
curriculum, or what will doubtless be far more than five-sixths of its general
student body. What the ordinary student is privileged to get must be en-
tirely outside of his regular institutional work, and sought out by himself.
This is not in a technical institution but in a Mission institution for higher
general education. To me the accomplishment of the purpose of the insti-
tution seems dubious.
As to the result upon the more general question and situation in the
country in its outworking, I believe that here my feet are upon entirely solid
ground. Please go back to my last underlined statement and read it again.
Read the paragraph.
The institution in all its parts is established under the full concession
by ourselves of the particular point of the separation of education from
religion in Mission schools. It matters not that in this particular institu-
tion the incident of its being classified as Semmon Gakko enables it to have
a Department of Theology; the principle is as unquestionably applied here a*
anywhere below and the principle is as unquestionably accepted on the part
of the Boards, Moreover, the official position of the Boards founding the
institution, and the dominating position which it is publicly proposed to give
the institution in relation to the Christian education of the country, leave
us no grounds either for waiting, hoping or trusting during the next nine
years left us. We have hung ourselves with our own hands in the noose
which is offered us, without ever waiting to see whether by ten years of
God’s grace He will give us better things.
This is not simply or primarily a question of this and now. Far above
and beyond any question of a single or immediate institution is the larger
question of the birthright of the FUTURE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN
KOREA to Christian education. It is that question which we hold. No
excuse of pressure is put upon us. The authorities are not constraining us
to establish the college. We do it voluntarily, gratuitously of our own seek-
ing, and as voluntarily accept the conditions for it. For the immediate ac-
complishment of such a single thing shall we sell the possible whole future of
[lie :
4-u 4. b seems to creep into what I write I am
rihSI To MV dT" face- I cannot contemplate such
-T° 3ay *hat ,thls. proposition helps on the solution of the general
E “oVt for all elsVee. °ne * mmd S° fiXed °" the singIe thing that ‘he perspective
. Aftfr the second explanation and conversation which I had with Dr
AJi3ldnd1onn^fi>Ul he aMkedTrme ",hat my Potion would be. I told him that it
would depend upon Mr. Usami s answers to my questions That letter has
"?*, c”?e; and V3. perfectly clear. There has been no budging on the
vital PO>nt. Dr. Avison thinks the College management has done well in
new of the regulations. I agree with him heartily. They have done very
— rr^ : 7- nave aone very
well m view of the regulations. But they have not done well enough bv a long
ways to warrant the institution’s establishment under the new Ordinance.
Indeed, my whole point is this, and it is a point to which I have re-
stro"f'y convinced than ever of its soundness, after carefully
searching through the whole Seoul College proposition. It is impossible to
help the present general situation through negotiating for any new "nstitu
non now. Such negotiations, based as they must be upon the Revised
rri^reCdiffianif0n yifUrthtr c.0mPr0Imse the present situation, only make
|t more difficult— only make it more uncertain of its future outworking
The present Administration has so thoroughly committed itself that it will
not it cannot, alter its position. The only possible course of hope to purlu
'51° T ad?nce 7hich compromise us, keep quiet Z
w,alt: . The drift in Japan toward more liberal things is so strong that no
administration can block it. It will come, and it will come here If we can
content ourselves to refrain from compromising forward steps to occupy
only what we have Which is freely granted us, to stand in faith and wait
*?ue Christian education for the future Church of Christ in the
fe chai SAool. We “ °Ut’ exaCtly as the Methodists so sold It out rn
instance we sell it out for what, to my mind, is no more
?ran ,a “®ss °* pottage. I presume that .you are acquainted with what
the educational proposition really is in the Seoul College I myself was not
I ran across it in my investigations for the Senate. A number of others did
tlso at the time of the Federal Council meeting. As I think that no chances
should be taken on your acquaintance with the facts, I give them
Oriental students cannot carry educational courses quite so fast and
cover the ground so well as western students. It arises from their social
system not being so far advanced to start with. Still the best single basis
of comparison is the number of school years involved. Please compare as
8 Grades • « High , College J-, (jni.
American System j | |
6 Grades S Middle 3 High 3 or 4 Uni.
System in Japan f | |
4 Grades 6 H. C. or M 4 P. Y. College
Mission System in Korea — — — — | | ^
Wt System end Seoul * Grad" I " C' " M , 3 " * 8">“' <=1.
College in Korea 1_ | ^ ^
Hove™6 aufth°rit‘es required the Seoul College to admit graduates from the
wtntiH,?her £omT°P 3chools first year. Prof. Takai the head
wh!m Dr' Avlson says waa the principal gobetween with the
rt«£‘tle5 „the ne,f°‘'ati°nf,. ‘“Id ">e that the^uthorities weTe very
; termined to keep all the College courses down to three years and that
Was only after much negotiation that they were able toget consent to
£ve two of them extended to four years. You can count frC the above
w where this will carry the end of the college course. In two courses it
tours ^ 14 nr°U?h the ordinary preparatory school in America. In four
"arses .t will not carry this far. Students must be taken at the end
i-,' I
of what would be our grades in America and put into the mathematics and
physics and applied chemistry departments. Two-thirds of its courses will
only carry one year higher than some eight Mission Boys’ academies scat-
tered all over the country, including our J. D. Wells Boys’ School in the
same city, and the remaining two courses only two years higher; while its
best courses lack two years of equalling the Pyeng Yang College and all
the rest lack three years. This is the institution as a higher educational
proposition. To secure it we voluntarily accept a charter that concedes the
whole principle of secularization for Mission schools.
That this setting forth of the situation is in its essential points the
position of the Presbyterian Missions of the country also seems clear.
The Southern Presbyterian Mission, at its meeting last summer, after
the Bible Department concession was known, voted to make permanent its
previous participation in the Pyeng Yang College and fully co-operate. The
Canadian Mission at its meeting in the summer, after hearing Dr. Avison’s
presentation of the matter, passed the following:
“That, in view of the possible effect on our Mission schools and the
whole educational situation in Korea, we do not approve of applying at
present for a College charter under the new educational ordinance.”
Our own Mission, having defined its relations to the College last year,
did not feel called upon to take direct action, but its position is made suffi-
ciently clear in Sections 12 and 26 of the Educational Committee’s Report
passed by the Mission and which has already been forwarded you.
I think this completes such presentation of the matter as I have to
give. I trust that in the Board’s consideration and decision of the matter
you may be given very clear guidance from above.
Believe me, with affectionate remembrances,
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(LYI.) 7 LETTER OF A. J. B. TO J. E. A.
_. „ . , December 5, 1916.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D. D.,
Taiku, Chosen (Korea).
My dear Dr. Adams:
"In addition to the former letters from you, which I acknowledged shortly
after their arrival, I have since received your letters of July 29th, October
7th and 23rd, and November 8th and 9th. We also received the copy of your
letter of August 19th to the Senate, with its voluminous enclosures. All of
these letters bear upon one or more phases of the perplexing educational
situation, and I held them until the Board could take up the matter and make
some decision. This would have been done earlier, except that we were very
desirous of having all possible opinions from the missionaries on the field
and, as you and Dr. Avison and Mr. Reiner were the only ones from whom
we had letters on the subject since my letter of last June, we continued to
wait from week to week in the expectation that more would come
I am very much surprised that you and Dr. Avison should have under-
stood my letter of June 25th, “To the Presbyterian Representatives on the
Faculty and Field Board of Managers of the Chosen Christian College and
the Senate of the Educational Foundation,” as intended either for the Senate
or the Federal Council. The letter was not addressed to either one of these
bodies, with which our Board, as such, has no official connection; nor did
the letter state that Dr. North would send “any official notification to these
bodies.” The intention was simply to emphasize the consideration that
my letter was to our Presbyterian missionaries alone and that if any official
word were to go to the Senate or to the Council, it would, of course, come
from Dr. North and not from me.
At the meeting, June 22nd, called to consider the Hojin, I urged that
as the Hojin apparently indicated an effort to make some adjustment with
the authorities regarding the terms on which a mission institution can be
conducted under the new regulations and as it might be considered a prece-
dent in making future adjustments with other mission institutions, the
missionaries on the field ought to be giver, a r. opportunity to express an
opinion as to its adequacy. This was agreed to. The point was made,
however, that a letter of inquiry should not be addressed officially to the
Mission as the Hojin is only for the College, and at the Annual Meeting
> year the Mission asked the Board to deal with “the College independent
the Mission It was therefore suggested that I should address the letter
*‘Tbe Presbyterian Representatives on the Faculty and Field Board of
una£er3j and Senate of the Educational Foundation.” These were
^jcrstood to be Drs. Baird, Moffett, and Messrs. Whittemore and Sharp and
Itself for the Senate, and Drs. Underwood, Sharrocks, Avison and Mr.
iJeT for the Faculty and Field Board of Managers, nine brethren in all,
presenting different parts of the Mission and including some of its most
pjted leaders. As they would, of course, show the letter to others, this
.•hod would offer opportunity for any opinion that they desired to ’send,
;\er collectively or individually as they might prefer.
of the nine thus addressed, six replied; namely, Drs. Avison, Sharrocks,
..jerwood and yourself and Messrs. Miller and Whittemore; five of them
' ,ngly advising the adoption of the Hojin. We decided, however, to wait for
arrival of the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Mission in order
make sure whether the Mission as a whole chose to take any action.
:en they came, they showed no reference to the College Hojin, although,
the Board's action states, my letter calling attention to the fact that the
;ole missionary enterprise in Chosen will be affected by the decision that is
Iihed was in the hands of several members of the Mission, including your
a, and your letters and Mr. Reiner’s show that this was the view of the
ration taken on the field. The Minutes indicate that the Mission acted
ton other aspects of the educational regulations, but that it was silent
sn the specific question now at issue, namely, “whether the proposed Hojin
•the Chosen Christian College affords sufficient relief to warrant adopting
• Some here have laid emphasis upon the fact that the Mission made no
ection to the Hojin when it could have done so if it so desired and that
■11 the missionaries on the field who must have known of this, only two,
: and Mr. Reiner, wrote against the proposal.
This illustrates the difficulty and embarrassment of handling matters
this sort in conformity with the Mission’s action of last year asking "the
ird to make arrangements to operate the College independent of the Mis-
'C These adjustments dovetail into and affect the whole missionary
ration in ways which make it awkward and injurious for the Mission
stand aloof; and if it continues to do so, it simply deprives itself of a
re in matters in which it should have a voice and on which the Board
™ be glad to have it express an opinion. We delayed action on the
r jin for the specific purpose of giving the missionaries such an opportunity,
r we naturally regret that they did not avail themselves of it. Perhaps
^majority will be glad that the Board has taken the action that it did;
: “ they are not, we are sure that they will do the Board the justice
■emember that it desired the judgment of the missionaries, that it sought
judgment both from those on the field and from those on furlough, and
spite of pressure for prompt action, we held up the whole matter for
T® "ve months while waiting for some opinion from the field.
I may add that in order to make sure that the members of the Board
l »' the Executive Council should have all the missionary opinions that
^ accessible, I caused mimeographed copies to be made of all the corre-
joence that arrived after my letter of June 22nd. Most of the letters
c°Pied in full, including yours and Mr. Reiner’s. I also quoted the
ajl's 'Of the Mission on the Severence Medical College Hojin and the pro-
C? Chung Ju Academy. This correspondence was mailed in advance to
^ “ember of the Board so that he might read the original documents for
and be able to form an independent judgment.
yThe enclosed report of the Chosen Committee and the Executive Council
- Presented to the Board at its meeting December 4th, and, after long dis-
, ’n. was adopted. The report itself states the considerations which led
Majority to feel that the Hojin offered substantial concessions which
..rially modified the fears that had been entertained. Please note, how-
this is simply the vote of one Board and that official notification
-calf 0f the Joint Committee of the Boards to the Field Board of Man-
.. ■*>'' come from the Rev. Dr. North, Chairman of the Joint Committee,
ue has received the votes of the other Boards. I am simply sending
> Mr- Reiner this letter unofficially for your information as to what
°ard has done, because you two men are the only missionaries on the
%
fl'l
field who wrote me on the subject, except Dr. Avison, to whom I have sent a
copy of the report with a brief covering letter. /
Sincerely yours,
A. J. BROWN.
Report of the Chosen Committee and the Executive Council Regarding the
Proposed Hojin for the Chosen Christian College.
December 4, 1916
June 19th the Board receeived a copy of a document entitled the Hojin
(Incorporation) which was submitted, through the Joint Committee on
Education of the Boards having work in Chosen, from the Field Board
of Managers of the Chosen Christian College; this document having been
drawn up by the Managers in Seoul, after informal conference with Japanese
officials, for submission' to the Boards at home, with the understanding that,
when approved by the Boards, it would be officially approved by the Japanese
Director of the Bureau on Education. The Board referred the Hojin to a
Committee consisting of the available members of the Board and the Execu-
tive Council. This Committee met June 22nd, ten members of the Board
and all five members of the Executive Council being present. In view of
the fact that the Hojin represents an effort to reach some mutually satisfac-
tory arrangement with the Japanese Government-General regarding the
relation of the regulations on the separation of education and religion to
mission ‘Schools, and the further fact that whatever is arranged for the
College will probably be deemed of significance in the determination of
educational problems affecting other Mission institutions in Chosen upon the
expiration of the ten-year period of grace given to institutions which were
in existence when the regulations were promulgated, the Committee and the
Council felt that the missionaries had a right to an opportunity to be
heard on this point which had not been under discussion hitherto.
Five months and a half have now elapsed since Secretary A. J. Brown’s
letter to this effect was mailed to the field June 23rd, and during this time
the Annual Meeting of the Mission has been held. Only three missionaries
on the field have been heard from in reply to that letter; but, in response to
requests for the opinions of those on furlough, eleven members of the Mission
now in this country have written, so that we have letters altogether from
fourteen missionaries written after the receipt of Secretary Brown's in-
quiry. These replies show no consensus, but, on the contrary, a wide vari-
ance, of opinion. The Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Mission show
no official action regarding the Hojin of the College, although Secretary
Brown’s letter, calling attention to the fact that “the whole missionary en-
terprise in Chosen will be affected by the decision that is reached’’ was in the
hands of several members of the Mission, including the Rev. Dr. J. E. Adams,
who was elected secretary, and letters from individual missionaries show
that the writers took this view of the question. The Mission by' affirmative
,rote_, specifically approved the Hojin for the Severance Union Medical Col-
lege, whose provisions regarding religious teachings are substantially the
same as those of the Hojin for the Chosen Christian College. The resolution
stated that the Mission considered that “a Medical College stands upon a
somewhat different plane from other mission institutions of higher general
education with regard to religious instruction of the general student body,
and the Mission declined a request for the establishment of an Academy
Chung Ju, “since it would have to be established under the new educational
ordinances, and we do not approve the applying for a new permit under
these ordinances at the present time.” But upon the present question as to
whether the purposed Hojin for the Chosen Christian College affords suffi-
cient relief to warrant adopting it. the Mission expressed no judgment.
As we are now in possession of all the information that we are likely to
get from the missionaries and as we are being pressed for a decision, it
appears desirable that the Board should come to some conclusion without
further delay. The Committee on Chosen and the Executive Council there-
fore met November 14th. Secretary Brown had sent mimeographed copies of
the correspondence in advance to all the members so that each one could read
the original documents for himself before the meeting. Three alternatives
were considered:
m
ithc^n whicPhr0Crd^\h the
•stters of record, so that there could be no doJ? ? .Sh?cUldu be stetad «
’■i acceptance might be given After eon<dri.»M j- to the ba91s on whlch
/.tough not without misf vfngs " tL nart of an™ JSrUS310n 11 was votad-
•»rd the third alternative, and the emSSrti™. TrS rec°mmend to the
„ have in mind may be stated as followaf and mterpretatlon3 ^ich
^to'theToUege^s'yreeTmJ^ the JaPanese authorities to
Sgcticable under present conditions and° whil?1*fU5 freedom as they deem
■i liberty in teaching the ^ Bible and e ^ does..n?t Provide for all
jj^y'aee^rf it ^°proof ^f^U?e Ccord?al readi*’ ^'i^^^^^da.^'we
aanndin?e"Pa°,Sepa°rftaonf
-epresentatives of the missionarv pntprnricf* 3 ju ^.ave been made by the
"well « the ^u'3 faCt in ”ind-
ueto accept the proposed advanced nound in'the ^?riin^?h°Sep’- lt.appaar»
:u offered, rather than to subject all' Concerned i ‘“diy spint ln which
aards that might be involved^ declination^ * the embarrassments and
v,^0ernddatiohnatth0aT wf s'haU "ma^e “Uv W^h 15 -•««.! to the
at Article II, which provides “hat the^ahiJt °4 r.ecord wa
S^lTwJSS p^^thit" “managers
3? thnadt
f e m a hi in gG o ne -third1 o fC such
Z : Chanees fr0m «»• t0 «»• «e'la°terC c^rcumstance^ma^requU-e b*
^ and“that
9 ,Cban- permitti^^^l^tp^S
,M 4
We have pleasure in reporting that the $52,000.00 gold for new property
indicated in Article IV in the Hojin as the share of our Board is more than
covered by the pledges of two gentlemen of $50,000.00 and $25,000.00, re-
spectively, both of these gentlemen having renewed their pledges since
receiving copies of the Hojin.
(LVII ) LETTER OF REV. J. E. ADAMS, CHAIRMAN OF EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE AND CORRESPONDING SECRETARY FOR MISSION,
TO REV. A. J. BROWN, D.D.
Taiku, Chosen, January 13, 1917.
My dear Dr. Brown: , ... . ,
I am in receipt of your favor of the 5th ult., relative to the adoption
of the Hojin for the Seoul College. I do not know that I have anything to
say on the particular subject. When a thing is done, it is done There is
nothing to do but face forward. I will only say that I think I feel ®on?e'
what like Hannibal after the battle of Metaurus, when the head of Hasdrubal
was laid before him. Gazing upon it he sadly exclaimed : O, Carthage, I see
thy fate.” With the head school of the Northern Methodists the Pai Chai
a secularized school holding its religious work in a separate building off of
the official school premises; with the head school of the Southern Methodists
being forced out along an identical line; with the widely heralded Union
■ College established directly by our own Board and these two and applying
for a permit under the full application of the secularizing sections of the
ordinance, the future of Christian education here is written with sufficient
clearness. No ground is left for us with our other schools, and hiding our
heads in the sand will not stay the storm. Your other educators will begin
to set their course now; for it will be no ten years until they are either con-
There are one or two things in your letter of which I think perhaps I
should speak, as there seems to be some misapprehension with regard
to th1emYour expectatjon 0{ a reply from those to whom you wrote. I
sympathize very thoroughly with what seems to me to be the strain or
dissatisfaction that runs through your letter to ne, and your disposition
to lay the blame of any possible mistake upon them And yet one must
be just. Your letter to Dr. North said that the Board felt it highly inex
pedient and unfair to take final action without securing _ the J“dgment of
the Educational Senate and the Federal Council, and did not ‘ake actiom
Your covering letter had but two sentences in it one to the effect that yo
enclosed for their information your letter of_ that date in behalf of ^
Board to Dr. North; the othe7 that any official information to the bodies
mentioned would come from Dr. North, but it seemed desirable that thes^
should know the position of our Board. No request or intimation ot
desire for a judgment of the subject appears in the cov*"nS „ and
While I think that you cannot very greatly blame the men, I can, ^
I have no excuse to make for them. We talked it over and I “a|ad , £Jtes?
write, after it became clear that the letters were intended as personal on
They, in substance, said that the Board having determined upon the in
tution even though it had to be established outside of the Mission, »
did not fee" responsibility for it; their whole experience m relat on totte
matter did not lead them to think that anything they might y of
be given great weight; and last, and most, they were thoroughly w »ai ,
thegsubject, and had no desire to be parties to it ogain. I a til ^ u ^ ged ^.j
pointing out what it meant to the whole educational work of the ^cou heir
finally they promised to write. I suppose they were unable to unburden ^ ,
minds of their reluctance and put off the matter until it was too
sympathize with you in the matter. Mission
2. Your expectation of some direct action of the Mission. 9;de
The whole question, you know, is one that has a history, on .
of the Mission as well as of the Board. With all due re spec or ^uread-
friend Dr Speer, when he was here he took the position of the f
crat That is the question of the establishment of the C°'4?e it bad
"past one; it was" settled; it was no M V*
been decided and it would remain so ,^"3'st 'yit e™en for consideration,
jin all the committee conferences^ he ,^?ed it^for^ ^ ^ the
SS^c^rJSSS^ B°ard waa -“led to '
„ must request it to do it without nin^n ^T and ^er its head,
■rtctly. This course it decided to take. Pendent of the Mission — and
. enquiry^ d i r" c t ] y° 1 0 the^M.ssmn'on ‘tt B°artd Was ^tant to address
;0t yourself m our place) would not* theQ Mi^sfon 'h han,d’ how much more
nought judgment on the matter. Yet a. matter of °£er an
a, so concerned that in every way open to it ?utsiH e fac}' the ^ls31°"
^.ThV^e f Pdit* SSWS!
alters of ttif^rt^apatt^rom the rlSw SttganSr* °f handlinK
M^o”?herMis*ionld Su^.y^Doctr In vfewT J**' the °™3
ithe whole matter, you would^not lav unoiTttT m th? we 1 know° history
upyonPany\h:s,^^rantsorvr3i^f^03r -
uaimlty1 of "seven ^n^^n"^ &“« ^h a
ublished the institution over the head of th* w?s such that it
d respecting the equal honerty of the con “t ons"^"54 lt3Prote3t-
ally has gone so far as to do this inHpnonSi °ns , lts missionarie3,
usion. It is the Board which mutt bea rtht ^l7 and ?utside of its own
cworkmg. And it is yourself, Doctor I sav It' withP»°n Sjbillty of the Policy’s
j yourself as Secretary of this fipld ^th a d?ference and respect,
! individual responsibility. There is nowhere S&e“ti pfac^t mUSt
0LdirffiyC^La"w1ir™barn?STe^- “ ia
• major question was not, is not wilf neveT he wh ‘ ^ ha 31tuation-
■pnent on the original question. It mav haw fc.?'iTal Wlse ln thcir
u neither. The real point is that as hpL... 6 bi!en el|her; it may have
mization, Christian brethrlnworking ^teth* h°“e BoaTd and lt3 ficld
■ces as they were, for the former to hJtl l ' ?1Ve.n ai‘ the eircum-
-tion of a new undertaking was wronp- r»ni ^orced *ts ideas in a field
4 W>H grow and increase in every line of they.eTr°"g~thei.bitter ““'t of
.institution stands in our midst a coLtan? mi" y^a,r year’ There
ibng of the Mission in field matters The nrlomt™°ria tke Board’s
having written and the Mission nnt Y, be Present instance of these men
4? that may have flowed from it destructive*)!? ",?c^n. aPd the Possible
1 tt this country — the consideration nf th; 6 a Christian educational
;ay It gives more than tha^to me- for h y0U anxi,etyt and waH
e multitudinous increasing disastrous a ®ma^ illustration
th.ing is necessary among good Christian mew of.?uch a course.
{•of spiritual ends in service- that is ejn for the accomplish-
onfidence in common service It is the sin cordlal c°-°perating trust
Trails nothing and loses its value That lacking all
i.hn°g needful; eliminates it by Board dec^fon*"1 r?h ‘Cy ell"llnates the
( Boards than ours have been up against the . 0b3erv5i D°ctor, that
(^ugh they believed their Missions were mistaken Pr°biem Ln Korea’
0 much practical spiritual wisdom to take this coirsl X y haVe
;>Uan officIaT^adty'"^" fe^i^," Way’ with a" — e
lihanmisfortune of a ma” who tries to stand^J^ pnvate and personal.
V5S,1y worth while out of a bad situation th^'t" and work 3<»ncthing
(, ot les« misunderstood by both I trust thlt^3 owl?11pos.ltion mU3t
L,aid aa having any spirit of animosity in it‘ yT°U W'“ taLke nothi"g
® tone of anxiety and dissatisfaction tkL* ^ lfc’ ^ sympathize wholly
.4 me. It is with a sad heart that"l ‘writ^mvself ^ ^Ugh ^
4>ty H,-th* ‘L”6 ,of feeline. when we may have^aafd .IJ!?Ijd’ Wlth U3
,jly things, has long since past There rernain. nti d done wr°ng
. g.Plr>t as we contemplate the inevitable sniritn ? iy-,a sort of weari-
ng that lies along the future of this policy 1 fa‘ ure and damage
However, it is made, and being made we will face forward. There is
■till much work to be done and we are brethren.
Believe me, affectionately,
Your fellow Servant,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(LY1II.) LETTER OF A. J. B. TO J. E. A.
January 15, 1917.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D.D.,
Taiku, Chosen (Korea).
My dear Dr. Adams:
I have not written to the Mission about the action of the Board on the
Chosen Christian College at Seoul, in view of the fact that at the annual
meeting in 1915 the Mission asked the Board to deal with the College inde-
pendently of the Mission and in view also of the fact that it made no
reference to the Hojin in the minutes of its last annual meeting, and thus
strengthened the impression that it prefers to have the College question
handled without relation to the Mission. And yet, as I stated in a recent
letter to you, the interests of the College so dovetail into and affect the
general missionary situation in Chosen that it is difficult if not impossible to
deal with it as a separate matter, and the attempt to do so will be injurious to
the Mission and its work, depriving the Mission of a voice in matters which
concern it and in which it ought to be heard. Now that the College is
to go on and the Hojin has been approved, subject to the explanations and
interpretations that were stated in the Board’s action, the question arises
as to what course should be pursued by those who are troubled about the
matter. You will recall my letter of December 5th to you, copies of which
were sent to Mr. Reiner and Dr. Avison as the other men on the field whose
letters on the subject were received before the Board acted. I now write a
supplementary letter, not officially as a Secretary but only individually, to
make some explanations which I wish most heartily that I could make orally
in a personal conference. I would like to sit down with the missionaries on
the field and talk the matter over at length. But as I cannot do that, I must
write, although I keenly feel the difficulty of conveying just the right inten-
tion in typewritten statements which must be read ten thousand miles
away. I feel this all the more anxiously because my letter of June 23rd,
which I thought was so carefully phrased as to be perfectly intelligible,
appears to have been misunderstood by the Presbyterian members of the
Educational Senate and the Field Board of Managers to whom it was
addressed.
I sent you a copy of the Board’s action with my letter of December 5th.
I now wish to indicate the considerations which influenced the majority to
vote for it. The substance of these considerations is given in the action, but
I will emphasize some of these points and add one or two others.
First: We have been trying for more than a year and a half to co-
operate with the missionaries in the effort to persuade the authorities to
make essential modifications in the regulations which require the separation
of education and religion in mission schools, and you will doubtless recall my
letter of June 16th, 1915, to Mr Komatsu which you and many others on
the field warmly approved. Now it so happened that the effort to secure some
modification of these regulations that will enable us to continue our work
centered in the Hojin of the Seoul College. This was not so much of design as
of chronological coincidence. It appears clear that the Japanese officials
so regarded the negotiations for the Hojin and that they considered its
final form as their answer to the protests and representations that we so
urgently made. Although some here feel that the answer does not go far
enough to be satisfactory, it is evident that the Japanese feel that they have
made large concessions. The majority of the Board’s members and officers
believe that these concessions are so substantial and are offered in such a
spirit that it would be highly unwise to reject them and run the risk of
having the law enforced in such a way at the close of the ten-year period of
grace as to shut us up to the alternative of complying with a strict observance
of it or closing our schools, as we had to in the case of the Girls’ School at
Syen Chyun.
Second: The Board was influenced by the reports of the considerable
number of recent visitors to Chosen of conversations with Mr. Komatsu
nnd other high Japanese authorities in Seoul, which appeared to indicate that
ie °f, 'bese officials is more friendly to missionary work
.jan the cold text of the published regulations might suggest, that if the
Jjards would not press the matter in such a way as to put the Japanese on
11 P.0SS1Mle for,tbem yield without losing face,
w°ud have little, if any, trouble, and that the larger and wider interests
J tbe. cau?e of , Cbn5t in Chosen urgently call for the College in Seoul
can imagine what some of you will think about this, but you will under^
cand how natural it was that members of the Board should be influenced
.j- such reports.
Third: We must take into consideration the fact that the missionary
■terests no longer present a united front on the question. The authorities
l ?rd “fl?e"tiaI number of missionaries in
Tiosen, including the bulk of the Methodist missionaries led by Bishop
lams and some of the prominent members of our own Mission, are opposed
.making further protest; and the Japanese also know that certain members
ud officers of the Mission Boards at home take the same position Our
asks have, therefore, been hopelessly broken. In such circumstances it is
yile to expect that we can get any more now than the Hojin offers and
cere is fear that, if we reject it, we may get less.
.i Ja.pa?ese a5e in absolute and permanent control of Chosen,
ill the conditions of the modern world point to an era of stricter national
npemsion not only m Chosen but everywhere else. We are having trouble
rth !t m several other fields. The European War has revived a waning
pint of nationalism and we must reckon upon its power for many years
3 c°me. Now the question is: Can we work under this national spirit
specially in a country like Chosen where military and political conditions
■eider the Government extremely sensitive and where strictness is deemed
operative as a national policy.
Fifth: A further grave consideration is that the Japanese suspect the
ryalty ox a large part of the American missionary body in Chosen and
this unsympathetic element is believed to be the one which favors the
veng Yang College and opposes the Seoul College. You and I have dis-
nsed this question before. I think I understand the Mission's views; but
L t He 5°ald lette£ of February 7, 1916, the question now is not
I much what we think as what the Japanese think. They do not like the
■“ of having the children of their subjects educated by foreigners- but if
?rei° br s? educated- they want the foreigners to be those of
ose attitude they feel most sure. If the Mission interests are going to
5. Ker ?ducat><“al institution at all the Japanese would far rather
•1 ’'“Seoul, and they mil probably do for a mission college there what
-ey might not do for one in Pyeng Yang.
Sixth: The Board feels that it is a great thing to have gained the
OTernment s official recognition of the principle that a Mission institution
_»st be manned and controlled exclusively by Christians who believe in the
wtrines and principles of the Bible and that no one else shall be permitted
ln ’* or..t? ^ ln.,lta board °f management. This is deemed an
rmous gain. It is true that nobody has proposed to put in anti-Christian
pagers or professors; but it is also true that in some mission institutions
non -Christian teachers and that there would be danger that in a
artf7 Cbfe"whel:e,tbe Government regards education as a state
potion, the authorities might at any time insist that a professor in a certain
wrtment was not satisfactory and should be replaced by a more satisfac
.7 men, when perhaps a suitably qualified Christian could not be found
' , ?° s“fu thing to have the permanent principle imbedded in the bedrock
, legal document that non-Christians can have no voice whatever in this
^aion college.
Seventh: Another consideration which had large influence was the
-'“er memory of Dr Underwood’s recent illness and death Everyone
tbat ,the Seoul College was the object of his toils and longings ^nd
rers during the later years of his life; that he was its projector its
V?eJ a.nd lt.3 first Pfeaident; that he secured the $75,000 gold for' the ■
.^rtenan share of the property and that he literally wore himself out
'.r xratter,cd ,hls bc,alth ln tryine t0 carry the project through His death
>;e New York and his funeral in the city made a profound impression- and
■on tl- ftmlly Pa?tor- “ tbe discussion of the Hojin in the Board dwelt
0 this phase of the subject you will readily understand how difficult onno
■ition became.
Those who did oppose were frank and earnest; but the atmos-
. Li- .^^,..0 i must add, in justice to Mr. John
phere was not favorable to their views. I must add, injustice wmr.joiin
Underwood, who was present, that from the beginning he had never taken
" • • mbershiD in the Board to influence this matter in the
unaerwoou, wuu v*aa
advantage of his membership in the Board to influence inis >n rne
slightest degree. He keenly felt the delicacy of his position. Sometimes he
absented himself fTom the meetings of the Chosen Committee when the
question was to be considered. When he was present, he almost invanab y
2at fa silence, as he also sat in the sessions of the Board, taking no part in
the discussion except when some question was addressed particularly to him;
and ha ovnrp.sed no small vexation when his name was mentioned as one
and he' expressed no smail vexation' when his name was mentionea as one
of those who might financially support the college, insisting that he wanted
question decided on its merits wholly apart from any personal relation-
•hip to himself or his possible gifts. . . . . .
Eighth: The argument was used, as I intimated in my former letter to
yon, that the Mission made no protest against the adoption of the Hojm
although it was given ample opportunity to do so, the Board having waited
a lone time in order to afford it opportunity to express any judgment that
ft cared To lend. Nor did the letters of the individual missionaries who
were heard from indicate any clear consensus of opinion, nearly one-half
favoring the Hojin. The point was made, too, that the Mission had approved
the°Hojfa of the Severance Medical College, which covered substantially the
same ground It is true that the Mission stated that a medical college is
faT different category; but it did not object to the Hojin for the college, and
it was argued that the two cases were not so essentially different after all
asTur object in conducting a medical college is to provide Christian physi-
cians andJ therefore reasons for having religion m it iffer onW m degree
j :n irirari There were some here who favored the establishment of
the college fa Seoul, who did not believe that the absence of Mission action
SSS si s
s tt ffiass mee ,ng a year;
Yon may say that I am piling up ex parte arguments in support of
*ou ocficvn Franklv I am And yet I would not have you think
fhft action should not be taken until the Missionaries on the field had been
fafen an opportunity to express their mind; but I intimated that if. aft «
fuch opportunity had been afforde then . they did not obrtl^
acouiesce. I was given my way in the matter and in sfaiti^i p ths
after
would
the lenethv letters of objection from yourself, Mr. Seiner iM
and a 1
the arguments and a fifth wrote to the same effect. cause of Christ
Riit the odds were too great. The conviction that the causeoi the
to liveT^ter'theT^y^aTpTriod1" of unies^iTwhfalv Eliminates relfaiofa
cate under the Japanese rule o . that the refusal of th
negotiations which preceded it and in vie
% ipTjeVpTrdffetT refaTmT^fh'I^TnT0"0^5^3 in a friend,y
to stand aloof in opposition to it • the stro l anyway and ‘hat we ought
...for Seoul and its Hojin by practieallf In ,lS r(ec°mmendation of a Col-
.-erica who have visited Chosen durin^the last fifTTTfr0* Mlss,0n3 from
i lion which had great and which was refafoTced bv tiff .a.cons!nsus of
I: missionaries; the persistent and widf-soTfadim^r ? u°f Po0mi'
fcs does not offer the most favorable aTsfaces foTthTr n510" lhaf Pyen£
.terfully influence Korean thought and life for thnn»C 11 wh‘ch should
If over the death of the honored and belovfd n n,eTW/ra m Chosen; the
his death was hastened by his efforts to estahhahTh Tn0i?d: the beIlef
respect for his memory forbade killing ff tff f.fr the, Coi'ege and that
share of property and^uipment frTm Those who fofed^Dr'0!? §°‘d f°5
;ese and other considerations made a combinatfaf If e* D - Underwood
.rcome, place yourselves in imagination in the positioT ° / a,fmidab ‘o be
. Board, and you will understand how natural it wal far th! >S °f
i. that, although the Hojin did not give all that Thevwnfia i^ J t,y \°
icgh there were grounds for misgivings, nevertheless aDDrovai1^ ant!i &} ’
4he most practicable thing to do in view of all thf -frPP . seemed to
fad now word comes from Dr North ThairTln ff tl T^?^65- .
see Boards having work in Chosen that the four nthT p16 Committee
fcs and Canada have approved t'he Ho in TftWalTn3 in ‘he United
i'f h America are in line; although br other reason Tnt or T a°ardf
,:heir way clear to pledge definite financial support It Present "
Since therefore the College in Seoul ic n present.
Ht and most deliberate consideration is It not wT^fnTTi? after thj
liras srib
1: Grant too that some ot tC consfaerattons are' rlllT grlUnd if we
iuestion whether the interests of the IITse of ChrisT rTaf tra"e0“S t0
ie in Seoul under present conditions- nevertheless"^ thl really require a
« exist and the majority of the BoaTd feeTthf ff 1 h 6 ex‘rfneoua *n-
out of sight-since things have Turned Tut in th s wkTfaTof t0nIe?Ve
instian acquiescence better than a continued nftL y’ n,°‘ a pollcy
•/ perpetuate strife and grievously ' injure^ the ^ Ca^sTTf rhrttT0 "i?
t»t.on, why not try to make it as helpful as XlVZ t‘h°e mt
k am sending copies of this letter to Mr. Reiner and fir Aula- *
» th*4 1 sen‘ then? c.°P'ea of my letter of DecembeTTth tiTvoiT*
J’ , ‘ they are the missionaries on the field who wrote to'VfmL
bard^Tfa°d3eMya thought0 fa'' SvrP fr°m Wh°m 1 *>a«d shortl/Tfle?
l Th„hehradbeIieVed th3t the Hojin Tfofld be^dopte7afdCwhJ To^1^
'•T wfT rfrTirthTTfr'c7nfftateeTed aCqU'eS— ‘he
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J. BROWN.
J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
I J. Brown, D. D. Taiku, Chosen, (Korea) March 19, 1917.
■ _ Ave., New York City.
^ Dr. Brown:
JJe been lon/ siace in receipt of your letter of January 15 1917 and
rs„ your Pardon for not having given an early renlv r jl ar1j
|lB*f «* a ’aok of considerationf but becalsTThave thought tlTif
}. much consideration, and I have been somewhat at 6 ‘"oosht that it
<n
i ^
the Board in its purpose there, yet set these forth with a view to the ques-
tion whether with the situation so determined it was not the proper course
for these who had been opposed to the establishment of the institution, to
now exercise what you term “Christian acquiescence” and unite in the opera-
tion of the institution. Such a proposition of course calls for serious and
careful consideration.
Probably my letter of January 13, 1917, which you would have received
later, led you to think that I would not be inclined to consider such a propo-
sition. I am however quite willing to consider anything. The suggestion
you make however, while no subject for criticism in a private and personal
letter, seems to me a quite improper one to emanate from the Board to the
Mission, in view of the historical working out of the problem. There was
a distinct agreement between the Board and the Mission as to the basis on
which the institution was to be founded if the Board insisted on founding it.
On this basis the Mission ceased its objections, and the Board saw fit to go
ahead. Now tnat it is an accomplished fact, and accomplished in a way that
has put a knife into the heart of Christian education for the future Church
°* "ir's*: the land, to apply pressure for “Christian acquiesence” would
not be a proper course to pursue. If problems and difficulties and manifest in-
juries thicken, they raise but one question, which is, whether you have not
adopted a mistaken course and should correct it.
• ,trust. that you will believe Doctor, that I appreciate and sympathize
with the thickening difficulties of your position as Secretary of the Board for
this field in this matter. As I said in my former letter it is not a possible
situation. I doubt not that as you look into the future of it you are anxious
and troubled. What responsible servant of Christ would not be! You will
forgive my saying, as this also is a private letter, that for the last year or
more my own interpretation of your letters has been, that personally you
would have been relieved to have been able to find grounds for withdrawing
entirely from it. Your love for your fellow laborers on the field; your recog-
nition of their moral if not legal rights in field questions; your appreciation
that the Lord’s work is done “not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit”;
your increasing realization of the difficulties and even disasters besetting
the path proposed, doubtless have all combined in leading you to this posi-
tion. But as you say in your letter. “The odds were too great.”
The reasons you set forth for the Board’s action have been of especial
interest to me and have strongly confirmed me in a position which I have
been approaching for some time. Some as you say are “ex parte”, but all
have some application to the matter in hand. You will note, however, that
almost all carry their weight or hold their argument, in some supposed con-
dition or hypothetical possibility on the field. Who may in reason be sup-
posed to be best acquainted with field conditions and possibilities ? Members
of the Board, passing travelers of a day, or the men who have been up against
these conditions and parties, in intimate contact with the parties from the
beginning? Now at least eight-tenths of your Mission, carrying a half of
all the work there is in the country, and with two-thirds of all the older
missionaries on the field, will laugh at those reasons. They know that they
are not true they do not exist — their only value is in home consumption,
borne of them are such what shall I say— I do not wish to offend- I do not
wish to be disrespectful; I know you do not give them as your own— but
many of them are such piffle, that the most ardent advocate of the institu-
tion has never ventured to produce them for inspection here on the field.
This simply brings me to what is the real object of my letter. The
College question is a settled one. No one purposes to revive it. In itself
it has never been more than a local question. I may also say frankly that I
do not think that the Board has exceeded in any way the authority dele-
gated it by the Assembly for the conduct of its foreign missions. Indeed it
would be difficult for the Board to do this for the simple reason that it has
delegated to it all the authority this side the horizon, and has been made cor-
respondingly responsible. Authority must go with responsibility and when
questions arise responsibility must decide. The fault is not with the Board
but the system. It is an outgrown system.
Since the time when the Assembly appointed the Board and charged it
with the duty of organizing and superintending the word of disseminating
the Gospel in unevangelized lands, so far as I am aware no further definition
or differentiation of authoritv has hpon mprJp t* i - r
W'' «. / 13*
#fls then placed exclusively in the hands of the Board. The field missions
u operating organizations carrying responsibility and therefore to be en-
dued with corresponding authority, hold no recognized place in the organ-
Ued operations of the Church and Assembly. They are simply the creatures
Lf the Board. It is, let us say, a benevolent imperialism; benevolent, or at
[east with the best intentions of being so, but imperialistic, if for what it
Lnsiders sufficient reasons it wishes to be, down to the most minute detail of
reld operation.
I This was probably necessary and proper in earlier days; but it is out-
urown. The field work has grown to too large dimensions; it has become
differentiated and complex; it differs in every Mission; the native peoples
assuming their place in the family of nations and an intimate acquaint-
ance with their social life and psychology is more necessary to wise operation
than ever before; the Missions themselves have grown to be large well organ-
^ed bodies of experienced workers; they are trusted with the expenditure
Uf millions of dollars a year; more over as the operating field organizations
cf the home church, established by the General Assembly, including hundreds
tf its presbyters they have moral and spiritual rights in the determining
„f their field policies and the molding of the product which is the fruit of
their life’s labor. On the other hand all men are finite. Even those with
the best of intentions and to whom the highest honor is to be accorded, par-
ticularly is this true in judging a matter with which one has little or no
Sersonal acquaintance. It is no disrespect to say that this is true even of
3oard members, Board secretaries, and passing visitors of renown. The
perils of the present system, increasing with the growth and complexity of
:he work, are not only the perils but the certainties of an absentee imperial-
sm. And lastly we are Presbyterians; born, bred, and broken to harness
n a system of representative democracy expressing itself in graded courts
nth responsibilities and authority, and writh their rights correspondingly
iistributed. As Presbyterians we believe that wisdom in initial jurisdiction
s in the main best conserved by locating such jurisdiction in the superior
xxly most immediately concerned; and that it is this body that in general
m the strongest claim to divine guidance for wise decision in such matters.
The average Mission has a larger permanent voting body in it, all carefully
selected by the Board when commissioned, than the average Presbytery in
:he home church, and its membership is far more permanent. Four per cent
)f all the Presbyters of the home church are in its Foreign Missions, yet
he present arrangement provides no place of recognition of their service in
he organization of the great purpose of the Church save that of simple
employees.
As I said this is no criticism of the Board. It is the criticism of an out-
worn system which I trust the Board will help in seeking to rectify. Time
brought changes until a grave injustice is being done to a large body of
he Assembly’s agents and the church’s Presbyters, and it constitutes a
rrave peril to the great work that is the Church’s highest honor.
At this time when the whole question on the chapter of Missions is be-
fore the Church being remodeled, it is eminently proper that this question
*bo should be considered. The relation of Missions in the home land to the
^mediate controlling body is a minor consideration because of the fact that
* works within that body's boundaries, in a commonly known condition,
*ith immediate superintendence, and is itself usually without organization
composed of but few individuals. The relation of foreign Missions as
dually organized to its governing body in the homeland is a matter with
*aeh markedly distinct features as to raise the question whether it should
be embodied in the legal definitions of the church. As Presbyters of the
Jttrch I think we are not going beyond our proper functions in seeking a
^cussion and consideration of the matter by such proper means and chan-
ts as may be to us. Believe me,
Yours in the Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
T-X) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
Taiku, Chosen, April 16, 1917.
A. J. Brown, D. D.
5th Ave., New York City.
Dear Dr. Brown:
Your favor of March 7th, came to hand some time ago. As we have both
not infrequently said, it is very difficult to put a thing onto paper, send it half
way round the world, and have the other party take off just exactly what we
intended should be put on. It is easy to say things without offense or mis-
interpretation, that are very difficult to write without both. So I trust that
whatever I have written you will try to interpret in the light of the very
real respect and affection which the long years of our fellowship in the
aervice has given me for yourself. My own letter of March 19 which you
have doubtless since received, will, I think, help you somewhat in this line.
I beg that you will not for an instant question it.
I do not doubt that all you say with regard to the difficulties of the
situation are true, and doubtless you could have said much more. I also do
not doubt that what you say with regard to positions and statements from
the field is true. Some men make unfortunate statements most of the time
and most men make them some of the time. That is to be expected and it
is not peculiar to the foreign field, nor can wise' policies be built on such
alienations. In justice, however, it should be put over against this that
these statements were stirred to life by a course which the Board inaugurated,
and a priori probability would lead an impartial investigator to look for the
root of the whole difficulty quite as much in the cause as in the effect. My
own belief is, speaking in the large, that that is where it lies.
The theory on which Mission administration has run in our work has
always been recognized as one — all ultimate authority resting with the Board.
In practical operation, however, this has not been the case. But for some
years now it has been recognized by the older missionaries in most of our
fields — at least I can speak for many in the China Missions, the Japan Mis-
sion, and our own — that there has been a well marked tendency toward con-
centrating the exercise of authority in the Home Board. It covers the whole
of field policies and field operations. If for reasons which appear sufficient
to the Board its judgment is otherwise, it does not recognize the propriety
of the field being determinative in such matters. A year ago last Summer
I took my vacation in Karia Zawa. In conversation with a member of our
Mission there, I happened to mention the petition for a definition of relations
which the Korea Mission had proposed to present to the Board. He inquired
earnestly with regard to it, and then said, “How I wish you had mentioned
it before our Annual Meeting. Our Mission would have been one with you
on it.”
Last year I happened to fall in accidentally for a half day’s travel with
an old and prominent member of one of our China Missions who was passing
through. He raised the question of the difficulties the Korea Mission has
been having along this line; then himself spoke of the tendency I have
mentioned, and said that they had recognized it in theit China work and
its recognition was one of the strong underlying causes of the formation
|Of the China Council.
If I were asked to put my finger on the root of the present difficulty I
should say, that whereas with the growth of the field work in extent and
complexity, and with an increase of the workers in numbers, experience and
organization, the natural and proper sequence would be an increased com-
mitting of responsibility and authority to. the field, the actual sequence with
the passage of time has been the exact opposite. If I were asked the under-
lying cause I would say that it was a well meant misapplication of the modem
movement toward union. Dr. Goucher in his address before the Conference
for the Promotion of Unity in Foreign Missions voiced it well. He said,
“No great manufacturing, commercial or financial institution would commit
the determining of its policies to its various departments. No general would
expect a successful campaign if he left its planning to his separate corps of
commanders. An organism with more than one head is abnormal, and with-
out a head it is a fit subject for burial.” True! But who is the head of this
Business? A Board? Evidently he counts Christ out of the reckoning.
Christ is an autocrat. But He will give no such place to any amon£ his people
or in His service. He reserves that to Himself alone, and primarily operates
direct with those whom He calls and places. It is the recognition of this that
is the glory and abiding power of Presbyterianism.
I Speaking with full recognition of the concessions and modifications of
the principle necessary in order to efficient organization, it is this which the
concentration mentioned violates. And with the increasing comnlevities of
i Mo
(if*
i3f.becfi0n?!ng an impossibility. It is ceasing to be a ques-
:(D »,ton > orSan'zat>°n is willing to stand it and becoming
. qaeston as to whether it can. For you will readily acknowledge that the
oreign missionary is not simply a Board employee. That is but a minor
ispec : of hi. I calling He believes whether rightly or wrongly, that Christ
ills him and places him and that primarily he works under his orders di-
arJaeai,VeCOgmZ^, nece3sary concessions for necessary organiza-
^ mUSt 50ll“T Hls orders as it is given him to understand
J ^ ^°re u1?er tha Process mentioned of the concentration of
J re?' “ th ly m 3 -^dy ?n Jhe Slde °f the world the acquaintance
> whose members with actual conditions is almost wholly a matter of
.jrsay (I beg you will not take offense at the expression) there may easily
me a tune when the field body can go no further. Loyalty to cList at
lose call they have come; loyalty to His service, as it is given them to see
3°ewJ°r wh“%they have alzeady given their lives, their ambitions and
'possible ’ dlr6Ct personal resP°nsibility to Him all alike made it
A large experienced field body with practical unanimity, judge a cer-
* n<7 proposition, vitally affecting the whole field service, to not be for the
6 he fiMd . nt Meirf y ■ lhe h“me body goes ahead and inaugurates it
: the field outside of and independent of the field body. The field body
imits. Tune Passes. New conditions arise. The field body goes out of
. way to say that it believes that no such step on the field a^ a certain
seated one should be taken under present conditions. The home bod?
■“» tbe 8tep’ a"d the thing is done-done for all time and for everything
trf°ri,the Yho,le,fut3re °f Christ’s Church in the country What
. the field workers to do ? To whom and to what degree are they reborn
jile for the Lord’s work in that field? It is not a question of wh”he? I
e you or you love me. We do love each other. But I have* a° stewardship
Chnst in this field. Every missionary here has nnH Vwa „Qr,_ f ^
tha ?rd’ «* b°'ds ** t0 Christ afone33’ Some ^ropTrecognb
3 of this must be granted and its exercise conserved. In the nature of
service and our several relations to the Head, the field has the s?me right
lome check upon the Board that the Board has to a check on the fifld
^welfare of the service requires that each should check the judgment of
I‘h“k } may s_?y without the fear of your even wishing to contradict
r ff>u,to° ?re ff|s savant and carrying a stewardship from Him that a
Uem that makes possible such a situation to arise, has somewhere in it
idical defect. The larger the work grows, the mire com^ technical
Sr?f!?g lts Problems, the more certain does it mean continu’ed failure
_ field body cannot consent to it The home body ought not For it re-
1 , * ‘J16 good of ■ ser™e- No consideration of unfortunate alienating
■ements on one side, or (pardon the suggestion) of unwise action on the
■r. should be permitted to stand in the wav Personalities ho,,11 on. the
r a question of adjusting our System So ft VEWta J^?°pfrtS
y^ed have assigned and conserved to them that decree nf 1 Pi5rf
authority which accords with the admitted stewardship of each U i«
I’dinH w^hT/^^oSnetno
1 doubt not that the situation weighs heavilv unon vn„, j v
V bat you say it is important that you be kLI infnrlL ’ . 3Iid h?3rt
I almost hesitate to speak lest my motives for doing33 i?eVij°£’
i’astrued. And indeed I have little^nfoZarion except lha? S°"M bC
i mported statements. But there is no question but tbit 3t«?* ruJaor
t :d dissatisfsction is widespread and deep, 2nd that many 2™ considering
1 lr they can remain in the service. Many are dehat ne thf- a . ?
t San adjustment through agitation in the home church ^ thelr^e?
lx”-, 1 myself have written to a church paper and comm, . ■ -.J
t asbytery. But — when numbers start that those unfortnn^^3!^ Yltb
i 5!ftsi.0f which y°u speak are bound to appear and then th^f ?'!c,lat!?g
Knd tbe d,amage to the service at large Sgh injuring t^ rv.'" ft*
tec in the Board no one can measure. DonhtTe.o 8
141
|8CuMafnd3canebeCdaonebe made' U iS my °Wn hoPe and 1 believe that 'it
Believe me, with most affectionate regards.
Tours in the Blessed Service
a YI1 ,v „ „ _ „ (Signed) JAS. E.’ ADAMS.
(LX1) W. M B. TO HERALD AND PRESBYTER.
New Amendment^^apUr^on^XImsions From the Foreign "
differ1 Ihneopa‘?onTmd'ea^erttoSPkeeaekp S*?
its advocates think it will be. 11 may be dlffere°t from what
one pThLesedofC?he°qnJest1ofnrv1z XT Iargely centerad about only
Presbyteries in America ’ Those Presb^er^Te^ B°ard and tha
rights will be invaded by the Home Board inrf Vi • th thei* ?°.nstltutional
be destroyed if this amendment passes ' Thlv Lp mit‘atlVe will
objection applies with even greater fnrr* Z Vu undoubtedJy right, but the
foreign mission adminisSof Ce t0 the effects of the Plaa upon
Assembly^'li^ents badditionaT^utliorityS to^3 in^tia^te6 direc^a nH -Pe,aeral
Assembly1^ 1914 ^vh?ch ^ag^in^av^that^110 ^ the ^General
£3#
feed thfralmos3tTnyhpr7sb^t°e7y and yef con's*' t* t*** ^"ly ‘organ-’
depending for thei/ bJng on the good Y T**" non™^ies
posed to give the Boards still morf authoritv In' Bn?“ard- Now il is P™'
Boards a constitutional place and function W pJfparm8 Ato Z've to the
pains not to do so at the expense of the riJht the,Gen^al Assembly take
eions and the m ssionaries.eXPenSe the rights and usefuIne« of the mis-
They may claf^no3 votebnorUtvXen0indtrheCtBo0ard tht ?eneraI Assembly,
invitation. Missionaries often question the except .by courtesy or on
iresent working plan. They have reason to f!?? and JUS‘lce even of the
It is at the expense of the missionary's fnnrI°o *Car. t}le.P™Posed one still more.
?* the expense of the widest usefulness a* 7 Chris'"^48 33 v Pres,b/ter' and
that the missionaries modestly but firmlv k0i; riSti?n w°r^er- More than
pent of a successful mission which isTn^the ^ound Sh£ maturad indg-
tions, is undoubtedly worth more than thatnf f£ound, and knows the condi-
experts - situated at half the elobe"s ^le calIed. “mission
firmly believe that the mission exDert s tf* aWay' Tbey modestly but
work. It is not merely a theoreticalPuuestionbnf ?aSi°n t*?e field doing the
dear, and it has often been considered the a,?/ ng jtSu Although rights are
tenair ancestors to stand for them vet 3nd bur.<jen of our Presby-
rights. It is a question of how to achieve th '3 mo?e tl,an a question of
men the missionaries are the most vitallv Sfc grfaIest osefolness. Of all
heir lives, past and future, in tKteinrise Th? n ■ ^ **ve invested
to some extent to their efforts that there it =nTh ‘r a ls at stake- It is due
in their field. To have no voice or onlv a 2“'10n 0r any mission work
of policies which they consider essential T01ce' ln the determination
life's work is asking more of them l I S.UCCess or failu« of their
ordinate Presbyters in any other Dart of th k®d °ij anLequal number of co-
and Presbyteries would not bear * fl h W°r'd'. Tha Home Presbyters
synods and the press would all speak out unt^tht1' Homf, Presbyteries,
(The foreign missionary as such hat tm dirt ,untl- tbey compelled a hearing,
and very little in either homePresbvteriet the.General Assembly,
Unless his Foreign Board represent his sentiment °r m tbe Home press.
”P.Sat,™rarntwhere- Sb“uId ‘he Mission Tiffer f%T!IZ
Let us face the facts. The Foreign Board by this amendment would be
h-d with all power in mission work and the foreign missionary would
\e merely the Board’s hired man, without voice in the management
oncerns which are doubtless more vital to him than to any other human
- The General Assembly by constitution has the power of superin-
i'ng the concerns of the whole church.” This is as it should be because
■ a representative body and all voices are supposed to have a hearing
L But unfortunately the foreign missions and the foreign missionary
•ot represented there directly. Now it is asked by this amendment to g£ve
the powers of the Assembly handling mission work to the Board. I he
-ionary would then be further deprived of his rights and have his op-
>unities of usefulness further curtailed by being placed as a mere em-
;pe under a Board, a body of men in whose deliberations and decisions he
L claim no part and no representation. Shades of Knox and Melville,
•here anything else like it in all Presbyterian history? Three hundred and
-enty-four ministers with their associates (1331 in all at present) reduced
* Presbyters to employees! Episcopacy and Archbishop Laud could ask
nothing better.
Not to speak of other missionaries, the clerical missionaries alone lack
v seventy-seven men of being as many as those who in 1843 formed the
it Free Church of Scotland. Or to use another comparison, the clerical,
isionary force in service on the foreign field is equal to the total number
ministers (with and without charges and including the foreign mission-
ed sent from those states) of the states of Indiana and Kentucky, with
oueh left over to form an extra Presbytery of eight ministers -What .would
. ministers in these states and Presbyteries think of having the initiation,
action and control of their working policies decided for them by a Board
sated in London or in Korea?
Of course I do not intimate that it is the Board’s intention to be de-
jotic. or that the advocates of the measure suppose that the effects will be
strary to Presbyterian precedent. They doubtless hope to add to tneir
5ciency. But they see the matter only from one side. Naturally the Mis-
ms’ interests are seen best by the missionaries themselves, v?"
asion and conference by all persons interested Can bring out the whole
itlv .
My friend Dr. Stevenson in his article, “The Mission Amendment in
■t Presbyterian refers to certain times in the past history of our church
191) when certain Presbyteries or Synods asked the Assembly for leave
the matter of sending missionaries to destitute places within their own
•inds.” But as the editor well replies this was at a time of meekness in
* early days when things were done which would not be practical at this
ae of fuller development. “No Presbytery today would overture the
<neral Assembly to manage its own missionary concerns. Similarly what
is true in the early days of foreign mission work is no longer true and
:« policies then employed have now become palpably unjust. The system
teds to be changed not in the direction of a more rigid oversight but of less
Tersight toward a wise autonomy, especially in those missions which are
ege and capable of conducting the work as well or better than the faraway
^ards One effect of the proposed plan would be to giye to the Home Board
5s same power over the home churches and Presbytenes that the foreign
/jard now exercises over the foreign missions, and it will do for both the tor-
bi and the home Boards what has never been done before, viz., make the ex-
v-iae of this power constitutional. It would leave neither Presbyteries nor
^aions any constitutional ground of complaint. The object is to render
lal and constitutional the powers which the Foreign Board has been ex-
cising and to authorize the Home Board to exercise some of the same
^ds of power the Foreign Board has been tacitly exercising.
It is said “Restlessness under board direction and control is not pe-
’Jiar to the home field. Missions under the Foreign Board when they ap-
'oach the desired stage of self-government begin to petition for the right
• initiation, direction and control in the administration of funds.
“The Foreign Board cannot permit the missions or the missionary Pres-
'Ceries to override its judgment as to what the will of the whole church
Regarding missionary principles and methods, and the right use of benevo-
%
lH3
] Now without any reflection upon the unusually good men who are on the
Boards I affirm without fear of successful contradiction that there are no
men or set of men however good who are capable of being trusted with such
arbitrary power. I also maintain the bureaucratic principle of church govern-
ment is foreign to the Presbyterian system. It is not tolerated in the work
in America and is equally intolerable in the foreign mission propaganda.
No man or set of men, however saintly, can permanently be willing to yield
up, not only their liberties, but the whole direction of their lives and the
policies which direct and make useful their life work to the control of a
Bureau. Missionaries necessarily surrender many things for the supreme
end of being able to preach Jesus Christ to those who know him not. In loy-
alty to the Master they are perhaps as willing as any class of men to suffer
and to surrender rights. But the very loyalty which leads them to be willing
to do so also makes them utterly unwilling to surrender what they regard
as vital principles. More dear to us even than the principles of “no taxation
without representation,” the “parity of the ministry,” and “no episcopacy
in Presbyterianism,” etc., is the liberty to follow conscience in the use of
mission methods. No body of men, half the earth’s distance away, and
dominated perhaps by entirely different theories of mission work, are capable
of dictating what should be done, what policies are best. It is neither good
for them spiritually to have such power nor is it right nor just to the mis-
sionaries that they should have it.
If the General Assembly expects to get the most efficient service out of
its agents on the foreign field it should not use methods which will deprive
them of their self-respect and of their initiative power for offensive service.
A self respecting, efficient, eagerly co-operating field force is just as essential
to the enterprise as a powerful directing center. Self respecting men will
not abide under the proposed conditions. They become intolerable. There
are limits beyond which even missionary loyalty will not drive men. Their
loyalty is to the Master, not to Boards, and should the proposed system go
into effect it could not but result in driving some of the most efficient men
out of the foreign mission work as well as in destroying work already favor-
ably started. Rather than pass the present proposed amendment let some
one propose to give the missions more autonomy 2nd to give them direct
representation in the General Assembly. Of course all right thinking mis-
sionaries cheerfully recognize that in the administrative affairs the Board
must necessarily exercise a certain superintendence over the mission affairs,
especially in the carrying out of policies which have been already settled by
the General Assembly and on which the church has a fixed policy. But the
tendency of the times, and the lessons we learn from history, point not to-
ward autocracy and excessive centralization, but rather in the opposite di-
rection of the more specialized and more efficient co-operation of many autono-
mous units not working under coercion but in hearty partnership. When we
see still further steps taken to place not only the final decisions but even
the initiative of mission work into the Board’s hands, and that without mak-
ing exception in favor of those regions where the missions are sufficiently well
organized to be abundantly capable of deciding their own policies, it is evi-
dent that the system will reduce the missions to be the merest nonentities
and will inaugurate into our church a great bureaucracy for which we have
no precedent nor parallel, and whose effects can not but be essentially dis-
astrous.
(LXII.) APPENDIX LXIV. J. E. A. TO “THE PRESBYTERIAN”
SPRING OF 1917.
A Foreign Missionary’s Point of View, By Rev. James E. Adams, D. D.
Taiku, Korea.
I The widespread discussion in church papers of the proposed revision of
Chapter XVIII has carried greater interest to none than to the church’s for-
eign missionaries working -under the General Assembly. The causes for re-
vision arose in the home church. So the discussion has wholly centered
around conditions obtaining in the home church. The revision proposed, how-
ever, covers all missions, whether of the home or of the foreign field. In
view of this, it seems remarkable to Presbyters in the foreign missions of the
church that the discussion has so confined itself; also both revision and dis-
'+3
hing is provided and nothing said with regard to the missions’ relations
•be controlling bodies. It would seem to be chapter on “Missions” with
jlissions left out.
The reason for this of course is easy to understand. The discussion
inated through a lack of definition betweeen the controlling bodies in
'home land, and the solution of this has occupied the minds of those
;es. The question of a mission’s functions — the definition of its responsi-
iies, authority and rights — in relation to its controlling body, is for the
Jiary mission in the home land, a matter of extremely minor importance,
ijngle mission is not infrequently a single individual. It works within the
jdaries of the controlling body; under conditions of common knowledge;
j immediate superintendence, and where carried on by local bodies the
,jts themselves usually members of the controlling bodies, with full repre-
ution.
In the foreign every condition is the exact opposite. The controlling
1. is a single one, the General Assembly or its home agent. The work
Lt a vast distance, under diverse, complex, and often rather incompre-
ssible conditions. The mission is usually a large, well organized, operat-
tbody, necessarily to a degree administrative, with membership carefully
^-ted, and when once entered involves a life work. As the field work bi-
ases in magnitude and complexity, proper distribution and clarity of defi-
ton, as regards responsibility and authority in field administration be-
res increasingly vital to wise and progressive operation. In a chapter on
tssions” therefore, what is a very minor matter in home missions be-
-es an extremely major one in our great foreign work. So much so that,
relates to the Church’s foreign work, it is Missions with the missions left
1 Since the time when the Assembly organized the Foreign Board, and
rged it with the duty of organizing and superintending the work of dis-
i linating the Gospel in unevangelized lands, so far as I am aware, no
••her definition or differentiation of authority has been made. It has been
where it was then placed, as under the Assembly, exclur.ively in the
ids of the Board. The missions as operating administrative field organi-
tons, carrying responsibility, and therefore to be entrusted with cor-
•aonding authority, hold no defined place in the organized operations of
'■ church as represented in the Assembly. They are simply the creatures
the Board. It is, let us say, a benevolent imperialism; benevolent of
zrse, but imperialistic (if for what it considers sufficient reasons the Board
desires) down to the minutest detail of field operation.
This was probably necessary and proper in earlier days, but it is out-
tin. The field work has grown to too large dimensions. It has become
'erentiated and complex. It is different in every mission. The native
files are taking their place out in the world, and an intimate acquaintance
t their social life and psychology is more necessary to wise administra-
than ever before. The missions themselves have grown to be large well
lized bodies of experienced workers. They are trusted with the expen-
e of millions of dollars a year. Moreover as the operating field organ-
ms of the home church, established by the General Assembly, including
reds of its Presbyters, they have moral and spiritual rights in the de-
aling of their field policies and the molding of the product which is the
age of their lives’ labors.
On the other hand, all men are finite, even those of the best of inten-
'J, and to whom the highest honor is to be accorded. Particularly is this
i- in matters where one has little or no personal acquaintance. It is no
Aspect to say that this is true even of Board 'members, Board Secretaries
Passing visitors of repute. The perils of the present system are not only
' Perils, but the occasional certainties of an absentee imperialism. And
v, as much as our fellow Presbyters in the home church, we are Pres-
■•fians, born, bred, and broken to the harness, in a system of representa-
' democracy expressing itself in graded bodies, each carrying its proper
ority and responsibility, and with those rights definitely conserved. As
V^yterians we believe that wisdom in initial jurisdiction is in the long run
conserved by locating such jurisdiction in the body most immediately
h erned. We believe that in the long run it is this body that has the
I
jail carefully selected before commissioned, than the average Presbytery in
jthe home church. Its membership is far more permanent. Four percent of
jail the Presbyters of our church are laboring in them. Yet the present ar-
rangement provides no recognition, makes no place for their service, in the
jchurche's organization of its “supreme work/' save that of simple employees.
This is in no sense a criticism of the Board. The Board commands
the honor of all who know its work. It is a criticism of an outgTown sys-
tem. Time has brought changes until an injustice is being done to a large
body of the Assembly’s agents and the church’s Presbyters, and the situa-
tion constitutes a very real peril to the great work that is the church’s
highest honor.
At this time when the who:e question of the Chapter on Missions is be-
fore the church for remodeling it is eminently proper that this question also
should be considered. The relation of missions in the home land to the gov-
erning body is indeed a minor consideration, but the relation of a foreign
mission, as usually organized, to its governing body in the home land, is a
matter of such markedly distinct features, as to raise the question as to
whether it should not be embodied in the legal definitions of the church.
If I might be allowed to offer a suggestion I would point out that what
the revision lacks is a separate section dealing with the “Mission.” All other
related bodies have their section, and I would suggest a revising to make that
section read somewhat as follows:
“Missions as ordinarily organized in foreign lands are the agents of
the Assembly for the propagation of the Gospel and the planting of the
Church. They have the supervision of the Assembly’s work within their
bounds, and by the power of review or control are subject to the Assembly or
its authorized agents. They may be represented in the Assembly by a
delegate.”
(LXIII) LETTER OF A. J. B. TO J. E. A.
January 23, 1918.
The Rev. James E. Adams,
Taiku, Chosen.
My Dear Dr. Adams: —
We have been thinking a good deal about the vexed question of the
registration of schools and I thought at first that I would express some of
the forming opinion in Board Letter No. 427 of January 10th communicating
the action of the Board on the appeal of Seoul Station against the action of
the Mission. I concluded, however, that it might be better to write separate-
ly about it in a personal letter so it would not be considered official, but
merely as a friendly individual conference.
You are of course aware that the position of the Mission is substantially
that which I independently took in my letter of June 16th, 1915 to Mr.
Komatsu, which was unanimously approved at the time by the Board. I
pleasantly remember the warmly appreciative words which you and others in
the Mission wrote regarding that letter. I thought then and I still think
that if the missionary interests had stood together on that platform we
might have had some chance of gaining our point. You are also aware how-
ever that it soon developed that the missionary interests could not be held
together. The ranks since have been so hopelessly broken that it is no
longer possible for us to be supported in a consensus of missionary opinion in
further negotiations. The officials know this quite as well as w*e do and
of course they are gratified by what they regard as the approval of so many
missionaries and of influential men in America. It is clear that they will
show all possible favor to the schools that register and that the schools that
do not register will be more and more seriously restricted. You will recall
that Mr. Komatsu frankly said that while the government had given the
existing schools the benefit of a ten year period of grace, it hoped that they
would not take advantage of the full term but would at once begin to make
arrangements to adapt themselves to the regulations. Signs are not want-
ing as some of the missionaries have uncomfortable reason to know, that fa11'
ure to do this is not pleasing to the authorities. A high Japanese official has
asked: “How soon is the Pyeng Yang College going to close?” I couia
cite many evidences of anxiety from the letters that have beeen written m
by the various members of the Mission and a China missionary who had
visited Chosen writes: “It seems a forlorn hope for the church to keep up
CVrlrf^n ce*Vtonlc- tVir*’' am o»rnd nallv hpinrr rlncoH hv thp authorities,”
f9C>
p/esent uncertainty is highly injurious from the viewpoint
;aring better financial support in America. Givers who underlie the
be disposed to put money into our inltitatbns until the
m is settled, especially when they have appeals from other eouallv im
;l,raVrdVnStltUtl0n3 "t036 futuTe is unclouded. It would not be
it0„f3 ”»ney without .telling them of the law and the present
‘ C G£ver?ment toward its enforcement; and if they are told
‘If i/thp n 'thtr dec,“e to Stive at all or to say that they will wait
bow the negotiations will turn out. y y 11 alc
-,e question has arisen whether our other institutions could secure the
^fhe MU,, ""l E1Ven the Hojin of the Ch<>3en Christian College I
haS ?eV/r passed uP°n the question whether the Hojin
‘•wa”lfkeW toaL’™^lllCt07 S th0Ugh *.wrote t0 ‘he field at the time
(thing more than the Chosen Christian College obtained in that Hoiin
ilful While the Hojin is understood to be in harmony wth the law
be based upon the most favorable interpretation for mission-
's,! s cWere ab,e t0 glve' and they gave it in a form that
be revoked so far as the college is concerned. Will they or their
uors interpret the law as favorably seven years hence for a Mission
ands out to the end against their known wishes? “Aye, there’s the
lit not probable that quite as favorable arrangements can now be made
present ^
isp°sed t0 be conciliatory as their successors are likely
mfn!ll!,!mpreSSIOn ‘vhat schools will ultimately have to regis-
lefor T member of the majority specifically said: “Isee
f°r anything but conforming.” If this is reallv thp
*iser for tnd be fa£ed ?ow as later ? one intends to yield at all is
hree/t! !diedv0’S0Ifhoenehd Can acttv°lu"tari>y. rather than to wait until
dligently pi In to accept the*
0 asceutain^whether S.13erwhen il roted at ita last annual mating to
Mrom Newport15 g’ShS.S em,barrass tha Mission by premature
;*e emphasizedthe that
I a® *?e considered an official communication in behalf of the
1 w,;t.and oth,er Missions m Chosen and Japan friendlv visitor.
v ^^P^^ion1^^ ^refuind8^Ty roTnjapanS*enabieesT1 (^hern3^ '*f rC e
to rjeca11 tba »'d -Xing that "the spectator's he beTt
game. I am well aware, however, that the spectator sompHmpq
Sin.r.v asj ?,«
KnnnSCParf Mand Iindi?,idual waV- I am sending "pie, to Mr Reiner V"
"K appear^ U)3 dLX t &
me know how the matter looks from you? tw point? y°“ a0t Iet
Sincerely yours,
(LJIV, , . (Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
(LXIV.) letter of j. e. a. to a. j. b.
Rev. A. J. Brown. D. D. March 15' 1918'
156 5th Ave., New York.
My Dear Dr. Brown: —
hv ,y°Uf -Ietter °,f Januavy 23, 191S, came some days ago and I have laid it
y for occasional re-reading and consideration until I should i,aw ^ ^
clearly defined conclusions tf give in reply!* ‘ You “nil pardon the delay0*”'
and i T37 Ty general conclusions in a few words. I think the tone
and entire drift of your letter a mistaken one, with regard to the situation
here. I have charge of one of the middle schools of the Mission of wh rh
there are but four boys schools in the country. At <L time I had th
to Urgee^*loD,eW them^I one",
*^e Australian
Md u^n^asch^rh0I?idthaC ‘eac,!in? the Bible outs'de of official school hours
UST»?g £cbo° Gildings for it is not contrary to the Ordinance and has
^ en Mr. Koons permission to do so if he wished to conform It as franklv
ntye8rf“iS“-;^UeC s t.ts provin?ial officials, that old schools are not to be
interfered with but to be given their present full privileges until 1925 This
J°j,ever’ 1S n°fc Pe^tted for those schools which conformed when the Ordi-
nance was not so interpreted. They made their own bed. All of mv own
relations in connection with my school with the local and provincial Tuthori-
alfmv0 School aFeeabIe- Thfy do every thing they can for me, come out to
all my school functions, and are most cordial. I have lately had my of-
done forrTieUhUvmthhhnead * aS, 4° c°nfor,m to the Government one, and it was
instnfcHon A hS officials m Seoul, with no question and with religious
Iv Whe.n ‘he Ordinance was first passed all were officially
I wonlTofio they proposeti to do. I sent in a written reply to the effect that
I would change the curriculum to the Government one as quickly as possible,
llw All6 e*ceptio" religious instruction. This I would continue until the
law did not permit it. The reply was acknowledged by Mr. Usami himself.
Last year I had an insurrection in the school My head Japanese teacher
went into the dormitory and beat up a student. I was away at Seoul. The
students struck. The Japanese informed the police that the riot was against
lm because he was a Japanese. The police began to loiter round. I came
nSlliiia5i ?nc? "SJ4 the matter. I discharged the teacher and ex-
?«ied ti1G Stu<1t?t* TJ?e °ther students struck on me. I called them in one by
e and gave them the choice of continuing and obeying rules or leaving.
With one exception they all said they would leave. Then I ordered them out
of the dormitories and home. At that they broke and wanted back. It re-
sulted in about six expulsions. No finer opportunity could have beeen had
for the officials if they had wanted to make trouble. Instead the mayor’s
office sent out word that they had watched the matter closely and were
greatly pleased with the way I had handled it. The troubles in Sensen have
wholly passed and now most cordial relations exist. In Pyeng Yang it was
thought lately that they were persecuting the school and arresting students.
But it was ascertained that an organization really existed and some of the
students were in it, having made a covenant and signed it with their blood to
liberate the country and were paying money for that purpose. Those guilty
were kept and those not in it were released. What else could the police do?
The fault was in the students, not in the Government, and it would have
been the same even though it were a conforming school.
r r
iVS
lem^/ve^madebth^^dilfance* <andVput^all^th^°r ”S «»*™- But
Id^us^But” they^put” it*in which
both here and in the States (doubtless with » d c‘-(aPaigT' bas been
to the effect that this is no the case That thl aT* b-e lef -in the p°-
rU not, follow the letter of the SS “ Vli® Admin>stration is not,
cate against schoo s avaflini themsefv* Y/ft that lt3.purpose i* to dis-’
If this, in the end, such Thools win m.roli Yi”' v'slonsVand ‘hat be-
jiich men do the Administration an ir,Sin=t'y °nty I??"8 ‘hemselves. I
plated to the Seoul institution the In the posi‘i°n also of
, one to smile. You know the ild J 11 30 ,app\rent as to rather
insular office also from the very beeinninl ft,® ?ox wblc.h I?st lts tai1-
, :he conforming side. How very effective^ hSwJ61*4 ai! lts lnfluence to
:ive been is apparent in what v™ ’ however' these representa-
: your letter, and the same if ££ Tf twTf ^ factuS of the situa-
tbe story of the high authority you ouote rfY atu home' 1 have
dectively placed hereK on the field ^lso9 Rnt tv,4 haS been ^epeatedly
,,uite differently to myself with regard' to the ten ylars prSn ^
: its” charter” you P^Zt IZ.TdoZv^T^ by tbe Saoul C°>-
varies on the field most of whom that -thAe Sre.at bulk of the
■je Administration' and the Ordinance dn the matter,
^g secured any particular privileges So far as inst*tution
“n be said. It has guaranteed Christian teachers °"Iy tW°
rer has or ever will arise on that nnint i„ " But no ffues-
•ulable. And when they are not Vha" then ’ Christlan teachers
teacher, and decides whethpr ffioxr ov grants the license
nation thinks are suitable are ^securable wl,7 th” teaChers 4he Ad’
stand vacant? The other i«; 0-™?’ W1 -tb,ey Permit the posi-
lojin'as haring^ been Ttl^a^a^distinctly'and^”^ i Staking rat
toperly could under itf .circumstancel- and with” V ai definite,y
•Its meaning clear. This I exDlainpd W1. • suflicient definiteness
! (Minutes'plg0/ E^3°f ^^^i^eT/the
your letter of inquiry to individual members TfThe ‘feonfon thU
•sphere approaching the proper privilege™ ofTh^' r^° ?.ne/eAards
Purpose, or is not playing fair on ^ ^a™mistration has any
believe'fn The Lord ^feh,ts“
■ -tinue rath’ert ^ ™ lit, « ^to^M
'^hev“me!hUS fr2"kly’ beCaUse ^ was a personal one, as
Yours affectionately,
(Signed) JAS.’ E. ADAMS
4
(LXV) MINUTES 1917 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
Section 18 — Recommend that the Petition to the Board of Foreign Mis-
sions for consideration and clearer definition of Board and Mission Relations
presented to the 1915 annual meeting (page 73) be taken from the table.
Section 19 — Recommend the following as a substitute for the above
referred to Petition:
1. That we request the Board to secure a revision of the Manual so
as to provide that:
Missions as ordinarily organized in foreign lands shall be the agents
of the General Assembly for the propagation of the Gospel and the planting
of the Church: the Missions to have the direction of the Assembly’s work with-
in their bounds; and, by the power of review and control to be subject to its
Board or other authorized agent. The Missions are also to have the right
to appoint Commissioners to the Assembly.
2. That we communicate the above action to the other Mission* of
our Board asking them to unite with us in this request.
(LXVI) LETTER OF A. J. B. TO J. E. A.
August 30, 1917.
The Rev. James E. Adams, D. D.,
637 E. Wisconsin Ave.,
Neenah, Wisconsin.
My Dear Dr. Adams: —
1 have run down to New York for a few days and I find your letter of
the 27th inst. Such a conference as you propose would surely be exceedingly
interesting. The trouble is that my colleagues and most of the members
of the Board whose attendance would be desired are now away on their
vacations and I have no means of knowing whether they could attend a con-
ference at the time you mention, that is, between September 10 and 18. The
only practicable day for me within the dates you mention would be Friday
afternoon, the 14th. A number of vacation absences will expire next week
and I will ask Mr. Scott to take up the matter with my colleagues on their
return and to write you. What is your idea about the traveling expenses that
would be involved? As the missionaries are somewhat scattered this would
be a considerable item. The war conditions are affecting the Board very
seriously and the receipts for the first six months of the fiscal year are only
60 per cent of what they were for the corresponding period of last year.
The Board therefore must be extraordinarily careful about additional ex-
penditures. You will recall moreover that we have already had two con-
ferences with furloughed members of the Mission, which were attended by a
larger number of the Chosen missionaries than would probably be avail-
able now. What reason have you for supposing that a' third conference
would accomplish * anything more than was accomplished by the two con-
ferences already held?
I remain as ever,
Very cordially yours,
(Signed) A. J. BROWN.
(LXVII) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
537 East Wisconsin Ave., Neenah, Wis., Sept. 4, 1917.
Rev. A. J. Brown, D. D.,
156 5th Ave., New York City.
My Dear Dr. Brown: —
Your favor of the 30th ult. is at hand. September 14th as date for
the conference will be entirely convenient for myself, much better than later.
Doubtless Mr. Whittemore will see whoever is in the office and talk the
matter over as I wrote him asking him to do so. I will also write the
other men concerning your letter.
As to the questions raised in your letter. I had not thought of tne
matter of expense. Nothing was said to me about it at the time of the
June conference, and I met my expenses myself at that time. Without any
particular thought I had assumed that I would have to do so this 1
do not think, however, that this need be a very large item, as Mr. Whitte-
more, Mr. Holdcroft, and Mr. Sharpe are all in New York State. And in-
deed I do not question but what if it were necessary they w®«rld be willing t
—oof +}>pir own evnenspc. Dr Baird is at a greater distance. 1/4
% (t
ISO
sccomplish more than the other two. The whole ohiee. ft. *
is to work out some mutually satisfactory ad ustment between
11.33, on m the administration of field affairs. As yet noSg even lento
tive, has been reached. But if there is the desire of both parfi’es it can he
much more greatly facilitated by conference than by correspondence^
A^\ntedthi'rmyh0armerf etter sueSe!iting it would be extremely difficult to
get together a body of men, such as are now here, who are so intimatelv
acquainted with the field side of the difficulty, and so representatwe of
oussmns practically unanimous desires in the matter. e of the
. ‘Tv c°tlierenc«s accomplished two things only.. Thev made
clear that it was the desire of both to arrive at some mutually satisfactorv
adjustment. They also agreed that on this basis it was the L.t
procedure for the mission to first formally make known its desires t he
B°ard’ ftThlS 'S done’ the mission having formulated its desires in
the matter and for the first time the ground is now cleared for a conferenie
of any definite and practical value. lerence
he.r,e the country and holding the official position in the mission
that I do, With the other members of the mission Executive Committee here
and the action of the mission received, it has seemed to me the proper thine-’
to suggest such a conference and the conference itself to be theMtural and
desirable conclusion of informal preliminary action natural and
Missions° requesT.0ldd * *° defimte‘y COna,dtr the' » solved in the
The conference of course, is uncalled for if the Missions request as it *
.lands is entirely acceptable to yourselves in the Board. It will be valuable
change^ Befieve ^ CalUng f°r eXPlanatlon' ^usston^or
Yours in the Blessed Service,
,, VVIII . „„ (Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
(LXVIII.) BOARD LETTER NO. 426
_ . , January 10, 1918
. Re Amendment of the Manual.
To the Chosen Mission.
Dear Friends: —
I write in this separate letter of the action on pages 37-38 of the printed
ainutes of your annual meeting regarding a change in the Manual. This has
“en carefully considered by the Chosen Committee and the Executive Conn!
til, which at the meeting of the Board the 7th instant presented the follow
•eg report, which was unanimously adopted. e iouow
„„ "The Chosen Mission at its last annual meeting took from the table a
"?ade by lta. Executive Committee in 1915 entitled 'Petition to the
Board of Foreign Missions for Consideration and Clearer Definition of Rnard
uid Mission Relations’, and adopted the following substitute- * B d
irnvialft a?qnei5tl^he- B°ard to..3ecu« 3 revision of the Manual so as to
Jrovide that (1) Missions as ordinarily organized in foreign lands shall be
afat? of tfhet.Ge?,e.ral Ass.eumbly for the Propagation of the Gospel and
u of, the Church: the Missions to have the direction of the
Assembly’s work within their bounds; and, by the power of review and com
ol to be subject to its Board or other authorized agent. The Missions are
, 0 to bave. ‘he right to appoint Commissioners to the Assembly (21 That
»e communicate the above action to the other Missions of our Board asking
•QeQi to unite with us in this request. K
“The Rev. Dr. Samuel A. Moffett, Chairman of the Mission’s Executive
f mmittee. wrote October 24th that this action had not been sent to ‘be
-her Missions and that he would ask the Mission to rescind Section 2 and
aie tbe communication to the other Missions to be made by the Board
The Committee and the Executve Council, after careful consideration of
ce proposed amendment to the Manual,- are of the opinion that it is im-
fact'cable for several reasons which can be given in the discussion and ex-
‘ained in a letter to the Mission It may suffice for the Board’s record to
attention to the fact that the Mission’s proposal would make changes in
£ administrative responsibilities of the Board which are incompatible with
(, follows”113 °f the Gencra Assemb*y which, in constituting the Board, voted
'WWm, and by to. own proper
*
Board appointed for that purpose and directly amenable to said A'cemki
A Board to which for the time being, shall be entrusted, with such "
and instructions as may from time to time be given by the General Aq u1"
Clf 8a£®rinten(*ence of t^ie *oreisn missionary operations of the Presbjieri ’
“Manifestly, if these functions were to be abrogated, the Bo-n-a .
not do the work which the General Assembly and the Church require it *COj
If by Commissioners to the Assembly, the Mission means representativ d°‘
the Missions with the payment of expenses from their places of resiHoIes of
the United States and with the privilege of the floor but without th*0? i11
to vote, the Missions can send them now; but if the Mission means p
missioners in the Assembly’s use of the term as voting members the r?m*
posed substitute could not be adopted without an amendment to the for °*
the Government of the Presbyterian Church which would require the affirm0*
tive vote of the General Assembly and ratification by a majority of all t?
two hundred and ninety-one Presbyteries. 1 1X16
“We feel, however, that it would not be wise for the Board to ston at
this point by giving a merely negative answer. We recognize the force of th
contention that the Manual does not sufficiently indicate just what the rela*
tive powers and functions of the Board and the Missions are and that clearer
definition is desirable. While the specific proposal of the Chosen Mission is
impracticable, there is a fundamental question that merits constructive
treatment; and this treatment should include the relations of the Missions to
the churches and governments in the Mission field as well as to the Board
The form of this adjustment should not be influenced by the peculiar locui
conditions in one of the twenty-seven Missions, but it should have reference
to the broad and permanent conditions of modem missionary work as affect-
ing and affected by all of the Missions and fields. It should be given the most
careful thought and special care should be made to secure the mature judg-
ment of representative missionaries from various fields. Moreover, there are
other important matters, particularly those growing out of the great War, on
which the counsel of wise and able missionaries would be of large value/ It
is already apparent that the foreign missionary enterprise must face new
and grave problems after the War and that there should be the most thought-
ful consideration of the whole situation and of the heavily enlarged respon-
sibilities which it will entail. Experience has showed that it is difficult to
secure a satisfactory consensus of missionary opinion by having each Mis-
sion act upon a matter independently. It appears desirable to have some
gathering of missionaries which will be fairly representative of all the Mis-
sions and where conclusions can be reached after mutual conference. Mani-
festly, such a conference cannot be held while the war is in progress; and
manifestly, too, the Missions on the field ought to be given ample advance
opportunity to appoint their representatives.
“The Committee and the Council therefore recommend that all the
Missions be advised that, as soon as world conditions shall permit, the Board
will plan to hold in New York a conference of furloughed missionaries tor
the consideration of questions of vital moment; and that the Missions be
given notice far enough in advance to enable them, in passing upon fur-
loughs for the year in question, to see that their members who will be a
home are those whom the Missions would like to have represent
Mission to recommend to the Board any readjustments in the regular
of furloughs that may be necessary to give effect to this suggestion,
by ante-dating some furloughs or by deferring others.”
You will note that reference is made to a number of reasons ^ieh
“be explained in a letter to the Mission.” This explanation will neces
be somewhat lengthy and will be sent to you a little later as I aaV.L? gnd
heavy mail to get off within the next few weeks and as the Co**1™1*— or5
the Council deemed it expedient that the written statement and the
should be passed upon by the Committee and the Council before main
action, however, that is spread upon the records of the Boards co
main point under present consideration and we are sure that you
most cordially glad to learn of the representative conference which tn
hopes to hold as soon as world conditions shall permit.
Sincerely yours,
ARTHUR J- BROWN-
tXIX) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B.
Taiku, Chosen, December 7, 1917.
jev. A. J. Brown, D. D.,
56 5th Ave., New York City,
tfy Dear Dr. Brown:
In my letter of the 26th ult. concerning the actions of the Executive
^mmittee of the Mission at its meeting of November 7-20 you will remember
$ my saying that there were other matters of which I would write subse-
juently. There are a number of these, as that of the Rev. W. E. Smith,
,chool deficits for the current year, etc., concerning which the data is still
jot sufficiently complete for me to take up. I am now at work upon them
ind will write you from time to time as tI am able to get them in hand and
jresent them. At this time I am writing concerning the adjustment in field
^ministration as between Field and Home Base, of which the three con-
;erences were held in New York last Summer.
You will remember that at the last conference a suggestion was made
:oncerning the drawing up of a Brief or statement on the question, and we
rere requested in view of all that had come out in the conference, to make
j restatement which we thought would better embody the wishes of the Mis-
(ion, and come closer to the ideas of the Board, as given expression at that
ime. This we did before I left and I was requested by the other men to
jring it before the next meeting of the Executive Committee and get action
Irom them upon it. I have only now had time to get copies of the Brief con-
fining the action made, and so forward it to you at once. Will you please
bring it before the Board for its further consideration of the matter.
The action of the Executive Committee on the subject was as follows:
Passed: That Dr. Adams’ brief on the definition of relations between
•he Mission and the Board be endorsed as a whole.
Passed: That the suggestion amendment to the Manual as given in
Article 6, Section C, of the brief be approved.
Passed: That a copy of the brief be sent to each Station.
Passed: That a copy of the Brief be sent to Dr. Brown requesting him
to present it to the Executive Commission of the General Assembly in view
of their having charge of the revision of Chapter XVIII of the Form of
Government, with the suggestion that if they wish further information con-
cerning the same that they can refer to Messrs. Sharpe and Holdcroft on
furlough.
You will remember that at our last conference in New York you made
»ome very strong statements as to what the Mission was attempting to do
just before the meeting of General Assembly last Spring. Indeed you were
so convinced by evidence you had in hand that you stated that you “knew”
that it was an attempt on the part of the Mission to appeal to the Assembly
Pgainst the Board without the Board’s knowledge. Your statement was so
strong that I presume that you are still unconvinced to the contrary. How-
ler the entire action of last Spring was directed not at all towards the
Soard but toward this proposed revision of Chapter XVIII with the pur-
pose of holding it up. For to our minds it clenched the direct point under
-iscussion, and by putting it in the Form of Government, settled it for all
^e. “Superintendence” is a very general term, which may include almost
anything the superintendent wishes to put into it, “Direction,” is explicit
fid inclusive.
While the revision was not passed the various overtures concerning it
*ere referred to the Executive Commission to reconstruct and bring in
^commendations concerning, next year. At least so it was reported to
•be Mission by Mr. Whittemore, our representative to the Assembly last
Te&r. The matter therefore is still not entirely settled, and for this reason
*e wish the Executive Commission informed as to the bearing of the matter
fa the Foreign work, that it may be acquainted with this in formulating any
^commendations to the next Assembly.
The Mission has, of course, direct representation in the Assembly and
^ view of this it did not seem improper to us to communicate directly on
“be matter with the Executive Commission, but, remembering the misunder-
*fanding which arose concerning the second section of the Missions action
5tl this same matter at the last Annual Meeting and your strong beliefs
deeming the character of the actions of last Spring, and being very de-
lirous that no further cause for misunderstandings should arise, I was in-
structed to send the communication to you, with the request that you for-
ward it to the Commission, and at the same time explain to you our reasons
for doing this. Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Holdcroft were mentioned because
both are now in America; and one is the former Chairman and the other a
former member of our Executive Committee; and either of them can well
represent the Missions ideas on the matter. One is our delegate and the
other his alternate to the next General Assembly.
With most cordial regards,
Yours in the Blessed Service,
(Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
Corresponding Sec. and Chairman of Executive Committee
(LXX) BOARD LETTER NO. 436
February 14, 1918.
In Pe Brief from the Executive Committee of the Chosen Mission.
To the Chosen Mission.
Dear Friends: —
After the action of the Board, January 7th, on the request on pp. 37-38 of
the Minutes of your annual meeting, regarding the relations of the Mission
and the Board, as announced in Board Letter No. 426 of January 10th, we
received the Rev. Dr. James E. Adams’ official letter of December 7th with
“A Brief on the Subject of Desirability of an Adjustment Between Home
Base and Field as Relates to Field Administration.” Dr. Adams enclosed an-
other copy of the Brief together with a covering letter addressed to the
Executive Commission of the General Assembly which he requested us to
forward. We have, therefore, sent the latter documents to the Executive
Commission together with a copy of the action of the Board on the report
of its Cl.osen Committee and the Executive Council as follows:
“The Chosen Committee and the Executive Council presented the fol-
lowing report, which was received and the recommendation adopted:
“Since the action of the Board, January 7th in reply to a request of the
Chosen Mission asking for a change in the paragraphs of the Manual which
relate to the powers and duties of the Board in relation to the Missions, we
have receivtd the Rev. Dr. James E. Adams' letter of December 7th, as
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Mission, enclosing ‘A Brief
on the Subject of the Desirability of an Adjustment Between Home Base
and Field Adninistration.” Dr. Adams also encloses a letter to the Chair-
man of the Executive Commission of the General Assembly with another
copy of the ‘Brrjf’ which he asks the Board to forward to the Executive Com-
mission. The Chosen Committee and the Executive Council recommend that
the representatives of the Board who are to attend the next meeting of the
Executive Commission be instructed to deliver the documents referred to
and to present the following considerations from the viewpoint of the Board.
“1. Dr. Adams states that the Executive Committee of the Mission ‘en-
dorsed the Brief as a whole.' Approved ‘the suggested amendment to the
Manual as given in Article 6, Section C, of the Brief,’ and directed ‘that »
copy of the Brief be sent to each station.’ The ‘suggested amendment’ how-
ever differs from thit adopted by the Mission at its annual meeting, an
there is nothing to shew that the Executive Committee had power to alter*
action of the Mission without the express action of the Mission itself,
which does not appeal to have been taken. The Minutes of the Annu
Meeting for 1911, page 97, state that Sec. 1, Art. 1, was amended so
include the following *N> vote shall be declared until all the Stations |
cemed have had opportuiity to express their opinions, and in case any
tion protests against the action, this protest, together with the votes
ready cast shall be returned to the Stations and a revote taken.’ The Min
of the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Mission of November ;
. ... .i l .i.. _ _ *i_ _ monflAtlOn u
. ((( /»
Bnef’ ,W ,‘h*^diAcJation d°« not
KY
,c vunnniutc v/x me luiMiun wx — . rtT w dial, tne mission is entitle * <
show that the Mission vote! through its stations on the recommendation.^ ^e matter at its annual meeting in the^eht^"^
its Executive Committee that clause 2, section 19 of last years Exec ^ 7^. the action that is takpn __ j
Committee’s report be rescinded’ the vote recorded as ‘Affirmative, 41 ; ■
tive 17.’ But the Mission dees not appear to have voted on the ^ jonS
Committees substitute for the remainder and major part of the W ^ile
action at its Annual Meeting. The correspondence indicates too tnat
the Brief was circulated among the Stations, it was not voted on j^ee
as the rules of the Mission require when recommendations of the Lonj
* ■ v „ •lMtlinriHiiuo pvnrpccinnc nf tbp Missions nilU
fbut anA explanation and an advocacy of^h'3" 10 be an action of the Mission
d5\rvthat the Board woild be iustifioH re3t °f-}he Mission iUelf.lt
£ the "fact1 thlrtl^ldy^oksi^hav^^0 ’ aa “S is^&SnVd"
frum some other members of the Missmi, 6" reCe,ved fr0D> one statbn«d
dM9 DS‘.fcemed^^aS®aae*™a”^f^tsWof*theSlM"*e^ SS Set forth in ‘he Brief
m™*“d.the etatements of the Brief in defens1'8/10!13 actlon at Annual Meet-
Ln Jv\rP.rret^°n of tacts and of ?he method VPP<?ar to be based upon
[«e,ts ^f theeworteraiA8f5e,mbiy has Z*™™**-
f ath WR feei lAat il would' b^uniLt rtoSth^eChothe statements of \he* Brief
birb'y Te'to regahredr the’ B°r“f“d ‘taEt“ut^
3. Inasmuch as the Brief call. .
Chosen its VpoISfed
^SS,ef ? brm,Pehea„3td *«
S
Ko^3lUaieSS-f “* heId ip ‘bey 3um°"rtha;raXu\uG^rralA^^
'°a that after the dlse^rthe "wai^the^ 74!V approved our recommends-
khatwdemm if,proper to place on t^lofe'ilf tw° mv be available We"
“8?nrthat^Ldp0a^rglahp0h"e:rtheaM ^
fence after the Ww Meant?™, ft* '■ °" the *cket for the 8,?me
e Executive Committee of the Chosen ]ii?£E.estec amendment’ and ‘Brief’0"/
’fa reconsideration of the report which 7 "?* impra« us as iuStif?
•hlimoreover that the Mission is entitled4 in Boafd adopted January 7th w
«Cr consideration by the Executive0 C^f 8™e °f Us that the Overtur
ters as the special reason for referrin^m33i0.n and to which Dr aa"0"
-Pears to concern the relation of lh"/phe maitt^r to tbat body at th;A?amS
""n3 40 4h° tba‘ ia'conducted
/s
((
the Presbyteries in the United States wh$se constitutional rights are ho
lieved to be affected. A reading of the Overture, a copy of which is before
strengthens this conviction, ft gives as the reason for objecting to the nr C’
posed change in the Form of Government, “the possible annoyanacef
Presbyteries and their missionaries in their prosecution of their home mi
sionary work.” It appears to have no relation to the General Assemblv*
Board of Foreign Missions and the Missions on the Foreign Field which a *
non-Presbyterial bodies. I am informed by one who is connected with th*
Executive Commission that “In my opinion no changes which are proposed
to be made will affect the Board of Foreign Missions.” y a
The fuller letter of explanation referred to in the Board letter of Janu
ary 10th, is being drafted and will be mailed to you in the near future.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN
(LXXI) BOARD LETTER NO. 456
May 31, 1918.
In Re Brief from the Executive Committee of the Chosen Mission.
To the Chosen Mission.
Dear Friends: —
You will recall that Board Letter No. 426 of January 10 and No. 436
of February 14, gave preliminary replies of the Board to the action of your
last annual meeting on a revision of the Manual and to the substitute of your
Executive Committee given in the Rev. Dr. James E. Adams’ official letter
of December 7, 1917, and his accompanying “Brief,” one copy of the latter be-
ing addressed to the Board and another to the Executive Commission of the
General Assembly; that the Board directed that a fuller and more detailed
statement of the reasons which influenced its action should be drafted for a
letter. Such a statement was prepared under the title: “Memorandum on
Actions of the Chosen Mission and Its Executive Committee Regarding Re-
adjustment of the Powers of the Board and the Mission.” The Memorandum
had been held for a time, partly because it appeared advisable to wait to sec
•whether the Executive Commission of the General Assembly desired to go
into the matter in a way which would call for a detailed account of the
Board’s position; and partly because of the hope that some further word
might come from the Mission which would make its use unnecessary. No
word came from the Executive Commission until the day before we left
for the meeting of the General Assembly, when we received the following
communication:
“These papers are returned because the Executive Commission has re-
ported to the Assembly recommending no action on Chapter XVIII, Form of
Government.”
The Assembly adopted the recommendation of its Executive Commission.
I did not therefore present the Memorandum to the Assembly or its Execu-
tive Commission and I sincerely hope that no necessity will develop for do
Jysel/lrf' theUfi™ t ty ‘af ter Iny ^etuif63 f°nS ^ r' -ail
» seTnd y°.u this Memorandum which I now enclose™ Assembh
jat you have taken, however, and the Brief "senl'ho*4' Thf,officia> actions
aittee, not only to the Board but to the Executii. bp y0Ur Executlve c°m-
«•> Assembly impressed the
jat it was absolutely necessary to state the case with «’r.m f ,fbe convictl°n
jtire frankness. Many of you have verv rnJdiili s°me fullness and with
lines that you regard me as in asner ,4old , me at various
,ipe, therefore, that you will attach some weieh^to'mv 1 venture to
je position to which the majority of the Mission and it.' Fv»'d 3tat®ment that
jve committed themselves impresses me as i 4 Executive Committee
•could be brought about, ^ ?ven if
(the work. In an appeal to the General nous t o the best interests
ific decisions of the Board within a reasonahu * y aga‘nst some of the spe-
»» would have had good standing ground * ni A™ after ‘heV were taken,
i the Board. But your present confentinn 47 sympathy of a minority
ioard’s opinion you know As to th- M ** dlfle,rent matter. The
lurch, I do not believe that they will, ever sustainAf embly and the Home
id I am very sure that if they were to do so the „lr°Ur ?resJnt contention,
wk would be so disastrous that the approval woJld'PPoP 1®“* upon/our
rominent layman, a man of lartre hnic • Soon, be reversed. A
hef from the field and the related corresDonden61™6’ Wh° had read the
“To my mind, such change as asked for bv ?hP Rr,»V ?e:
ie work of the Presbyterian Church in mission fip v d u* ?ulcldal to
ould contribute funds in this countrv toward®11 ds* No business man
•aid be subject to. such directionTd aCt‘VitieS that
ad ^ 14 i9 ™ap4
an you can perhaps realize; who, insomeoth^hm«tt^0rt dee?Iy troubled
)Q against strong contrary opinions and who stood up for
«red cause of world evangelization 'strengthened ^ “Ive^y possible way.^
■closure Sincerely yours,
rTII, ARTHUR J. BROWN.
I XIId memorandum
'Regarding ReaXttme°nViV%^0^we^S^7brBd
(This Memorandum has been drafted and ‘h* Mission,
plement and more fully explain th. .f jLectl?n °.f _the Board to
Others. As the Memorandum is intended^hp^13 haVe. b?en contrib“ted
Widual, it has not been deemed necessary In rt ta4'I6 rather than
so. ex.c,ept as indicated. Arthur J Brown. Selreta^r) 3 by qU°4a-
Personally, I wish that the matter could be dropped here, as I confess . ’ d e ft ofC» ^ the Chosen Mission presented to
I am growing very weary of this continued controversy which, I fear, is Jnition of f a *\\'*\on f°r. Consideration and Clearer
’ ■ relations, which mcluded the following
tive
ing so
Personally, x wian tnat uue uiatier couia De dropped nere, as
that I am growing very weary of this continued controversy which, I fear, is
doing no small harm to the Mission. No intimation, however, has come
from the field that the majority of the Mission and the Executive Committee
have receded from their position. On the contrary, we learn that your Exe-
cutive Committee recently recommended that an appeal be made directly to
the General Assembly to appoint a Commission to attend the Conference
which the Board is planning to hold with furloughed missionaries after the
war; this Commission to take into its own hands the framing of such recom-
mendations as might be deemed desirable. We are at a loss to understand
this proposal unless it was made on the assumption that the object of the
Conference is to settle a dispute between the Missions and the Board and that
they cannot be trusted to adjust it between themselves. We understand tna .
while this proposal failed to receive the two-thirds vote which the rules o
the Mission require, it actually secured the votes of a majority of the mem*
bers of the Mission and lacked only two or three votes of the requisite two-
thirds. Moreover, the request of your Executive Committee of DecemD
rao aonf f r\ fllO P r\nr/l no nmll n o f r, I? I1... rnmmlCClATl 01 * ,
uo. luv vliv. Vi J VU l UAUUUil VC UVlillUiVbUC Vi ~ , . L p
7, 1917, was sent to the Board as well as to the Executive Commission ot * ,
General Assembly, and as the Board’s reply stated that it would be folio"
k” ** fuller explanation, you of course have a right to that explanation
by
W 7 D V1 , ullon to the Boai
Jmtion of Board and Mission Relations’
Emendation: ’
4h0a4' as in
rare clses X're Sion Vo^l/deem^/nle FieId Mattels'oSy^ in
'the right to act again upon the matte™ voted InSHryi,thM^1SS'on sha11
Jier action by a two-thirds vote, the M^sion's d' sh.oul,d it repeat its
'the matter, subject only to appeal to the Gene7ld^ment uiha.' finalIy de-
,The significance of this lay in the Mission’s cni ^ femb y'
' decisions of the Board and in the interpretation rePrdinR «r-
£• • .< wM,h w.„ b. !rre;r.;uv;;r«Z“
Zf&ssztsa ^ « «.
for one year. The following year the M Ldj4he Pet‘t>on upon the
y
ire
one of the religious weekly papers received letters from members of the
Mission urging the advisability of enlarging the powers of the Mission and
Mission and
characterizing the present relationship with the Board as "outgrown ” “un-
sound " "a very real peril to the work, an absolute dictatorship, etc. At
the suggestion of a member of the Mission who was at home on furlough,
thirtv-nine members of the Mission on the field cabled a request to the Gen-
eral Assembly The Board was not informed about this correspondence un-
til pastors and elders in Maryland, Missouri, Illinois, California and New
Jersey sent to us the letters that they had received nor was the Board told
by the missionaries about the cable to the General Assembly We have nev-
er yet received a copy of that cable, although twice asked for. The letters
and cable were sent by individual missionaries without authorization by the
Mission but the signers were members of the majority in the Mission and
undoubtedly believed that they were expressing the prevailing opinion. The
cable1 was presented to the Assembly's Standing Committee of Foreign Mis-
sions which heard the explanations of two members of the Mission who
were present and also Secretary Stanley White, of the Board. The result
was the following recommendation to the Assembly which unanimously
adopted, it Assembly notes mth specjaI interest the Board's policy of secur-
ing more efficient local administration in the various mission fields including
the largest amount of democratic self-government in the Missions, and rec-
ommends that whenever conditions permit or render it advantageous, in the
judgment of the Board, further steps be taken in the same direction, especial-
ly in the case of its largest Missions."
It will be noted that this action calls for no change in the Board s power,
or methods but that on the contrary it approves the course that the Board
has long been pursuing, as we shall note more fully on a Inter page
June 5th and 18th and September 14th, 1917, representatives of the Board
held personal conferences with members of the Mission ybo Wire WM «
home on furlough, seventeen missionaries being present at the first_ confer
' ltfb^ Djr\A?am.?' While the four documents differ in phrase-
ogy and in certain details, the same idea runs through them all and the
ll?hedhn^erPhnndehnC?’ W,hlctl, ls v®lumin°us, and the letters sent to friends
, the home Church clearly show that they have the same purpose
f rVe St tl?ev,?utse,t that the Problem that has been raised ls
lWRoir^ wfro ln<fXltab]e- ,It; would be unfortunate if the Mission and
e®°ad,T?re not seeking for better ways of conducting missionary work.
1 ™ ^ th\u M® ”? tbe movement there will be self-criticism. It has
*n SO from the earliest days, and there have been many times when the
soes raised were far more acute and strained than they are now. From
1 beginning there have been difficulties, sometimes personal, sometimes of
nnciple and of policy between the individual and his station, between the
Jtion and the Mission, between neighboring Missions, and between a Mis-
® • , ,.,ho”' Board. Anyone who studies the history of modern Mis-
ins m detail will meet with numerous issues of this kind. , A great deal of
ogress has been made in wise adjustment and distribution of responsibil-
: and authority since those early days, and we do not doubt that there is
jeh progress still to be made.
The great difficulty is that the issues when raised are too often mixed
th personal elements tinged with dissension and distrust. The questions
tolved, however are questions which should be viewed dispassionately as
oblems in the discovery of the truest plan and the wisest method They
= neverreally be rightly settled otherwise. All discussions carried on
d all adjustments reached m an atmosphere of suspicion are in danger of
‘f'at?dt,with .“"-Christian feelings .and of falling short of the wisdom
V°Ye t°* the mind of Christ. At the recent meeting of the American
dical Association, Dr. Mayo, the President, said that in his judgment the
rds and feelings of men contain toxins which react upon their spirit and
:gment, and that suspicion and distrust pour poison into personality as
il as any chemical taint. If the majority of the Chosen missionaries,
tordingly, have lost confidence in and feel distrust toward the Board as
Be of them have declared to be the case, they are in a less advantageous
lltirm f n />rtnfriKntn *■« 4- V, „ _ * . , , few***
ence, ^elve at ?he second, and four at the third, including the Rev Dr. dtion to confute to the solution ofT gTe’at problem Tn mTs^onloTic^
James E. Adams who was Chairman of the Executive Co™™ltte®.°‘ “ theF would be otherwise and less so than the Board which has not lost
Mission and who drafted the “Petition in 1915 and the letter and ne idence in the Mission although questioning its judgment on certain
estions.
The objections to the Chosen proposals, including those mentioned in
’Boards actions, may be indicated as follows:
paper article in 1917. . ,
At the annual meeting of the Mission in June 1917, the Mission t
the Petition of 1915 from the table and adopted the following as a “bst'tut ^
“(1) That we request the Board to secure a revision of the Manual s
as to provide that Missions as ordinarily organized in foreign lands shi 9
the agents of the General Assembly for the propagation of the G°5Pe'
the planting of the Church: the Missions to have the direction of the A ^
bly’s
. work within their bounds; and, by the power of review and ®°n t0
be subject to its Board or other authorized agent. The Missions are
have the right to appoint Commissioners to the Assembly.
First: The substitute adopted by the Mission at its last annual meet-
ns incompatible with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church since it
u the Board, which is not an ecclesiastical body and has no ecclesiastical
Jonty, to secure for the Missions, “the right to appoint commissioners to
■k ■ ssemb^y. Presbyteries alone can appoint such commissioners.
, Mission means representatives of the Missions with the payment of
the
the
loners to the Assembly. Missions of *?ses f™m tbeir places of residence in the United States and with
“(2) That we communicate the above action to the other m nlege of the floor on Foreign Missions but without the right to vote
our Board asking them to unite with us in this request. espondence 3endthem now; but if the Mission means Commissioners in the
The last sentence was subsequently wrthdrawn and the corresp “cmbly a use of the term as voting members, the proposed substitute could
with other Missions was left to the Board The Board s Committee o er_ be adopted without an amendment to the Form of Government of the
and the Executive Council, after careful consideration of the w"®* the Aytenan Church which would require the affirmative vote of the General
reported to the Board, January 7, 1918, that in their united 1 uu S . tjon5. hnbly and ratification by a majority of all the two hundred and ninety-
proposed amendment was impracticable, indicated some of the vital oo^ Board Presbyteries.
and stated that a fuller explanation would be,?e"t; ‘week later, the Board The Mission's proposal would make changes in the administrative re-
Tb» nennrt. was unanimously adopted. About a wee ! \®[ute for the 5sib,hties of the Board which are incompatible with the directions of the
3 l U.r the ?ral Aflcomhlu whinh in nnncfitntir,™ 4-1, „ 1 l e
received from the Executive Committee of the Mission a ,su s i by th ^ Assembly which in constituting the Blo’ard, voted' as followi”
Mission’s proposal together with an explanatory Brier P‘j%R ief’ , — -
Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Adams This substitute md -
referred to the Board’s Committee on Chosen and Executive C ^
r—r — - ~ _ _. ., „ ■' T'vTiVVnhJit.ite and “Briel were "The General Assembly will superintend and conduct by its own authority
Chairman of the Committee, Dr Adama; ^bis substitute “ cil whose *ork of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, by a Board am
voferrpH t:o the Boards Committee on Chosen and Lxecut , -ed f0_ that Dumose and directlv ampnnhlo caM a cm Jui... _
adverse report was unanimously adopted by the Board, February --- ^ <h(.
The additional copy of the Brief and the covering 'f^L^ded as re-
Executive Commission of the General Assembly were f
quested together with a copy of the Board’s action rajsed by
The present Memorandum deals with the ,^pb°Ie considered bP
the four communications referred to, namely. The Petition for thm
the Mission in 1915, the substitute adopted in 1917, the substit lt^ „Brief
substitute adopted by the Mission s Executive Committee, and
“ed for that purpose and directly amenable to said Assembly- a
'4 to which for the time being shall be intrusted, with such directions and
jUctions as may from time to time be given by the General Assembly the
rintendence of the foreign missionary operations of the Presbyterian
General Assemblies ever since the original decision have acted in accord
, la>a principle. Manifestly, the Board has no power to alter the func-
Which the General Assembly has assigned to it, and as manifestly— if
/
these functions were to be abrogated, the Board could not do the work which
the General Assembly and the Church require it to do.
I Indeed the proposal would in effect eliminate the General Assembly it-
self as the body to “superintend and conduct the work of Foreign Missions”
The General Assembly consists of nearly a thousand men, meets only once
a year, remains in session for only seven working days, must review the
entire work of the Church at home as well as abroad, and is able to devote
to Foreign Missions only two business hours in an entire annual meeting, it
would be manifestly impossible for the General Assembly to deal with a
large number of widely separated Missions in any such way as would “super-
intend and conduct the work of Foreign Missions.” It is true that the Gen-
eral Assembly appoints a Standing Committee on Foreign Missions; but this
Committee seldom includes more than three or four men who have had
special opportunity to acquaint themselves with the policies, methods, and
administrative details of the foreign missionary enterprise. They are friend-
ly pastors and elders who are eager to help in increasing the interest of the
Commissioners and the home churches in Missions and to encourage the mis-
sionaries on the field. They cannot go into complicated questions of detail in
particular Missions and they do not attempt to do so. The Committee can
seldom begin its work till the third day of the Assembly, and it must meet
at odd times between sessions when committee meetings are necessarily
gven Missions scattered over sixteen different countries in distant parts of
M world, making each one of them virtually independent of the others and
J5h no effective agency to co-ordinate their policies and methods. Such dis-
in t and disconnected agencies could not command the confidence of the
pine Church and would have no instrumentality as competent as the Board
0 represent them before the home constituency. The plan would result in
jyiding the Missions into groups, sustaining different relationships to tne
pine Church, and it would do this upon an indefinable principle. Just how
l*ny missionaries should there be on a given field, and for how long a
,flriod in order to make the Chosen proposal applicable? And suppose through
liaths and resignations the size of the Mission falls below the prescribed
jandard, would it automatically lose its autonomy? Anything like unity of
jolicy throughout the whole mission field would be impracticable. One
\ ifltonomous Mission might adopt principles wholly at variance with those
fhich a neighboring Mission would adopt; the Missions of Chosen and Japan
Per, for example. The authority of the General Assembly, exercised in
a casual and indirect way, would not secure unity. It has not done so
iren in the Presbyteries at home. A Presbytery in the United States has the
sorrectives of the proximity of other Presbyteries, its membership with them
in a Synod, and its direct relationship to the General Assembly in the same
ountry; but Missions are so widely separated that they cannot act as cor-
«,* --- v-" ”7 V** Y ' 7 “ V" ' v,' ° r> „ 1* T " " ° “ V I actives of one another or have any bond of union whatever except through
humed and subject to many interruptions Moreover, the General Assembly i he Board. The principle of the proposal, moreover, would be disruptive in-
is a declarative and not an administrative bodj It has large administrative , ide each Mission, for the arguments of experience and proximity to the
powers, but it has never attempted to exercise them directly but has in- fL-t, a f l:n
variably committed them to boards and permanent committees. If the As-
sembly found this method necessary in 1837 when the Assembly was a com-
pact body of 263 commissioners dealing with the comparatively simple af-
fairs of a Church of 220,557 communicants in a narrow home territory, only
42 foreign missionaries and a budget of $35,000, how much more necessary
rork, which are urged by the Mission as against the Board, are still more
rtlid in behalf of the station as against the Mission. There are stations in
Jhosen which are larger than entire Missions of the Board in other fields.
Sack a station might justly claim that it “should be given in its distinctive
ield an authority commensurate with its responsibilities.”
Third: The “Brief” is largely based upon the assumption that there
IB it when the Assembly numbers 873 members dealing with the vast and , a proper "comparison between the organic principles of Presbyterianism as
complicated work of 1,604 045 communicants scattered over the entire breadth „ admini3trative system” and “the operativb system of our Foreign Mis-
of the continent, and a foreign missionary enterprise involving an annual ions work.. s0 that the relation of Presbyteries and Synods to the General
expenditure of over $3,000,000 and requiring an intensive acquaintance with - j^b, should be deemed the mode, t0 which the reI'tion of the Missions
fields, personnel, problems and relationships which can be acquired only b> B the forelg71 fieId to the General Assembly’s Board of Foreign Missions
men who can concentrate attention upon them through a series of years, n ||,ouid be conformed. This is an altogether unwarranted assumption. The
the Assembly had not in that early day delegated its authority to a Board. ompr_: — *. u- — i-a-j ai-_.
the demand for such an action at this time would be loud and insistent. To |
K loc;
say that the Assembly should exercise its superintendence over the foreign
missionary enterprise by direct dealing in such circumstances with t went > ^ the higher judicatories in the series and dependent upon it for its* existence
seven Missions is equivalent to saying that it should not exercise it a, and its support. It is a practically democratic combination, self-constituted,
the present way — namely, to “superintend and conduct the work by a^
appointed for that purpose and directly amenable to said Assembly.”
proposed plan would make Missions and Missionaries responsible to no one.
As active members and Presbyters of the Presbyterian Church of Chosen-
which is as independent of our General Assembly as the Presbyterian Churcn
of Canada, it is doubtful whether our General Assembly can constitutionally
regard the Chosen missionaries as subject to its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, anrt
their present proposal would remove them from its administrative jurisdic-
tion. The authority which the proposaal would set up is in remote larv.
imparison is between systems that cannot be related in that way. Their
lationships are not parallel and their organizations are entirely different,
local church is not a body whose members have been appointed by any one
The only possible way for the General Assembly to exercise its co lelf-supporting and self-governing, except in its relationship to other similar
rpiie bodies, and then it voluntarily submits itself to the Government of a body rep-
resentative of all the similar groups of which it is one. A similar relation-
ihip exists between these various representative groups in their relationship
to another representative body which governs the broader relationships, and
•o on up to the General Assembly. No one of these groups (Church, Pres-
bytery and Synod) is dependent financially upon one of the higher courts,
Hor, as a rule, did it get its existence by the will of the higher court. On
the contrary, the lower body first existed and the higher came into existence
»t the combined will of a number of the basic groups. Moreover, the lower
v.wn. it.c nmwi y.wKw-*... — meeting « the combined win or a numoer or tne Das
and is inaccessible to practicable criticism or review by an annual mee *urt8 elect the members of the higher ones
in America. The annual deliverances of the General Assembly trough The Mission is and of necessity must be organized on a fundamentally
disposition to alter its methods of foreign missionary administ evnre-3 Afferent principle. It is not composed of representatives elected by its
the Board. On the contrary, repeated actions dowu to the P (je. mbordinate bodies, and responsible to them, but of persons sent out in
deepening satisfaction with the present arrangement The last . -he J Accordance with the expressed will of the highest Presbyterian Court, the
dared through its Standing Committee that it was deeply imp Board General Assembly, which, desiring to establish Missions in either lands,
exceptional character of the conditions under which the w0.r^ , „ j :t un-j recognized that a body such as itself, so large in membership, so changing
has been done and the complex nature of the problems rais , ^ personneit and meeting so seldom, could not possibly direct a work calling
animously voted that: f0r a minute knowledge of special details, involving conditions foreign to the
“The Assembly expresses its appreciation of the admirable organza 1 - experience of men engaged in other affairs, and requiring the collection and
of the Board of Foreign Missions, realizing the largeness and complex^. , expenditure of large funds, created a Board to do this work for it, re-
its work, demanding as it does extraordinary care and discretion in its taming to itself the right of review and control so that the Board should not
ministration.” . yiome independent of the body that created it. There is therefore no
I Second: The proposal would destroy the administrative unity of limilarity in the relation of a missionary to his station and. that of a self-de-
koreign missionary work of the Church and distribute it among twemj |veIoped congregation to its Session; nor does this similarity appear in the
^ 1(1' < « *
If'lrtd'to1' iPEb^era' misas'iona£ytlis oftL^oreigiT ^lVnrtbKlusfof a"lll"»nd difficult proc'ssmth many unforseeable pitfalls along the wqy. What-
Hkction^by a local congregation or station or mission, but solely because < ilfssion^ ** d°"e Sh°Ud be d°ne by adjUstment betwce“ the Board and the
lappomtment by the Board t^onshipg in one series different from those of tt , Fourth: The proposal ignores the fact that the Board gives the Missions
„tK ” Wause of an entirely different method of development but also b.w>de bberty of judgment and action. We object very decidedly to the state-
se of an entirely different financial status. The development upward <ment of Dr. Adams in his article in “The Presbyterian," that the Board con-
the* will of the lowest ana ongnwi - * 7! » “ * u : — f ~ , . , ; ^ c uuuy ui uussion*
‘ ntmorratic one The local bodies at home not only determine tunes on the field the largest degree of freedom in managing their work that
^cHtntion and Dersonnel of their higher courts but they support their owis compatible with efficiency and the responsibility which the General Assem-
„ X o„h Jrive their own share to the support of the higher courts whicbly requires the Board to assume. In dealing with the Minutes and pro
r;„K "p established In the case of Foreign Missions the Board acting jceedings of a Mission it is the custom of the Secretaries to bring to thi
mey nave cat** 1 „_0i Acsomhlv established MlSSinnc n.RrtorrI nnlu fhrtce aptinnc whir'll inunlim Kniof i *
iiT' a(rencv of the General Assembly, established Missions, a] Board only those actions which involve trust obligations in financial mat-
the missionaries determined their support, provided it, and still prters, or the duty of the Board to safeguard the interests of all the Missions
iS-a not onlv that but most of the funds used in their wore from mo-iiby dealing equitably between missionaries in various lands, or the necessity
vines not u t Dersons in the home Church and outside oi the Mi0f maintaining a policy of missionary work which represents the judgment of
given to tne o jr organization, the congregation is the foundation 'the missionary body as a whole as well as that of the General Assembly.
S,0.ni-' the source of supply of all the funds of the higher courts. Mission actions which do not involve the Board’s responsibilities are not
missionary organization, the exact opposite is the case, (presented to the Board at all, but are left to the discretion of the Mission,
v /"wither, does the Brief of Dr. Adams make the missionary the coof the actions which do require Board action, the assumption is always in
w"‘d„bv '* 71 congregation and so on up the series? He declares .favor of the Mission’s request. Many a time the Secretaries have asked the
responing “Jot exist, which from the nature of the case cannot exi Board to confirm requests of a Mission which did not commend them-
ldentity wnic foundation he builds his argument that the Mission, ic]ves to their personal judgment and which, if they had been members of
and upon th's l 'houjd have the authority which in the other series the Mission, they would not have voted for. Nevertheless, they did not con-
congregation or first in the series. „ tem the financial or other responsibilities of the Board, and therefore we
exercised by *=isuEse of language to call this system autocratic (clt that the judgment of the Mission should prevail. When the Board ob-
V Ici!!t imperialism ” The “system" which the Brief arraigns ‘s lh'jects to a Mission action, it is almost invariably because the request calls for
benevolent imp democratic in that the highest judicatory of 'money which the Board does not feel able to provide, or because it involves
rwlh conducting In foreign lands a work in behalf of the wh°'c i principle of fair dealing betweeen Missions, or a fundamental question of
^ thaf such a work can be efficiently earned on 'mssionary p0]lcy on which the Board knows that the general consensus of
in the only way admittedly democratic, but the demoers 13sionary 0pini0n and the lessons of experience of missionary work in many
can ?y.ste”0fn tlmt the agents of the Government, sent .abroad ieIda point to a different conclusion. Even then, the Board seldom inter
principle does mply Government is responsible, should b?.'h'|£eres unless circumstances compel it to do so. For example, when a ma
pendent power to detennine their own policies or the objects for which Ufority in the chosen Mission insisted that schools
will expend the funds sent them
of the United States Government
in its relation to its representatives
a- m.imoinln ho nhsprved in the Scictwug va »**'- -- nnt to ytuyvoa 1 1.U 1UU it c* u u.i vviicgc ouu umcicu a uiuiig vucniaci vea on tills
SatlCfhPJ fWrnment do certain things for which it ^ responsible emong other details. Then the Board simply decided in favor of the edu-
then tbo Gover ,a £ut t it home constituency which created ir tiona] hcy explicitly approved by the General Assembly and in operation
representatives abroad DutjXo^ ^ relations 0f the Genera^ Asse^ al] the othcr Missions of our church.
aeency"to its Foreign Missions by altering the form of govern^^ whether 1 in Dr. Brown’s second tour of the Missions in Asia, he presented the
law of the Church will probably be futile. t y ^ problem. f h;oestion of field organization to all the Missions that he visited in China,
constitutional change could be made that wo be written into Japan and Chosen, and in his report to the Board after his return he dis-
are many who believe that organized Missio ^ extra ecclesiastic-' hissed the subject at length. He urged that each Mission which did not
side Support, and it has necessary * aav constitutional e"'on. The following- paragraph from the Eightieth Annual Report of the
principles, of Presbyterian parity. Furthermore any ted ,n »br°.Wd in is historicalij accurate:
ment'would have to embody universal pr-ciples-d chosen,^-
any kind,
ah oily
the Assembly, me mis™. -d for a
• . No constitutional _ch»nge V be broug
he development of field executive committees, however, with chairmen or
tfrof ovioc nivinir flioir P' ‘:ro timt f n fVio nf oil tVia fsnld nrn-1. i- flirt
♦ ^institution and that cannot be br°“r the ^attefr ^cretaries giving their er:ire time to the service of all the field work in the
without the co could be devised by which >d be » **ld concerned, has worked mos*. successfully. The. China and India Coun-
are Executive^ Comrr.:~ees ^of all the Missions in those fields, and the
/I
m
,4i
Lowrie in China and Dr. Griswold in India to the work of the Councils haji matt.e,rs 0$?" Wa reP>y ‘hat if phrase “field matters” be prop-
rowrie m v^nma »iiu n ,fined the Mission already has such authority. But where opinions
been most aavant g . . ^ho is to be the judge whether a given question is a field question or
The practical difficulty in making this policy more ettectively operative is.j question? In a work like Foreign Missions, it is not easy to draw
not due to the Board but to the fact that the Missions quite naturally want line of demarcation and to say that everything on one side is a “field
to spend more money than the Board can provide. At tne beginning of each.n” and everything on the other side is a “Board question.” It is
fiscal year the Board distributes among the various Missions the largest sumfant that the “Petition” enumerated the following as “field questions”:
within the limits fixed by the Executive Commission of the Uencral Assembly, The location and assignment of all missionaries commissioned by
which there appears to be any reasonable probability of becoming available. ard to work within the bounds of the Mission.
This money is not in hand, but the Board nevertheless g arantees it to the The return from the field of workers whom the corporate Mission
Missions. It was formerly the custom for the Secretaries to go over the., consider suitable for the work.
itemized estimates from the field and, as they were >s €x£eS8 of the The powers to be exercised by field committees working within
amount that could be appropriated, to reduce or cut out raough items to]nds of the Mission.
bring the amount down to the level of the budg , . Jaken The superintendence and control of all existing field institutions,
away from this school, so much from the sal oi tms na ; lst> etc The initiatory in new institutions subject to Board vote as to actual
The Board abandoned that plan long ago and adopted 1 *e °ne to number, character and location.
tion of assigning to each Mission a lump . sum a"d, |endeth'h.. The principles of self-support in the native Church as related to
upon the fie,d in work with the Mission3 of
the Board and Executive <-^’5™'/if»0amniint vou ask the Board guarantee. The relation of the Mission and its members to the Korean Church."
simply says to a Mission: Ut tne a x ^ sec making fact is that the Board now recognizes all of these as “field questions,”
$ (specifying : the I sum) ana y may approve- We belt the Mission has been exercising and is now exercising unchallenged
such transfers and readjustments as y missionaries are in a position tm in dealing with them as such, except when a particular question has
lieve that this is the right method, as tfw ™^°n^sadvlntage id a form which involved the responsibilities of the Board as the
know where local adjustments can be made to T, of the General Assembly and the home Church. It is significant of
Now if the Chosen Mission would take the amou™ ' otheryMission jn thission’s meaning that the protests of the majority of the Mission
'to it and more has been sent to Chosen than to aaP wUwhU^fund "their’. the action of the Board in the case of the Union Christian College at
Iworld— -if? we say, the Mission would conduct >ts ^°rth?r Ltioas ' But th'-ttached essential importance to their belief that “this is a field ques-
Iwould be little necessity for the Board l° *,? ^hrouehou* the vear requosfmd held that the Board bad no “moral right” to a decision on it
Mission, like the others, pours upon the Board tnro g ». montllhan to ratify the vote of a majority of the missionaries. In its re-
fer additional appropriations. Th< ! Board meets regularly twice ^ ^ ,f of July 8> 1914, the Board said on this point: “The project now
and there is seldom a meeting which aoes I1UL _ , , . a when tb:onsideration is far from being merely a ‘field question/ It involves the
docket, sometimes dozens of them from the reques't calls ft in responsibilities for the expenditure of large sums of money, the
Board declines a request from a Mission, it is “ Teauest to authorize s'.ment and support of missionaries, relations with other Boards, and a
more money than the board is able to provide. t \ u te„orv for whr of other responsibilities which are inseparable from the discharge
anneal to the home churches of course is in tne th pi-esentntic duty which the Church has committed to the Board. The Mission
the Executive Commission and the Board have agr P cxercised niacitly recognizes this when it says that ‘all it (the Pyeng Yang Col-
to the church of the largest practicable Duagei, ca gladly authorizoeeds is more encouragement from the New York end’ and ‘a stronger
to blanket it by too many appeals for extras, 1 me , must be car-,.1 The kind of ‘encouragement’ and ‘support’ needed is evidenced by
as many special appeals as it deems prudent, but t ssion’s call upon the Board at its last annual meeting for another
fully guarded. . . .. Chosen Missioor in addition to the four already maintained and for Yen 260,000
An analysis of the actions of the Board relating to tne hows thw property and endowment. In these circumstances the Board is
. *ih, t-wn fiscal vears from April 1st. 1915, to March 31st, > includif to consider whether it can assume the financial and other burdens
I”;,' period the Board took 159 actions regarding k ‘ ions :t to the maintenance of a College in Korea, except as these burdens
during that period tne coa missionaries and many appropr'a . Boards which
““‘nJaL.Tn “ : nnoVntm ents of new missionaries and many aPF e declii> shared by the other Boards which form the union. The Board con
seventeen PP . .u whole number of 159 only thre _ .amhr evnoofc that thp rni^«ir»naripc will rpmernirp tho rpasnnnKlonoco /v
special gifts, and that of tne^ ^ confercnce, June
only three ^ membe, expects that the missionaries will recognize the reasonableness of
"r reauects At the conterence, June 18th, wit Rhodtsition and that they will not cherish the feeling that the Board does
tions, of Mission reque.rs^rt ^ home on furlough, one of them, th»ir i„d„ment.’ because, after full consultation with them and
-y-.-r rcbo were then at home on .... . „ ,„„1 and ttust their judgment’ because, after full consultation with them and
0 Board almost always did what the Mis j1jn,vercise its P°* consideration of their views, it feels bound by its sense of duty as an
•aid that the regularly that when it did ex 0f tstrator of trust funds to express a conclusion as to the financial and
,t had done this “ fhe Mission experienced the sr 10^ sdd.iurdens that it can properly
missionary present, Dr. Adams, en -t wanted. ^ like manner, the contention c
.. • Micsion action, tne mission — this 811(1 ®uv»r uraens tnax l1, caa assume.
™ ”V1 Another missionary present, Dr. Adams, en orse wanted. T ijp-g manner the contention of the Mission that the Board overruled it
^Tbe Board has practically allowed the Mission to do what o{ ^nty-ttoCollege matter requires modification. The Board’s reply to the Mission
onlv exceptions I remember in my missionary exp the former letter of July 8, 1914, stated on this point: “The protesting mission-
only exceptions 1 College matters, ana dm,ts tK i overlook the fact that the Boari
oto in the Fusan and Seoul College matters ~ admits “pparently overlook the fact that the Board is not dealing solelv with
finthv settled as the Mission desired.” The Bne i (page ^ field org*,rity and minority of our own Mission. The Board and the Mission
n?n nidinarv current operations, large discretion is let Jiverg " agreed to enter into a union on the initiative of the missionaries them-
in almost every line: and even when ^ body is a'1^ .the Board is now dealing with five other Boards at the home base and
ZX n not infrequently the judgment of * » 0f the *’e who, bod f missionarie5 in six Missions in Korea. It is true
of judgment, not lnirequ , ... ot affect the P™1*’. aatisfa«‘ a1nI,e are counted, the majority for Pvenn Yam. i. a
of juogm . , a(Jds tbat tbis .'(joes not affect t P tbe satis missionaries alone are counted, the majority for Pyeng Yang is a
wc think it does. A svstem which works .sa an hardly he :y oP ^be whole body of missionaries. But the Board must consider
t'n’, these figures and admissions ino - wishes. Parties both at home and on the field whose responsibilities are in-
of the Missions a3 tnese g without due regard to their ^ a.J0 Qf the sjx Mjssions in Kor-c.a, the vote of 1912 was three Missions
sidered afhitrary or exe adopted by the Mission in , ,0tho*eng Yang and three for Seoul. The vote of 1913 was three for
Th„ “Petition to the Board, anop^ ^ Ml«mn desired Yan(, for s„oul and the vote of the sixth Mission was a tie
/
The vote of the Senate of the Educational Foundation in Korea in 19i?he Brief says (page 9) that “the point I (Dr. Adams) am pressing
a tie and after the votes of absent members were obtained, the Doll hing more than the most fundamental principles of Presbyterianism."
for Pyen" Yang to six for Seoul. Of the six Boards, all five of • be true, we must confess that we do not understand Presbyterianism,
rth America voted for Seoul While it is true that the numericabresses us as pure Congregationalism and that, too, in the most extreme
ponderance of our own Mission has given a majority for Pyeng Yar That is to say, it demands the ultimate supremacy of the local unit
the polls of individual missionaries, these other facts may be fairlv t-t the ultimate supremacy of the body which represents the whole
into consideration in arriving at a balanced judgment. The Board h Congregationalism stands for consultation of the local body with
be governed by a broad view of the entire situation as developed in bodies with a view to their advice, but for the right of the local body
study of the whole situation in conference with all the parties concer as it chooses after having secured that advice. The proposal is not
, In 1917, a Mission in China voted to withdraw from two union imrterian. It is ultra-independency. No Congregational Board has ever
tions which had been formed three years before by the concurrent acticht of going so far. On the contrary, the American Board has always
that Mission and the China Council and the ratification of the Board. I=ed a far greater measure of control and direction over its Missions
erty had been secured and obligations entered into affecting our relathe Presbyterian Board has done, and although administratively the
with the Missions and Boards of other denominations. Would it be riglLn Episcopal Church and the S. P. G. of the Church of England have
vest in the majority of a local Mission in any given year final power to ed themselves of responsibility and located it upon the field, it has
rupt work of that kind? V. hat security cou £ a"y enterprise have in vested in the Missions but lodged almost absolutely in the Bishops
circumstances, and what assurance would the Boards of other denomina, home Church. We know of no communion which lodges such power
have that when they enter into a compact with us we would not treat Missions as the petition proposes. All of the great communions lodge
"a scrap o l paper . Manifestly, there should be a bodv which reprtaUthority either in the supreme judicatory of the home Churches and
the communion as a whole in which authority should be lodged subject !oards which they create and which are responsible to them, or they
to the ultimate power of the General Assembly. the duly constituted churches on the field.
Section 2 of the Brief states that, whereas the field organization go’he proposal would remove from the missionary Board all direct and
ing the individual missionary, the station, and the Mission “may be saiistrative touch with the Mission work. It would reduce it to an agency
be framed on a consistent Presbyterian basis, ' “the system is abr3e appointment of new missionaries, and the collection and allotment
broken in the relation of field and home base”; that “the system in itanp sums to the various missions of financial contributions. Such an ar-
organization is Presbyterian and democratic, but in its connection bet-ment is impossible and undesirable. It is impossible because by the
field and home base it becomes as distinctly autocratic.” This is an anunature of the work the responsibilities of a Board of Trustees cannot
statement whose underlying fallacy we have already shown. As a nvduced to such elements. Problems of governmental relationships, of
of fact, there are persons who feel that the Chosen Mission has beeijenomjnational interests and institutions, of the responsible representa-
more autocratic in its dealings with its stations and individual mission^ the work on the field to the churches at home, of the honest and
than the Board has ever been in its dealings with the Mission. It is an discharge of financial trusts, of broad missionary policy, and of the
travesty upon the real facts of the situation to characterize the Clis occupation and evangelization, arise and simply cannot be evaded
Mission as Presbyterian and democratic in its relation to its stationary wm forbid any Board from becoming the administrative nullity
missionaries, and the Board as “autocratic” and “imperial” in its rel)Se(j Such an arrangement is not only impracticable, it is undesirable,
to the Mission. It raises a false issue to call the question one of Denio<. nee(je(j jn the missionary work, and in all great activities of the
versus Autocracy. It is really the simple question whether a deni0,jom 0f God, is not less but more central administrative judgment and
can conduct Foreign Missionary work efficiently. The Brief states jt -s desirable to enlarge the responsibilities of boards and com-
this is not a criticism of the Board” but of “a system” and that the »,es ^otti on the field and at home in order to secure more life and
i3 the General Assembly and the system its system.” In view of the g,^ from the best men. It would be suicidal for the work of Foreign
ous and sympathetic attitude of the General Assembly year after : ye !arons to deprive itself of the kind of support and guidance which is re-
course which it has gladly taken in its efforts to co-operate with tne, from the type of men who have served on missionary boards and whose
sionaries and to provide everything possible for them, and in view ot **Hest an(j initiative should be conserved and enlarged, not distrusted and
that the very strength which the Chosen Mission now advances as * lulled. Presbyterian Foreign Missions will certainly forfeit the high place
for virtual independence was due in part at least to the successiui ” now hold in the religious world if, in the face of every rational Chris-
out of “the system” referred to, it is most unfortunate that such a g principle of efficiency, they disintegrate into a scattered congeries of
and unjust charge should be made. . and ineffective local autonomies.
The substitute now proposed by the Executive Committee oi^n - describing on page 8 the great work conducted by the Chosen Mis-
sion suggests the incorporation in the Board’s Manual of the io * the grief mentions the fact that “its annual budget runs into the
tence: “It (the Mission) cannot inaugurate policies ^lth93" tue ca:eds of thousands of dollars.” The Brief significantly fails to state that
the Board, and the Board does not do so in the field Wnn ^deration eat sum is provided by the Board which is responsible for securing
rence of the Mission.” Passing over for the present the co the home Church. Is it to be assumed that the Board as the represen-
we are not advised that this substitute has been adopted nce of the donors can secure such a budget if the proposed arrangement
the point now to be noted is in the phrase ‘"without the co concur be put into effect and is it reasonable to expect the Board to carry
Mission.” What is it that the Board is not to do without t - * •-* :* :*■ ^minicforirwr
of the Mission1
or conduct wo:
not do anything ***- — -T — - . .
the agitation conclusively shows that this is precisely
namely, to deprive the Board of its present power* a
agency i
The agency
“inaug a financial responsibility if it is to have no power in administering
1 Honey than the amendment would leave it? It was the Board that
o«ed the Mission, and the Board that has favored it in re-enforcements,
noroperty and budget. With the kind of a Board which the adoption of
the admin***1 Proposed amendment would make, the work of the Chosen Mission
v»v. — w -- •— r — £ ... . the final auth never have been developed.
of the General Assembly and to make the M,s5102Lenable to »* ‘^he proposal overlooks the fact that to deprive the Board of its present
mis U&ency constituted by the General Assembly, and a arged it r would lessen even if it did not destroy the power of the Board to do
could not “conduct the work” with which the Assemoiy na ^ tfie t^any constructive things that it has been doing and that are vital to the
out the concurrence of the Mission.” In other woras’ k which the and effective discharge of the foreign missionary duty of the Church,
seven Missions would* have the power of veto upon wor* w0rk from the growth of the missionary enterprise obviating the necessity
a ocnmklv rtrrlora flip RnarH f Ho1 Demoralization 01 > * l n U rlrtao inct tVio nnnn^it'p Present world
Assembly orders the Board to do!
evitably result.
* central administrative board, it does just the opposite. Present world
tions imperatively demand a larger and more effective unification and
co-ordination of all missionary activities so that our force and money can ‘he Proposal would transfer an undue proportion of the superintendence
used to better advantage in this extraordinary Period of race upheaval i^trol of the foreign missionary enterprise to the field agencies which,
opportunity. Never has a strong Board Wlth the full power that Tthe very nature and limitations of their organization and membership,
General Assembly has committed to it, been more urgently needed tfc be seriously hampered in effectively exercising it. An experienced
now. . - t-i Jer of another Mission has written:.
It is questionable whether the supporters ot r oreign Missions the[n the nature of the case, perhaps there is no circle in the world, except
selves would be satisfied with the kind of Board that would result fr.mily circle, in which its members need to guard one another’s suscepti-
the adoption of the proposed plan. Could busy men, accustomed to deal;s so carefully as the foreign missionary circle. The fewness, the
with large affairs, be induced to give their valuable time to an agency whjCy, the parity, the isolation, the conspicuousness, the indispensable har-
would be shorn of real responsibility and the power to do much of anyth:" all conspire to make this so. It follows that delicate subjects affecting
but collect and forward funds which it had no power to administer? j,ai and local interests are nowhere in the world so difficult to handle as
experienced missionary, after reading the Chosen action and the Brief, mission circle. And it is often necessary, in the interest of internal
Dr. Adams, saw' this point with concern and wrote: tQ neg]ect or postpone important measures. Hence, in dealing with
“What would be the type of Board secretary who would consent questions the Board must often need to take the initiative, and to follow
occupy the position of a simple collector of funds to be transferred by I ^ necessary with no little pressure, to counteract the personal forces
to the Missions to be ifted at their discretion . And how many busing an(j get beyond the compromises into which these are apt to lead
men would continue to give such sums as tney now give to be sent t0 the region of the independent and impartial judgment of the mission
unknown members of Missions for then ^unrestricted use?' .’hole.”
Under the present “system to which the Bne* ,, chosen 5,he chosen Mission affords many painful illustrations of this. It is well
sion has had the backing of a Board which Jr* aas neva that the Mission's attitude toward a number of important matters has
theless been capable enough to Pr°vide ana .men So influenced by considerations of the kind referred to in the above
women and money and equipment that were ind _ P ® hSit,,* that it was impossible to secure an unbaised vote on their real mer-
which the Brief now speaks. Is the Mission s^e o it y to nfy0r is the Chosen Mission alone in this. Dr. Speer, after an experi-
its scale of operations if it has i>p other o g ^ , aHSf twenty-five years in dealing with Missions, says: “A Mission is a
the weakened kind of a Board which the adop P P , ™ incapable 0f efficiently discharging such functions and powers as the
would render inevitable? . The M?ssion proposes £ give it. We have not been able a3 yet in our
for the work of the Mission is n®4 mon^. . . Tt ■ . ,ba, ..yterian system to devise any better way of conducting the work than
tained, but money that the Board has a • , , . for,issions, but from the point of view of satisfactory administrative ef-
gifts have been obtained by °fDabditure an(j b^ith very few excy the Mission is an utterly inadequate agency. It is an annual con-
but a small proportion of the ! annual ■ exp . • as individuals re of busy individuals. Its committees seldom meet. In only a few
tions, the donors have given them not to t Board Making all °ns are there effective executive committees, and in not one Mission
to them as regularly appointed .. that have been purely perso: Church, are there such committees sufficiently effective to justify the
allowance for the liberality of some gifts ^P ^ hh or any trustee acting in its name, to locate full power in them. The
the general fact remains that the ’ Gn Board's generous exeri undoubtedly is inadequately effective, but it is the most effective
done what it has done if it had not oeen b nd and which the tv in the whole missionary mechanism; and to a scrupulous and con-
of the power that the present system g would not destroy. It is tious man who applies to the administration of work and of money the
posed amendment would weaken if 1 Board shall have the "Prions which are required of trustees in America, the proposal to make
that the proposed amendment states amendment is to depJiSsion3 the authoritative and final agencies of Missionary administra-
of review and control ; but the c ear Superintendence” veB impossible. With all kindness to the Chosen Mission it must be said
the Board of the right of '?'tia~, a,t “review and control” is a vague; that Mission also that it is not adequately efficient to justify such an
in it by the General Assembly. Ihe jnterDretation If it is compare transfer of power to it as is proposed. There is much efficiency in
and susceptible of .wide d fferences oi rove p • - ■ •• - ~
as it is plainly not intended to De, n. is v-o,
eral Assembly and the fundamen a princip M missionary s 0j personai difficulties, of personal character and efficiency, sometimes
Assembly’s responsibility for a nominally recognizes the suPer"if morals, which again and again it has been shown only a distinct and
of the Church The present proposal wcre to »««?&Sonal authority can deal with."
power of the General Assemby, en nQW between the Chosen ^'‘nixth; The proposal, if adopted, would seriously lessen the ability of
exercise it, the same tssue which between the Mission and thc ^f'ioard to secure gifts not only from congregations but from individual
and the Board would undoubtedly arise between tne^^ which disapj«:s ^ ^ now 6glving in increasing numbers and enlarging amounts.
Assembly. There is no grou „ rhm-ch expressed through th? .®3oard would be virtually compelled to say to donors: “We will transmit
of the limiting authority of t , tbrougb the General Assemby, money tQ the fieidi but we cannot assume the responsibility for its wise
would be satisfied vnth it if P . has used in the petition P b'"diture, for if the Mission should differ with the Eoard as to the proper
arguments which the C control of the Miss i° J ,( tbe money, the decision of the Mission would be final." It is easy to
years a£° • . control by^the Board. If the f'Bn agow the Mission and its work might suffer under such a plan. Business
Uc„eral Assembly ™an g twentv-six members and officers of bv t^ill not entrust large gifts to a body which cannot be held to account-
not acquiesce m a decisio y f sucb parposes and Quallb'd j-, ,y for administration of the trust. The Board is a responsible, legally
appointed by the General A y on matters, what ,BTounhv an<P°rated agency amenable both to the civil and ecclesiastical courts for
years of experience in dealing in a decision by ^ of 4^^ funds tbat are committed to it. It is located, too, in
for the assumption that t men hastily appointed after • t fo ,ca wbere tbe donors know it, and have the means at their disposal for
Committee consisting of tw y . bavc had no exPe/'t!iied it to task if necessity should arise. It is not reasonable to assume
Assembly convenes, a m j only a few hu jjis,iolonors would be disposed to make such gifts to widely scattered bodies in
missionary “dmmistration ami who can ™£rity*of the Chosen » ,,t |ands whjch are *^t incorporated an(f therefore cannot be held to legal
hpfore the Assem y j I tbe control of any agenO ts e'ahility. which are unknown to both eccies.a-tical and civil law, and
desire virtual independence from tMcora naturaUy sugfe ^ ^ designed to be permanent bodies at all but to exist only until
/£ l((f l7t?
. . jjsions on the field should be lodged not in the Missions but in the Presbv-
the churches in the mission field are prepared to take over their duties fie3' 111 “a?y native churches the very arguments which the Chosen pro-
I The proposal would weaken the sense of responsibilitv .u sal nses in behalf of mission autonomy are pressed against the Mission,
Church and of individual donors for the maintenance of thp fnroir*1- bomnely that only men of long residence and participation in the work in
ary enterprise. The position of the Presbyterian Church is rnissi0.^ Held £an hoPe fully understand its problems and difficulties
sions is the work of the Church itself, which should assume thp *Iie f? c/on?® the Mission (Presbytery) should be given in its di»-
ure of responsibility for it. It is hard enough now to persuad* fu* ITea'ctl\e Tfi ed (which the Chinese Church says is China and the Japanese
churches to accept the necessary implications of their resunn'&iksrf honarch Japan) an authority commensurate with its responsibilities.'’
every effort should be put forth to emphasize them. Anythin^ ti! ar T • Proposal would imperil the fundamental object of the missionary
weaken this sense of responsibility, as the proposed amendmpnf WoJli:erPI7se (which is to establish a self-governing as well as self-propagat-
would, would be disastrous. The very last thing that missionary Devi[a^^ s. *elr-supporting Church in the mission field) by strengthening field
desire is independence from the direct supervision of the hnmp0lJ^u ^anJ‘zatJ°ns which are not composed of ministers and elders of the native
through its constituted agency. The principle that men will not h* urorcnes of ™ASSlonaries who are aliens under the laws of the countries
in the conduct of an enterprise in which they do not have an u1Cb Jbey- r®tlde and who are not really amenable to the judicatories of
voice applies to ministers and laymen in America ai well as tn ,tativ churches m the mission field. It is true that most of the forty ordained
aries on the foreign field. Dr. Adams says: “Authority cannot hp „ ers Mission, about one-third of its membership, are tech-
from responsibility.” If this be true, it is fatal to his own amimp^r y me°lbef'a °? Presbyteries in Chosen; but most of them retain
manifestly it is indispensable to the success of the missionary enternri««\P? “embership in their respective Presbyteries in the United States, a
the Church should assume responsibility for it, and according to th« nJ? relationship that 13 abnormal and temporary and is doubtful constitution-
ciple enunciated by Dr. Adams, authority necessarily goes with Presbyterian law. They consider themselves American citizens
gponsibility and anything that would divest the Home Church of its author*? * esPyteri^ls’ and thfy claim full recognition and rights as such before
_1_. -r .-i.- :i*a .. autnont American (invernmpnt. nnH A u °
on all these points missionaries be wholly untrammelled. I am willing tant least of all is it Prpchvtprian a n L'a“l0Alcls*ni Put it is not Pro-
grant all that the missionaries can ask on this subject, but I must claim thsiona came into existence star.lv '» =
- , . • . . BiM-aujr UillUldlCU, me
tame liberty for myself. I must be relieved from all obfigati'on "o'f'suppor.y^tages^f the work'when there we« no^urchM taTh dle"tS ' dUfiin,j thj
ing men on such conditions. I am bound as a Christian to see to it so far imaterfal out of wWch theycould be o?nanizedH !S‘°n. fi-ed anl
^ Master, and if 1 erwXandtte
l j . , rns? The whole arrangjCy that the Mission is a temporary body whose existence can justified
ment is useless and erroneous and the — are impossible. And real); as long a3 there is n0 church which can supervise the wo?k Uhfn it,
from what I have seen I must say that the missionaries who demand ium. Qur Preshvfprian mpthnd® of .wo.. witnin its
limited control have not shown the tempers which would give me the strongetly t0 the ultimfte organization of Presbyteries d S^ods and General
confidence m them judgment.” *mblies „ the foreign field. The Board loX fLtard to thi
It needs to be remembered further that the issue is not between the Mi*6 when the General Assembly, through the Board as its agency, can trans-
aion and the Board only, but also between the Mission and the native church* a large measure of responsibility in our present fields to the duly con-
in the Mission field. These churches have often argued, and in some fielc^ed judicatories of the churches in those fields, so that the Board can
are arguing now, against the control of mission funds and the adrainistn;jop other fields in the regions beyond. In Dr. Brown’s “Report on a Sec-
tion of the work by the Missions on the very same grounds that the Chose Visit to China, Japan and Korea, in 1909,” he called attention to the fact
Mission argues against the control of the Board. A strong native Churc making all due allowance for modifying considerations,” “the general
asserts that it knows better than a Mission what the conditions are and neec remains that our policy in its practical operation has not sufficiently tak-
of the work are, that it is far closer to the problems and the elements tfu-nto account the development of the Native Church and the recognition of
enter into them than any body of foreigners can ever be, that the Missio rights and privileges. We have built up Missions, emphasized their
funds were given for them and in response to appeals in their behalf, ajority and dignity, and kept them separate from the native Church, until,
were not given for the missionaries. Dr. Duff faced arguments like tnef me regions at least, the Mission has become such an independent cen-
in Calcutta many years ago, and they have been advanced in Chile, Mexico ed body, so entrenched in its station compounds, and with all power
Japan, Persia, and several other fields. Almost every argument that is u solutely in its hands, that the native Church feels helpless and irritated
in behalf of the transferring of all authority in missionary administrat. presence. The larger re-enforcements we send, the greater the danger
from a Board to a strong Mission can be used also in behalf of its trans '*nes. In these circumstances, it is a serious question whether the time
from a Mission to a strong native church, and a Mission cannot meet * ot come to diminish rather than to increase the powers of the Mission,
arguments by advancing its duty as a trustee without recognizing in - Proposed amendment to the Manual would be not only un-Presbyterian
so the trust responsibility and authority of the home Board. Indeea. nciple and unbusmess-like in administration but it would be reactionary
arguments in the Overture from Chosen are more valid for aT>str°j1^ qeerc. nfi f ° n„ 1^, ^ ® ^!n<Ie ^ Y0U?d further strengthen a tend-
church against the Mission than
tary John C. Lowrie maintained 1
Missions,” he argued for a responsible missionary aamimsLra ■.»«** **- . g »» me uuncy ui cne t^nosen Mission to devolve increasing
Board at home with as large a delegation of powers to the ^orel,fP- -ionarevi ]b“es uPon fhe Korean Church and we are not unmindful of gratify-
possible, and in his papers on “Missionary Presbyteries” and . -nn f ^uences of this m certain lines of work; but it is futilf* tn pvnorf
Prp^bvfpripc in tV«n Unwn rViwii-'- ” 1 ..me f9
the Korean Presbyteries and the Korean General Assemhlv
complish what Presbyteries and a General Assembly ^e sunnoV.7111 ac'
complish as long as they must work under the overshadowing 40 ac"
of targe, compact and powerful organizations of foreign mmshin^- contro1
.uch enlarged authority as the proposed amendment would ! re t 5 vWl4h
unhesitatingly recognize the fact that the present status of th„ »;Ve.shouW
somewhat anomalous and unsatisfactory both in its relation* . .LS31~ns is
and to the Church in the Mission field. But the difficulty Inhered in th B°ard
tion and not m the policy of the Board. J mneres m the situa.
We may add that some serious complications with Government* „
ally grow out of, or are intensified by, the ascendancy of th^r^i'/g0?-
of missionaries over the native Christians. This is notably true ™ ri,body
where grave difficulties have developed, not because the JapI^ rCho!en
ment is opposed to Christianity, but because it resents the ascend^r"''.
Urge and powerful bodies of foreigners over its own subjects Dr B? °f
has explained this in some detail in a pamphlet on “The Korean r ^ • own
Case and in an article on “Japanese Nationalism and Mission s^S„P1,racy
Chosen m The International Review of Missions, January 1917S hp*lS
atudy of the situation has led us to the conclusion that it Would
unwise to increase the power of a Mission whose present power has hern y
.ounce of anxiety from the double viewpoint of the beTuterests of th*
Korean Church and of needed adjustments with the Japanese Government^
. it 18 Wel1 ^OW\that, fading Christians in Asia are becoming restive
?”d m s°n>e places sharply resentful, under the ascendancy of th^ Miss on'
In many fields it is becoming more and more difficult to induce educated and
capable native Christians to devote themselves to Christian work because of
Urlined°f rf'0" wbicb theV regard it as involving We are
ISetw f * db ti!6 4b?4 4ne 4lme has. come when this situation should be di-
rectly faced. There has been a good deal of talk about it, but more specific
action is needed. This action, should be definitely in the directi^ of dimin
ish.ng the powers of the Mission rather than increasffig [hem It sZld
commit a larger measure of the control of the work to the Presbyteries within
tnh«Sfnbn°dUndS i'S c?nd.ufed- T.he Pending proposal is directly antagonistic
to a fundamental principle of wise missionary administration as well as of
proper ecclesiastical procedure. It proposes to intensify one of the greatest
dangers now on the field namely the undue predominance of the Mifsion as
dil 'SllfT/kl CbUfUh'f -14 W°i'ild make an uncomfortable situation
.till more uncomfortable, in that it would increase the power of the organized
work f T?llS10Man?S WhlCh 13 aIre\dy t0° great for ‘he best interests8 of the
If 4bei Mlss)°n *ere f'y«n the powers which it now asks, there would
^e*w T °UA3 •ia4'-°n ^ two bodles <Mission and Presbytery) exercising
Presbytenal authority m the same field. The conflicts that would result
can be easily imagined.
ru SeCtT * °f th® B?ef bas.es an argument for greater power for the
on jar?e. Slze: Secretaries who have for many years
conducted the Board s administrative correspondence with the twenty-seven
Missions, including Chosen, have seen no reason to conclude that there is
any necessary causal relation between size and wisdom. If mere numbers
*TfJ° be determinative, just where shall the mathematical line be drawn
between the number that should be given autonomy and the number that
“ .no? baJe it. Shall we say that forty-nine or ninety-nine missionaries
ought to be dependent and fifty or one hundred independent? The fact is
that some of the most efficiently conducted Missions do not have half the
membership of the Chosen Mission. Our knowledge of the home Church and
of the Missions on the foreign field does not permit us to acquiesce in the
assertion at the bottom of page 8 of the Brief that “outside of the Boards
there is possibly nothing in the home Church that parallels it (the Chosen
Mission) as a large, efficient operating organization.” As a matter of fact,
the hies of the Board contain unpleasant proof of the statement that, with
the exception of only one Mission and that a very small one, the Chosen M>8*
sion s handling of important missionary matters has been more sadly in-
fluenced by personal controversies between missionaries than in any other
of our twenty-seven Missions.
The proposal, if adopted, would jeopardize the rights of minorities in
the Missions and place them at the mercy of local majorities. Several mis*
objected to' ^0^1^ a^oun?11 S? t" rTrom^ff ^ BhoWn have 3enously
rmssjouaries against arbitrary exerc se ofTuthoritv “fa added S^^on
greatly diminish the protection that thev 4y’ -the amendme°t would
powers which the General Assembly has vesYed m if T*a B°ard wi4h the
g!Ves no protection to mission minorities o[ to sm^l *;*tT ® pr0P03ed Plan
pig ones, which often absolutely control °in smaIi stations as against the
Mission. The very troubles which in C^Sels^ad pollcies of ‘
nderation. It happens that every case of difficult! Pbosen illustrate this con-
Mission has really been due to^he fact that fn ~4^een th?.®oa,rd and the
before the Board, the judgment of thp PnarH matters which have come
urity in the Mission rathe“ than wdh tha^nft! ^ with 4hat of the min-
ffhich has been made would take Tway all such tf maj°rlty' Jhe proposal
vould deliver in each autonomous Mission the VreresU^f"^6 B°ard and
ihe Mission, and of every individual in it ah*ol,!t»i ?4f of. 4he mm°nty of
majority of the voting members So stronriv d„ y ln4° 4he Lcontrol of the
lie Mission feel on this subject that thev hav/no^01”6! °f 4he members of
ihe suggested amendment but they ha[e decla[eH th4*t°" r pro,tested against
his ‘Brief' becomes a law,” tLy “will lsk that R ‘ ¥ SUCh an actlon a*
» ^m a separate Mission" as “our position f us Permission
members of another station have written: d be “‘“'erable.” Two
he mportant0 committee! “"‘the* Misrio^if feX* that Vh* befkept.off
ind knows there is a tribunal to which it can WK? 4hi4 l has fair Play
» be compelled to submit with hands tied and mouth appeal'. ®ut
possibility ct winning a case except it appeal re the* £g d’ e" wth no
jeneral Assembly) would be to impose condition! a suPLr.e"le court (the
ihould not be asked to work. Under the present rilh^61" T k‘chi missi°naries
Dost impossible for the minority to be renresmted^ji by‘laws- it; al-
*e'.and “ ■? very seldom that it has be!n represented6 Execu4‘v.e Commit-
.eeds the wider vision of the Board At time* It min ' ' ' The Mlss>on
kard to decide contrary to the wishes of tte MhsM^i^m1^6388134 f°- 4he
0 onmn movements, relation to the Goremmeirt ?elari '?at4er.s, Pert.a>ning
nes to the native church, etc. These are matter*’„re^ l-°? °c 4ke mlasion-
-ell defined mission science which should not be set aside'^ tHere “ a fairly
ussionaries in a particular field are so occupied with th beca^fe a of
IS.-*4 h3Dd that 4h6y Cannot see tba historical mo6unPit t?p\“:
«e minority would be almost* def e“ncT[esr for if wolfld^6”'11116"4 *3 adoPtcd.
;mg its. right to appeal to the General Assembly ere[e gTe!“ di®ful4y in
3tire Mission has now when it feels that it m.,ot ^ore so than the
rsembly over the head of the Board. The mTnorit[l n 30?etbiag to the
■ough as it is.” Would the best young men in mm h! P°sl}?on 13 difficult
asities be disposed to apply for appointment wkh^ * RnC° ieget ac d uni_
lord them no protection from a chance maioritv i7. w i which could
1 many painful instances show, decisions regardm! a rin “ Mission, where,
*ays free from personal feelings? * g a ^e ow worker are not
An experienced missionary has recently **la th .
»uld be willing to submit themselves even at th[dh 4hat • few missionarie.
The full control of a body of men on thl fidd wh*mn.?e °,f 4heir career
■1 fewer still would be ready to submit theTn^fi^0?1 4bey know nothing,
«y do know them, not because they are better thi^th4” contro> aftc
■»se they are but there at their ca" not at the^v . ‘ir c.?1IeaK“aa bab bc-
«)r expense, but at the call of God and the dfrect se,Ie<;t.10n' n°t even at
hch also supports them.” Some of the ablest 1 seIectl°n of the Board
ihe whole Presbyterian Church, men of international0,.54 vaIa?d missionaries
0 forced out of Chosen long ago if the mainrlf„epUt?u ^ °ni would have
Messed the powers which it now claims maJority ia ‘he Mission had
The proposal is influenced bv the fact that „ • ■-
-seriously objected to a decision of the Board y ¥ 4he Mission
* Chosen Christian College at Seoul and bv tbl i” J? specific instance of
* assumed that it had nS means of redres! n that ca « ^ ‘hat 4he Mi3‘
tS f“ture decisions, except to deprive th! Board nf th and n° Protect‘on
•Jlssion. Indeed several members of the M J k ' ^“‘o overrule
the Mission would never have raised the issue of th! pow^f,
it had not been for the fact that the Board decided adversely to- the wishe
of a majority of our Mission in this single case, which was the culmination
of long standing friction between the missionaries themselves, existing nrior
to and independently of the course of the Board. “The whole questio
grows out of the Seoul College,” a member of the majority declared in the
conference in New York. The Board’s judgment, however, was in harmonv
with the judgment of all the other denominational Boards in North America
that have work in Chosen and with that of a large minority in the whole
missionary body; for the question related to a union institution and not to
our work alone. An overwhelming majority in our own Mission as well as
in the other Missions voted for one union college instead of two colleges
but divided on the question of location. In concurring with the other Boards
for Seoul, our Board simply acted under its clear duty of “review and con-
trol” in a controversy which originated on the field and which came before
the Board in orderly course in the minutes of *the proceedings of the field
bodies. The differences not merely betweeen members of our Mission but
between six Missions of as many denominations had reached an impasse
which compelled action by the co-operating Boards at home, our Board being
only one of the five Boards in North America that were concerned. Mani-
festly no mechanical adjustment of the relations of one Board to its own
Denominational Mission can cover a situation of that kind, especially when
as notoriously in this case the issue was complicated to a large degree by
personal and local feelings in Chosen which obscured to some extent the real
merits of the question. The most that can be said against the Board is that,
in passing upon a matter that came to it from the field, it made an error of
judgment. If it did, that error does not justify an attempt to change the
fundamental relation of the General Assebmly to its missionary work in all
lands and to amend the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church. The error
should have been dealt with as error, in accordance with the orderly and
recognized method of an appeal to the General Assembly in that particular
case. If the Board, as the centralizeed agency constituted by the General
Assembly for this purpose, makes a wrong decision in a particular instance,
as it undoubtedly has done more than once, and will doubtless do again in
the future, the Mission concerned has the right of appeal to the General
Assembly if it deems a given question important enough to justify such ap-
peal. Any organization composed of human beings may make errors of
judgment, but Presbyterian methods of administration provide an orderly
wav to deal with such errors by appeal to the body which created the Board
and which has power to affirm, modify or reverse its decisions. If a court
has made only two “wrong judgments” “in twenty-three years,” as Dr.
Adams states, surely the remedy of the aggrieved party is to lodge an appeal
to the supreme judiciary in that particular case, and not to attempt to deprive
the court of the power to render any decision at all.
As a matter of fact, the change proposed by the Chosen Mission would
not lessen in the least the liability to error. It would merely transfer it
from the Board to the Mission. A missionary has truly said that “you can-
not avoid mistakes by shifting authority from the Board to the Mission; you
simply prevent the rectification of a mistake when it is made.”
Most of the Missions, if not all of them excepting Chosen, appear to be
satisfied with the general system and policy as it has been developed. Many
of them have wanted the Board to assume more and not less authority. The
support which it has given to the Missions and the administrative assistance
which they have received from it have vastly exceeded any restraint that it
has laid upon them. A prominent member of the Japan Missicn wrote to
Mr. Speer: ,
“As to Mission autonomy; I have heard indirectly of the agitation
the Korea Mission. I think possibly Dr. may have written to s01?
in our Mission. However I know of no general feeling prevalent in*n
Japan Mission on the subject. Some may entertain such ideas, but if *
they have not been publicly expressed. At the meeting of the Executi
Committee I read this part of your letter and asked the judgment of t
members as to the question raised. No one indicated dissatisfaction
relations in general that now exist between the Mission and the Board, u
der Section 40 of the Manual, I think the Mission understands autonomy
hoen conferred upon it as regards the conduct of the wer1: :n its
The Mission prizes the fullest libertv in administering the funds entrusted
t and in initiating and controlling enterprises carried r»n *.1,
«? »?;£*;* 'Hr f
*1
^bi. ?°Yd’ C°n^tUted 83 °-3 * » o
Mission responsible directlv to the if tl0v1 and 1 ca”not clear>y how
SSliPSiii
SilUPS^e
rision 1n°all field matterl^sToncurre’d inV/the Bear'd This wh1?88””’8
feesa3itrrulh?ritbyCaAned0f Vif °n' hundredth in which the Boarfex-'
^hority does resVwith the Board ^When"^ cas-es.,t ls usually better that
S£ BSS
i e when we canesavmthat0w n6S and f?vera™nt officials, it is very for-
'ern'b.y’ fast***^? i^fortunaT* tha* iisrcit?M^ofraagrSrHep!AKc cm!
•rpose our country and our flag if need be. May we be oresmeJ from
^mnaLWus"'''3UffiC,ent Un‘° °UrSelveS °r w>°rking ‘uSteSta ftS
^ thlS a?JS?tm*ent should not be influenced by the peculiar local condi
' broad and tw“ty-*5« Missions- but it should have reference
road and permanent conditions of modem missionarv wn.V — -A ?• 0
/ 7;
'7(o
€
n(,
bJ all,of the',Mission3 and field3- It should be given th PETITION,
ment «fh0Ught ff- sPecial.care should be made to secure the mature ^ In ac.cord the original constituting action of 1837 to the effect that
onu auic unaaiuiiaues WOUia De oi larrro i
already apparent that the foreign missionary enterprise must ? 6 Va^°?urpose.
5f?i ani^ that there should be the most thonJf1’ The j Commission as representing the Assembly shall participate in
consideration of the whole situation and of the heavily enkrrerW°Uekproposed conference.
"“"ril6! Tat?./ would entail- Experience has shown that it is difficnfr 2‘ ? sha11 S° carefully and thoroughly into the whole problem of demo-
secure a satisfactory concensus of missionary opinion by having ear? *r-‘c self-government upon the field; its proper sphere in accord with Pres-
act mdependently upon a given matter. It appears desirable to S“rian Principles; and its relation, under present conditions, with proper
some gathering of missionaries which will be fairly representative of li ?vd authority.
Missions and where conclusions can be reached after mutual conferin 3- Xt sha11 frame on this basis such recommendations as seem to it
Manifestly, such a conference cannot be held while the war is in Drotr??«' for the adjustment and definition of the respective functions of Board
manifest Iy.too, the Missions on the field ought to be given amnlr «^Iisslon in field matters, particularly in the case of the larger Missions;
appoint their representatives. p e ^present the same to the General Assembly for its action; to the end that
li- j: *. j -* i. a.: ’ — n Assembly’s operating
the present confusion may
proper*t5nger work to the continued injury of our Lord’s service.
37, Negative 8. Not voting 14. Not passee<
the Board to
. .. --«=» — j w- »**'- xioutmuij aupermtena and condufwl,'u ua U1 cuc nuuvc pcwtiuu.
• rV °Wu Pr°Pei_authority the work of Foreign Missions of the Presbytei^1*1113^76 37. Negative 8. Not voting 14. Not passed.
la?, AUrChv?y »? ^?raru aPP°inted for that purpose and directly amenable tThis is setf-exPlanatory. It was proposed to the Mission as the simp-
said Assembly. We believe that the Church regards this question as close<and most natural way out of an apparent impasse. The Mission had
But we believe that there are several questions of policies and methods whied for larger powers of self-determination than the present system gives
may be wisely considered as well as the large and solemn matters to whic Board had replied that it was impossible to grant this because of the
reference was made in the preceding paragraph. The Missions should b'acter °* t^ie Assembly’s action constituting the Board. In the Board’s
given notice of the date far enough in advance to enable them, in passin,osal the post war conference, accompanying the answer, while matters
U P®0 *url°}|&hs for the year in question, to see that their members wh^foition are suggested as desirable, enlarged powers of self determina-
will be at home are those whom the Missions would like to have represen do not enter in for consideration. In the subsequent brief approved by
them each Mission to recommend to the Board any readjustment? in thExecutive Committee and the suggested amendment made by Mr. Whitte-
regular times of furloughs that may be necessary to give effect to this sug. Mr. Holdcroft and myself at the request of the Board representatives,
gestion, either by ante-dating some furloughs or by deferring others. We [approved by the Committee, the Board’s action apparently reinforces this
the Board ardently desire such a conference in order that we may talrpretation. It has not authority to consider any limitation of its own
counsel with the missionaries, and we are confident that it will be of greaority in order to enlarge self-determination on the field. In view of this
value to ns as well as to the Missions. petition to the Assembly was recommended, with the request to the
In behalf of the Board, rd to join with us in it. I gather from communications from the various
vii ARTHUR J. BROWN, Secretary. ions, that while there seems comparative unanimity with regard to the
This whole letter is typical of the bureaucratic mind. At the Genera in the petition, it failed because of a difference of opinion as to time
Assembly of May, 1919, the Board presented for ratification a plan for method.
Umon Board of Missions containing the following: With affectionate regards,
‘On the field abroad, all problems of missionary administration shoul Yours in the Blessed Service,
be determined by the new board.” (Signed) JAS. E. ADAMS.
This was done without consultation with the church’s missionary workert nnADn f Acn
and one year before the Post War Conference. The Missions’ request for XIV) BOARD LETTER NO. 460.
commission on the subject was refused presentation at the same assembly. _ . . _ . June 12» 1918-
(LXXIII.) LETTER OF J. E. A. TO A. J. B . _ . The General Assembly.
_ . _ _ ^ Taiku, Chosen, May 15, 1918. ** Chosen Mission.
Rev. A. J. Brown, D. D., ^Friends: —
156 5th Ave., New York City. 1 have recently returned from the meeting of the General Assembly at
My Dear Dr. Brown. anbus, Ohio. You will, of course, see accounts of the proceedings in
I enclose a sheet giving the result of the votes on the various recom'eligious papers which you take, but you will be interested in a few ad-
mendations of the Executive Committee at its regular meeting at Taikorjal words about the foreign missionary aspects of the Assembly. The
March 29 to April 1, 1918. . -ding Committee, under the chairmanship of the Rev. Joseph A. Vance, D.
Sec. 195. That’ we recommend to the Mission that in view of the proPastor of the First Church of Detroit, was exceedingly sympathetic and
longed and unfortunate discussion concerning the relation of Board an<- heartily desirous of doing everything in its power for the cause. A
Mission; and the confusion arising from it to the injury of the work; and mderable number of furloughed missionaries attended the sessions of the
view of the Board’s statement that ^bly. Three spoke at the popular meeting Wednesday evening, and
‘‘We recognize the force of the statement that the Manual does no‘ or five others took part in the discussion on the floor of the Assembly
sufficently indicate just what the relative powers of the Board and Missio*oreign Missions day. It was my turn to represent the Board in the
are, and that clearer definition is desirable” and its proposal for a conference address. At the close of the morning session the Chairman of the
of furloughed missionaries for the consideration of matters cf vital niomentjuttee read the names of the Missionaries who had died during the year,
and .Assembly standing in reverent silence. Then Mr. Copeland, a prominent
Believing that in this Conference the General Assembly should also t*an in the Brown Street Church of Columbus suggested that at the
represented, we petition the General Assembly as follows- *al of a soldier of his country the bugler sounded taps and that it would
\~T ^7 ■
t?g '
% '7'
, , , Here and then a question is in process of adjustment between
be appropriate for the bugler who was on the platform to sound ,ni ? par}lcu,ar Mission, but such questions are very few and can be handed
memory of the soldiers of the cross who had died on the foreign field ^ 4t® ordinary course of proceedure without demanding the valuable S
bugler thereupon stepped forward, and you can hardly imagine thet. th.® rePr«ser':t?t|ves of twenty-seven Missions at a time when weiehtv^
solemnity of the moment as the strains of the bugle sounded throu,J ^rests,,°f the klnSdom of God are seriously involved. Of course nJ “l
great auditorium Not a word of criticism regarding Foreign Missions V8” u 8t. ^?stlons fh°o>d be excluded which the Missions may deem
heard from the beginning to tne end of the Assembly. I have never kJdV‘i .b ® t0 dlscu3a at sucb a conference and the Missions are cordials in
5? Assembly to be more warmly sympathetic, and the Board and the send.,to the Board any questions which they would like to have
dionaries were encouraged tin cm forward with full . trie Unced UDon thp dnckpf Rut k..~: l0.nave
■ i the. Committee was amazed and deeply gratified by the immense rangt |:der very earnestly and very prayerfully how we can more effectively meet
1 variety oi the work of the year a long list of resolutions was adooted^T-1101 whou is greater in the Kingdom of God, the Board or a Mission
VI 1116 th,e 0“3 ‘bat will be chiefly interesting to you being as folio-'"4 how can ‘he Kingdom of God be more effectively and quickly resized’
„ J,h?4 the General Assembly approve and commend the plan of ie, aFe eaSer t0, have ‘he presence of representatives of the Women’s Board,
Board to hold, as soon as practicable after the close of the war, a confere*d ‘a® GeneraI Assembly and also of other interested friends in thehome
1 with available furloughed missionaries, for the purpose of promoting mut'liurch— not as Judges or umpires at a dispute but as consellor, , J
understanding and fellowship, more fully unifying policies and methSdr.'»rkers in a common cause at a time of grave crisfs when .11
gesting such improvements as may be deemed desirable, and consider’ini<,th at home and abroad should be united in heart for the work of onr Tm-d
program for the enlargement and better equipment of the work, and the b”d Savior. It should be borne in mind, too, that the conference shm.ld
way to deal with the extraordinary conditions growing out of the war ft be a legislative body, but a consultative and advisory one and tW if.
which are already bringing great additional responsibilities and oppottv»din83. in 80 f3r as they effect missionary policies and method, »hn„id
.ties to the Foreign Missionary enterprise. The Board will welcome to t* submitted to all the Missions in order that they may have an nnnor
[conference representatives of the Women’s Boards and of the Executive Ccamty to express an official judgment regarding them However thi ;
[mission of the General Assembly." ,erely an indication of the way that I am now thinking of the conference
Sincerely yours, fe shall work out the details in due time and send them out to all eon
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN, uned. I only wish we could tell more definitely when the conference can
(LXXV) BOARD LETTER NO. 468 1
October 9, 1918.
In Re Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Chosen Mission— June 23
July 4, 1918. (Manuscript Copy)
To the Chosen Mission.
Dear Friends: —
We received sometime ago the manuf script Minutes of your ann
meeting. Our first thought naturally was to wait until the printed mint
arrived as we know of your custom to print them and that they are so m
easier to handle in that form. Mr. Whittemore, however, wrote that tl
might be some delay in getting them through the press this year and as
that the Board act, if possible, on the manuscript copy. We have, theref
held.
DELEGATES TO THE CONFERENCE AFTER THE WAR
TJ1® following action was taken:
The Chosen Mission having elected representatives for the
conference with furloughed missionaries which the Board expects
to hold after the end of the war, the Board replied that the date
when the conference can be held is still so uncertain and the de-
tailed plans are necessarily so undeveloped at this time, that it
appears wise for the Board to defer action until it is able to con-
sider m detail the character and principles and membership of the
proposed conference and to report to all the Missions."
/q tnerei- tit , . , . * — me juiooiuuo,
gone through them with care and they were presented to the Board atlrce about *two hundred^arY'on0 furb^b °4 the present missionary
meeting the 7th instant. I now write regarding them, taking up as usual Oiclade men and women ordained and alja glve,? time, and that they
the items that appear to call for comment or actiin here, and, of cou™* represent all varie-
omitting the items which have been already cleared in former corresponded „ ]]' f ^ Missions exceot nn,,iblv °nB ’ n?edlca* and literary, and
It has not been altogether easy . to handle* such a great mass .3ma"as4.-
with unnumbered pages and no index and if we omit anything on wmen . - --
missionaries would not find it practicable to attend
desire action, we shall, of course, expect Mr. Whittemore to let u3 ,k!oardf byheve^t^t^t^an^rea-onaidvVonTif'n*16®'11' eares, but the
For convenience of reference I have caused the sheets to be paged kortjon 0f tyiem j. aDDears f.i. toycni^?td°n.kn.a.u®n<dan®® a ar®e Pr0‘
manuscript t0 ““ BCti°DS “ th® °rd®r ™ wMch they ' "d«™d «». basis of the conference and as reasonably
PageP15. Request for the Appointment of a Commission from the eb^® “dj31°°^ th® fi.eId need »ot be disturbed
eral Assembly to participate in the After War Conference. '-count of the conference save in verv sPecla' returns to America on
The following action was taken: . _ wrP1.nt Mission Fases- For example, if
“The Chosen Mission having adopted a recommendation of its E- 1 jts mecjica] missionaries on furlouvh __rk 8k°a!d happen to have no one
Committee that the Board be requested to ask the General Assem y :_sfucationaI work should have no ^dl331°" wbich has important
point a Commission to participate in the conference with furloughed “'i^sS baV® n° °f ‘hat work on furlough,
aries which the Board expects to call after the close of the war, -_-mbly3u]d be arranged Where i™,™, ."l, / °,n W|!ejber a special furlough
replied that in view of the action already taken by the Genera Assembly ma I be furloughed members of a Mission
recommendation of the Board no further action is necessary.” ”P Chi™ and I„d ‘ IW..!..:”, t'"' 83 i? the ?a3« of 3Uch
The text of the General ‘Assembly’s action, which I “^^0. 46Cirk done in that country are represented by furTo^ghe^^mberf0™ on!
>mhlv q rnmmittpp nrpqpnf- wan p’lven vou in Board Letter friorp nf ito Mioamno a.i. . . , . . . m mDers oi one
sr,U’S.r"vs“;r^
■ % /71
[When the time comes, your tepr'e^enUtion6 .ToStd’mikdll lT£,io'mbf,'’’io
'resentatives of your evangelistic, educational and medical work and it V*
also include women. Undoubtedly some missionaries should come hom 5*
the conference, and perhaps some should come from Chosen As tv to'
when the conference can be held cannot now be known we cannot ‘it* ^
this time whether it will be necessary to incur the expense of w^te.
anyone home from Chosen on purpose for the conference, or in case it
be necessary can we tell now whether the missionaries to be brought ,b°U!
be evangelists, educators op physicians. It will first be necessary to ;Ahtult
adequately members of the Mission who will be in America at that ,b°'
represent the various forms of the Mission’s work. However all tb ™
merely preliminary and tentative. Careful plans will be worked out 14
time and sent to all the Missions. “ ea out m due
With warm regards to all the members of the Mission and with freon .
rrdemaki!SisPeave" ‘ ^ G°d’“ bIessine may rest nP°n you and a» your work
Affectionately yours,
(Signed) ARTHUR J. BROWN.
Menz i es , I sabe 1 1 a. [Belle] < b . Bell ar at, Viet or i a ,
Australia, 30 July 1856; d. Ballarat, 10 Sept. 1935).
Presbyterian missionary in Korea.
Belle was the eldest of ten children of Robert Menz i es,
OL
gold miner, and El izabeth, nee Bfcn d . She was educated at
Errard St. State School and private "seminaries'.
Belle helped her mother in the home. She taught in
Sunday School at Ebenezer Church (one pupil later a
missionary in Korea) and served in a "mission church"
outside Ball a.r at .
In June 1891 she was appointed as the first
Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union (PWMU) missionary to
Korea. Of the party of five who arrived in Pusan on 12
Oct. 1891 Belle alone was left after four years, though
joined by Bessie Moore in 1892 and Agnes Brown in 1895.
Koreans would not sell property to foreigners and
they lived in the Japanese treaty port for over a year-
before obtaining a thatch-roofed, mud and stone-wal 1 ed
house at the edge of the Korean town, Pusanchin. There
were three rooms, about 8 ft square, ceilings too low for
standing, and an ear th-f 1 cored kitchen.
In this modest home the women began sharing their
faith as their Korean language improved, teaching classes
for children and adults, and soon reached out into
surrounding villages. On 22 April 1894 the first three of
their converts wiere baptised - their language teacher and
two women .
In Dec. 1894 they were able to move into a newly
built house while their previous one housed girls,
homeless, orphaned, physically handicapped or in danger of
being sold as kitchen slaves or prostitutes. These girls
were supported by individuals or groups in Australia where
their names were well known.
The orphanage became the centre of Belle Menzies's
work. •'The most effective and far-reaching evangelism is
to be found in these rescued and regenerated 1 ives.' The
teaching of these girls to read was the beginning from
which grew the II Sin Girls’' School. The girls became
teachers, nurses and the wives of church leaders, one even
a governor's wife. And around them grew the Pusan ch i n
church .
Belle taught in the local church, week-long classes
for village women, and in the Women's Bible Institute
which during two winter months each year trained 'Bible
women ' .
Above al 1 , she was the wise counsellor and friend to
whom Koreans, women, children, and men too, and
fellow-missionaries went in times of perplexity, suffering
or loneliness and found strength through her humble
witness, her loving concern. All called her 'Mother'.
A very special orphan was Sinpogie, a baby abandoned
in the garden on a wintry night in 1914. E:e 1 1 e adopted her
and took full responsibility including a return to Korea
seven years after retirement to arrange her marriage in
1 931 .
Although it was premature, Pusanchin church and
community celebrated then the 40 years since she came to
Korea and set up a stone beside the church to honour her
33 and Bessie Moore's 27 years of service.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. B. Anderson, Foreign Secretary's report, PWMU
Chronicle. May, 1908, pp. 7-8.
Mi n u t e s PWMU , 156 Collins St., Me 1 bourne .
Obituary, Ballarat Courier, 11 Sept. 1935.
n
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P 0 Art /S'Ob , Tvk^A**"-** . :
0fH
iSBA
smoffett. kangwijo.rev
Kang, WiJo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: A History of
Christianity and Politics. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1997. Pp . vii = 214. $19.95.
The remarkable growth of the Korean churches in this
century has attracted considerable attention. Kang's lucid and
well-researched history of the involvement of Korean Christianity
in the complex political history of that troubled peninsula is a
much needed addition to the growing body of literature on a
neglected aspect of the subject, namely, the impact of a rapidly
expanding church, now approaching a third of the total population
of South Korea, in a social situation secularizing as fast as the
church is growing. Most writing on the subject is in Korean, hence
the added importance of Dr. Kang's book.
After two chapters tracing the historical background^, bfee cl
hundred years of national i-sola-tionism and persecution of tenuous
Catholic penetration (1784-1884)^ Dr. Kang lucidly describes and
analyzes the shifts in church/state relations for the next hundred
years after the arrival of the Protestants.
First was the broadening impact of American influence, both
political and missionary, and the awakening of Korean nationalism
(1884-1894) . But this was quickly followed by a bruising
counterforce, Japanese colonial expansion and the important part
played by Korean Christian resistance to the Japanizing of their
country, most significantly in the Independence Movement of 1919,
which was an important factor in rapid church growth (1894-1931) .
With the outbreak of war in north China and eventually against
America, Japan's military power came near to crushing the last
traces of the country's independent identity and forced the
churches into a humiliating surrender of their institutional
integrity (1931-1945) . Kang here ably traces the trauma of
encroaching colonialism through the early stages of a politics of
Japanese Asiatic cultural imperialism, and its end result in full-
scale repression of Christianity when Japan forced its own national
religion, Shinto emperor worship, on a conquered people (1931-
1945) .
The end of the war and the division of Korea into a communist
north and an anti-communist south brought new complexities of
tensions, both political and ecclesiastical. Dr. Kang deftly
characterizes each of the five post-war governments of South Korea
from Syngman Rhee to Rho Tae-Woo, and the Christian community's
failures and successes in protest and accommodation to
authoritarian Korean rule.
The regime of the first president, Syngman Rhee, a Methodist,
he describes as the "politics of conservatism" , equally pro-
American and ant i -communist in both church and state- -a
comfortable, working relationship affording opportunity for
startling church growth , but which was oblivious to a largely
unrecognized tide of student and working class dissatisfaction
(1948-1960) .
The "student revolution" which unseated Rhee opened the
door, however, not to more democracy as the students naively
expected, but to thirty years of military rule under three
successive generals. Gen. Park Chung-Hee (1961-1979) startled the
world by propelling South Korea into its "economic miracle". Most
Koreans, and most churches accepted prosperity gladly. But a
highly articulate and activist minority, including many in
prestigious Christian schools, rose in dissent against heavy-handed
military leadership. Park was assassinated not by the dissenters
but by his own associates.
His successor, General Chun-Doo Hwan (1979-1988) , proved to be
as arbitrary as Gen. Park, and the Korean military (still
technically responsible to U.S. command under the U.N.) spun
momentarily out of control. Student resentment turned anti-
American, and the churches divided, the majority still preferring
economic recovery to student instability, but the minority protest
gained strength.
It was enough to force a fair, democratic election and
the installation of a new president, Rho Tae-Woo (1988-1993), who
wisely resigned from the army and turned civilian. But it was not
enough for dissenters who rallied around a new complaint, the issue
of reunification with North Korea. By this time the Christian
community itself had divided. A Protestant minority represented by
the more ecumenical National Council of Churches, representing five
denominations and cooperating with protesting Roman Catholics,
called for unconditional reunion with the North, and criticized
U.S. military presence in Korea. The larger Protestant
conservative majority, openly anti-communist, which had organized
in 1975 as the "Korean Christian Leaders' Association" urged
caution in negotiating with North Korea and approved continuing
the five denominations in the ecumenical National Council of
Churches and cooperating with Roman Catholic protests, tended to
favor unconditional reunion with the North, and criticized U.S.
military presence in Korea. The larger Protestant conservative
majority, openly anti-communist, which had been organized by 19
denominations in 1975 as the "Korean Christian Leaders'
Association", urged caution in negotiating with North Korea and
supported continuing U.S. involvement in Korea. (1988-1993).
Dr. Kang's well-researched book richly deserves a second
edition to update the subject to the surprising developments of the
next five years. He is on the side of the angels in describing the
motives of the dissenters and the corruptions of government power
in the south, but is perhaps not guite as egually critical of yet
greater corruption of power in the communist north.
A second edition might also pay more attention to the
lack of analysis of the conservative side of Korean Christianity.
Why has the dramatic explosion of church growth been most
predominant in theologically and politically conservative churches
which is now mainline Korean Protestantism. Why do the more
politically and theologically activist Protestant churches fail to
grow. And, a more intriguing speculation: will the election of a
Roman Catholic president, himself a former opposition leader,
change the equation and make Roman Catholics, now outnumbered about
five to one by Protestants, the mainline Christian base in 21st
century Korea?.
U.S. support (1988-1993).
Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea is an indispensable
survey of the interplay of Christianity and politics in modern
Korea. It deserves a second edition adding some surprising recent
developments, and perhaps addressing the question: why has the
Korean church growth explosion been so dramatic among the
theologically and politically conservative groups, and so missing,
thus far at least, on the side of the most politically active?
- Samuel Hugh Moffett
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Study Project on Shamanism and Christianity: An Introduction
Rev. Dr. Sandy Yule
This project is designed to review Christian understandings
of shamanism with a view to assessing the validity of these
understandings. It is therefore a theological and
philosophical project. While it involves certain dimensions
of interfaith dialogue, it does not feature an equal
dialogue between two traditions that are represented by
practitioners. It is a preliminary study which could
contribute to the Christian side of such an interfaith
dialogue .
Christian perspectives on shamanism to be revisited include
those which view it positively as an independent religious
tradition or negatively as idolatry; as a beneficial form of
psycho- therapy or as a demonic co-operation with evil
spirits; as a genuine exercise of magical power or as a
pseudo-magic which seeks to gain advantage over the
gullible. One advantage of an attempt at classification of
this kind is that it prompts a recognition of what kinds of
factors are relevant for assessing the validity of each
perspective and leads us to increasingly useful questions.
The questions that follow are posed in very general terms to
indicate the areas of interest; the study project will of
necessity look at more specific questions and will be shaped
by the availability of relevant materials.
s As a religious tradition:
What experiences and ideas of the spirit world do we
typically find in shamanism?
What spiritual marks should we look for in assessing
whether a view, belief or practice is idolatrous?
» As a form of psychotherapy:
How might shamanic practice b.e presented as a form of
psychotherapy?
How should we test the spirits invoked in shamanic
practice (and the spiritual qualities of shamanic practice
itself) to determine their virtue or lack of virtue?
» As an exercise of ritual/magical power:
What forms of power are claimed for shamanic practice and
how might we determine the validity of such claims?
What attitude should we take to divination of the future
for an individual?
What benefits typically accrue to shamanic practitioners
in terms of personal spiritual development, financial
rewards and socio-political status within their communities?
It will be apparent from this brief description that issues
of theological and philosophical method will need to be
addressed as well. How do we assess the possible validity
of animistic and magical views of the world? Is it possible
to write about shamanism if the subjective dimension of the
shamanic experience is not addressed directly? How relevant
are our own personal experiences for building an
understanding of shamanic experiences? What importance
should we attach to questions about the embodied quality of
our personally acquired knowledge? What operating
assumptions about ritual, liturgy, prayer, interfaith
dialogue, evangelism and mission need to be acknowledged?
PERSONAL STATEMENT
This project arises from a variety of sources in my own
life. Perhaps the most important is my ongoing concern for
peace-making between conflicting peoples and individuals, so
that I am regularly fascinated by what I don't understand
and by the mysteries of therapeutic processes. More
prosaically, I was struck by the references to shamanism as
our lost human heritage in Theodore Roszak's book, "Where The
Wasteland Ends", which I read in about 1979. Roszak
presents shamanism as an antidote to the loss of life and
spirit from our collective experience through the ideology
and socio-economic processes of the European enlightenment
and industrial revolution. In 1979, I was developing a set
of first year Philosophy subjects for Education students
which' were originally called "Miracles", "Psychic Phenomena"
and "Life Beyond Death". In these subjects, we worked with
particular stories of lived experiences which suggested ways
of revising our view of how the world works, which led us
into directly philosophical reflection. Many of these
stories had a shamanic origin. I have found that a focus
upon our conscious experience and upon what comes oo us from
unconscious sources does provide a perspective from which
mysterious experiences can be approached with the
possibility of achieving some understanding of such stories ~
More recently, I have become aware of a variety of
Australians, largely influenced by the so-called 'New Age'
Movement, who are looking to shamanic models for help in
developing a fresh set of spiritual practices which connect
them with Spirit in nature. Some of these people are
associated with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies which
has been established under the leadership of Harvard
Emeritus Professor Michael Harner. I have been positively
impressed by the personal qualities and by the practices
developed by two groups of these people, whom I regard as
friends and conversation partners. One of these groups has
had significant contact with a traditional Aboriginal
community, though I cannot claim this for myself.
Shamanism and Christianity
Work in Progress (Rev. Dr.) Sandy Yule
Dialogue 1
This dialogue is subjectively focussed, reflecting my pre-
occupations as a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia
who has taught Philosophy to pre-service teachers at a
secular tertiary institution in Melbourne for twenty years.
I have chosen to study shamanism during this time of study
leave as a way of exploring the horizon of human experiences
of the spirit. This discussion reflects my initial
encounter with Korean shamanism. While the voices do
reflect things that I have heard here, they are my voices
and are not a serious attempt to represent the actual
position of other people. I wish to record my thanks to Dr.
Yong Bock Kim for his friendship and helpful guidance to my
researches, as well as for his welcome to Hanil Theological
Seminary. I am also very grateful to many other Korean
colleagues who have been very generous with their
hospitality and time as well as their information. While
the views expressed here are my own responsibility, the
degree of contact with Korean realities that is here
achieved is due to these colleagues.
The Participants:
E is a male Korean philosopher. M is a Mansini 1) , a female
Korean shaman. 0 is a male Korean Protestant of the Old
school. P is a female Korean Protestant seeking a
Progressive view of shamanism. W is a female Western
Philosopher .
E: Before we start, I would like to establish that we are
all ready to talk with one another. For myself, I welcome
the chance of discussing this topic of Shamanism and
Christianity with people whose good faith I respect .
M: I am not so happy about this. I don't know what I can
say that will be of any use to you. I am surprised that a
group of Christians and philosophers asked me to come. I
thought all the Christians condemned people like me as devil
worshippers. Also, I don't expect well-educated people like
yourselves to show respect for the spirits. I am here
because I know you well, E, and also P. So I am waiting to
see what you want to know.
0: Yes, I must admit that I am not sure about how far we
can get . P has persuaded me that I should look again at the
ku t(2) and the way it helps people with the deep problems in
their lives, but I must admit that I don't understand the
spirit possession and I suppose I have some fear about
encountering powerful spirits. I do have deep reservations
I
about the calling of the spirits of the dead and of the
earth .
W: I am very interested in the feminist aspects of Korean
shamanism. I have learnt the value of looking again at
human traditions that the West has condemned as irrational
because the western notion of rationality has been so one-
sidedly male. I hope that we can listen to each other with
a proper human respect because I expect to learn a lot from
this discussion.
M: It is all very well for you westerners to want a good
discussion, but I can't forget the pain that I felt as a
child when I attended a Christian school which condemned my
mother as an agent of Satan himself because she was a
shaman ( 3 ) .
P: I think that we Christians owe you an apology for that
attitude. I could quote Jesus, who said, "Nothing outside
of a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it
is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. . . . For
from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these
evils come from inside and make a man unclean." (Mark 7:15,
21-3) Applying this to women as well as to men, it seems
clear to me that shamans as a group are no worse than other
human groups, including our churches.
0: Look, I don't think you can apply that verse to spirit
possession because this is a matter of the heart, not simply
of food. M, I can see that the sincere beliefs of many
Christians have, as you say, condemned your practices as
idolatry and that this made it very hard for you to
participate in a Christian school . I suppose some beliefs
are incompatible with each other; I think that this is the
case with you and me .-
E: That sounds like a good note on which to begin. I
appreciate the honesty with which people have spoken and the
willingness to continue with the conversation even where
there are strong reservations about this. I am interested
in a question that no-one else has mentioned so far. I find
it puzzling that Christians should be so much against the
kut as idolatry, and yet there is so much shamanism in their
own religious practices. The most obvious example would be
the spirit -possession that occurs in the charismatic
churches, but the intensity of praying in all kinds of
churches is a more subtle carry-over from traditional
shamanic practice. (4)
0: My church is not charismatic, so I shall just say that
if the real needs of people are met by the true God, it
would not be surprising to find that these needs had been
expressed elsewhere or that the people have habits of
praying that carry over. This does not seem so important to
me as the question of whether or not we are worshipping the
true God. I think that there are indeed other spirits than
the Holy Spirit of God whom we meet in Jesus and in
Christian worship. I object to worshipping these other
spirits .
W: I am not sure if we are all meaning the same thing when
we talk about worship and idolatry. 'Idolatry' simply means
worshipping an idol, which is surely a prejudicial
description of someone else's religious practice. People
know that the object that they use to focus their thoughts
and that they relate to physically (by bowing or whatever)
is not spirit but an image or statue. In their belief, they
are relating to a spirit who is far greater than the image
or statue. I think Protestants forget that the favourite
phrases with which they address God are essentially similar,
so that it is open to non-Christians to accuse them of
talking to someone who isn't there. Perhaps the word
'idolatry' should be reserved for Christian self-criticism.
E: In our ceremonies to pay our respects to ancestors who
have died, we bow and we address them directly, with
respect. This is how we also relate to our parents and
grand-parents when they are alive. It is this bodily
behaviour which has given rise to the incorrect view among
western people that we are engaging in ancestor worship. (5)
I think something similar happens when we approach powerful
spirits with our requests in prayer. We are very
respectful, as we would be in approaching a living
government official. I think that you are right, W, in
suggesting that Christian and Eastern understandings of
worship may be quite different .
P: I agree. We Protestants are unfair to the religious
practices of other traditions. Where I find the word
' idolatry' helpful is in naming the spiritual distortion
that occurs when a political or socio-economic ideology is
taken too seriously and thereby used to justify the
oppression of people. Unjustified appeals to 'national
security' in order to maintain political power by
imprisoning opponents can, in my view, properly be called
idolatrous .
0: I do wish that you would think spiritually as well as
politically, P. Surely you would not want to be so tolerant
of a god such as some of the Aztecs worshipped, who was
thought to require regular human sacrifices? If we open
ourselves up to a god like that in worship, surely we shall
find ourselves compelled to perform the most monstrous and
bloody deeds, sacrificing innocent people for no good
purpose .
3
M: You make it sound as if it were a matter of free choice.
I can assure you, it's not like that at all. Every mudang I
know struggled for years to avoid becoming a shaman. We
have all been pursued by the spirits who sent us
sinbyong (6) . You get so sick, faint so many times, that you
finally decide to let the spirits in and become a mudang.
There comes a point where it is simply the lesser of two
evils ( 7 ) .
W: What happened to the unpleasant symptoms after you let
the spirits in?
M: That's how we know that they were caused by the spirits,
because they disappear after the mudang lets them in. When
you start doing your own ku t, you just feel your spirits
stealing into you and taking over. You feel that you are
number one in the world and that you have nothing to worry
about • because it is all up to the spirits (8) .
E: In my view, these spirits are quite real in your
experience and such spirits can be quite real in the
experience of anyone. Even western scientific thinking is
beginning to recognize this, for example, through the
influential work of Carl Jung (9) which explicates much about
our unconscious mental functioning. Nevertheless, I think
that I am enough of a Confucian to be worried by the
completeness with which you give yourself over to whatever
the spirits may decide to do.
M: You are also a man; it is much harder for men (10) .
W: This is a point that particularly interests me. Why do
you think that the shamanic experience is harder for men?
M: Because the spirits really possess you and push you
around. We women are used to this, but men are not. I get
used to letting the spirits run my body and then doing
whatever I have to ' afterwards when they leave me alone.
W: I . think I understand the experience of ecstasy, which
for me is a state in which my body finds its freedom to move
as it pleases, not as my conscious mind and social
conditioning dictate. I am wondering whether the idea and
experience of spirit possession does not originate from the
impossibility of achieving this freedom within the
culturally imposed ideas of proper behaviour for men and
particularly for women in Korea, so that only a divine power
can over-rule these constraints .( 11 )
M: I didn't expect that you would believe in the reality of
the spirits.
W: I don't disbelieve in your spirits, but I don't quite
know how to believe in them, either. I experience different
4.
voices in my mind, some of which come from what I think of
as myself, some of which do not. I believe in the real
existence of such things as these voices and I am quite
happy to think of them all as coming from 'spirit', my own
spirit as well as spirit from beyond me. These voices also
sometimes appear along with images or bodily feelings or in
a sense of a presence other than myself. This is what I
find in my own experience as something to use in trying to
understand what your experience of spirit possession might
be .
E: I don't go so far as the European Enlightenment in
declaring that spirits other than human simply don't exist,
because there are experiences such as the ecstasy, trance
and spirit -possession ( 12 ) in the kut which need to be talked
about without prejudging, for example, that such things are
always a matter of mental illness. Like Jung, I am also
aware of the special experiences of spiritually significant
encounters that don't happen in the arena of outward and
public experience. Men have such experiences as well as
women, though there may be some differences on account of
the different socialization of men and women or perhaps our
different genetic make-up. I still believe that it is
ethically important that we maintain our personal
responsibility for our actions; I also recognize that these
experiences can't happen if you maintain a tight self-
control, which seems required by ethical responsibility.
This is not a matter that I can resolve.
0: This shows why it is important to make some judgements
about the spirits. P is fond of quoting at me the text
which says "Test the spirits, to see if they be of God"
(lJohn 4:1-5) . She likes to say that we have to encounter
the spirits before we can test them. Of course, the text
goes on to say that any spirit that does not recognize that
Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God, so that I doubt
the results will be favourable to the kut. I have to admit
that I am reluctant to engage in this test because I was
brought up to think of the spirits of the kut as demons.
W: You are the victim of an inaccurate translation of the
Greek of the New Testament, 0. The word for 'spirit' in
Greek is ' daimon' , which is neutral in meaning. When this
word is translated into its English derivative 'demon', a
strongly negative sense is introduced instead of the more
appropriate neutral sense. This brings us back to the
question of worship. The word originally had the sense of
praising and acknowledging the worthship or value of God.
Yet this is rather a formal and external understanding which
stays -in the context of courtly ritual and the flatteries of
high society. I would have thought that worship, at least
for Christians, carries a sense of opening your life up
before God for direction, healing and energizing.
5'
P: Yes, it does. The same is obviously true in the kut,
which is why I think it a religious ceremony involving
worship. This is where 0's difficulties arise. I say that
if we Christians accept psychological counsellors using
their cleverness without insisting that they be Christian
before they help people, why shouldn't we approach the kut
in the same way? There is also the need to respect the
religious beliefs and practices of our friends and
neighbours by dropping the prejudicial misunderstandings
that we have inherited from our missionary teachers. We now
know enough to realize that, while the missionaries were
deeply sincere, they were often very narrow and culturally
biased in their views of Korean practices and beliefs.
Similarly, I don't have a problem in rejecting the European
Enlightenment criticism that there are no spirits anyway.
There is something beyond the ordinary level at work in the
kut, whatever language we use to describe it.
E: Have you seen a kut ritual, W? Some of your colleagues
might be surprised by such practices as the dancing on the
sharpened knives .
W: I have seen one kut, though it didn't feature the dance
on the knives. I have been very impressed by the detailed
accounts of this dance that I have read (13). The practice
does seem to suggest that human beings are capable of extra-
ordinary physical immunity under the special conditions of
trance and of the full commitment to the protection of the
spirits called for by the ritual. There are similar claims
made for fire walking ceremonies in India and the Pacific,
as well as the ritual demonstrations of physical immunity in
the worship of the Gadari dervishes of Kurdestan (14 ) .
M: Yes, we dance on the knives. If we don't do it right,
we could be seriously hurt. Sometimes I feel really sad
about having to be a mudang . Nobody should have to dance on
knives just because the spirits want to show off (15) .
W: Actually, the point that concerned me more was the use
of money, overtly to buy favour from the spirits, but as
everyone knows, actually to pay the mansin. I was brought
up on stories about Martin Luther starting the Protestant
Reformation as a result of rejecting the practice of the
sale of indulgences, which were to pay for prayers for the
dead and were thus supposed to assist the souls of the loved
ones to get out of Purgatory more quickly. The greedy
demands for money that the spirits make could perhaps be
justified as requiring a real commitment from people, but I
have to say that I find it surprisingly ungracious.
M: Was this Martin Luther a European Confucian scholar? He
sounds like a spokesman for the Yangban (16) . Everyone knows
about the money. What people pay is an honest contract that
is all agreed before the ritual starts. I don't charge more
than people can afford to pay (17) . How else are we going to
get paid for helping people with their spiritual problems?
E: The commercialization of the services of the mansin goes
together with their 'outcast' status throughout the Yi
Dynasty and until now. Their low social status made open
organizing very difficult, leading the mansins to enter into
these individual contracts for each occasion .( 18 )
W: I suppose my problem is that I don't find it easy to
believe that the dead ancestors of people want their money.
This came home to me in a vivid way through an experience
that I had two days after attending the kut. It seemed to
me that my dead grandmother was somehow present with me. I
expressed my concern and guilt that I had not thought about
her for years. I mentally referred to the elaborate
ceremonies of remembrance performed by Koreans. Her reply
shook me; she said, "They have their traditions and we have
ours". She was very firm about not wanting anything at all
from me. I now accept that this is the attitude of my
ancestors, which I find generous and gracious. (19) This is
probably why I have difficulty with the role of money in the
action of the kut.
P: When the spirit of the 'high official' extorts money
from people in the kut, it is a highly satirical evocation
of the frequently encountered reality that powerful people
require bribes before they will do their duty. This is a
central part of the han (20) of the Korean people.
O: I can accept that if people want to spend their money
for the kut, this is not my business. I can also accept
that the ritual is therapeutic for the people who sponsor
it. I rather like the idea that the particular stories of
people's suffering revealed in the kut amount to a social
biography of the minjung [ 21) , as I can understand how this
would be psychologically helpful to the people. I am not a
minjung theologian because I am not a theologian, and I
think that the church is for everybody, not just one class
of people (22) . My difficulty remains, which is that the kut
worships spirits that are less than God, as we know God in
the Christian tradition.
P: I am really pleased to hear that there is something in
minjung theology which you like, 0. Also, I think you
should consider yourself a theologian when you are working
so hard on theological questions about our worship of God.
I don't think minjung theology has to deny that the grace of
God is for everybody; the gracious mercy of God can take the
form of judgement and a call to repentance for oppressors,
along with condemnation of the social dimensions of sin.
Maybe W is right after all, that we are basically troubled
by different understandings of what worship is. I can see
how the attitude of the people in the kut is worship as we
7
talked about it earlier, the opening up of ourselves to the
mysterious divine reality which is above us. If the kut is
a social biography of the minjung and a means of identifying
and resolving the han of the people, this should be thought
of as a spiritual achievement which includes, but goes
beyond, therapy. The attitude of the mansins is a bit
different from this, as they have to deliver the divine
presence and guidance. Perhaps we should be comparing their
work with that of the Christian ministers in their
preparation and delivery of the sermon and the conducting of
the Eucharist . (23 )
E: I . have often wondered why Christians make such a fuss
about polytheism, which is what I take your difficulty to
be, 0. The spirits of the dead ancestors are individual on
the basis that they were individual people when alive.
Nobody suggests that the existence of many human individuals
is any kind of challenge to monotheism. If we focus on the
spiritual presence of a particular place, say a mountain or
a waterfall, surely it is being separated out from the rest
of spiritual reality only by our attention. I was impressed
by the value of H. Richard Niebuhr's distinction between
henotheism, the 'one god' of a particular tribe or culture,
and monotheism, which transcends this partial and one-sided
focus by providing the underlying unity for all our
particular experiences ( 24 ) . I fail to see why polytheism
and monotheism cannot coexist as different and necessary
perspectives on the mysterious divine dimension, with
polytheism reflecting our lived experience of the divine
while radical monotheism maintains the transcendent unity of
being. Niebuhr's analysis is very helpful in identifying
the main opponent of monotheism as henotheism in which a
finite source of value and object of loyalty is treated as
if it were absolute, eternal and infinite. This henotheism
is the root of all forms of imperialism and fundamentalism.
He also points out the inevitable tendency of monotheism
itself to turn into a new henotheism once it enters into
human experience with a definite form(25).
0: I hold to the Old Testament prophetic tradition with its
strong critique of human attempts to manipulate God and its
call for love and loyalty to God alone. I must admit that I
am not quite sure at this moment how this relates to
Niebuhr's distinction between henotheism and monotheism, as
it seems to have elements of both.
W: You know, 0, I am quite surprised to find that I have
some sympathy for your position here. It must be my
Lutheran upbringing or something, though I thought that I
had left that behind me long ago. I think that the Hebrew
prophets are to be respected for their strong voice for
social justice and for their struggle for a coherent
theology. E's idea that monotheism can coexist with
polytheism strikes me as highly paradoxical . Unless both
ideas . are held in tension, one or other will collapse into
its opposite. It reminds me of Luther's strange idea that
the Christian is simul Justus et peccator, or as you seem to
be suggesting, E, simul christianus et paganus (26) . I can
sympathize with 0's discomfort.
M: You people lost me quite some time ago. Does this mean
that I am in league with the devil or doesn't it?
E: That must be a question for you Christians to answer, as
I don't find the figure of the devil at all persuasive as a
mythological idea which relates to the kut, except in the
limited role of hell as the bad destination for departed
souls .
P: I would agree that the devil is a mythological figure
and not one that relates to the role of the mansin in the
kut, apart from the controlled appearances of the messengers
from hell. Anyway, I dislike our tradition of playing up
the competition between God and the devil as if they were on
the same level. In the Bible, Satan is a fallen angel and
therefore a creature originally part of God's good creation.
Satan has a role, that of tester, which we should
acknowledge and honour. Our hatred of Satan stems from our
fear that we might not pass the test.
0: Next you will be telling me that there is no such thing
as sin, apart from the social injustices perpetrated by the
powerful. Surely Satan is an active tempter, not simply an
examination- setter?
P: Yes, but temptation can only work through our own
disordered tendencies, so that it is important not to lose
sight of our complicity in sins we commit. You haven't
answered M's question, 0. Do you see the devil at work in
her spirits?
0: I am sorry to say that I am not sure what I think about
that right now. I used to believe that that was so, but
perhaps what I really think is that they are something other
than the Holy Spirit. For me, this means that worship of
these spirits is not appropriate. I am also very doubtful
about intimate familiarity with them. They do seem tricky
and unreliable to me, which smacks of the demonic. I am
sorry that I can't be more definite.
M: I think it is rather sweet of you to be uncertain. I
was expecting a much more dogmatic response.
P: I find it helpful to think of the concrete spirits that
manifest themselves in the experience of the kut as familiar
realities, such as our own ancestors, with whom it is
possible to deal. We naturally feel some fear at their
uncanny nature and threatening aspect. Christian faith
ci.
tells me that we should approach every situation in the
power of the Holy Spirit which includes that perfect love
which casts out fear. We can show respect for the spirits
that we encounter, on the basis of being willing to hear
what they have to offer us and to discern what their needs
might be. I myself would draw the line at being dominated
by these spirits; at that point we might need help in
gaining our freedom. This is quite dangerous territory in
human terms. Without the clarity of religious tradition and
specific spiritual practices, such spirits can overwhelm us.
W: I was interested to read about the experiences of
Deaconess Chang(27), a former shaman who became a Christian
on the basis of an exorcism of her spirits initiated quite
contrary to her will by her son. What I found particularly
significant was the advice that she received from the old
mudang whom she told about the pressure that her Christian
family was putting on her. The advice, which was to follow
her husband's lead into an acceptance of Christianity, would
seem to typify the syncretistic and adaptive spirit of the
shamanic tradition.
M: Surely her spirits made her suffer for deserting them?
W: Yes, she tells of serious sinbyong symptoms for five
years thereafter, which were overcome through praying and
through constant support from the church members.
E: I can understand the advice of the old mudang. There is
a strong element of compulsion involved for the shamans,
where the spirits come in and push them around, disordering
their lives until they co-operate with the spirits. Why
should shamans remain loyal to such spirits when a
potentially more powerful spirit comes onto the scene?
Christianity has shown itself capable of considerable
spiritual power and it is part of the shamanic pattern
simply to fall in with what the powerful spirits want. This
was my original question, whether Christianity is not
covertly benefitting from its use of the spiritual power of
Korean shamanism while overtly condemning it as satanism.
P: I think that you are right about this, as I said before.
I was brought up in the church to condemn shamanism as
demonic. I became interested in shamanism in a positive
sense when I started to work in a minjung church and found
that the ordinary people naturally turned to the shamans for
spiritual help when they were in trouble. I realized that I
needed to respect what the experience of the minjung has
taught them. Even if I might think that their answers are
not the only answers and that perhaps something should be
done to address the earthly causes of the sufferings of the
people (28) , my thoughts are not relevant unless I have
earned a place with the people.
E: I have to say that you Christians seem surprisingly
willing to turn everything upside down. You have discovered
the strength of the small, but your commitment to it seems
at times to lack balance. Why do you give the motley and
variegated lower groups in society so much authority in the
shaping of your work? Surely their voices are too diverse
and confused to provide you with reliable guidance?
P: The harmony that we seek is inclusive of all beings.
This is what we understand God to have for our world as the
preferred future. We take this to mean that the present
order, however good in relative terms, is based upon
unacceptable distinctions. We find our direction in
dialogue with all kinds of people, but under the power of
this divine vision which pushes us to this radical
inclusiveness .
0: Yes, this is where I agree with P. Christian faith
really is for all people and we cannot accept human
distinctions and limitations in our work. I see great value
in challenging the people with whom we work to accept this
radical inclusiveness, which is a part of what I would mean
by wanting them to become Christian.
W: Well, I am not so ready to rush into a thoughtless
abolition of all distinctions. Next, you will be telling me
that men and women are not really any different from each
other. I would like to continue discussing the mansin' s
experience of spirit possession and how it relates to the
singing and dancing, but perhaps you people have other
concerns at this point .
0: Yes, I have quite enough to think about for now.
Perhaps this discussion has shown me another way of looking
at shamanism, even if I am not ready to accept it for
myself. Thank you, everyone!
E: Perhaps we have gone far enough for today. I must say
that I am pleased with our progress in sharing our different
thoughts and perspectives. I would like to think further
about your strange Christian vision of an ideal world, fresh
from God, somehow descending on us in the future.
M: Well, I am glad that you people had a good time, as I
was quite lost when you really got going. Still, you do
move into difficult areas like mudangs , with no fussing
about whether it is OK to say something or not. I think I
like you!
P: Thank you, M, for your patience with us intellectuals
and for your gracious words. I am feeling really happy that
we listened to each other for a change, so that maybe we all
learned some important things. I was quite impressed by the
ideas of our philosopher friends. I hope that we can find
ways to explore these things further.
W: Yes, I hope so. I particularly valued hearing Korean
perspectives on spirituality. You have helped me to take
another look at my 'Sunday School' Christianity which I have
long rejected as worthless. Thanks also for your
willingness to talk with a stranger like me.
E: You are very welcome. Please come again.
Endnotes :
(1) I am using the term ' mans in' to refer to female shamans
who experience possession by spirits, even though it is a
term mainly used in the Seoul area, on the grounds that it
is more polite than the general term for female shamans,
'mudang' . This latter term is used by the Mansin in this
dialogue, as part of her 'down to earth' style. Cf . Laurel
Kendall, Shamans, Housewives and Other Restless Spirits.
University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1985, p . xi .
(2) 'Kut' is the general Korean word for the larger
shamanistic rituals involving a household or village. Cf .
Lee Jung Young, Korean Shamanistic Rituals, Mouton
Publishers, The Hague, 1981.
(3) Cf . Youngsook Kim Harvey, Six Korean Women, West
Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn., 1979, pp.26-7.
(4) Cf . David Kwang-sun Suh, The Korean Miniung in Christ,
Commission on Theological Concerns, Christian Conference of
Asia, Hong Kong, 1991, pp.11-7. "It is a matter of degree
in different churches in Korea: spirit possession is
transferred to faith in the Holy Ghost. The practice,
theology and structure of spirit possession is the same in
the mudang religion and Korean Christianity. This may be
the strength of Korean churches. But it is also an extreme
case of the seduction of the spirit as Harvey Cox has seen
it: Korean Protestantism has almost been reduced to a
Christianized mudang religion. That is, the form and
language of the worship service are Christian, but the
content and structure of what Korean Christians adhere to
are basically the mudang religion. Although missionaries
rejected shamanism and thought it had been destroyed, Korean
Christianity has become almost completely shamanized."
Ibid, p.116. I remain grateful to Professor David Kwang-sun
Suh for his friendship and for our conversations.
(5) Cf . Hahm Pyong Choon, "Shamanism and the Korean World
View" , in Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea, Asian
Humanities Press, Berkeley, Ca . , 1988, p.78.
(6) Cf . L. Kendall, Shamans, Housewives and Other Restless
Spirits , p.57. For an account of sinbyong, which is a word
for the special sickness afflicting shamans prior to their
taking up the shamanic role, cf. Y.K. Harvey, Six Korean
Women, p.5-6. This issue is a main focus for each of the
stories of the women surveyed.
(7) Ibid, p . 1 0 7 .
( 8 ) Ibid, p . 32 .
(9) Carl Jung, like Sigmund Freud, continues to have a deep
and ubiquitous influence upon the thinking and development
of western culture .
(10) Cf . "An Interview with Kim Kum Hwa" , Koreana : Korean
Art and Culture, Vol . 6 No . 2 , Summer 1992, p.52.
(11) Cf Y.K. Harvey, Six Korean Women, pp. 235-40.
(12) Cf . Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of
Ecstasy, Pantheon, New York, 1951. Professor Yoon Yee Heum
(Seoul National University) points out that in Korean
shamanism the emphasis is upon the possession of the shaman
by the spirits rather than upon the ecstatic spirit
jpourney. Cf . Yoon Yee Heum, "The Role of Shamanism in
Korean History", Koreana: Korean Art and Culture, Vol . 6
No . 2 , Summer 1992, pp.6-9. I am very grateful to Professor
Yoon for granting me an interview.
(13) Cf . Koreana: Korean Art and Culture, p.54 and Alan
Carter Coveil, Ecstasy: Shamanism in Korea, Hollym
International Corp., Elizabeth, New Jersey & Seoul, Korea,
1983, pp. 48-52.
(14) For the latter, cf . "The Dervishes of Kurdestan" , a
BBC documentary from about 1975 about the rites of the
Gadari dervishes in "The Disappearing World" series.
(15) Cf . Y.K. Harvey, Six Korean Women, p.136-7 and "An
Interview with Kim Kum Hwa", Koreana: Korean Art and
Culture , p.54.
(16) The word yangban refers to the aristocratic class in
traditional Korean society which was determined by birth.
" Yangban in Korean means the highest social class with the
highest education. The members of the Yangban are supposed
to have passed the state civil examinations in the difficult
and respectable Chinese letters, not in the vulgar Korean
language. They are the ones who receive land free from the
king, and they are the -largest landowners. The magistrate
of a village comes from this class. They do not have to
work. They are the masters of the nation and the landlords
in the village. They are the political rulers. In short,
they are the powerful people." David Kwang-sun Suh, The
Korean Miniuncr in Christ, p.170.
(17) Cf . Y.K. Harvey, Six Korean Women, pp. 159-60.
(18) Cf. Ibid, p . 3 6 .
(19) This reported experience is based upon an experience
of my own, which occurred as I was waking up on the second
morning after my attendance at a kut.
(20) "'Han' is a sense of unresolved resentment against
injustice suffered, a sense of helplessness because of
overwhelming odds against, a feeling of acute pain or
sorrow" . David Kwang-sun Suh, The Korean Minjung- in Christ,
p. 195 .
"The alienated masses are the people of han, of that psycho-
somatic anguish and pain resulting from unrequited
injustices. The people engaging in Shamanistic rituals
body, soul and spirit are thus releasing their accumulated
han!" C. S. Song, "Building a Theological Culture of
People", in An Emerging Theology in World Perspective:
Commentary on Korean Minjung Theology, p.123.
(21) "..the word minjung is a Korean pronunciation of two
Chinese characters, 'min' and ' jung' . 'Min' literally means
'the people' and 'jung' 'the mass'. Combining these two
words, we get the idea of 'the mass people' or simply 'the
people' ." Lee Jung Young, An Emerging Theology in World
Perspective: Commentary on Korean Minjung Theology, Ed. Lee
Jung Young, Twenty Third Publications, Mystic, Connecticut,
1988, p.3. The term is not translated to indicate that it
has a special meaning in the Korean context (for example,
over against the yangban, or aristocratic class) and that it
involves a practical solidarity with the oppressed Korean
people as much as the ideas usually constitutive of a
theology. Cf . also David Kwang Sun Suh, The Korean Minjung
in Christ, and the Commission on Theological Concerns of the
Christian Conference of Asia, Minjung Theology: People as
the Subjects of History, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York,
1983 .
"Korean Christians became more and more conscious of their
own historical roots in their active participation in the
people's struggle for socio-economic justice [during 1968-75
approx.] . They started over again in looking into the
traditional religious consciousness of the Korean people, in
identifying themselves with the culture and language of the
common people of the minjung, and in studying the history of
the development of Korean Christianity." David Kwang-sun
Suh, The Korean Minjung in Christ, p.78.
"In the Korean setting shamanism has provided a faith for
the alienated masses". Ryu Tong Shik, "Shamanism: The
Dominant Folk Religion of Korea", Inter-religio , 5, Spring
1984, p.13. I am very grateful to Professor Ryu Tong Shik
for granting me an interview.
For the idea that the central action of the kut articulates
the lived oppressive and pain-ridden experience, the social
biography, of the minjung, cf. Kim Yong Bock, "Messias und
Minjung: Zur Unterscheidung von messianischer Politik und
politischem Messianismus " , in Minjung: Theologie des Volkes
Gottes in Sudkorea, Ed. J.Moltmann, Neu-kirchen-Vluyn, 1984.
(22) Cf . Lee Jung Young, An Emerging Theology in World
Perspective: Commentary on Minjung Theology, pp.21-2.
(23) Cf . Sun Soon-Hwa, Women, Religion and Power: A
Comparative Study of Korean Shamans and Women Ministers,
Doctoral Dissertation, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey,
1991. I am very grateful to Professor Sun Soon-Hwa for a
copy of her Dissertation and for her support for my study
pro j ect .
(24) . Cf . H.R. Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western
Culture , Harper & Row, New York, 1960 (1943), pp. 11-37. "In
the following reflections I shall try to analyze this
conflict [of faiths] as one between radical monotheism and
the other main forms of human faith, namely, polytheism and
henotheism in their modern, nonmythological guise. The
chief rival to monotheism, I shall contend, is henotheism or
that social faith which makes a finite society, whether
cultural or religious, the object of trust as well as of
loyalty and which tends to subvert even officially
monotheistic institutions, such as the churches." Ibid.
P-11-
(25) Ibid, pp .56-63 .
(26) This idea of simul chris tianus et paganus comes to me
from Professor Kim Kwang Shik of Yonsei University, as a
pointer towards a general approach to an understanding of
the appropriation of Christianity within a culture. I am
particularly grateful to Professor Kim for granting me an
interview .
This Lutheran emphasis upon the co-existence of Christian
and non-Christian elements within a culture could perhaps be
balanced by the Calvinist expectation that the Christian
dynamic will transform the culture, as formulated in the
classic study of H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture,
Harper, New York, 1956. There is also the reality that the
culture of people will shape new ways of seeing Christ, as
noted by Lee Jung Young in An Emerging Theology in World
Perspective: Commentary on Korean Miniung Theolocry, p.18.
(27) Y.K. Harvey, Six Korean Women, pp. 205-234.
(28) Cf . Park II Young, Miniuncr, Schamanismus und
Inkulturat ion : Schamanist iches Religiositat und Christliche
Orthopraxis in Korea, Seoul, 1988 (Doctoral Dissertation,
Freiburg University, Switzerland) .
Shamanism and Christianity
Work in Progress (Rev. Dr.) Sandy Yule
Dialogue 2
This dialogue reflects my experience of studying Japanese
religions from the perspective of their relationships with
shamanism and Christianity, particularly as I had just
encountered these in Korea. I wish to record my thanks to
Kyoto Seika University for their hospitality and support for
this work. Particular thanks are due to Professors Ha j ime
Nakao and Richard Tanter, as well as to the staff of the
International Education Office. I am also very grateful to
the many Japanese colleagues who have been very generous
with their hospitality, their time and their information.
While the views expressed are my responsibility, whatever
degree of contact with Japanese reality that there may be is
due to these colleagues.
The Participants :
0, a traditional male Korean Protestant pastor; P, a female
progressive Korean Protestant seminary teacher; W, a female
Australian philosopher; and J, a female Japanese humanities
graduate .
W: I would like to introduce J, who has come to Korea to
meet Korean people and to listen to Korean perspectives.
She is also interested in religion, particularly shamanism.
She is staying in the same guesthouse as myself, which is
how we met . She has read the transcript of our last
meeting .
0: I am happy to welcome you, J. I wish that more of your
people would make this journey to meet with us and to be
willing to listen to what we have to say. E asked me to
present his apologies; he found himself unable to attend
this meeting.
P: We are pleased to meet you and to have you join in our
conversation, J. If you were hoping to meet M, I am afraid
you are too late. She says that her spirits don't want her
to meet with us as a group, though she can meet with us as
individuals. I think our conversation was a bit too
academic last time.
J: Thank you for your welcome. I am sorry not to meet E
and M. This is my first visit to Korea, though I have some
Korean friends at home.
0: Then perhaps you are aware that there are some important
things that have not been set right between our countries.
J: I am here because I regret our colonization of Korea. I
know that Japanese soldiers killed many Koreans so that
Korean people and Korean natural resources could be used for
Japanese advantage.
0: It is good to hear you acknowledge these things. Have
you had a chance to visit the Korean Independence Hall?
That gives a good account of Japanese colonialism and Korean
resistance .
J: No, I haven't been there. That sounds like a good thing
for me to visit.
W: I have visited it. It does give a graphic and moving
account of the suffering of the Korean people under Japanese
colonialism and of the struggle for national independence.
My only concern was with the more contemporary political
agenda of the Chun Doo Whan regime that created Independence
Hall while brutally repressing domestic dissent (1). I am
allergic to nationalistic displays in my own country and
tend to be suspicious of nationalism promoted by
governments .
0: Are you criticizing the Independence Hall display?
W: I am in no position to criticize how Koreans choose to
tell their story. I support the Korean struggle for
independence, which is still needed to achieve a proper
reunification of the country. Still, fervent nationalism
always makes me uneasy. My reaction comes from our
Australian experience with patriotism. Australians
habitually went to fight overseas in support of the imperial
wars of Britain. The Australian national myth has focused
strongly on the Gallipoli campaign during the First World
War, which was a military disaster. We remember that our
soldiers fought with incredible bravery and self-sacrifice
when sent into a militarily impossible position by the
British. Patriotism like that will get you killed for no
good purpose .
P: Why do you present this as a reason for suspecting
patriotism in general rather than for developing a
patriotism based on your own place and not on an outdated
imperial loyalty to the country of your ancestors?
W: Maybe we are the transitional generations who are
detached from our ancestral roots but not yet properly
grounded in Australian soil. Most appeals to patriotism
that I have heard are made by politicians or military
figures who ask us to take the justice of our own cause on
trust. I want to know when the personal and sectional self-
interest of the leaders dominates the supposedly patriotic
agenda .
I 1
P: I do know what you mean. I support the national feeling
of our people, but I can agree with your concern about the
manipulation of this feeling by governments. I remember the
constant talk about national security by our own recent
military regimes, which was used to suppress dissent and
avoid talking about unjust happenings in our society.
0: Perhaps I am being unreasonable in expecting that non-
Koreans can approach that display with more than a
sympathetic respect. I simply find it hard to see any
justice in colonialism. Also, I think you should let J find
her own response to the Independence Hall display, W.
W: Fair comment! I think that there is now a consensus
about the injustice of colonial rule because of the protests
and the graphic stories of injustice from colonized peoples
all around the world. The dominant international opinion
last century was in favour of the 'more advanced' countries
taking responsibility for the direction of the 'less
advanced' .
J: Yes, I was quite shocked to discover that the 'father'
of the Meiji enlightenment, Fukuzawa Yikichi, was prepared
to legitimate the colonization of Korea in terms of the
image of big brother Japan leading little brother Korea out
of feudal darkness (2) .
P: It is not so surprising when you remember that Japan
took Britain as a model and that at that time Britain had
colonized half the world. Even a Protestant like Ichimura
Kanzo, who lost his teaching job because of his refusal to
worship the Japanese Emperor, was prepared to endorse the
colonization of our country because Japan needed to be
sufficiently powerful to limit European expansion (3) . I am
pleased that you can see the damage done by this
colonialism, J. But we were talking about shamanism, which
has few obvious connections with imperialism; perhaps you
could tell us why you found our previous conversation
interesting .
J: I am not sure that I know. It certainly made me think.
I was interested to learn that Korean shamans are mainly
women and relate mainly to domestic needs. Maybe that is
why you all found it so benign. I find shamanism quite
uncanny and scary.
0: I thought that you didn't have any shamanism in Japan,
apart from the traditional practices of the Ainu and
communities on Okinawa, and the blind female shamans in the
area around Mt . Osore .
J: Those are the groups traditionally called shamanistic,
which probably have ancient Siberian roots, like the Korean
shamans. But we also have a number of Shinto and Buddhist
schools or sects, as well as a few localized community-
rituals using trance and spirit possession. Some of these
schools support the ascetic practices of the yamabushi (4) ,
who live in a close spiritual connection with nature through
constant pilgrimage in the mountains. These schools teach
ascetic disciplines for achieving the spiritual power to
direct and engage with the spirits that possess others.
Your reports about shamans dancing barefoot and unharmed on
sharp knives reminded me of our ritual climbing of ladders
of knives by lay people under the assistance and protection
of spiritually accomplished ascetics (5).
W: Why do you find this scary?
J: Well, I find anything to do with the spirit world
uncanny, which is also scary. My main fear, however, is
that if these powers are available to anyone who goes
through a few ascetic practices, how do we know that these
powerful people are trustworthy?
W: Noting the fact that many of these powerful people are
men, I can sympathize with your feelings here, though it is
comforting to note that ascetic discipline and the role of
groups both make it more likely that ethical traditions are
learned with the powers.
0: This is what I was trying to say last time, when you
were all scoffing at me. Personal power is all very well,
but if it is not ethically grounded, we have cause for
concern .
P : I share your concern about the abuses of power by the
powerful, but to oppose abuses we need our own power. I am
less afraid of the personal power of shamans than I am of
the organized repressive power of the state, as we
experienced this in the Japanese and Korean military
regimes. This is why I see shamans as potential allies, as
long as they are people of good will.
J: I get quite confused when you flip from personal powers
to political powers, P. Yet maybe this is one of the things
that I found exciting in your previous conversation, because
it touches the belief in my country that our emperor is a
god, which brings personal and political power into the
closest union imaginable. (6)
W: I have never understood the Meiji project of making the
emperor into a god. Perhaps this is because I am thinking
of the Judaeo-Christian idea of god as infinite, eternal and
all the things that mortals like the Japanese emperor are
not. Maybe the Meiji restoration was trying to recreate a
past time when the rulers were shamans.
O: I imagine that, when the ruler was a shaman, he or she
would have consulted the spirits and then done as
instructed. I find this quite a scary way to conduct
politics! There is no telling what the spirits might want.
P: Shamans are not gods, even if they sometimes talk with
gods on their journeys. The Japanese emperor is not noted
for shamanic powers, apart from the mystical political
representative functions that attach to any ruler. Each
ruler is special to their own people. What I would like is
a conversation with a Shinto believer so that I might gain a
better understanding. I find it hard to see much more than
an exercise of state power and ideological indoctrination in
the imposition of emperor worship on Japan and its colonies.
0: Worshipping the Japanese emperor was idolatrous, from a
Christian perspective. The fact that this was imposed on us
by brute force was spiritually humiliating, giving a
religious dimension to our national resistance.
W: While I would agree with you that the emperor is not
divine in any literal sense, the choice by Japanese society
of their emperor as the symbol of national unity does not
seem strange to me. The role of the Pope in the Roman
Catholic Church seems essentially similar in this respect,
as do some of the mediaeval European theories about royalty.
Anyway, to understand these ideas properly, we need to hear
them presented from the perspective of a believer. I think
we should affirm the existence of nations, each with its own
national symbols and practices, on a pluralistic basis which
requires mutual respect. What I find offensive in the
Japanese emperor worship is the willingness to impose it by
force on non-Japanese people and on Japanese dissenters .( 7 )
P: This is an interesting point, W. The literal claim
about the Japanese emperor was that he was a living kami , or
power (8) . As I understand it, J, kami are recognized
primarily through the feelings of the appropriately
sensitive people in their presence.
J: Yes, many kinds of things are enshrined as kami,
particularly impressive parts of nature, such as a mountain
or a tree or a waterfall, and powerful ancestors who have
died, such as former rulers, soldiers and other leaders.
0: Does this mean that, in Shinto, nature is God?
J: Maybe, but I was brought up to think that it was wrong
to look for an understanding of what is behind the
presentations of the kami in the shrines.
W: As a philosopher, I find that kind of prohibition on
questioning hard to accept.
P: Many religions other than Shinto discourage questioning.
W: I fail to see how a religious tradition can be
maintained with integrity if people are not encouraged to
understand it.
0: Perhaps you are right, though looking for understanding
is not always the most important thing.
W: I can accept that it might have a secondary priority at
times, but not that it be completely prohibited. Anyway, I
want to understand the kami and I find it confusing that
anything, it seems, can be a kami if it impresses someone.
Does this mean that a drink of water on a hot day is a kami ?
J: It is rather hard to enshrine something that has been
completely consumed, like a drink of water, though a stream
could certainly be enshrined. Kami is a title of honour, so
that while everything has a spiritual side and so is
potentially a kami , only those which somehow stand out are
in fact honoured and enshrined. (9)
P: The kami are expected to provide various life-sustaining
exercises of power. This is one of the better reasons why
they need the support of human energies. This became clear
to me when I was in your country once, J. I was walking
through a Shinto shrine one night, feeling quite tired and
sore in the head. The thought occurred to me that I could
ask the power at this shrine for spiritual help and healing.
I started to act prayerfully on this thought when I was
stopped by the response that seemed to come from the place,
which was that I should not bring any impurity into the
shrine. If I was sore, that was my problem. I became aware
of the difference between this power and the Judaeo-
Christian tradition which encourages us to 'cast our burdens
on the Lord' , or the Boddhisattva tradition of beings whose
compassion for suffering humanity leads them to offer help.
It seemed to me that the kami preferred to be treated as a
human emperor might, wanting only the strength and service
of other people in support of its difficult life-maintaining
work . ( 10 )
W: What I find confusing is that kami can be living parts
of our environment or the spirits of dead people; I think of
these two realities quite differently.
P: This is your western individualism and humanism
speaking; you think of yourself and other humans as
something other than a part of nature.
W: Perhaps so. I can see that Shinto treats us humans as
being on a par with other features of the natural world.
O: In my view, humans have a heavenly destiny which is
beyond that of the rest of nature. I agree with your first
thought, W.
J: That is the kind of thinking that has helped to put us
into our present ecological difficulties. Belief in the
kami is ecologically useful.
W: I can see the power of the kami for Japanese people in
the shape of Japanese cities, which seem to avoid the slopes
and summits of the surrounding hills almost completely. The
human need for living space is intense, so that the power of
the kami who live in the hills can be seen in this
resistance to the expansion of the cities. A partial
exception to this is the city of Nagasaki, where belief in
the kami may be less than elsewhere, due to Christian
influence. Belief in the kami is useful for preserving
forests on hills, but it is not useful for meeting the needs
of modern cities for options in land use.
0: In any case, to show that a belief is useful does not
mean that it is true. Enshrining kami is idolatrous because
it means worshipping a creature when we should really
worship only the Creator. Worship of the Japanese emperor,
a finite power however we look at him, was promoted by the
state as if there were no other gods of any value. This is
exactly what Richard Niebuhr means by henotheism, as we
discussed last time. If the kami are separate points of
encounter with the one inclusive spiritual reality, I can
see how this obvious polytheism could be compatible with
monotheism. I would prefer to call these subordinate powers
'spirits' or 'angels' rather than 'gods', but I now feel
more relaxed about it if others call them 'gods' .
J: I was wondering whether the spirits encountered by
Korean shamans are much the same as our Japanese kami.
P: That is a question that you should ask M, though you
will have to explain to her about the kami in your country.
It seems to me that they are very similar. M has a personal
shrine with pictures and other resting places for her
spirits. Many of her spirits are people who have died, but
some are nature spirits, such as the mountain god or the
spirit of the house site.
J: Korean shamanism sounds rather like Household Shinto to
me, as the rituals and beliefs do seem similar. In
addition, we have Shrine Shinto, which is very old and very
local, except for some recently created shrines designed to
meet modern needs, and State Shinto, which was the Meiji
invention designed to unify the country in the image of one
family engendered and governed by the divine imperial
line . ( 11 )
P: Korea used to have localized rites similar to Shrine
Shinto, before they were opposed and suppressed by various
governments over the last five hundred years. You can still
find a few communities, on Cheju Island for example, that
have maintained these communal rituals.
W: So the kami are spiritual beings that are encountered
through our inner experience of features of nature or the
presence of the spirits of the dead. Are they objectively
real in addition to the natural features and the earthly
lives of ancestors, or are they simply our projected mental
construction onto these realities?
P: When people spontaneously have very comparable spiritual
experiences, I think that we are dealing with something as
objectively real as anything can be.
J: Some ascetics develop the power to see the kami residing
in certain trees and rocks (12) . These are then identified
and sometimes enshrined.
W: This sounds like the ability to see energy patterns or
auras, which I can't see, though I accept that some people
can. What seems really mysterious to me is how such
energies connect with archetypal experiences which are
recorded and studied in the Jungian tradition of psychology.
I do acknowledge the persistence with which such experiences
crop up, as well as their intuitive meaningfulness for those
who have them. What I find exciting is the idea that we can
contact these realities at will, through shamanic
j ourneying .
P: You make it all sound so positive and easy! I can't
help wondering why it is so demanding and costly for the
shamans, as well as scary and potentially perilous for the
inexperienced .
W: Perhaps my sense of fear is reduced because my life has
been stable and orderly. This probably shows up in my
confused attitudes about worship. I am in favour of respect
for people and for nature, but I find the idea of
worshipping anything a bit foreign. I am quite perplexed by
the pious people who bring their offerings to the kami or to
the Buddhist images in the hope of attracting benefits such
as business success and good health.
P: Do you give presents to your friends, and feel good
about it?
W: Yes.
P: Perhaps some religious offerings are like that.
Z 3
W: Maybe I do see a benefit to me in the friendship that I
hope will be strengthened by my gifts, as well as the good
feeling I have in giving. I would like to be friends with
nature in this way, but I find that my whole upbringing and
culture stops me from joining this kind of ritual.
0: Worship for me means communion with God, which includes
our need for this-worldly benefits as a subordinate element.
P: I think it is important for us to develop rituals of
friendship with nature, just as we have rituals of
friendship within human society. The same applies to the
spirits of the dead, as far as I am concerned. I don't
worship nature or the dead, agreeing with 0 about
worshipping only God, but this doesn't mean that I can't
take part in rituals of friendship with nature and with the
dead. More normally, I would include the powers of nature
and the fellowship of those who have died in the circle of
all who join in worshipping God.
J: Actually, you Christians are not alone in criticizing
the limitations of the kami . In Buddhist terms, the kami
seem needy and therefore imperfect, acting rather like the
spirits of confused dead people who want attentions from
their living relatives. Buddhists and shamans agree that
such spirits require release from their suffering.
P: Yes, in Buddhist terms, the need to humiliate and
subjugate others comes from mental pollutions that block any
possibility of enlightenment. The whole idea of a power
that is not fully self-sufficient is inadequate by
definition. If the kami need our pious attentions, so much
the worse for the kami. Zen Buddhists might say that a
proper self -acceptance and meditative practice enables us to
root out the pollutions associated with the normal dynamics
of power.
W: I find it hard to understand why the Buddhist element in
Japanese culture showed very little inclination to see the
imposition of emperor worship by force as a mental
pollution .
J: The whole history of Buddhism in Japan is couched in
terms of political patronage and the inclusion of political
rulers in the ranks of the heavenly powers. Is it all that
different with the Christianity of Europe?
W: I suppose they are both examples of the unity of throne
and altar leading to a corruption of the ideals of the
religion, assuming that we don't accept the ideologies
supporting this unity.
P: What this unity of throne and altar always neglects is
the suffering and sacrifice of the common people. Even when
this sacrifice is acknowledged, as for example at Yasukuni
Shrine in Tokyo which memorializes the war dead (armed
services personnel who died defending the nation) , the
purpose is overwhelmingly nationalistic. It would be
interesting to know what the spirits of the individual
Japanese soldiers enshrined there would say if somehow
allowed to speak for themselves.
W: I wonder whether our western assumption of non-
communication with the dead is correct? This is one of the
strengths in Korean shamanic practice, that people are
persuaded that it is the voice of their dead relatives that
they hear through the person of the shaman. This issue was
raised for me by an experience that I had after visiting the
Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto and developing a headache.
When I looked for an internal dialogue with the pain, I
found an angry voice which told me that I was not welcome to
walk in that place. The voice was associated with a place
of inscribed stones that we had visited. I responded that I
had intended no disrespect and ended up feeling resolved
with respect to the angry voice and free of the headache. I
later found out that I had been in a section of a
graveyard. (13) Should I think of this as an encounter with
the spirits of the dead?
J: Why not? It is good to think of you being struck by
spirits while walking through a shrine and for that to lead
to some peace making.
0: I don't know what to say to you about your experience;
you do raise an interesting question about what is possible.
P: Why not accept the experience at face value? It
certainly begins to address the unresolved feelings between
Australian and Japanese people.
W: Yes, I think that this kind of encounter, apology and
acknowledgement is a spiritual action. It does not alter
anything material in the present, but perhaps it does allow
aggrieved spirits to rest in peace. It certainly has an
effect on the person who has such an experience.
P: Speaking the truth in love does seem to be important
spiritually, in all our relationships. We don't seem to be
free to move on in life until the truth has been properly
told. It is as if we have our attention fixated on the
painful spot until the truth has emerged in an accepting and
forgiving atmosphere, when we become free to shift our
attention elsewhere.
0: Here I agree with you, P. You remind me of the old
Hussite (14) slogan, "The truth shall prevail", as well as
the promise in the gospel of St. John that we shall know the
truth and the truth shall make us free (John 8:32) .
2 s.
W: This is one of the things that I find puzzling about you
Christians; you speak as if there is only one truth. Yet
each of us has our own perspective on this conversation, for
example; should we not say that each of us has our own
version of the truth? If so, how can we ever know the full
truth about anything?
0: Pilate asked Jesus the same question. I believe in a
truth which sums up, expands and includes all of our
versions of it. This unified truth is God's knowledge of
what is. Our knowledge is limited, but it is accurate when
it conforms to God's knowledge, even though we don't have
this divine knowledge and so can't say which bits of our
knowledge are accurate.
W: I would at least agree that it is powerfully therapeutic
for a person to find words for their own truth. This has
been true for me in terms of women's liberation discussions
and books, which have named realities of my own life that
used to be unmentionable and so largely excluded from my
awareness. Finding words to name these realities, such as
the injustice of some of the role expectations for women in
my society, has allowed me to make choices about how I
relate to such realities.
P: We see the power of truth when the nature of a person's
han{ 15) is properly put into words and properly received by
the community. Han is normally unspeakable, in the literal
sense .
0: This is one point at which I fully agree with the
minjung theologians; when we attend to the experience of
those who have suffered, their han is where our reflections
should begin.
P: What I find valuable in shamanism is the ability to
express powerfully felt truths from people's lived
experience, though other people such as artists, poets and
those who speak for suppressed groups share this ability.
Many Korean people are now drawing on shamanic models for
presentations that address political injustices, in
theatres (16) and at student and other political rallies.
W: I attended one such rally in your country. It was a
powerful and emotionally focused event. I have to say that
I was uncomfortable in the presence of such strong group
feeling. I am hyper- sensitive to the potential injustices
that a crowd can perpetrate when aroused; my thoughts go
quickly to the highly negative examples of lynch mobs in the
USA and the Nuremberg rallies of the Nazi Party in Germany.
It requires integrity of leadership and sophistication among
participants to control these powerful energies responsibly.
P: If M was here, she might agree with you, as I know that
she has concerns about the use of spiritual processes for
political ends (17) . Yet what alternatives did we have under
the dictatorial political system of the recent past?
0: I am interested in M's views on this, as I would also
have some concerns along those lines. I am anxious to avoid
having politicians of any kind use the church for their own
ends. I am comfortable with the church taking political
action when it becomes a matter of Christian integrity to do
so. I wasn't too sure about the realism of some of the
demands of the student movement in recent times, but when
government agents started to arrest and torture the students
(and even try to stop prayer meetings in which people were
expressing their concerns before God) , it seemed clear to me
that the truth of the Christian Gospel was at stake and
resistance was essent ial . ( 18 )
J: I don't know about realism, but the politics of han
scares me, just as shamanism does. I suppose I also feel
excitement when something unspeakable is spoken; but how can
anything make amends for the really deep injustices,
particularly after those who suffered have died?
P: As an example, my father was one of the 'prison
believers' who refused to obey the Japanese requirement of
worshipping the emperor in a Shinto shrine . He saw it as an
idolatry in which was not possible for a Christian to
participate. His national feeling and his fundamentalist
beliefs spoke with one voice. I cannot forget that he died
in that prison (19) .
J: I feel very bad when I hear about your father. What
would you consider a proper response from the Japanese
people?
P: For a start, the history of Japanese colonialism needs
to be properly acknowledged, with adequate information in
Japanese schools. The statement by Prime Minister Hosakawa
in 1993 provided a good basis, though the more detailed
statement by the Japanese House of Representatives in Diet
(June 1995) was unfortunately undermined by the public
argument about what it should contain. People outside Japan
see that powerful forces within Japan are reluctant to
acknowledge Japanese responsibility for unacceptable
colonialism and murderous aggression, perhaps because of a
desire to rekindle the Japanese imperial dream and to
recreate the 'Co-prosperity Sphere' of 1930-45 by force.
J: I can see that what you say is reasonable. I do feel
overwhelmed by the difficulty of changing this situation. I
feel both helpless and responsible at the same time.
O: J, may I ask if your family is Christian?
2 7
J: Of course you may ask! No, I was brought up to relate
to the Buddhist and Shinto traditions. I did go to a
University which had a Christian and a Socialist background.
0: I ask because it seems to me that you show a willingness
to be open to the pain of other people and to recognize
collective guilt which is particularly characteristic of the
Christian tradition, as well as of some kinds of Socialism.
Perhaps you will find it helpful to reflect on how you came
to feel as you do.
J: I was not even born when all these bad things were done
to Korean people and others prior to 1945. Even if I do
acknowledge Japanese responsibility for past and present
injustices, it all becomes too big to face. I can't even
think of what might compensate for such things as the death
of your father, P.
P: In one sense, nothing can compensate for my father's
death. Still, it has been good to receive an apology for
the wrong that has been done and to be asked for my view of
what should be done about it. For this, I thank you, J.
J: This cannot be enough, yet what would be sufficient?
The politics of han opens up such overwhelming and
unanswerable questions.
W: I wonder what the shamanic traditions can offer here?
P: I can imagine that a kut for my father's spirit might
give me a sense for what he might want done about the
injustice that he suffered.
0: I don't know about shamanism, W, but it is just this
kind of spiritual problem that preaching based on the Word
of God is meant to address.
W: Perhaps I have been unlucky in the sermons that I have
heard. Still, I am coming to see that even a consultation
with the spirits of the dead cannot resolve all problems.
The expression of han brings problems to light, but we are
then faced with the need for solutions, which usually
require action by the living.
P: We Koreans are becoming famous for expressing our han,
J. We would be honoured if you were to tell us something
from your own experience of injustice, to stop this from
becoming too one-sided.
J: Thank you for asking me. I am a bit startled by your
interest in what I might tell you. Surely you don't want to
hear about my very ordinary and unremarkable thoughts.
2 8.
P: Perhaps not. Still, I am interested in your hopes and
aspirations as well as in your sense of frustration. I do
have one question. Do you not carry a feeling of resentment
at the use of two atomic bombs against your country by the
Americans?
J: No, I don't think so. I have accepted the message of
the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "Never Again", and not
thought much more about it .
0: I find it difficult to believe that Japanese people
carry no han about the use against them of atomic weapons .
J: I can't speak for other Japanese people. I see it as
one of the terrible things that people have done to each
other in war. We Japanese did many bad things to others, as
I said at the start of this conversation. There is a
balance here that I can accept .
P : What about your experience as a woman in Japanese
society? I think your society is as male-dominated as
ours . (20)
J: There are some expectations that are unfair and
difficult, particularly if we want to take a job as well as
raise a family. I suppose I have been inclined to look at
the ways in which things have been getting better for women
through technological inventions and the influence of
western ideas about equality.
W: Am I hearing two incompatible approaches to the building
of understanding and community at this point? You Koreans
seem to be asking J to share her sense of han, as a basis
for building trust and understanding between you. J seems
reluctant to express resentments, either because she
genuinely feels none or because she doesn't want to take the
risk of expressing them.
P: Yes, I think what you say is true. We could point to
the findings of western psychology as a confirmation of the
long Korean tradition of the kut ritual in which all sorts
of guilty family secrets are exposed with mostly therapeutic
consequences. If J doesn't tell us her honest feelings, we
are left to fantasize what those feelings might be, which
generates a bad cycle of deteriorating perceptions and
expectations .
J: I feel obligated to deal with my own small problems
myself. I think my attitude is based in Buddhist and
Confucian teachings .
O: If you are speaking to us as a Japanese person, you are
sharing with us your knowledge of large problems. Han does
not arise from petty hurts but from deep and bitter
injustice. I am interested in your feelings about these
larger issues.
J: I find that I don't feel comfortable putting forward my
own feeling about large collective issues. There is a voice
in my head, perhaps from my education, which says, "Who are
you to speak for the whole Japanese people?". I want to
speak with you about our collective problems, but I am still
learning how to do this.
P: You were doing beautifully up to this point, when our
direct questions seemed to bring this inner voice to life.
W: I do think it is essential that we discuss these issues.
We face a world in which traditional spiritual practices and
understandings have widely been given up in favour of modern
science and technology which have met many human needs and
created new problems. The fanatical solutions of one-sided,
fundamentalist groups will seem inevitable in the absence of
a better understanding between peoples and nations.
P: For peace-making, which addresses causes of conflict
such as injustice and environmental degradation, we need to
develop our networks of international co-operation. We also
need to develop our spiritual contact with our ancestors and
with spirit in nature if we are to make progress on such
issues .
W: For me as an Australian, that suggests the importance of
a proper reconciliation with the Aboriginal people and their
ancestors, whose land we have taken by force. Maybe
shamanic practices do have something to offer in this area.
J: You are making me think about the Ainu, W. This is
another aspect of our history that I have not previously had
to worry over.
P: Perhaps you need to avoid taking too heavy a sense of
responsibility for the whole history of your people, J. I
appreciate the fact that you are prepared to look on us as
fellow human beings with whom you can join and talk. This
is where peace is made, in the acceptance of each other as
part of the one human community.
J: Thank you, P. Yes, I do feel quite overcome by it all.
Perhaps this is enough for now; you have certainly given me
a lot to think about . I have found your approach quite
surprising. I was ready to hear many more bad stories about
what we Japanese have done to your people .
0: You already know some of that and we respect you for it.
My concern is what you and we can do about the outstanding
problems. Building trust is more important than expressing
our han in this conversation.
W: Thanks again for your welcome to a foreigner.
P: You have become our friend. Don't worry, you will have
your chance to welcome us to Australia! J, it has been
really good to get to know you. Please keep in touch so
that we can take these things further.
J: I would like that. Good bye for now.
Endnotes :
(1) The most flagrant example of this repression was the
murder of hundreds of demonstrators, mostly unarmed, by the
Korean military at Kwangju in May, 1980.
(2) "Japan is a doctor, responsible as a teacher of
civilization. Korea is like a sick person whose limbs are
paralysed. Japanese interference in Korea should not be
made in a retiring manner, but strongly and swiftly to bring
Korean entrance into civilization." Fukuzawa Yukichi,
Quoted in Conroy, H, "Chosen Mondai : The Korean Problem in
Meiji Japan", Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society, Vol.100, No . 5 (October 15, 1956), p.447. I am
grateful to Dr. Richard Tanter, Kyoto Seika University, for
this reference and for his general assistance with this
study .
(3) This assessment of Ichimura Kanzo is perhaps a little
unfair. If we look at "Japan and the Japanese", (Collected
Works , Volume 3, 1895, pp. 169-297), we can find statements
such as "Japan is to solve, and is solving the question of
the right relation of Europe with Asia" (Ibid, p.185) and
"If I am to mention the two greatest names in our history I
unhesitatingly name Taiko and Saigo . Both had continental
ambitions, and the world as their field of action." (Ibid,
pp. 206-7) . 'Taiko' refers to Toyotomi Hideyoshi who
launched the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592; Saigo
Takamori was one of the foremost architects of the Meiji
restoration and an impatient advocate of the invasion and
annexation of Korea. Yet Ichimura Kanzo can also write
"That men can live happily without forcing the utmost from
the earth, and enslaving one portion of mankind for the
other, I believe we did instinctively know." {Ibid, p.180) .
(4) ' Yamabushi’ means mountain priest or ascetic. Cf .
Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic
Practices in Japan, Mandala, Unwin, London, 1975, pp. 164-6.
(5) For a description of this practice as performed by
ascetics of the Mitakekyo sect, cf. Carmen Blacker, The
Catalpa Bow, pp. 317-20.
(6) For an account of the restoration, or introduction, of
State Shinto, cf. Shigeyoshi Murakami, Japanese Religion in
the Modern Century, Trans. H . B . Earhart , University of Tokyo
Press, Tokyo, 1980 (1968), pp. 21-32.
(7) The repression of religious groups deemed heretical by
the government between 1928 (the year of the passing of the
3l.
Peace Preservation Law) and 1945 is outlined in Shigeyoshi
Murakami, Japanese Religion in the Modern Century, pp.95-
109 .
(8) "The word ' kami' refers, in the most general sense, to
all divine beings of heaven and earth that appear in the
classics. More particularly, the 'kami' are the spirits
that abide in and are worshiped at the shrines. In
principle human beings, birds, animals, trees, plants,
mountains, oceans - all may be 'kami' . According to ancient
usage, whatever seemed strikingly impressive, possessed the
quality of excellence, or inspired a feeling of awe was
called 'kami'." Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), quoted in
Japanese Religion: A Survey by the Agency for Cultural
Affairs, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1972, pp.37-8.
(9) For an authoritative account of the nature of the kami,
cf. Sokyo Ono, Shinto: The Kami Wav, Charles E. Tuttle Co.,
Tokyo, 1962, pp.6-9.
(10) This story reflects an experience of my own.
(11) For a more differentiated account of forms of Shinto,
cf. Sokyo Ono, Shinto: The Kami Wav, pp. 12-19.
(12) Cf . Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow, p.237.
(13) This story reflects an experience of my own.
(14) The Hussite movement in Bohemia, now part of the Czech
Republic, is named for the Christian preacher Jan Hus.
(15) The basic meaning of Korean words such as ’ han’ is
given in Part One .
"For Koreans under the oppressive colonization of the
Japanese, all Koreans were slaves of the foreigners, so the
collective life of the Korean people could not be anything
but a life of han. This sense of han was experienced not
only by individual Koreans, but by the Korean society as a
whole. Han was a collective feeling of the Korean people.
Whenever people realize that they have been oppressed by
foreign power, and their sense of national independence has
been repressed, the feeling of han rises up to the level of
psycho-political anger, frustration and indignation,
combined with, a feeling of extreme helplessness. This
feeling of han is once again an awareness at both an
individual psychological level as well as at a social and
political level." David Kwang-Sun Suh, The Korean Miniung
in Christ , pp .50-1.
(16) An example would be the work of Mr. Sim Woo-Sung,
whose monodramas express something of the han of Korean
people over the continuing division of the Korean nation. I
am very grateful to Mr. Sim Woo-Sung for granting me an
interview .
(17) Cf . Sun Soon-Wha, Women. Religion and Power: A
Comparative Study of Korean Shamans and Women Ministers,
Doctoral Dissertation, Drew University, Madison, NJ, 1991,
pp . 176-80 .
(18) This was the general situation in Seoul in 1974, when
I met with a number of groups there as part of a delegation
from the World Student Christian Federation.
5 2 .
t
<
(19) Cf . David Kwang-Sun Suh, The Korean Minjunq in Christ.
pp.55-6, which tells of the imprisonment and death of
Professor Suh's father.
(20) "Under Confucianism's strict imposition of
discrimination against women, for example, the very
existence of a woman was nothing but han itself. Han speaks
of the kind of feeling a woman has when she cannot produce a
male child for the family and thus has to agree, against her
will, to her husband's bringing in another woman for child-
bearing, or when she has to obey her mother-in-law's orders
even when they are absolutely impossible and unreasonable.
The feeling of han on the part of women, in this case, is
due to an awareness of the structural injustice which a
Confucian society imposes on women." David Kwang-Sun Suh,
The Korean Miniung in Christ, p.50.
33.
OMENTALIA
Pamphlets and Magazine Excerpts
A C0R3SA1T MONUMIKT TO
MAH CHU CLWm CY
By W. R. Carl ea
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A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU
CLEMENCY.
By W. R. Carles.
(Read before the Society 22nd October 1888.)
The monument which is the subject of this paper, has been
mentioned in most books which have treated of Corea or the
rise of the Manchu dynasty, and the occasion which it
commemorates is referred to at some length in the Slieng-
wu-chi. 1
In 1619 A.D., when the Manchus were beginning to prove
what formidable enemies they were of the Ming Emperor,
the survivors of a Corean army of 20,000 men, who had been
fighting in conjunction with the Ming forces against the
Manchus in Liao Tung, surrendered with their General
Kiang Hung-li to Norhachu. The greater portion of the
Coreans were set free and returned to their country, Hung-li
with a few others being alone detained.
On Norhachu’s death, in 1627 A.D., the Coreans failed to
send a mission of condolence, an omission which provoked an
invasion, before which the king and his court fled helplessly
to Kang-hoa, the large island-fortress at the mouth of the
Han. Submission to the invading army averted harsh
treatment, and the Manchus retired, leaving however a
garrison at the mouth of the Yalu, on the northern frontier.
In 1637 Corea was once more subjected to a Manchu
invasion, provoked on this occasion by non-observance of the
1 A translation of the portion of the Sheng-ivu-chi which treats of this
appeared in the Chinese Times of September 8th, 1888. See also Corea :
Its History, Manners and Customs ; by the Rev. John Ross, pp. 285-6.
2
A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
stipulations of the treaty of 1627, and more especially it
would appear by the use of terms in correspondence which
failed to recognise the superiority of the “ Ta-chfing” nation.
The terms of peace that were exacted by the Manchus when
Corea was completely at their feet, were very lenient, and
aimed chiefly at the recognition of the “ Ta-chflng” Empire,
which had been proclaimed the previous year.
Such is a brief summary of the events referred to in the
inscription on the monument. The monument itself is a solid
piece of stone 15 feet high, 5 feet broad and 15 inches thick,
fixed on the back of a stone tortoise, itself 12 feet long and
3^- ft. high. On the reverse of the monument is an inscription
in Manchu.
The copy of the inscription which follows was made by a
Corean, whose only difficulties were due to the height of the
monument, the characters themselves being wonderfully clear.
For the translation I am indebted to the collaboration of my
friend Mr. M. F. A. Fraser, of H.B.M. Consular Service in
China.
[Translation. ]
A Tablet to the Valour and Clemency of the
Ta T‘sing Emperor.
In the 12th moon of the winter of the 1st year of the Ta-
T‘sing reign Ts‘ung Teh [A.D. 1636], the Emperor K‘wan
Wen Yen Sheng grew incensed because we had violated the
peace, and drew nigh with a warlike array, who drove their way
straight towards the East, and none dared to withstand them.
At that time I, your Prince, staying in Nan Han,2 trembled
like him who walks on spring ice, and waited for the dawn
2 Nan Han, a fortress in the mountains to the South of the Han River.
A COREAft MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY. 3
nigh 50 days. In that time my soldiers in the Eastern and
Southern Provinces were beaten in succession, and the army
of the North and West cowered among the hills, and could
not advance a step. In the city the food was all exhausted,
and at this moment with the great host he took the city, as
easily as the frosty wind curls up the autumn leaves, or the
furnace-flames consume the feathers of the wild goose.
But the Emperor warred not only that he might destroy us,
but placed first the manifestation of his goodness, and issued an
edict which said : “Come, and I will preserve you; refuse and
I will slay you, like Ying and Ma the Generals.” Messengers
carrying the Emperor’s commands filled the roads in endless
line. At that time I, your Prince, assembled my Generals
and statesmen, and thus spake : —
“ I have received the gift of friendship from the Great
Country for ten years, but, misguided and blinded, I have
called down the swift visitation of Heaven upon us, and the
fault of me alone has brought tribulation on the myriads.
Since the Emperor still cannot bear to destroy us, but has
issued an Edict like this, how should I dare not to reveren-
tially receive and obey it, so that, above, my ancestral line
maybe preserved, and, below, the lives of my people may be
protected ? ”
My Ministers all agreed with and applauded these words,
and with some score of horsemen I proceeded to the army
and acknowledged my offence. But the Emperor treated me
with high honor, and encouraged me with gracious con-
descension. As soon as he saw me he opened his heart to
me, and conferred favors, which he even extended to the
Ministers who attended me. When the ceremonies were
ended, he sent me, your Prince, back to the Capital,
and called in his troops in the South to go Westwards
4
A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
again. He comforted tbe people and exhorted them to
agriculture, and, scattered far and near like starlings as they
had been, they all returned to their homes. Was not this a
great and unexpected blessing?
Our small country had offended the superior nation long
ago by its deeds of the year ^ ^ [1619]) "’hen Kiang
Hung-li, the generalissimo, assisted the Ming dynasty.
His army was defeated, and he was captured. But the
Emperor T‘ai Tsu Wu only detained Hung-li and a few
others, and set free all the rest. Was not this the extreme
of favor? But our small country was misguided and had
no understanding, and in the year "J" J/J] [1627] the present
Emperor ordered an Eastern campaign against her. Our
country’s King and Ministers fled to an Island of the Sea,
and sent envoys to sue for peace. The Emperor granted
their prayer, and regarding us as brothers, he restored to us
all our border-lands, and Hung-li was released.
Since that time, we have ever been treated with honor, and
caps and umbrellas have crossed on the road. But unfor-
tunately floating talk fanned commotion, and built up a
ladder of disturbance and confusion. Our little country
rebuked its high officers on the frontier ; words of insubmis-
sion were employed ; and the despatches came into the
possession of the servants of the Emperor. The Emperor
still treated us liberally, and did not at once send troops, but
first issued a clear ultimatum, proclaiming to us the date of
war. Carefully did he repeat his instructions again and
again, as though lie had taken us by the ear and commanded
us face-to-face ; but finally there was no escape. Thus
the punishment of the King and Ministers of our small
country became still more inevitable, and the Emperor with
a great army surrounded Nan Han, and commanded a wing
A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
5
of it first to capture the River Capital, where the King’s
concubines and his sons, his Ministers and Officers and their
families were all made prisoner.
The Emperor forbade his Generals to molest or injure
the captives, and ordered his palace-guards to watch and
protect them, — truly an act of great grace ! The small
country’s King and Ministers, with their families who had
been taken prisoner, returned to their old homes. Frost and
snow changed to sunny spring, arid drought turned to
timely rain. The land had been lost and was restored again;
the dynastic line had been severed and was continued. The
Eastern Country with its thousands of U was all enveloped
in the blessings of his favor. In the records of antiquity such
a thing has rarely been seen. Oh, how grand was this !
To the South of the San Tien Ferry,3 on the upper waters
of the Han, is the place where the Emperor pitched his camp.
This was the site of the altar, and I, your Prince, therefore
commanded the Board of Works to increase the altar and
heighten it, and place a stone monument here to continue
through all time, to spread the knowledge of the Emperor’s
prowess and good works, which will flow on as long as nature
lasts. It is not only our small country which will for ages rely
on him, but the Great Dynasty’s benevolent fame and martial
glory will bring all to his feet from the remotest regions ; and
all this is founded on these deeds of his. Comparisons with
the greatness of sky and earth, pictures of the brightness of
sun and moon, fail to figure him in a ten-thousandth degree.
This reverent inscription conveys but a vague and imperfect
record.
Heaven sends down the frost and it sends down the dew.
It can be severe and it can be beneficent. The Emperor,
3 About 10 miles to the East of Seoul,
6
A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
like Heaven, spreads terror and spreads kindness. The
Emperor invaded the Eastern Country with ten myriads
of men. The roar of his army was like the roar of the tiger
and the leopard.
The Si-fan,4 K‘ung-fah, and the tribes of the North,
Carrying their spears, gallopped in the vanguard, an
imposing display of power !
The Emperor, in his vast humanity, spoke to us with
gracious words ; full and complete were they, severe and yet
indulgent.
At first we had been misled and ignorant, and so had
brought down sorrow on ourselves ;
But when the Emperor clearly expressed his decree, we
awoke as from sleep.
I, the King, have submitted and returned with my
followers,
Not only fearing his power, but also relying on his
virtues.
The Emperor honored us with magnificent kindness, with a
face both happy and benign, and the spear and halberd were
put aside.
4 The presence of the Si-fan in
the Manchu army which invaded
Corea, seems to me very remarkable.
I have not been able to identify the
K‘iung-fa nor to find any reference
to such a nation or country except
in the following extract from the
P'ei-rven Yun-fu.
MS?
tfi ? m & « ih *
SiASS&ftW
S it A * A $
't. w ^ ^ ^
ti *
A COREAN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
7
What gifts did he give us ? Fleet horses and light furs of
sable.
The young men and women of the Capital then chanted
songs and ballads.
The return of our King was the gift of the Emperor.
The Emperor removed his army, and gave life to our
children.
He reunited us from our dispersion, and exhorted us to the
works of agriculture.
He built up our city wall as of old, he raised again our
splendid altar.
The dry bones had flesh again ; spring returned to the
wintry roots of grass.
The stone stands majestic at the head of the Great River.
San Han 5 for 10,000 years will enjoy the protection of the
Emperor.
Erected in the Year of Ts‘ung Teh, IY, 12, 8 [1639].
Composed, by Royal Command, by Li King-shih, Tsz-hien
Ta-fu, G President of the Board of Civil Office, Literary
Recorder, State Literary Composer, Chancellor of the Royal
Academy.
Written, by Royal Command, by the hand of Wu Ts‘iin,
Tsz-hien Ta-fu ,6 Governor of Seoul.
Heading in Seal Characters written, by Royal Command,
by the hand of Lii Erh-cheng, Kia-shan Ta-fu ,6 Vice-
President of the Board of Ceremonies, Deputy Assistant
Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Enquiry.
5 Reference is made to the capital and its environs, including the northern
and southern fortresses.
6 Tsz-hien Ta-fu , Kai-shan Ta-fu : Titles of honor conferred as a reward
for merit or service.
8
A CO RE AN MONUMENT TO MANCHU CLEMENCY.
November 12th, 1888.
P.S. — I am indebted to Mr. Colin M. Ford, H.B.M.
Acting Consul-General in Corea, for rubbings of the
inscriptions on the monument, which have reached me within
the last week. The rubbing of the Corean inscription shows
the existence of the following errata in the copy which has
been photo-lithographed : —
In column 5, 48 characters from the top, for KE read
11, 17
ii m if if iS' ^ ^ 11
ii If H
12, 17
i) ii u ii ft fas ft ii
14, 68
ii ii ii ii ^ )iit ii
17, 17
„ „ „ » ii
if <^rj tTk
HARVARD JOURNAL
OF ASIATIC STUDIES
Volume 20
lWdc\5<rv>
DECEMBER, 1957 Numbers 3 and 4
^ SVfihKffW HcGweS
HARVARD-YENCHING INSTITUTE
1957
CONTENTS
PACE
Cleaves, Francis Woodman, The “ Fifteen * Palace Poems ’ ” by K'o
Chiu-ssu 391
Fairbank, J. K., Patterns behind the Tientsin Massacre 480
Hightower, James R., The Wen Hsiian and Genre Theory 512
Mostaert, Antoine, Sur le culte de Sayang secen et de son bisaieul
Qutuytai secen chez les Ordos 534
Jansen, Marius B., New Materials for the Intellectual History of Nine-
teenth-century Japan 567
Boodberg, Peter A., Philological Notes on Chapter One of the Lao Tzu 598
Viglielmo, V. H., The Preface and the First Ten Chapters of Amati’s
Historia del Regno di Voxv 619
Lane, Richard, The Beginnings of the Modem Japanese Novel: Kana-
zoshi, 1600-1682 644
Frye, Richard N., Remarks on the Paikuli and Sar Mashad Inscriptions 702
Bodde, Derk, Evidence for “ Laws of Nature ” in Chinese Thought. . . . 709
Dubs, Homer H., Letter to the Editors 728
Yang, Lien-sheng, A Rejoinder to Professor Dubs 730
Reviews:
Jacques Gernet, Les aspects economiques du bouddhisme dans la
societe chinoise du ve au x* siecle (Kenneth Ch'en) 733
Kenneth W. Morgan (Editor) , The Path of the Buddha, Buddhism
Interpreted by Buddhists (Kenneth Ch'en) 741
Shannon McCune, Korea’s Heritage: A Regional and Social Geog-
raphy (Gregory Henderson) 744
Louis M. J. Schram, C. I. C. M., “ The Monguors of the Kansu-
Tibetan Border; Part H. Their Religious Life ” (Nicholas
Poppe) 748
Erdeni-yin Tobci, Mongolian Chronicle by Sayang Secen (Nicholas
Poppe) 753
Karl Heinrich Menges, Das Cayatajische in der persischen Darstel-
lung von Mirzd Mahdx Xdn (Nicholas Poppe) 763
Bukkyo bijutsuten mokuroku [Exhibition of Japanese Buddhist Arts ]
(Benjamin Rowtland, Jr.) 767
William Charles White, Bronze Culture of Ancient China, An Arch-
aeological Study of Bronze Objects from Northern Honan . . ,
Books, Periodicals, and Articles Received 776
Harvard-Yenching Institute. All manuscripts, books for review, subscriptions, and
communications should be adressed to Dr. John L. Bishop, Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge 38, Mass., U. S. A. Checks should be
drawn payable to the Harvard-Yenching Institute.
Subscription, five dollars, V. S. currency, per volume.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY J. H. FURST COMPANY, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
744
REVIEWS
Korea’s Heritage: A Regional and Social Geography, by Shannon
McCune. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, with the co-
operation of the International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific
Relations, 1956. Pp. xiii + 250 + Maps and Charts 21 + Plates
95 + Appendices + Index. $5.00.
The path to an understanding of the land and culture of Korea
has proved a hard and abnormally slow one for American scholar-
ship. It is therefore a pleasure to welcome a throughly sympa-
thetic, pleasantly written, and attractively published geography
of Korea by a member of a family famous for its deep interest
in and long connection with the country. American scholarship
has still not approached the writing of definitive works in this
field; Dr. Shannon McCune’s Korea’s Heritage is thus unavoid-
ably short of the ideal, but it is a welcome extension of our
knowledge and, with the deep sympathy and respect for the
Korean people which inspire it, of our understanding as well.
Dr. McCune’s work, 250 pages long, proceeds from the general
to the particular. Surveys of the location of the peninsula and
the general characteristics of the land are followed by brief treat-
ments of Korea’s historical development, basic political quandaries
(mostly recent) , population, social characteristics, and basic econ-
omy. The chapter on population is relatively the most detailed
and is certainly one of the best presentations of the subject
available to the general reader. The last two chapters, which
present descriptions and interpretations of the geographic regions
of North and South Korea, probably contain Dr. McCune’s
most original contributions. Here the touch is especially sure and
probes ideas and material well in advance of those previously
published for the layman in America. It presents a mature con-
sideration of the geographic regions of Korea, the resources and
ways of life which characterize them, and the possible ways of
fruitfully utilizing them. While much remains for more detailed
scholarship, Dr. McCune deserves our gratitude for introducing
here a subject of basic importance to Korean studies.
The chief deficiency of the book is its excessive generalization.
It is both inevitable and ironic that this should be so. Dr.
REVIEWS
745
McCune is well-known for his life-long attempts to encourage
the growth of American scholarship on Korea; he is less responsible
than any man for the fact that these attempts are still far from
fruition. America’s academic inattention to Korea still haunts
his efforts to fill in the outline of Korea’s geography. If we share,
as I think we must, responsibility for the present state of Ameri-
can scholarship on Korea, then our awareness of this deficiency
should further awaken us to the difficulties of publishing mature
scholarship in that field.
Whatever the explanation, generalization does haunt Korea’s
Heritage. There are too many statements such as: “ The climate,
vegetation, and soils give distinctive character to the land of
Korea. They are factors which both aid and limit the activities
of the Korean farmer.” (page 24) , raising the reader’s constant
question: “ Yes, very true, but in just what way? ” The impres-
sion of generality in the text is partially qualified by the rather
full and quite excellent notes in which, with the exception of
the book’s last two chapters on regionalism, will be found most
of the specialized information. Perhaps the publisher is primarily
responsible for this generalization, for we read on the jacket the
publisher’s approving dictum: “ Professor McCune . . . has
avoided loading the text with detailed technical data, so that
the ordinary reader will not be over-burdened with these details.”
In this and so many other instances the publisher should be
warned against underestimating the public’s capacity for compre-
hensive information. Most Journal readers will regret that much
of the content of the notes was not included in the text — and
replaced by more notes with a still further level of informational
and interpretive depth. By the same token, however, Dr.
McCune has advantageously eliminated most possibilities for
controversy from his text. General he may be, but what he does
say is, unlike much that is written about Korea, almost always
true.
In one other general respect the book raises doubt and, to me,
disappointment: in its capacity to live up to its theme. No seri-
ous scholar of Korea could fail to be excited by the prospect of
Korean history, economics, and Lebensstil seen through a critical
746
REVIEWS
geographical glass. Yet it frequently seems as if the sections on
history, politics, and economics had not been carefully subordi-
nated to the central geographical theme. What is the significance
of the peninsula’s location for the dynamics of its cultural his-
tory? How shall we compare Korea’s development in this respect
with China’s and Japan’s? Has Korea’s size been restrictive on
its intellectual life or has it resulted in greater concentration and
depth? Of what significance for Silla’s history and culture was
it that the peninsula was united by a power centered at Kyongju,
at the opposite end of the peninsula from China? Did geographi-
cal factors fundamentally affect Silla administration in the “ nine
capital ” system? Is not geography an important criterion for
judging Koryo’s “ pyongma-sa ” system? To what extent did
Korea’s families and political factions during the Yi period have
roots deep in the peninsula’s regional geography? What kind of
balance between central and local administration has Korean
geography tended to produce? Were geographical factors of
significance in Korea’s lack of any real feudal period? What has
been the effect of the sea and islands on Korean history and cul-
ture? These and many more questions arise when, in a “ regional
and social geography,” the student of Korean history sees the
apparent promise of broad inquiry. Such questions and the
answers to them may be inevitably controversial; yet they invite
a geographer of Dr. McCune’s reputation to parry with them.
It is a loss for scholarship on Korea that he has, in general, chosen
not to do so.
Korea’s Heritage also suffers as a reference text, not only from
the general lack of accurate statistics available to the Korean
specialists but also from a failure to obtain all but a very few
statistics on Korea since the Japanese occupation. One cannot,
for example, find the area of the present Republic of Korea (38,175
square miles) , nor that of the “ Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea ” (47,071 square miles) . The population figures given are
largely for 1944 and there is little breakdown of the population
living within the present limits of North and South Korea
(approximately 22,000,000 and 8,300,000, respectively) . There
are good tables on resources and industry, but many of the figures
REVIEWS
747
given are for 1944 and are thus outdated several times over. More
recent figures than these are, in most cases, available. There is
much mention of the 38th parallel, but very little of the Demarca-
tion Line and the Demilitarized Zone which took its place well
before publication of the book. Other shortcomings include sparse
treatment — in the notes — of geological and topographical ele-
ments, and virtually no treatment of soils. While the islands of
Cheju-do and Ullung-do are described, the many hundreds of
other islands get short shrift. In attempting to discover the num-
ber of islands in Korea from this volume, I could learn only that
there were “ many.”
Korea's Heritage illustrates one further problem of general
interest: its appearance adds to the evidence that the “ McCune-
Reischauer ” system of romanization of Korea has broken down
for practical purposes and should be modified or replaced. This
system, properly used, is perfectly satisfactory for ordinary pur-
poses, but unfortunately, it depends entirely upon the use of
diacritical marks which publishers usually cannot be induced to
print. Both Dr. McCune and his brother, who co-authored the
system, had to abandon it in their own, popularly published
works, and the U. S. Government faces exactly similar problems
today. The abandonment of diacritical marks means that essential
distinctions on which the Korean language is structured disappear,
producing worse results than would the consistent use of a system
theoretically inferior. I would, therefore, plead for the appearance
of a romanization system which will retain the basic hangul dis-
tinctions and which American publishers will accept. With some
compromise of linguistic elegance, such a system is not beyond
the possibility of devising.
While Korea's Heritage does not, and perhaps cannot, within
the severe limitations set by the above-mentioned circumstances,
completely live up to the task set for it, on balance it is a very
creditable and welcome book. It contains much good information
and many mature observations; it is extremely nicely published,
with fine paper and print and an exceptionally good collection of
well-reproduced photographs; and it can serve as a commendable
introduction to Korea for the layman while still of interest to
748
REVIEWS
the scholar. Last, and most important, through the picture of
Korea which Dr. McCune paints and the judgments he renders,
there shines that genuine sympathy which has won for him the
respect and affection of all those seriously interested in Korea.
Gregory Henderson
Department of State
TlSZZa^w]^
toll.
si- ^-4
C? N—
4
Kttt^rloW *W_P (-fW W Kofc a
Reprint from the
KROFBLR ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY PAPERS
VOL. Ml
FALL 1969
University of California, Berkeley
RELIGION AND LAW tN KOREA
Pyong Choon Hahm
Yonsei University
Seoul, Korea
I. Problems, Concepts and Definitions
The problems of culture conflict and acculturation (culture
contact) have come to occupy a position of increasing importance as a
subject of study among anthropologists and sociologists in recent decades.
Although these scholars themselves would be the first to agree that there
is still considerable room for improvement in theory and conceptualization,
there has been substantial contribution to our understanding of the process
of encounter between different cultures. With the European colonial powers
the question of acculturation of their colonial peoples was a practical one
of application. Knowledge of the mechanics of cultural transmission and
variety was essential as a basis for their colonial policy. In America
the overpowering of Indian culture by white culture has been of interest
to anthropologists. Convergence of divergent European cultures in "the
great melting pot" has prompted the American social scientists to study
the subject from both psychological (personal disorganization) and socio-
cultural (cultural change) vantage points (Stonequist 1937 and Beals 1962:
375-395) .
In the field of law, culture contact, in terms of an alien legal
system being transmitted to a receiving culture with totally different
historical background, has been a subject of little interest. It is true
that the American Realists (Karl Llewellyn with Adamson Hoebel, for example)
and some comparative lawyers have shown some interest in this problem.
But the problem has been left largely untouched by lawyers. Even socio-
logists of law have confined themselves primarily to their own cultures
with emphasis on "culture lag." There seem to be several reasons for this
neglect. Aside from thoroughgoing ethnocentrism found everywhere with
8
* - — ' — — —
lawyers, no one seems to have considered the problem of much importance.
Receiving cultures themselves have usually decided that their indigenous
legal systems were Inferior and had to be abandoned in favor of modern
systems from European cultures. The adoption of a Western legal system
was just another step in a series of "indispensable" measures thought
essential for development and modernization. In the case of a colony,
the imposition of the legal system of the "mother country" was simply a
political question.
In discussing the problems of transplanting a modern legal
system, the underlying assumption has invariably been that such an action
is unavoidable. Another assumption is that since Roman law "worked" in
the case of the Germanic peoples in Europe, there is no reason why the
same should not be true with Asians and Africans. Apart from the validity
of the assertion concerning Roman law in Europe, the analogy between
Europe and Asia seem false. The imported legal system has not "worked"
in Korea. It has remained an alien system confined to urban centers.
It has failed to make itself relevant, let alone indispensable, to the
life of the majority of the population. The indigenous way of life is
so different from the European way of life out of which the imported legal
system had grown, that the wonder is that it has not caused more disruption
and disorganization than it has. The predicament faced by Korea is that
the norms of positive law not only lack the support of "the normative
customs of the living law" but the two in fact conflict with each other.
A major consequence of this state of affairs is "a corruption of legal
and political officials which turns positive law into something worse
than a dead letter" (Northrop 1960:61 7)1.
It is therefore imperative that the conflict between the
imported legal system and the indigenous jural values of the people should
be at least minimized. One solution would be to reject the imported sys-
tem and revert to the traditional system. This appears, however, impossible
in view of the existing commitment to modernization on the part of the
L
9
tm
political leadership. Moreover, rapidly increasing international inter-
dependence, especially international trade, rules out such a possibility.
Another solution would be to go to the opposite extreme and ruthlessly
root out the traditional values. But the mores have proven themselves
extremely resilient. Such a course of action would only intensify the
conflict. It is therefore necessary to accept the fact of conflict and
do our best to minimize it. It is the aim of this paper to facilitate
a better understanding of the nature of this conflict by examining the
relationship between religious and jural values of the Korean people.
The close interconnection between law and religion has received
ample documentation throughout history. In many societies law and religion
are not differentiated (Maine 1930; Friedrich 1958 8-12; Boddenheimer 1962 ■
4-5). Even today the willingness to separate the science of law from
theology and religion is by no means universal. It is true that the theory
of natural law itself has been secularized to a large extent. It is no
longer fashionable to evaluate a piece of legislation in terms of "the
eternal law of God." Nevertheless, the notion that the law ought to be
just and reasonable retains its vitality, albeit its frame of reference
is no longer sacred.
Our concern here, however, is not a validation or refutation
of any particular theory of natural or divine law. Our interest in the
close relationship between law and religion stems from their mutual inter-
action in the realm of "intuitive legal consciousness" as Leon Petrazycki.
(1955 : 221-240) 2 put it or "in the inner order of association" as Eugen
Ehrlich (1936:37) perceived it. It is Ehrlich's "living law"3 and Petra-
zycki's "intuitive law"4 that we find of significance in viewing the legal
landscape of Korea. Jurisprudents in the past have endeavored to differ-
entiate as well as to relate law and morality. It is not our purpose to
define sharply the respective provinces of law and morality. We shall
proceed on the assumption that law and morality share a common territory
in which they interact with one another5 as well as with religion. "Law,
10
morality and religion are three ways of controlling human conduct which
in different types of society supplement one another, and are combined
in different ways" (Radcl iff e-Brown 1952:172).
It is not insisted here that the three forms of social control
are identical or that the fields covered by them are the same, but it is
argued that the three are olosely interrelated and that they do interact
with one another. Nor is it the purpose of this paper to establish a
causal relationship or primacy among these three types of social cont r !
We are interested in religion because it is "an important or even essem !al
part of the social machinery, as are morality and law, part of the com > v
system by which human beings are enabled to live together in an orderlv
arrangement of social relations" (Radcliff e-Brown 1952:154). Thus, we an
interested in the "social function" of religion. We are concerned with
law, morality and religion because they all contribute to the formation
and maintenance of a social order.
Durkheim's definition of "collective conscience" (1964:72) and
Parsons’ concept of "normative culture" (1964:121-125) are broad enough
to encompass all three forms of social control with which we are concerned.
Taking the latter as a point of departure for our inquiry, we are faced
with several important questions. First, "What are the constituent ele-
ments of the normative culture?" Parsons differentiates four components
of normative cultural patterns according to four levels of generality.
That component which belongs to the highest level of ganerality is called
societal values. Differentiated norms, collectivities (collective goals)
and roles (role expectations) are the remaining components of the culture
patterns in the descending order of levels of generality (Parsons 1964:
121-125).
Law, morality, and religion — the three conventional categories
of social control — appear to function at all four levels of normative
culture. They cut across the four levels. It would be unwise to force
each of the three conventional categories into one or more of the four
11
components ot not native culture. Religion, morality, and law all share
their common root in the societal values. All three influence the delin-
eation of what is the desirable and the good society, and they, as differ-
entiated norms, are in turn legitimized by the value system. The three
categories also participate jointly in the articulation of collective
goals and in the definition of role expectations. Consequently, in dealing
with the questions related to the "functional" aspect of law, morality,
and religion, we may properly subsume them under the concept of normative
culture or its highest level of generality, societal values.6
The second question is, "How is the normative culture maintained?"
The normative culture patterns are "institutionalized in the social system
and internalized in the personalities of its individual members" (Parsons
1964:122). Anthropologists and sociologists appear to have mainly con-
cerned themselves with the institutionalization of culture patterns (cul-
ture). The internalization of cultural patterns has been a subject of
study by psychologists (personality). But both the social and individual
aspects of the maintenance of social order (or cultural patterns) are the
same integral order of human phenomena. Inflexible dichotomy between
culture and personality seems unrealistic in view of the increasing aware-
ness among psychologists and anthropologists that their fields of study
are the same integral reality of human life (Hallowell 1955:351,357) 7 •
The third question to be posed is, "What are the precise mechanics
ol: interaction between the social system and the individual personality?"
Hov? society and culture are internalized within the individual human actor
has been a subject of great interest not only to the psychologist as a
part of learning process but to every student of sociocultural disciplines
as ihe process of socialization (Parsons and Bales 1957:357). It is per-
tinent to note that law has usually been identified with the institution-
alized facet of normative culture, religion with the internalized (Parsons
1964: 148-149).
It seems obvious that no individual incorporates the local culture
12
of his time intact. The individual must restructure bis own values (Brown
1965:405). But it is equally obvious that the individual restructuring ha;
to be largely conditioned by the local culture. The social system must
rely on its individual members to carry on cultural patterns, but the
values they incorporate initially are given to them by the social system.8
Individuals must be made to "want to act as they have to act [author's
italics] and at the same time find gratification in acting according to
the requirements of the culture" (Fromm 1949:5).
There are still further questions concerning the specifics of
motivation. It may be necessary to learn the exact details of how incor-
porated values control behavior; how new values are chosen to be incor-
porated; and what happens when the incorporated values mutually conflict.
These and other questions are very important. But they fall outside the
scope of this paper. It should nonetheless be pointed out that with
respect to motivation it has been noted that its mechanisms, hence the
mechanisms of social control, are non-rational (Parsons 1964:144-145).
Moreover, religion is usually placed in the context of non-rational com-
ponents of motivation when its relation with the internalized aspects of
values and norms (personality structure) is analyzed. On the other hand,
law, at least in its higher level of administration, tends to be classed
with the more rational areas of social life, e.g., the market (Parsons
1964:145, 148-149).
Before we can proceed any further some sort of definition of
religion is required. I should like to make a functional definition of
religion that may serve our purpose heuristically . Religion is defined
as a system of beliefs that gives meaning and significance to the ultimate
reality of the human existence of the believer. This definition of reli-
gion would be considered inadequate and/or improper by many. Aside from
its omission of any reference to a god, it also omits two important
factors stressed by Durkheim: "sacred things" and "one single moral
community called a Church" (Durkheim 1965:62-63). The reason for such
13
omissions should be obvious to anyone with some knowledge of the religions
of Asia. Neither shamanism nor Taoism would qualify as a religion under
Durkheim’s definition. Confucianism and even Buddhism would have difficulty
qualifying under a "theological" definition of religion. The simplified
definition of religion proposed here and similarly used by Bellah (1957:
6-7) in his study of the religions of Japan should serve as an adequate
conceptual tool for our analysis.
IT. Religions from China
History records that as early as 372 A.D. Buddhism reached the
northern kingdom of Kokuryo and by 528 A.D. it was officially accepted
by the last of the Three Kingdoms that divided the Korean peninsula at
the time. As to the other two legs of "the tripod on which the spiritual
life of the kingdom may stably rest"9 — Confucianism and Taoism — history
gives us no definite date of official introduction. Having come from
China, these three advanced religions were introduced to the Korean people
as part of the advanced civilization of China. They were first taken over
by the ruling elite, and it was some time before they became the faiths
of the common people. It was only after they found responsive chords in
the minds of the common men, through the process of indigenization and
syncretization, that they became . part of popular faith. The three
religions were always thought to be mutually complementary, and each was
important in different areas of moral life. They formed an integral whole,
for when one of the three occupied a dominant position, the other two con-
tinued to play important parts in the spiritual life of the people. This
ability of the Chinese and Koreans to tolerate and adhere indiscriminately
to many religions simultaneously has already become legendary in the West.10
Buddhism
Of the three systems of beliefs Buddhism had more of a 'churchly"
quality than the other two. It formed a "moral community." Specialized
14
ecclesiastic groups and a strong monastic life were an important part of
the religion. \side from tire fact that Buddhism was a religion of Indian
origin and therefore non-Chinese, it was in a sense more of a religion
than the other two. It preached individual salvation, not the preser-
vation and prosperity of family. It stressed a universalistic ethic, not
a particularistic standard of behavior based on filial piety. It had a
specific concept of the afterlife, the condition of which was to be deter-
mined by the quality of the conduct before death.
The Buddhism of Korea is not noted for radical doctrinal inno-
vations. It has, however, made its own creative contributions to the de-
velopment and expansion of various doctrines transmitted from India and
China. In its height of development it not only made original theoretical
contributions to T'ient'ai Doctrine but it also achieved a distinct per-
sonality in the form of Korean S&n (Ch 'an in Chinese, Zen in Japanese) by
combining Dhyana (meditation) with Praj na (highest knowledge that leads
to the realization of the Deity) . Its contributions in the area of trans-
lation, printing, and publication of Buddhist literature is truly unsur-
passed in the history of Buddhism. The Tripataka Koreana which was com-
pleted in 1251 A.D. after sixteen years of labor is known to be the most
complete collection of Buddhist literature in the world. It is composed
of 81,137 wooden printing blocks which were engraved during the Mongol
invasion of the peninsula to seek Buddha's protection, and which are still
preserved to this day. Its missionary zeal was responsible for the trans-
mission of Buddha's teachings to Japan soon after its own establishment.
On several occasions Chinese Buddhism had to rely on the Korean church to
re-export its own literature back to China.11
Buddhism immeasurably enriched the Korean culture, especially
during the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392 A.D.) when it reached its height of
development and glory as the state religion. It is a part of Korean
cultural heritage and has left an indelible mark on language, manners and
customs, arts, folklore, and so on. It is an integral part of modern
15
Korea. Even today Buddha’s birthday draws the multitude* to numerous
temples throughout the country. But it is no longer a dominant force in
the spiritual life of the Korean people. It has never been a "political"
religion, as has been pointed out by Toynbee.12 When Confucian literati
steeped in Neo-Confucian ideology overthrew the Koryo Dynasty and estab-
lished a new dynasty in the imag< of Sung restorationism , Buddhism in
Korea met the same fate as in China. After centuries of suppression and
decay it became indistinguishable from Taoism and shamanism. Bonzes were
finally made social equals of shamans and prostitutes. They in fact per-
formed the roles of sorcerers and diviners. Their temples came to include
small pavilions of worship dedicated to local demons or deities. Buddhism's
ability to adapt to the indigenous milieu caused its own ultimate decline.
And yet, it is still the most important religion of Korea, albeit few
Koreans are willing to claim it as the religion they believe in.
Taoism
When Taoism reached Korea, it had already become a "religion",
having assimilated a great deal of doctrinal elements from Buddhism. Its
capacity to syncretize local deities was no less than that of Buddhism.
It borrowed from whatever source appealed to it. Its practicality, without
complex and abstract doctrines and precepts, held special attraction for
the masses. Its willingness to accomodate local aspirations and conven-
iences rendered it readily acceptable to the ruling elite. Its doctrinal
flexibility removed very quickly whatever foreignness it might have
possessed. Its origin as a philosophical system that shared the Book of
Changes as a common classic with Confucianism made it an acceptable part
of the intellectual dilettantism of the Korean Confucian elite. In the
case of China it has in fact been argued that in the realm of political
and legal philosophy it was Taoism more than Confucianism that was dominant
throughout its history (Tseng Yu-Hao 1930:2). In any event, the importance
and powerful influence of Taoism in the political life of the supposedly
Confucian Yi Korea cannot be minimized.
But It was in the realm of folk religion that Taoism played an
Important role. The Taoism that came to Korea had not only borrowed re-
ligious ideas, divinities and cults from Buddhism that had come into China
in the wake of the disintegration of the Han Empire, but it had also im-
provised and absorbed local divinities and cults of the Chinese peasants.
This popular Taoism that had already met the need of "pol ydaemonic"
Chinese masses was well prepared to meet the similar need of the shaman-
istic-animistic Korean masses. To the Korean peasant Taoism always
stood for the technique of acquiring the power to command the life force
of liie cosmos. It promised longevity. Medicine was an important part of
the religion. Tao , the way of ultimate reality, appeared to the popular
mind as the fountain of life force. By manipulating this cosmic ether,
popular Taoism promised health, strength, longevity, and fecundity. It
had an infinite capacity to make itself relevant at every vicissitude of
Korean life. It was the ability of Taoism to enjoy hospitality not only
at the Confucian ancestor worship rite and at the Buddhist temple but also
at the shamanistic ecstasy that made it an important part of the folk re-
ligion of the Korean people.
Confucianism
Of the three religions under discussion, it is Confucianism
that encounters greatest difficulty in being classed as a "religion."
One finds greater readiness to classify Confucianism as an "ethical sys-
tem" than as a religion. Professors Reischauer and Fairbank (1960:30)
qualify their view of Confucianism as "this great ethical institution"
by saying that ic "in a sense occupied in China much of the place filled
by both law and religion in the West. „ . ." The Korean Confucianism with
which we are concerned is the Neo-Confucianism that came to serve as the
ideological foundation of Yi Dynasty Korea (1392-1910 A.D.). This Con-
fucianism, "reformed" at the hands of Chu Hsi and his successors in China
and Korea, had been profoundly influenced by Buddhism which they considered
17
an enemy. Buddhist ideas were appropriated by the reformed Confucianism
to a very large extent. But, as Professor Wright points out, the Neo-
Confucianism remained "basically social and ethical in its interests"
(Wright 1959:89). In spite of the great influence of Buddhism, this
revived Confucianism of Sung China never adopted a central deity of
transcendental supremacy or a certainty of the other world.
The real reason, however, for classifying Confucianism in
Korea as a religion, lies not so much in the fact that it had appropriated
a great deal from Buddhism as in the fact that it provided or at least
attempted to provide some meaning and significance to the ultimate reality
of the human existence.14 It is for this reason that we cannot brush
Confucianism aside as an ethical system in discussing the religions of
Korea. Moreover, ancestor worship which constituted the ritual expression
of filial piety — the fundamental principle of Confucian ethics — became in
fact a religious (or superstitious, if you will) rite. Rituals became
elaborate and standardized, with the male head of the family acting as
priest. In any culture the dead seems to inspire awe rather than affection
(Ciunont 1959:3, 47). Whatever the orthodox Confucian rationale for
mourning (Fung Yu-Lan 1952:344-350), it tended to go beyond mere expression
of affection and "human feelings." It was used to extract material
blessings, especially male children, from the dead. It was used to
appease the loneliness and the vengeance of the dead. Mourning and
ancestor cult came to be encrusted with supernatural meanings.
It is in geomancy that Confucianism and Taoism came to share
a common ground. It was the height of filial piety to find a best possible
resting place for one's dead ancestors. If, by securing such a comfortable
nether abode for one's "sleeping" ancestors, one could fulfill one's filial
duty as well as secure bountiful blessing, it was only proper and wise to
acquire such a choice piece of land. It was the art of geomancy that
located such a blessed spot for a filial son. No amount of expense or
sacrifice was considered excessive for its acquisition. If a geomancer
18
could convince a filial son of the reliability of the information In hla
possession, he could well-nigh name his own price. The extent to which
a filial son was prepared to go to take possession of myongdang (a bene-
ficent plot) was unbelievably great. We can still hear many fantastic
stories being told of wonders wrought by the opportune use of mj/^rigdang.
It seems that the ruling elite of Yi Korea expended almost all of their
energy in performing mourning and ancestor worship rites, locating m^tfng-
dang and grabbing hold of it. Having forsaken Buddhism as a superstition
fit only for gullible women and the ignorant masses, they seemed to have
needed a "religion" of some kind that could give them something certain
beyond metaphysical, disputations. In fact popular Confucianism and Taoism
became almost indistinguishable with respect to ancestor cults.
The vulgar aspect of Korean Confucianism described above does
not, of course, give us the whole picture. As the state religion and
the state ideology of Yi Korea, it was in a position to command the ex-
clusive allegiance and attention of the best minds of Korea for over five
centuries. During the sixteenth century it reached the apogee of philo-
sophic development when it produced a host of great intellects, whose
prolific writings have been recognized as authoritative expositions of
Neo-Confucianism both in China and Japan. The metaphysical debate between
the monists and the dualists took Korean Confucianism far beyond the
theories of Chu Hsi. The monists who argued that ch ' i (Ether) was the
Ultimate One from which all life force emanated and that cLi 1 jL was the
Prime Mover came very close to repudiating Chu Hsi himself whose dualism
placed Li principle before ch ’ i . Having been stimulated by the contact
of China with Western science and Roman Catholicism, a reformist school
called "Silhak" gathered some momentum in the second half of the. eighteenth
and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. The school stressed
greater administrative efficiency and rationalization. They emphasized
economic growth and welfare of the common people. They advocated the
acceptance of Western science. But in the end Korean Confucianism failed
19
to reform itself. Its traditionalism prevented it from acquiring dynamism
and aggressiveness needed to meet the challenge of the West.15
Today, not many Koreans would acknowledge their religious affil-
iation as "Confucianism." Few young Koreans would profess any interest
in its doctrines, but Confucianism still remains the moral foundation of
the nation. From family life to the standard of morality, the Confucian
heritage is still making itself felt in every facet of the nation's life.
III. Shamanism: The Indigenous Cult
As with other Asian countries, shamanism was the indigenous
"religion" of Korea. The existence of shamanism in the early history
of China has been well established (de Groot 1910:1187-1341; Fung Yu-Lan
1952:22-31). The fact that the shamaness of ancient Japan had a close
resemblance to that of Korea and of the Altai has been pointed out by
Haguenauer (1956:178-179). Although shamanism cannot be restricted to
any one region of the globe, Eliade considers "shamanism in the strict
sense" to be "pre-eminently a religious phenomenon of Siberia and Central
Asia" (Eliade 1964:4). It is in Central and North Asia that the shaman
has found himself at the center of the magico-religious life of his
society. It was in this area of the world that the earliest travellers
began documenting shamanism. As a peninsula appended to the northeastern
part of the Asian continent, it is only natural that Korea partook in this
form of religious life. It is important, however, to remind ourselves
that the shamanism we find today in Korea has undergone profound changes
through the two thousand years of recorded history. The three religions
from China have had ample opportunity to work on the indigenous cult.
The oldest recorded history of Korea contains a specific ref-
erence to the employment of a shaman to discover the desires of a dead
Kokuryo monarch concerning the planting of rows of pine trees along hJLs
grave for the purpose of screening his resting place from the tomb of his
unfaithful wife.. 1 6 A Chinese source tells us that the tribes in the
20
southern part of the peninsula each had a shaman whose ritual officlation
was centered around a big tree.'7 The essential significance of a tree
(the Cosmic Tree) in shamanism has been fully shown by Eliade (1964: 269-
274). The importance of birds (raven, cock, crane and others) in the
Korean mythology has also been pointed out by historians, thus again
connecting Korean shamanism to that of the rest of North Asia. As a
people called by their neighbors the People of the Bear, the Koreans have
a mythology that claims the first shaman-king of the Koreans to be the
son of Bear-Woman conceived by the illegitimate son of Heaven who had come
down to earth with various superhuman powers. From the shaman of ancient
China w... anced with bear-skin masks to the ubiquitous bear symbolism
throughout North Asia the bear has occupied an important place in shamanism
of the Asians (Eliade 1964:452, 458-459). Another indication that the
Koreans have shared shamanism with other peoples of East Asia is the sym-
bolism of stag horns employed in the elaborate gold crowns of Silla (57
B.C.-935 A.D., one of the Three Kingdoms) kings. The same symbolism is
used in the headdresses of shamans throughout the large part of Siberia
(Eliade 1964:155).
Korean shamanism of today has much less in common with its
counterpart in Siberia. It has not only rendered the Supreme Being
largely otiose as with shamanism everywhere (Eliade 1964:8-9, 504-505),
but it has also lost the masculinity characteristic of Siberian shamanism
(Eliade 1964:462). Nowadays the shamans in Korea are almost exclusively
females. Male shamans are rare and considered an exception. The
appellation mudang refers to female shamans. The profession is inherited
through the maternal line. There has been no satisfactory explanation
for the femininity of Korean shamanism. A Soviet Russian ethnologist
takes the traditional Marxist position that the shamanism in a primitive-
totemic society is usually feminine, but when a clan society becomes a
tribal society, the transition from matriarchate to patriarchate takes place.
He explains the masculinity of Siberian shamanism by arguing that "the
21
appointment of the shaman as a specialist of the religious cult" was
"conditioned by the establishment of the patriarchal clan system. . ."
(Anisimov 1963:84, 97). From this theoretical perspective, "early"
shamanism is feminine whereas in its later stage of development shamanism
becomes masculine. The femininity of Korean shamanism is thus "explained"
within the Marxist framework by arguing that the Korean shamanism failed
to progress beyond the "primitive" stage of development, i.e. stagnated.
While the Korean society in general has accomplished the transition from
the nomadic-matriarchal to the agricultural-patriarchal stage in obedience
to "the law of historical development", its shamanism froze at the
nomadic-matriarchal stage under the overwhelming impact of the more
advanced patriarchal religions from China. On the other hand, it may be
said that the Marxist theory "works" better in China where the ancient
wu-ism which had been predominantly feminine (de Groot 1910:1209) has
since become predominantly masculine. Today the descendants of the
ancient wu are called sai kung and they are mostly males (Eliade 1964:455).
Another theory attributes the femininity of Korean shamanism
to the southern (Southeast Asia, southern China and Japan) influence.
This theory divides Asian shamanism into northern and southern branches
and characterizes the former as masculine and the latter as feminine.
According to this theory, Korean shamanism falls into the southern cate-
gory. But it seems there are as many male shamans as female shamans in
Southeast Asia, although there are regions in that part of the world
where only female shamans are found, e. g . , the sibaso of the northern
Batak of Sumatra ^Eliade 1964:346). Moreover, it is not at all certain
that Korean shamanism has always been feminine. On the contrary, in the
ancient days male shamans were as numerous as female shamans, if not
more numerous. This is especially true if we accept the thesis that
shamans were political and military leaders of the community as well in
those days (Hahm 1967:13-14).
The predominance of shamanesses in Korea today may perhaps be
22
better explained by the "decadence" o£ traditional shamanism. It has been
pointed out by Akiba that the Korean shamanism is primarily "domestic"
(Akamatsu and Akiba 1937-1938). In Korea shamanesses are invited to the
home of their client. There is no permanently demarcated sacred ground
to which the faithful must journey to obtain, or participate in, the
services of mudang. There is no temple or shrine where the seance must
be held. The dwellings of shamanesses have no sacral significance. In
this respect Korean shamanism very closely resembles the "family shamanism"
of the Koryak and the Chukchee (Eliade 1964:252-258). In Korea the
senior female member of a household usually undertakes to perform the
simplified functions of a shaman if the rituals required are minor in
importance and routine in nature. Some formalities were required in con-
nection with various events in family life — from birth, minor sicknesses,
weddings, long journeys and anniversaries, to death, funeral, mourning,
and ancestor worship rites. The senior female of a household usually
undertook the task of imitating the mudang in performing the basic rituals
required under the routing circumstances. Of course, no amateur could
carry out the entire gamut of the shamanistic seance. But she could at
least meet the minimum requirements to prevent ill luck or misfortune.
If she could save money by obviating the need for inviting a mudang , so
much the better. When the importance of the occasion appeared beyond the
competence of amateurs, a mudang was called.
Eliade cites Bogoras in stating that some of the Chukchee shamans
underwent a change of sex (Eliade 1964:257). They dressed as women. Some
of them even married other men. Male shamans of Korea often dress as
women. In fact there have been a few instances in Korean history when
male shamans, dressed as women, were allowed into the inner quarters of the
palace, causing scandals. These and similar scandals with respect to the
ruling class were possible because of the widely accepted assumption that
the mudang was always female. It is by no means certain that there is a
definite causal connection between family shamanism and femininity of the
23
prole; loo.10 In the case of Korea, however, one important factor should
he pointed out — the dualism in the religious life of the Korean elite.
There w »s a sort of division of labor between the two sexes in matters
cone- ruing religion. Confucianism which was both a political ideology
and i religion of the ruling elite preempted the attention and the
allegiance of the male sex of the elite. The female sex on the other hand
had neither the ability (so the myth pretended) nor the duty to under-
St- ->d and observe the requirements of Confucianism. Their indulgence in
"swpet ■ ( Itions" was generously tolerated by the male yangbans . Indeed,
tl Dai* yangbans had no reason to interfere in the superstitious pese-
ta O' of their women-folk so long as they did not have to be involved
d 1 re ly. If their wives and mothers could secure blessings from Buddha
0 i ? uccessfully avoid misfortunes with the help of shamans, they saw no
p;»int in opposing such behavior. Moreover, under the prevailing Confucian
' *de of behavior, the sexes were rigidly segregated, women being completely
•: i ; t antined from any contact with the opposite sex except immediate kin.
The yangban males, therefore, had more reason to oppose their
•men having contact with Buddhist priests who were males, after all,
1 bough celibate. The faithful female had to journey away from the seclu-
t ion of her house to the temple to worship Buddha. With the mudang ,
h wevto , the problem was much simpler. Since the mudang was a female, she
could be safely let into the inner courtyard of a yangban home. The
yangban female did not have to forsake the safety of her seclusion even
foi a minute. As there were no sutras to recite and no temple stairs to
climb, the whole mudang ceremonies could be carried on in strict domes-
ticity. The yangban women could never feel comfortable with the male-
centered tenets of Confucianism. But with a mudang , they could feel
completely at home. It was their own religion. It had more warmth than
their men's religion which never ceased to harp on their duty to obey and
•rve their men. Inasmuch as the mudang 1 s pantheon included any of the
i merous Buddhist deities, Confucius, Lao Tzu, famous Chinese and Korean
24
generals , "mountain women", Taoist immortals, infant spirits, etc., the
yangban woman could have all the protection she could hope for through
her nnidang .
Eliade (1964:4) defines shamanism as "archaic techniques of
ecstasy." He also indicates many ways in which a shaman may attain
ecstasy. Those shamans with less competence resort to tobacco, mushroom,
narcotics and other toxins (Eliade 1964:221). What appealed to the
domesticity of Korean females is the fact that shamanism offered them
ecstasy, not salvation. This emphasis on the here and now made family
shamanism possible. A senior female of a Korean household could attempt
to simulate the shamanic techniques of ecstasy without any professional
training or "calling" simply because she could attain at least some
degree of ecstasy, however incomplete. No lay female would have dared
to appropriate the "techniques" of salvation in her domestic seclusion.
Ecclesiastical specialization most probably would not have permitted
such an appropriation.
IV. Conceptual Contributions of the Three Religions
It is in this shamanic milieu that the three religions from
China had to function. The three religions came to Korea well equipped
with fully developed bodies of concepts and doctrines. Through their
interaction among themselves as well as with the shamanic tradition, the
three belief systems contributed to the creation of the religious value
system characteristic of the Korean people. In order to gain acceptance
from the people, the religions from China had to modify, deemphasize or
even abandon certain concepts and doctrines that conflicted with the basic
desires and aspirations of the Korean people. Confucianism and Taoism
encountered least opposition from the native tradition. They experienced
little need to syncretize. It was Buddhism that encountered greatest
resistance from the native milieu. In addition, it had to reckon with
the hostility of the two religions of Chinese origin.
25
In discussing the conceptual contributions made by Confucianism,
Buddhism and Taoism, we will begin with the examination of their concep-
r u ill zations of death and afterlife. Death and afterlife, of course, do
not exhaust the totality of any religion's doctrinal complex. But as the
primary concern of religion is the ultimate significance of human existence,
death, either as its termination or as a moment for passage into another
dimension of human existence, occupies a very important position in every
religious system. If the purpose of religion is to make the believer a
stronger man to face life (Durkheim 1965:464), it should also make him
stronger to face death.
Confucianism
Confucianism has taken the position that afterlife has no
special importance. What is important is to attain that degree, of per-
fection of virtue on earth during life where a man could reach complete
beatitude (Weber 1951:228). Like the Stoics, a Confucian would have
argued that "the sage, a blissful being, was a god on earth; heaven
could give him nothing more" (Cumont 1959:14). Confucianism has placed
the realization of its ideal in this world, not in the next. All of
its five cardinal principles of human life deal with interpersonal re-
lations on this earth. None concerns itself with the individual vis-a-vis
God. A man is to he judged by his fellow men, even after death, by what
he has accomplished in this world in his interpersonal relationships.
One's afterlife had little to do with moral considerations. There was
no eschatology for the world. Nor was the eschatology of an individual
a "judgment."
Taoism
From the beginning Taoism had more to offer to the "this-worldly"
Koreans. It willingly promised its followers eternal youth and longevity.
Those who could plumb the profundity of its creeds could acquire super-
human powers; their eyes would penetrate a thousand leagues; they would
26
be able to travel a hundred miles in one stride; they could make them-
selves invisible, etc. Although there were elements of ascetic self-
denial in its theories, such material rewards as wealth, honor and many
male descendants were to be the ultimate goal of ascetic training. Its
reputed ability to divine the fate of individuals strengthened its popu-
larity among a people whose primary concern was with the earthly life.
Taoist s did not bother themselves with the afterlife. Though they did
borrow various notions from Buddhism, they remained essentially this-
worldly .
Buddhism
Buddhism did have a comparatively well formulated theory of
afterlife. Rut it was a circular theory of transmigration of souls.
Afterlife takes the form of continuing life on this earth in different
biological forms. The final attainment of beatitude comes only when
all forms of selfishness are extinguished. This state of extinction —
extinction of "the boundary of finite self" (Smith 1965:125) — is, of
course, called Nirvana or Enlightenment. Here again the salvation from
pain and suffering is not something to be gained only in the other
world. Salvation is, furthermore, not by grace but by training, the
Eightfold Path. To be sure, there are two kinds of Nirvana: one attained
at enlightenment and the other attained at death (Finegan 1965:248).
Death is not a condition precedent for Nirvana. "Affirmatively [Nirvana]
is life itself" (Smith 1965:125). It is not of the "other world."
Buddhism, however, does have many elements that are at odds
with the indigenous concept of life and death. To the Koreans, the
totality of human life is certainly more than a condition steeped in
suffering, a condition to be emancipated from with single-minded endeavor.
Its transitoriness is something to be made a subject of sentimental
balladry, always with a tinge of regret, not a cornerstone of religious
wisdom or truth. Buddha said that five skandas — body, sense, ideas.
27
feelings, and consciousness — are painful. But to a Korean they are
precisely the elements that make life bearable and liveable. To him
these five skandas make up the sum total of human life. After all, a
profound social sensitivity is the foundation of virtue to a Korean.
Another nossible source of dissonance with the Korean mentality
was its individualism. Buddha appealed to the individual to work out
Ills own salvation. This individualistic element in the religion could
have come into conflict with the familism of the Koreans. But whatever
individualism there might have been In Buddhism had been greatly diluted
by Buddha's emphasis on the importance of having a right kind of association
as a preliminary step to the Eightfold Path. Its insistence on trans-
cending the boundary of the finite self robbed it of much of its "indi-
vidualism." The fact that it did not have a God as a personal being who
created the universe by a deliberate act of will and guided it to a
final goal according to a plan took a source of novelty out of Buddhism
for the Koreans who felt much more at home with a host of Bodhisattvas ,
Lohans, Kwannons, guardians, doorkeepers, etc.
Having undergone Sinicization and syncretic decadence in the
Korean milieu, the universalistic tendency in Buddhism lost its force.
It had to incorporate familistic ethics of Confucianism in order to enjoy
the protection of the state. Its ethics became as particularistic as
Confucianism with its emphasis on filial piety and ancestor cults. Al-
though the purity of the faith was maintained among a large number of
priests, as far as the popular Buddhism was concerned, it lost power to
transform the deeply ingrained mentality of the Korean people. Such
profundity as Buddha's negation of soul (the anatta doctrine) was simply
too obtuse for the average Korean, especially in view of seemingly contra-
dictory affirmation of transmigration of "streams of consciousness." The
notion of soul as some kind of mental substance was much more comprehen-
sible to the Koreans.
Buddhism in Korea had to downplay its emphasis on otherworldly
28
' ‘I- order to appear loss anti-social. Its universallstlc ethic vhleh
ignored di fferene.es of race, class status, sex, age, cul ture and family
uh nt if icntion had to be compromised in order to appear less subversive,
if a Korean sought salvation, it was within the family. Shamanism taught
him to seek ecstasy, xiot salvation. Taoism encouraged his search for
eternal youth, longevity, wealth and honor. Traditional familism reln-
torced bv Confucian stress on filial piety made him seek more male off-
spring who could assure him immortality through ancestral rites. Fame
or lustrous name preserved in history was another acceptable mode of
attaining immortality in the eyes of Confucianism. In this context
Buddhism could not insist blindly on salvation outside the family.
V. Religious Values of the Korean People
It is difficult to designate any one of several religions found
in Korea as the religion with which to characterize the religious values
of the Korean people. The pacifism in Confucianism was reinforced by the
strong aversion to destruction of anything living fixed firmly in Buddhism.
Confucius’ emphasis on this-vorldly life has been strengthened by similar
elements in popular Taoism and indigenous shamanism. Nevertheless, it is
possible to delineate a few salient features of the Korean religious mind.
Ant h ropo centrism
Hurrumism or this-worldliness may be an acceptable synonym for
anthropocentrism as used here. For the Korean a deep interpersonal com-
mitment is the bedrock upon which human life rests. It is not a commit-
ment to God. it is not a "surrendering to God," as a Muslim might say.
It is a total surrender of one’s self to other men. This is essentially
what tonfucius meant by j en , human-hear tedness . But with a possible
exception of a few Confucian "scholars" the outlook on life we are here
discussing should not be given a metaphysical or universalistic meaning.
Confucius might have intended to go beyond the national boundaries with
29
bis Jen and apply it to a universal brotherhood, of man. To an average
Korean, however, such universal brotherhood would have little meaning.
For him the warmth of interpersonal affection is an emotional necessity,
not merely an ethical ideal. It is a psychological nutriment. It
renders life meaningful.
This interpersonal commitment starts with one's own kin.
Nothing can be warmer or thicker than blood. Where geographic proximity
and social intercourse bring two persons who are not kinsmen close to-
gether, an interpersonal commitment of a quasi-consanguineous nature may
be created. It is usual for Koreans to turn the second kind of relation-
ship into the first through the means of quasi-adoption. Thus, my close
friend would call my mother "mother" and my brother "brother." Kinship
and family relationship is the foundation on which all other interpersonal
relations are based. If a man could not form and maintain an unconditional
commitment with his kin, it was unavoidable that his humanity itself would
be suspect.19 It was not simply a matter of his ethical integrity In the
sense that such a man could never form a viable interpersonal relationship
with any man. Rather, he lacked the essential ability to make life
meaningful to himself as well as to others.
The interpersonal commitment we are here discussing is uncon-
ditional and total. It is therefore irrational, illogical, inefficient,
unproductive, parochial and often unpatriotic. It is biological ("animal")
and emotional rather than intellectual or objective. It is usually blind.
This is the reason why it is often referred to as "primitive." According
to the modern ethics of industrial society, such a primitive interpersonal
dynamics is only detrimental to progress and development. It jeopardizes
scientific objectivity. It vitiates rationality and efficiency. It is
extremely "wasteful."
The Koreans have not yet succeeded in rationally committing
themselves to efficiency and rationalization by sacrificing at least some
of what they consider to be the essence of humanity. They have not yet
30
been able to "shatter the fetters of the sib" (Weber 1951:237). It has
not yet been possible for the Koreans to depersonalize the intensely per-
sonal nature of their social activities. It should be noted, however,
that in the face of the overwhelming influence of a civilization impelled
by the energy unleashed by the shattering of the fetters of kinship
affection, a gradual disintegration of traditional human relationship is
already visible in the name of humanity, progress, science, rationalism,
technological efficiency and democracy.
The Koreans have indeed created an "idol." They have made
an absolute out of earthly life. It is not God's grace and love that
are absolute and certain but the warmth of human affection — affection
reciprocated by other human beings with flesh and warm blood. A Christian
theologian would call this "idolatry" or "ontocracy" (Van Leeuwen 1964:
165-173) . The Koreans have certainly made an earthly phenomenon into an
absolute, thus "absolutizing the relative." For the Koreans it is not a
transcendental and infinite God that occupies the sovereign place in life,
but human affection, man himself.
Death as a Mode of Life
When death is spoken of as a mode of life, a contradiction in
terms is apparent. It may have been due to the influence of Taoism which
eschews all forms of clear-cut dichotomies that the Koreans are willing
to tolerate such a contradiction. The tendency to discern the identity
of contraries in life is clearly present in the Korean mind. On the other
hand, the Koreans are not the only people who have been willing to admit
a life after death, be it in the tomb or in the inferno. Reluctance of
the Koreans to accept the finiteness and the transitoriness of human life
created a need to take death as something other than the irrevocable
termination of human existence. It was easier to view death as a pro-
longed sleep.
The dead continued to linger on among those whom it loved. It
had to be remembered at mealtimes. Those who had been close to it during
31
life had to supply it with necessities. Above all the dead abhorred lone-
liness. The ancestor rites of the Korean people even today are aimed at
making the life of the dead ancestor as comfortable, warm and cheerful
as possible. In the old days, a filial son kept vigil for at least two
full years by eating and sleeping alone in a hut erected beside the grave
of his deceased parent. A portion of a room in the family dwelling was
set aside by a curtain, and there the departed ancestor continued to live
as a member of the family. Food was offered there at every meal, including
tobacco and wine. A bereft son would postpone the burial as long as
possible. He could not bear to hasten the departure of his beloved parent
to his grave. There was always the possibility that what appeared to be
death might in fact have been only a sleep.
Having placed such a high valuation upon interpersonal affection,
it was not easy to sunder it abruptly at death. The Koreans still hesitate
to cremate their dead unless the dead is unmarried without descendants,
the reason being that the cadaver is still a body that seems to retain all
the senses. Many dead are said to have complained to their kinsmen in
dreams of the discomfort of their water-logged burial chambers. Rein-
forcing the lingering affection was the notion that the dead acquires
superhuman capabilities due to death. Having gone over the barrier of
death, the dead becomes in a sense a more complete human being. Just as
the shaman is able to exercise superior powers over men because of his
ability to die and come back to life, so the dead acquires superhuman powers
because of his death.21 Inasmuch as the dead are thought to be capable
of gratitude as well as resentment, prudence, if not affection, dictated
affectionate treatment of the dead.22
Although there is some tendency to view death as a moment for
a final accounting for one's life history, primarily due to Buddhism,
there is no definite notion of death as the time for meeting the Creator
face to face and submitting to His judgment. To be sure, an evil man may
be condemned to a most miserable afterlife. But the reason is not so much
32
the punishment Imposed by the Creator for his sins as that his evil
nature would certainly have destroyed any possibility of his having
other human beings with enough affection toward him to care for him
after death. The spirit most feared by the Koreans is that of an infant
or a young girl who has died withcas ever marrying. It is felt that
such a spirit grudges its own untimely death as well as the life of others
because it has been deprived of the enjoyment of life. Such a spirit,
having no offspring to console it, is considered more dangerous than the
spirit of an evil person. Consequently, a man may be more afraid to die
without offspring than to die in a state of sin. ’’Salvation" lies more
with the affection and care of one's offspring than with the grace of a
transcendental abstract entity.
The lack of a transcendental sanction indeed means a lack of
"guilt," as has been pointed out by Benedict (1946:222-224). There is
certainly no notion of "original sin" that renders God’s grace indis-
pensable for salvation. Moreover, the concept of guilt or sin itself
has a different cultural content in Korea than in the West. If there
is a sense of guilt among the Korean people, it has primarily an inter-
personal connotation. It has little significance in terms of Tillich's
"I-Thou" relationship. A man's transgression is against another human
being, not against "Thee." This is the reason why the Koreans are said
to be preoccupied with "face" and "shame" rather than with guilt. With
the Koreans guilt is a this-worldly concept. Interhuman and social sub-
stance is so predominant that to the Western observer the sense of guilt
2 3
disappears entirely and only the sense of shame remains.
Thus, expiation of guilt is not through a supplication to God.
It lies in the procurement of forgiveness from the victim (or his family)
for one's wrong. The importance of making peace with the object of tres-
pass can never be minimized among the Koreans. It is for this reason that
the Koreans are unwilling to punish a man who voluntarily confesses his
wrongs and makes restitution. This is especially true when the victim
33
himself is willing to forgiye and forget. It is almost entirely in the
hands of the wronged to extinguish or continue the crime or guilt of the
wrongdoer.24 The doctrine of sin, be it "original sin" or "estrangement,"
is the most difficult of Christian doctrines for the Koreans.
There is, however, a correlative duty on the part of the wronged
to expedite reconciliations. If the trespasser shows even the smallest
sign of readiness to atone for his trespass, humanity requires that the
atonement be facilitated and reconciliation accomplished. This community
expectation for the speedy reconciliation can often become an intense
group pressure. When the transgressor has attempted in good faith to
seek forgiveness and reconciliation, it is now the recalcitrant victim
who becomes the object of opprobrium if he refuses the proffered recon-
ciliation. Herein lies at least a portion of motivating force that
drives the Korean people to compromise always by giving or losing a
little and taking or winning a little in every kind of dispute settlement.
But in the case of a homicide a much more difficult question
is presented. Seeking forgiveness and reconciliation from a dead man is
infinitely more difficult and complicated. As we have seen, the Korean
concept of reparation and reconciliation is human and social. A homicide
victim is no longer available in an ordinary social milieu. To be sure,
there are means by which the offender can still effect a settlement with
the dead victim. A shaman might be able to mediate. The victim’s family
might agree to a reconciliation after an adequate compensation. The
killer may undertake to care for the dead by giving him a decent burial
and consoling him as if the dead were his own ancestor. But there is no
assurance that any of these substitute means will be effective. They
usually are not, as most folktales abundantly attest. Worse still, the
spirit of a dead man who has died without granting a reconciliation to
the murderer is a spirit to be feared. Having died with enmity and ven-
geance, he keeps begrudging his own untimely death and the life of the
killer. No man can have a worse enemy than the spirit of his own
34
vimUcti.ve victim. A dead man iq under no social pressure to accept off-
!oi reconciliation and recompense. With his superior power a vengeful
spirit can play havoc with the killer's life at will. A most devastating
manner in which the killer may meet his nemesis is to witness a gradual
destruction of his offspring and to die without any kin who can care for
him after death. Retribution may now be considered complete. It is not
a sudden cruel death or material impoverishment but the assurance of
lonely, cold and neglected afterlife that is the most dreaded revenge
against any killer of man.
It has often been pointed out that one of the reasons for the
traditional Chinese pacifism lies in the doctrine of filial piety. The
oft-quoted passage is from the Hsiao Ching (The Classic of Filial Sub-
mission) that exhorts: "Seeing that our body, with hair and skin, is
derived from our parents, we should not allow it to be injured in any way
This is the beginning of filiality" (Makra 1961: 3). 2 5 For the Confucian
Korean it is the height of filial impiety to have his life and limbs
exposed to a danger of maiming and destruction. As is pointed out by
Wright, it is the fear of dying without offspring that is primarily
responsible for the strenuous avoidance of violence and perilous adven-
ture (Wright 1959:74). When a Korean dies without offspring it is not
he alone but all of his ancestors who will be left without solace and
care after death. But there seems to be another more important and com-
pelling reason for the implacable abhorrence of physical violence that
might lead to injury and death. If a Korean has to kill someone else to
save himself, the outcome will not be much of an improvement. He has
now to reckon with a vengeful spirit of his victim who can bring about
practically the same result as though he himself had died. It mattered
little whether the killing was to achieve justice or to exterminate evil.
X
To a Korean justice can never be achieved through violence. Evil is as
much a part of life as good even if one were to accept the dichotomy
which is relative and dubious at best.27 Killing of an evil man would
35
not result in "killing" evil. Evil would continue to live with the spirit
of the dead man. It is the ultimate paradox of supposedly pacifist otl r~
worldly religions to sanction homicide and violence in the name of God
justice, patriotism, loyalty and salvation.28
Practicality, Syncretism and Worldli nes s
Many observers of the Chinese scene have commented on the
excessive practicality of the Chinese religious mind that seems to verge
on commercialism in its relationship with God.29 It has often been
pointed out that a Chinese would not hesitate to worship any deity. He
believes that the more gods he worships the greater the number of blessings
he will receive, and therefore it is advantageous for him to have as many
gods on his side as possible. Consequently, religious syncretism is said
to be an ingrained trait of the Chinese character. Such crass worldliness
appears to shock the Western observer. These characteristics of the
Chinese religious mind are fully shared by the Korean people.
The Koreans have no god (until Roman Catholicism began to gain
followers in the second half of the eighteenth century) that demands an
absolute and exclusive allegiance with jealous vengeance. Nor is there
a personalized Supreme Being who created the universe. Efforts have been
made by Korean Christian scholars and Western missionaries to attribute
the rapid expansion of Protestant Christianity in the last decades of the
nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth to the existence
of an indigenous god that possessed attributes similar to the God of the
Old Testament.30 But the Korean deity, Hananim, who was the chief of the
shamanic pantheon could not be more dissimilar to the God of the Jews and
the Christians. The Koreans do not possess a creation myth. Hananim has
not been credited with a responsibility for creating the universe and man-
kind with a preconceived plan, nor has he even demanded an exclusive loyalty
and devotion in the manner of the first four commandments of the Mosaic
Decalogue. No universal laws of human behavior by which his people were to
be judged were laid down, and his princes were never commanded to destroy
36
Ha nan ini never permitted hi
evil and to "wield the sword of Justice." 31
son to be most cruelly killed by men to save them.32
It seems more reasonable, therefore, to look for the reason 1 or
the "phenomenal" success of Protestant Christianity in Korea in the
practicality, syncretism and worldliness of the Korean religious mind
rather than in its ability to identify with the native theology. Had
Christianity been identified with Japan, it would never have been able to
make any headway among the Koreans. The fact that Christianity was iden-
tified with nationalism, anti-Japanese colonialism, America’s lack of
imperialistic interest in Korea and America’s fabulous wealth seems to be
the most important reason why it succeeded to the extent that it has.
For those Koreans who became Christians there was nothing for them to Jose
in worshipping ithe God that had been so munificent to the Americans. Its
nationalistic stance made the membership in the church respectable. There
were practical advantages, too, such as literacy, thriftiness, overcoming
of social class barriers and so forth that followed from membership.
Rigid prohibition against smoking and drinking along with a severe inter-
diction against ancestor cults and other "superstitions" enabled the Korean
Protestant Christians to dispense with financially ruinous practices
sanctioned by the traditional patterns of social intercourse. With a people
whose scheme of social interaction has been entirely built around drinking,
non-drinking alone was sufficient to enable the Korean Protestants to avoid
most of the financially burdensome social obligations. I hesitate to go so
far as to state that the native propensity to syncretism has reduced Jesus
to the status of an exceptionally capable shaman who could perform miracles
and rise from the dead and has rendered revival meetings indistinguishable
from shamanic seances. It is, nonetheless, important to keep in mind that
the features of the Korean religious mind we have been discussing are very
much in evidence even among the Korean Christians of today.
37
VI. Jural Values of the Korean People
Justice and Peace
Law in Korea has been synonymous with punishment. Its foundation
has been physical force. Law has been the antithesis of virtue, good,
peace and harmony. It has been a detestable necessity at best and a
symbol of violence, disruption, conflict and bloodshed at worst. Order
and peace have been based upon virtue and affection, never on punishment.
The sword is the cause as much as the result of disorder and violence,
and although it may be an indispensable equipment for the goddess of
justice in the West, Koreans cannot help but feel an instinctive aversion
to it. The sanguinariness of the Western concept of justice prevents
Koreans from accepting it wholeheartedly as the ideal of their social life.
Law and order may come to an American town when the sheriff shoots a bad
man to death in a gun fight, but for the Koreans such bloodshed can never
bring peace and order to a community.
From the Western point of view Koreans do little to fight
corruption and evil. They seem to condone evil. They have no civic con-
science. They have no sense of justice. But for the Koreans, justice has
to be for man,, not for God; for life, not for death; for peace, not for
violence; for forgiveness, not for punishment. This is the reason
Koreans consider the Western concept of justice "inhuman."
An American employer who fires (what a martial word!) his Korean
employee who has embezzled money will often be called inhuman by Koreans.
He naturally feels disconcerted by having his just action so characterized,
and his immediate reaction is to accuse the Koreans of thinking nothing of
stealing .
How is a "human" employer to act under such circumstances? He
tries first of all to determine the truth of the matter, as any American
employer would under similar circumstances. But what is involved is not
a mere matter of factual investigation. Motives and reasons for the misdeed
38
must be discovered. The employer must make every effort to get hfiu* *lf
t'ul.l.y involved in the life of his wayward employee. Clear villingnesf
to forgive the wrong is implied. This in turn imposes an obligation on
the employee to confess his wrongs fully as a prerequisite for obtaining
forgiveness. Guilt must be fully admitted. Reparation or restitution
in some form and manner is assumed by both parties. The employer’s will-
ingness to get himself involved in the life of his offending employee makes
him a "human" employer. Having once established an interpersonal relation-
ship, the employer cannot now act as though he were a stranger toward his
guilty employee, however evil. No employer in Korea, Korean or American,
can enjoy the loyalty of his employees without getting himself fully in-
volved in the total life of his employees. (The French call this
engagement , a commitment to a particular human being.)
Matters will not rest there with a really "human" employer,
however, he will go a step further and help his guilty employee to remedy
the state of affairs that gave rise to the offense initially. Having
committed himself to the life of his employee, he cannot now turn his face
away. If there is extreme financial hardship, he will at least show a
genuine desire to render as much assistance as is practically possible.
To a Western employer this would amount to rewarding an evil rather than
punishing it; an honest employee gets no attention whereas the "prodigal"
one seems to benefit from his wrong in the form of more attention, financial
benefits, and the like. For the Koreans, however, what is involved is a
progressively intensifying mutual commitment. The employer "cares" and
so does the employee.
Truth and Harmony
The Westerner is apt to complain that Koreans are dishonest.
They do not mind telling lies. It is shocking to the Westerner that a
surprisingly large number of Koreans do not hesitate to lie even under
oath .
If telling a factual truth means destruction of harmonious
39
social life and of the equilibrium of interpersonal dynamics, a Korean
feels little compunction in telling a lie. A guest might falsely express
lets appreciation of hospitality to a terrible host in order not to hurt
his feelings. One might express admiration of an ugly and stupid boy so
as to please his mother. A man might tell a lie to his friend's wife for
the purpose of hiding the friend's indiscretion with another woman. A son
would vouch for his father's false alibi so that his father might escape
prosecution. A neighbor might pretend ignorance of facts he witnessed
in order to avoid embarrassment to his neighbor. The list can be endlessly
multiplied .
To the Korean the whole truth of a matter arising out of inter-
personal dynamics can be explicated only when the parties involved volun-
tarily agree to its formulation. The factual circumstances observed
accidentally by a third person are only a portion of the truth. He cannot
have understood fully enough the temporal, spatial, and interpersonal
dimensions involved to grasp the whole truth. An objective truth without
the benefit of involvement and the understanding of particular equities
and special reasons is little short of meaningless. Truth is not the
concern of an uninvolved third person. It is a matter of concern for the
parties involved, and only they can define it in a meaningful way. The
whole truth can be delineated only by the voluntary admission and agree-
ment of the parties involved. This is the reason a confession has always
been thought of as the best evidence.
When Western law undertakes an investigation, the primary pur-
pose is prosecution and punishment, and the result is further disruption
of social harmony rather than a speedy restoration of jeopardized concord.
It is rare that the Koreans will cooperate readily with the official
investigating authority by coming forth with facts. Factual information
will be forthcoming only if it will assist a quick reestablishment of
equilibrium. On the other hand, if the investigating authority manifests
in a tangible manner a readiness to get itself involved in the lives of
40
th< parties and the community of which they are members, the truth wH 1
ho more readily established. This is what has been known as "paternalism . "
the structure of law has been "patrimonial" in Korea (Weber 1951:100-104).
The underlying ethics are particularistic rather than universal.33
Judgment and Reconciliation
There has been no great lawgiver in Korean history, nor any
great legendary judge. A truly great magistrate is a bureaucrat who so
inculcates virtue in the people that law (the rules of punishment) and
courthouses are rendered superfluous. A great magistrate is not one who
vigorously prosecutes and punishes criminals; under a great magistrate
there would be no criminals in the first place. A great judge with
Solomonic wisdom would be a miserable failure in comparison with a magis-
trate who so shames quarrelsome elements in his jurisdiction that they
settle their differences amicably among themselves. Law signifies the
failure of princely virtue, and the administration of justice is premised
upon the breakdown of harmony and peace.
The Koreans have always favored mediators as peace-makers over
judges who fix blame. Mediators do not try to fix blame or lay down the
law, but instead encourage the parties themselves to lay down the law
applicable to their own case. As Northrop points out, the law is what
the disputants themselves approve through mediation. Since the disputants
specify the solution, there is no external sanction needed to enforce it.
Sanction is built into the solution. Violence, even that inflicted by
authority, is avoided (Northrop 1958:347, 351).
To the Korean a litigation is a war, as fully typified by the
Anglo-American adversary system of litigation. In a litigation both sides
rely on the formalized violence supported by the state. If a man hauls
another into court, he is in fact declaring war upon the latter. For a
Westerner, who thrives on adversity, who is thrilled by "a modern, dynamic
system of dialectic struggle," and who glorifies his "supramundane God" by
subduing sin, a courtroom may represent the quintessence of civilized social
41
Jiving. To the Western man — a Prometheus, a Faust, or just a Christian
following the commandment of his God (Genesis 1:26-30) — conflict and
struggle are the essence of life. Tension is everywhere: in the world
he rejects yet seeks to dominate and master; in the God he sees yet does
not see; and in himself, a creature in the image of God and yet a vessel
of sin. For him interpersonal conflicts are to be tamed by the rules of
fair play and justice. Justice is on the winning side. Good triumphs
over evil. It is out of the dialectic struggle that progress comes.
And even when the Westerner finally comes to think of reconciliation, he
seems more concerned with making peace with himself or with his God than
with his fellow man.
A litigious man is a warlike man to the Koreans. He threatens
harmony and peace. He is a man to be detested. If a man cannot achieve
reconciliation through mediation and compromise, he cannot be considered
an acceptable member of the collectivity. It is true that violence can
never be eradicated. There will always be those who forfeit their hu-
manity by resorting to violence, and they must be met with violence —
although only as a last resort. But Koreans cannot see why violence
should be glorified and honored as an instrument of justice. To them
wrath, jealousy, vengeance, and judgment cannot be indispensable attri-
butes of God, nor should similar attributes characterize human behavior.
Through the Japanese, the Koreans have been exposed to the notion that
violence when disciplined and victorious has its glorious beauty. It is
needless to add that the Japanese were not alone in this notion. The
Koreans were told that war made men out of boys; it fostered courage,
3 4
altruism, and other spiritual qualities valued by the Japanese society.
Such Western thinkers as Hobbes, Nietzsche and Sorel may be
eccentric extremists,35 but the wish for power to dominate other men by
force, if necessary, and the conflicts and struggles engendered thereby
is not merely the obsession of eccentrics. Periodic open conflict itself
is often viewed as having the salutary effect of reducing or minimizing
42
social Instability by keeping sources of mutual irritation from accu-
mulating (Wilson and Kolb 1949:713-716). Moreover, if one accepts the:
notion of a primordial murder — whether that of Abel by Cain or that of
the marine monster by the god — as the common heritage of mankind (kllado
1964:100-101), bloodshed may be a sacred Imltatlo del. Thus, even a
reconciliation with God may have to be through bloodshed. In a culture
in which conflict, violence, and bloodshed occupy such an exalted position,
perhaps a rationally regulated and disciplined combat in which one has to
be the winner (right) and his adversary the loser (wrong) must be the
foundation of social life.
VII. Conclusion
The Rule of Law is a concept very dear to the hearts of lawyers
in the West. It has become synonymous with a sum total of cherished
Western political ideals. This concept has been transported to Korea
as a part of the "superior" civilization of the West, but it has been
very slow in gaining ground there. The Korean linguistic equivalent of
the concept means nothing more than rule by punishment. Such a concept
has never been the ideal of the Korean people, nor is it likely soon to
become so. This "alegalness" of the Korean people has sometimes been
interpreted as lawlessness. A nation of more than 27 million people with
a legal profession numbering about 1300 (of this less than 800 are full-
time practitioners) (Murphy 1967:12) can scarcely be labelled a nation
under the Rule of Law.36
T.t has been nearly eight decades since Korea first began to
model its laws and legal institutions after those of the West. As Roman
law is said to have failed to remodel German mores (Sumner 1906:81-82),
so the Western legal system has thus far failed to remodel Korean mores.
The perennial question raised by this state of affairs is, "What should
be done to 'remedy' or 'improve' the situation?" The underlying premise
43
Is that the traditional "alegal" way of life Is inimical to the develop-
ment and progress of the country. Whether one evaluates the present
situation as "bad" or not, of course, depends on one's value preferences.
Even if one assumes that the present condition is undesirable and needs
amelioration, it is still necessary to understand completely the under-
lying factors that are responsible for the condition. I have attempted
to trace in this paper the Korean unwillingness to resort to the law to
the religious values of the people.
Inasmuch as religious values are at the core of cosmology and
of social ethics, the fundamentally this-worldly life-view of the
Korean people has made them prefer human affection to God's grace, ecstasy
to salvation, peace to justice, harmony to truth, and mediation to ad-
judication. If the mores of the Korean people are as inert and rigid as
mores are said to be in general (Sumner 1906:79-82), it is not likely
that Koreans will become a legal people in the foreseeable future. The
questions of whether the Koreans ought to become more legal and how they
can be made more legal are not answered here.
Both the jural and religious values of the Korean people are
in a state of flux. The change is more pronounced in certain segments
of population than in others. The impact of the life-views of other
cultures is overwhelming. It may be the duty of the social scientist
to facilitate "inevitable" change, but he seems doomed to doubt the
"inevitability" or desirability of some social change.
44
NOTES
*The research for this paper was made possible by the Summer Research
Fellowship, 3966, of the Frank L. Weil Institute for Studies in Religion
and the Humanities.
Winogradoff expresses a similar view as follows. "Laws repugnant to the
notions of right of a community or to its practical requirements are
likely to be defeated by passive resistance and by the difficulty of
constant supervision and repression." (1960:45).
2Petrazycki (1955:221-240) also employed another term, "intuitive legal
conscience." The concept has substantially the same meaning as what is
meant by "jural value" in this paper.
3Ehrlich (1936:493) defines the "living law" as "the law which dominates
life itself even though it has not been posited in legal propositions."
He distinguishes it from the law of the courts and other tribunals.
4Petrazycki says, "[Those] legal experiences which contain no references
to outside authorities and are independent thereof we shall call intuitive
legal experiences or intuitive law" (1955:5).
sHocking observes that there is a "natural and minimal organic connection
of the living law with the living ethical convictions of a people" (1931:245).
A lively discussion was started by Lord Devlin (1965:6) in connection with
the Wolfenden Report (1957) on homosexuality and prostitution. He argued
that it was wrong for the Wolfenden Committee to separate "crime from sin."
He said, "The criminal law of England has from the very first concerned
itself with moral principles." The opposing views were expressed by
Professor H.L.A.Hart and others.
6 "Morality", "Value" and "norm" all have respective ambiguities. They are
often used as equivalents (Brown 1965:454 and Edel 1959:189-192).
7For Parsons, personalities and social systems are "not merely inter-
dependent, they interpenetrate" (Parsons and Bales 1955:357).
8 "[A] human person exists only in so far as he has taken 'society' into
himself" (Parsons and Bales 1955:358)
9This is in specific reference to a passage under the heading of the
second year of King Pochang (643 A.D.) of the Kokuryo Kingdom in Samguk-
saki (History of the Three Kingdoms) . Samguksaki is a 50-volume com-
pilation under the editorship of Kim Pusik. The corpus was completed in
1145 A.D. The analogy of the three religions to a tripod can be found in
many writings throughout East Asia. In the year in question the chief
minister recommended to the king that Taoism should be strengthened. To
this end he sought to send an emissary to T'ang to acquire a better under-
standing of the religion. The first specific reference to Taoism in the
historical records is found under the year 624 A.D. In that year T'ang
sent a Taoist with icons and literature to Kokuryo. But the introduction
45
of that religion seems to antedate this event considerably. It seems
quite probable that Confucianism and Taoism reached the northern region
of the Korean peninsula as early as the first century B.C. when the Han
Empire colonized that region.
1 °There are few books in English on the subject of Korean religions.
Clark's Religions of Old Korea (1932) has been reissued in Seoul, Korea
and is about the only book available in spite of its dated and missionary
perspective. Underwood (1910) is out of print. Korea Journal, published
by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, has had several issues
devoted to various religions in Korea.
llThe May 1964 issue of Korea Journal (Vol . 4, no. 3) contains several
articles in English by Korean Buddhists, including a historical survey
of Korean Buddhism.
12"[The] Mahayana wa3 a politically incompetent religion" (Toynbee 1957:247).
l3For the Sung revival of Confucianism and the suppression of Buddhism
in its aftermath, see Wright (1959:86-107).
14 If religion is taken in its widest sense as a way of life woven around
a people's ultimate concerns, Confucianism clearly qualifies. Even if
religion is taken in a narrower sense as the concern to align man to the
transhuman ground of his existence, Confucianism is still a religion albeit
a muted one (Smith 1965:188).
1 5The September 1963 issue of Korea Journal (Vol. 3, no. 9) contains several
articles by Korean scholars on Korean Confucianism.
16See under the heading of the eighth year of King Tongch'on (234 A.D.)
in Samguksaki (Pusik:1960) .
17Wei Chih, in San Kuo Chih (History of the Three Kingdoms).
18It should be remembered that Confucianism, the religion of Korean males,
was a "family religion" also.
1 9
The importance of family is not a phenomenon unique to the people of
East Asia. An old Indian in California had this to say, "A man is nothing.
Without his family he is of less importance than that bug crossing the
trail, of less importance than the sputum or exuviae." (Aginsky 1940:43).
20Weber makes the point succinctly:
The great achievement of ethical religions, above all the ethical
and ascetist sects of Protestantism, was to shatter the fetters of
the sib. These religions established the superior community of
faith and a common ethical way of life in opposition to the community
of blood, even to a large extent in opposition to the family. From
the economic viewpoint it meant basing business confidence upon the
ethical qualities of the individual proven in his impersonal
vocational work." (1951:237)
46
2 |
Death is often viewed as the supreme initiatory passage (Eliod 1 1 J84-201).
2 2 for the Chinese fear of the dead, see Kazantzakis (1963:215-213)
23Kluckhohn and Leighton had the folJowing to say about the Navaho :
[ There 1 is no belief that the way one lives on this earth has
anything to do with his fate after death. This is one reason
why morality is practical rather than categorical. . . .White
life is so permeated with the tradition of Puritanism, of the
"Protestant ethic," that much Navaho behavior looks amoral or
shiftless (1946:232).
2UThe wish ot the family of a homicide victim was also decisive in old
Japan (Simmons 1891:121-122).
2SPr ilessor Wright says: "The Chinese cult of filial piety has a chilling
eifect on martial ardor" (Wright 1959:74).
o c
Kazantzakis relates an interesting episode as to how a Chinese might
revenge himself on his enemy not by killing the enemy but himself (1963:
217-218) .
27Weber's following observation on the traditional Chinese ethics may
serve as an apt description of the Korean scene. "Both forms of religion
(Confucianism and Taoism) lacked even the traces of a satanic force of
evil against which the pious Chinese, whether orthodox or heterodox,
might have struggled for his salvation" (1951:206).
28For the case of Buddhism in China, see Wright (1959:74-75); for the
case of Buddhism in Japan, see Bellah (1957:181-182); for the case of
Christianity and Islam, I need not cite any specific references.
2 9Kazantzakis indignantly observes: "The relationship between the
Chinese and God is a commercial one; give me something, so that I may
give you something" (1963:208).
30See Palmer (1967) and the references cited therein.
3 1 1 am referring to the Byzantine view of the emperor as the executor
of justice. See Hedlin (1952:28, 48-56).
32To the martial Japanese the crucifixion seems to have an entirely
different meaning. In this sense they seem to have much more in common
with the Christian West than with the Koreans (Sansom 1958:29-30). Kazant-
zakis found a Japanese Christian closely identifying the Christian concept
of sacrifice with Japanese harakir i (1963:36). See also Ishida (1963:21).
*Pa r. t Icular ism in law and ethics is characterized by Northrop as a
pei spective in which
Each legal judgment, each moral choice, each dispute and each
Individual is regarded in its essential normative nature to be
unique rather than an instance of a universal scientific law
47
or a determinate normative ethical and legal commandment or
rule. . . . (1960:621).
On the other hand, universalism is characterized as a perspective in which
"for any act to be good or just, it must be an instance of a formally
constructed universal law which applies to any person whatever who
implicitly or explicitly assents to it." In addition, if such a law
confers any right or privilege to a member of the community, "it must
confer those rights, privileges and duties on any one" (1960:656).
34For an interesting comparison of diverse cultural responses to war,
see Benedict (1934:30-32).
35I am referring to Hobbes' idea of war as a "natural condition" of man
(1955:80-84); to Nietzsche's "the will to power which is the will to
life" (1955:203); and to Sorel's "creativeness" of violence (3941).
These figures should become more meaningful if we compare them with
10,854 (as of 1965) licensed medical doctors who had to complete 18
years of formal education (2 years more than required of an attorney) and
pass the national examination. Every year approximately 800 medical
college graduates are licensed. There are hundreds of M.D.’s currently
receiveing training in the U.S. alone. Besides, there were 1,762 licensed
dentists and 2,849 licensed doctors of the Chinese school. See Haptong
Yon 'Cam (1966:826-827) and Statistic Yearbook of Education: 358-359.
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53
KOREA AND THE EMERGING
ASIAN POWER BALANC
By Pyong-choon Hahm
Reprinted From
FOREIGN
AFFAIRS
AN AMERICAN QVARTERLr REVIEW
JANUARY 1972
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
AN AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
JANUARY 1972
The New Economics and U.S. Foreign Policy . . C. Fred Bergsten 199
The CIA and Decision-Making Chester L. Cooper 223
The Foreign Policy of the New Canada Ivan L. Head 237
The Other South Vietnam: Toward the Breaking Point
Jean-Claude Pomonti 253
Japan's Global Engagement 'Lbigmevc Brzezinski 270
South Africa: The Politics of Fragmentation . . . Neville Curtis 283
East Germany Between Moscow and Bonn
Robert Gerald Livingston 297
The President and the Military Morton H. Halperin 310
Pollution: Precedent and Prospect . Charles Cheney Humpstone 325
Korea and the Emerging Asian Power Balance
Pyong-choon Hahm 339
Reconsiderations
The End of the Weimar Republic . Sir John Wheeler-Bennett 351
Recent Books on International Relations John G. Stoessinger 372
Source Material Donald Wasson 391
HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG
Editor
JAMES CHACE
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Vol. 50, No. 2. Copyright 1971, Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. Printed in the U.S. A.
KOREA AND THE EMERGING
ASIAN POWER BALANCE
By Pyong-choon Halim
EVEN before the Nixon Doctrine was enunciated in the
summer of 1969, the international power alignments in
East Asia had already been undergoing a fundamental
change. The phenomenal growth of Japanese industrial might
was clearly making itself felt throughout the world. The polite
Japanese did not have to force themselves to be querulous in
compelling the world to sit up and take notice of this new Asian
industrial state. Their economy was enough of a “miracle” to
attract everyone’s attention. Indeed, they did everything in
their power to belittle their own economic achievement. It was
the prodigious yearly jump in their international trade surplus
which advertised their truly embarrassing riches almost against
their wish.
It is an interesting fact of world history that this conclusive
demonstration of explosive Japanese economic power has coin-
cided in the United States with the budding mood of self-doubt
caused largely by its inability to win a decisive military victory
in Vietnam.
The changing international power configuration affecting
Asia, however, was not entirely due to Japan’s remarkable
economic growth, nor was it wholly explainable in terms of
the relative decline of American economic and military power.
To be sure, the principal damage inflicted upon the United States
by the Vietnamese war was economic. The deteriorating balance
of international trade and the domestic inflation has been
among the most significant liabilities of the frustrating war in
Indochina. But the Vietnamese war was destined to have a much
wider significance than the economic difficulty for the United
States. It signified in essence the end of the cold war. The United
States suddenly discovered itself deprived of the loyal support of
most of its allies for the first time since 1945. The cold war,
which had been characterized by bipolar power alignments with
strong intra-bloc cohesion, was definitely coming to an end by
the time the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war was reaching
its climax.
The fact that most of the West European allies not only
340
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
refused to cooperate with the United States in its anti-com-
munist war, but often harshly criticized it for its involvement
there, was as much an indication of the innate political pluralism
of the West as a reaction to the damaged monolithic unity of the
East. The increasing restiveness among the NATO members was
in fact a reflection of the impaired bloc solidarity of the com-
munist world. Just as America was afflicted with de Gaulle’s
France, so did Russia have her own Mao’s China. As the Sino-
Soviet conflict steadily and ominously intensified, the impres-
sion of communist disunity, and even of fragmentation, has
grown so strong as to render the dissension and frictions among
the Western allies quite insignificant by comparison.
Even as late as 1967 when China appeared to be tearing her-
self apart in an ideological frenzy called the Great Cultural
Revolution, the world refused to take the Sino-Soviet disputes
very seriously. China was still considered a protege of the Soviet
Union, without whose patronage China could hardly sustain
herself as an autonomous political entity. Quite a few observers
in the non-communist world were deeply skeptical of the ability
of the communist regime to govern the most populous state with
one of the oldest political cultures on earth. The predominance
of the Soviet Union in what appeared to be a monolithic bloc so
overshadowed this gigantic Asian experiment in Marxism that
the Cultural Revolution seemed to be yet another proof of the
political incompetence of the Chinese communist elites in the
absence of close Soviet tutelage. But then, in a year or two, the
same combination of events in the much intensified form of a
Sino-Soviet border war and gradual restoration of domestic order
in China gave evidence not only of the viability of the Chinese
communist system but its resilience in the face of hostile pressure
from the second most powerful nation on this planet. The result
was the greatly enhanced stature of communist China in the
world power arena. It became no longer realistic to ignore the
regime on the Chinese mainland which appeared solidly in power
both domestically and internationally. The sudden willingness on
the part of the Chinese communist elites to claim their place in the
international community only expedited the process of recogni-
tion of the nation’s political stature by non-communist states
which were relieved to find her willing to coexist with them. The
political and economic advantages to be derived from their inter-
action with China were of course quickly perceived by the new
members of the Peking fan club.
KOREA AND THE ASIAN POWER BALANCE 341
11
In the global power strategy of the United States, the advan-
tages to be gained by establishing some form of rapprochement
with communist China were simply too many and too great to be
ignored. Aside from the immediate sense of relief resulting from
any reduction in the tension built up during the past two
decades between the two countries, any leverage which the
United States might derive from the rapprochement with com-
munist China in its dealings with the Soviet Union and Japan
was certainly welcome. If some measure of “checks and balances”
were to inhibit Russian adventurism and expansionism in the
Middle East, the Indian Ocean and Latin America, an attempt at
improved relations with communist China would be such a
sensible and wise proposition as to require no special justification.
The speed with which the Four Powers in Europe could reach
an agreement on Berlin since the announcement of the projected
trip of President Nixon to Peking seems to bear out the practical
advantages of a new Sino-American detente. As the Soviet Union
expects that tension with communist China will increase in the
future, in no small part as a result of Washington’s approach to
Peking, it would be most imprudent for Russia not to secure her
European front as soon as possible. A moderate amount of Sino-
Soviet tension and hostility plainly helps the United States by
making the Soviet Union, the one power which possesses the
actual resources to pose a serious military threat, much more
tractable.
On the other hand, it is equally apparent that a full-scale war
between the two communist giants would not be in the interest of
the United States. The destruction of communist China as a
serious rival of the Soviet Union and the absorption of the one
by the other would so undermine U.S. security interests as to be
utterly unacceptable. This is, of course, not to mention the risk
of a global nuclear holocaust such a war would entail.
Ever since the beginning of 1970, there has gradually emerged
a noticeable tendency in communist China’s foreign policy
toward wider contacts with the non-communist world. Treading
as it did on the heels of the Cultural Revolution, the world was
at first skeptical of China’s new affability. Inasmuch as the con-
ventional ideological rhetoric persisted, it was all the more
difficult for the world to grasp China’s real intentions. More-
over, the predominance of the People’s Liberation Army in the
342
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
period subsequent to the Cultural Revolution further contributed
to the world skepticism. But the army seems to have been per-
suaded of the value of friendly public opinion, especially in the
non-communist world. It was not difficult for the Chinese elites,
for example, to comprehend that a timely public statement by the
U.S. Secretary of State that the Sino-Soviet war was not in the
interests of the United States would be worth a few dozen army
divisions on its side against Russia. This was especially true in
the face of a perennial Chinese fear of tacit American acquies-
cence, if not outright collusion, in a Soviet military subjugation
of China.
In the case of the Vietnamese war the value of public opinion
in the non-communist world sympathetic to communist North
Vietnam has been fully demonstrated, this time against the
United States. What has frustrated a decisive military victory
by the United States in Indochina has not been its military in-
feriority but hostile public opinion at home and on the part of
its European allies. Had the Indochinese war taken place a cen-
tury ago with a similar disparity in military might, no one would
have had any difficulty in predicting a quick and decisive mili-
tary victory for the United States over North Vietnam.
The growth of Japanese economic power, on the other hand,
has signaled a need for constructing an international order that
would permit room for Japan to play a more independent and
influential role. Japan has come to chafe increasingly in the role
of a military base for the United States on the far side of the
Pacific Ocean. The seemingly unlimited access to the U.S. do-
mestic market enjoyed by Japan for the past two decades and a
half has suddenly turned into an economic nightmare for the
United States. A generous giver of economic aid and a promoter
of free trade has turned into a disadvantaged champion fighting
with one arm tied behind his back against a strong challenger.
There is now serious economic competition, if not war, across the
Pacific Ocean. The United States clearly intends either to blunt
the thrust of the Japanese economic challenge or to divert it to
other markets of the world. From now on, Japan will be more on
her own in the international power arena as well as the economic
market. She will have to do her share of maintaining “checks
and balances” against the major powers of the world, including
the United States.
But the United States cannot help but wish that Japan would
KOREA AND THE ASIAN POWER BALANCE 343
do most of the checking and balancing against communist China
and the Soviet Union while those two Asian neighbors would
in turn check and balance Japan. They could surely take more
of the brunt of Japanese economic expansion by granting Japan
more access to their natural resources and markets.
Faced with this prospect, the Soviet Union is perhaps more
ready than China to play the game of checks and balances against
Japan. It has more power and, perhaps, more self-discipline.
It feels powerful enough, and therefore confident enough, not
only to withstand the Japanese challenge but also to profit by
cooperating with Japan economically. At a minimum, the Soviet
Union wishes to prevent Japan from amalgamating her prodi-
gious managerial skills and scientific technologies with the vast
labor pool of mainland China. More immediately, the Soviet
Union desires to draw Japan away from China, keeping the two
Asian powers checking and balancing each other as much as
possible. The more pressure there is on communist China from
Japan, the less pressure there will be on the Soviet Union from
China and Japan. Ideally, Russia would find it most advan-
tageous if America, Japan and communist China — all three —
checked and balanced one another rather furiously, affording
her the greatest room for manoeuvrability.
Ill
Logical, and even mechanical, elegance is the virtue as well
as the vice of an international balance-of-power system. If the
game is played with cool rationality and chivalrous gallantry,
it could even become a gentlemanly sport. Unfortunately, inter-
national balance-of-power games have not always been played
with finesse and sportsmanship. This has been especially true in
the case of the three powers immediately surrounding the
Korean peninsula. At the turn of the present century, even with-
out the modern complications of differing ideologies, one could
not easily find a combination of three nations with more dis-
similar cultural and political backgrounds and yet with such a
singular identity of political purpose. Superficially, China and
Japan shared the same Confucian culture and common racial
characteristics. But in many ways Japan has had more in com-
mon with Europe than with China. Perhaps this dissimilarity
is more obvious to the Asian eye than to the European. The dif-
ference between China and Japan is best typified by the greatly
344
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
differing manners in which the two cultures have responded to
the imperialistic Occident. The uniqueness of Russian culture,
on the other hand, needs no elaboration here.
It is essentially the lack of a cultural consensus as to the ac-
ceptable mode in which the balance of power is to be maintained
among the Asian powers (the Soviet Union, China and Japan)
that makes the prospect of international peace and stability in
East Asia rather bleak. In order for a delicate and sophisti-
cated game such as that of the balance of power to be played
with a reasonably satisfactory result for the players as well as
the spectators, the players must have a set of rules on which there
is some common agreement. If there is no consensus on the
validity of the rules and no willingness to abide by them, a game
would invariably deteriorate into a “dirty fight.” Even within
the so-called Western state system which had taken centuries
to work out a set of commonly accepted practices, the game has
broken down often enough to bring despair to lovers of peace.
But the members of the Western state system have had much
more in common in terms of history and culture than the three
Asian powers. International law, which has been considered a
salvation by many, is also a set of authoritative decisions that has
grown out of the power interactions among the members of the
Western state system. It is enough to point out that two of the
three Asian powers are not particularly willing to respect this
system of law either by virtue of their ideology or ethnocentric
worldview.
The Asian powers, however, have several things in common.
Aside from their geographic proximity, they are united in their
suspicion and fear of one another. During the past century, each
has had reasons to denounce the aggressiveness and malevolence
of the other. The Japanese have difficulty in forgiving the Rus-
sians for their entrance into World War II in its last days in
violation of their nonaggression pact of 1941. On the other hand,
Chinese and Russians see no need to condone Japan’s militaris-
tic rampage on the Asian continent. The Sino-Soviet border
disputes, of course, still continue.
It is the sad fate of Korea to be stuck in the midst of these
three powers, continuously victimized by their dehumanizing
and destructive violence. One hears Japanese describe the
Korean peninsula as a dagger pointed at Japan’s heart or a pistol
aimed at her head. At the same time, Chinese and Russians re-
KOREA AND THE ASIAN POWER BALANCE 345
gard it as a bridge over which Japanese militarism has exploded
all over the Asian continent. Thus, the peninsula has always been
described as a chronic source of international conflict and mili-
tary violence. And yet, Korea by herself has never been a threat
to anyone. She becomes a threatening dagger or pistol aimed at
Japan only if she falls into the hands of China or Russia. By the
same token, it is as a bridge for the Japanese military that Korea
has been a menace to China or Russia. The Korean people have
never threatened their neighbors; they have always wished
merely to be left alone. Indeed, it was her smallness and military
weakness that made her a source of trouble in East Asia at the
beginning of the present century. Korea was a threat to world
peace 70 years ago because of her thorough-going pacifism and
aversion to military violence.
Korea’s big neighbors attempted to neutralize the threat posed
by others by each securing for itself a predominance there. Each
of the three endeavored to keep the other two out while con-
solidating its own paramountcy there. The disadvantage of this
approach to Asian peace was that paramountcy was attainable
only at the cost of war, with devastating consequences for the
inhabitants of the peninsula. But, however preposterous such an
approach to Asian peace may sound today, it was precisely the
approach adopted successfully by Japan with American public
approval under President Theodore Roosevelt. Korea’s coloni-
zation by Japan in 1910 after five years of protectorateship was
justified in terms of world peace and a more stable order in
East Asia. This was “the final solution” of the Korean question —
the elimination of a Korea which was not powerful enough to
defend her independence by placing her firmly under Japanese
imperialist rule. By letting herself become a perennial battle-
ground for her powerful neighbors, Korea courted her own
political demise as an independent nation. Korea was no more to
be a source of violence and international disorder. But having
turned Korea into a “bridge,” Japanese militarism soon went to
work to transform the worst of Chinese and Russian fears into a
reality.
Not that other approaches to peace never occurred to Koreans.
International neutrality was the first to be tried and as a result
Korea was ravaged by the guns and the bayonets of her neighbors.
Unless a state has sufficient military capability to guarantee its
own neutrality, its neutrality is entirely at the mercy of its more
346
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
powerful neighbors. Inasmuch as the ambition of Korea’s neigh-
bors was to secure supremacy in Korea to the exclusion of others,
a declaration of neutrality was simply ignored whenever they
decided to contest each other’s claim by force of arms. As soon as
Japan fancied that the influence of either China or Russia in
Korea was becoming “excessive,” she undertook to counteract
it by increasing her own influence. This in turn triggered counter-
actions by China and Russia, giving rise to a spiral of interven-
tion and conflict.
On the other hand, being separated by a body of water from
Korea, Japan constantly felt herself at a strategic disadvantage
vis-a-vis China and Russia, who had overland access to the
peninsula. In order to compensate for this disadvantage, Japan
endeavored to have some prior foothold on the peninsula. China
and Russia, of course, were not inclined to recognize such a prior
foothold as legitimate.
Another approach tried by Koreans with equally disastrous
consequences to themselves was the dangerous game of playing
the three powers off against one another. The failure to play this
age-old game with any degree of finesse may have been due to
an innate clumsiness of the Korean people. But the real reason
seems to have been again the weakness of the Korean polity.
The game only intensified the mutual distrust and belligerence
among the three powers and encouraged the fear that Korea
might at any time undermine the position of one in the peninsula
by snuggling up to one of the others.
Moreover, the game helped Koreans to earn a reputation
among their neighbors for being tricky and deceitful, thus rein-
forcing their desire to extinguish Korea’s political independence.
Having learned the truth the hard way — that political weakness
is an international sin and that power politics as played by a
nation which lacks power is at best international treachery
and at worst an invitation to political calamity — Koreans are
not likely to get their fingers burned again by indulging in the
games of neutrality, big-power rivalry or neighborly protection.
IV
What, then, is the Korean approach to political survival and
peace in East Asia? The first principle is Korea’s nonalignment,
especially in the military sense, with any of the three immediately
surrounding powers. This principle is easier to expound than
KOREA AND THE ASIAN POWER BALANCE 347
to practice. There is no question that Korea must maintain
normal and amicable relations with all three of her neighbors.
This is essential for her survival and for peace in East Asia.
But a strong alignment with any one of them would im-
mediately be interpreted as inimical by the other two. Intensi-
fication of tension and hostility would promptly follow. Korea
would again become a source of instability and war.
A very important corollary of this principle of Korea’s non-
alignment with the Asian powers is her very close special
relationship to the United States. To put it more bluntly, a close
alignment with the United States is the only practicable way for
Korea to remain nonaligned with any of her immediate neigh-
bors. When Korea was first drawn very reluctantly into the inter-
national power process in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury, she immediately found herself relying on the United States
as a power that could give her leverage against her neighbors.
The United States was unique in that it was far enough away
from Korea to have a friendly relationship, relatively free of ten-
sion and strain, between the two countries, but was involved
enough in the Asian affairs to be a Pacific power. Korea was too
small to be a threat to the United States while the latter had no
territorial interest in the Korean peninsula. These qualities en-
abled Koreans to use the United States as a means to break out of
the suffocating geopolitical encirclement by the three Asian
powers. The United States was in an ideal position to play the
role of peacemaker, or referee, on the Korean peninsula, keeping
the Asian powers from coming to blows.
But America at the turn of the present century had her own
reason for declining the role of referee on the peninsula. She
had good reasons to fear involvement in Asian power politics,
one of the most important being her territorial interest in the
Philippines at the time. By cultural heritage and ethnic inclina-
tion, the United States wished to keep Asia at a cautious distance.
Even the role of referee, if played too aggressively, could em-
broil the United States in Asian conflicts especially when there
was no consensual acceptance of such a role by the Asian powers.
When America, upon the cessation of the Russo-Japanese War,
threw her weight behind Japanese hegemony in Korea, the sub-
sequent fate of Korea and Asian peace seemed authoritatively
settled.
It is not necessary to describe the train of events that led to the
348
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
division of the Korean peninsula into two zones of military
occupation at the end of the Pacific war and the subsequent U.S.
involvement in the Korean War under the aegis of the United
Nations. In the two decades following the Korean War, the
United States has played the role of an opponent of one of the
Asian powers, communist China. Now the United States is en-
deavoring to redefine the Asian power structure as well as its
own role in it.
It is in the interests of the United States and of Asian peace that
the United States now accept the role of an active referee on the
Korean peninsula. It is clear that a new set of rules of the game
for the Asian power balance must be hammered out with active
American participation. And it should not be diffcult for the
United States to persuade the Asian powers to accept its new
role of referee.
It is a stark reality of Asian power politics that China and
Russia would prefer the American presence on the Korean
peninsula to the Japanese. Given a choice between Japanese
militarism and American militarism, the Chinese and Russians
would choose the latter any time. On the other hand, the Ameri-
can troops on Korean soil are there as much for the defense of
Japan as for the Republic of Korea and the United States. The
Chinese communist elites are realistic enough to know that the
American military presence in South Korea is in fact impeding
the pace of Japanese rearmament by giving the Japanese people
a greater sense of security from the continental powers. Chou En-
lai must realize that one sure way to speed up Japanese re-
militarization is to have the American troops in South Korea
withdrawn precipitously.
Moreover, if the U.S. role of referee is to be effective, it has to
endow its presence in South Korea with realistic components
of military power and wealth. To be sure, the military strength
need not be great, and substitution is possible between the two
components. It is not a mindless exhibition of paranoia on the
part of communist China to denounce Japanese militarism for
having already gained a foothold in the Republic of Korea in
view of the fact of the rapidly diminishing American military
presence there and the outstripping of the American economic
presence by the Japanese. It is one thing for China to be wary of
American presence in South Korea but it is entirely another to
be confronted with a Japanese economic ascendancy which com-
KOREA AND THE ASIAN POWER BALANCE 349
pletely dwarfs the American economic interests in the peninsula.
If any country should insist that American troops remain on
the Korean soil, it should be communist China.
If the U.S. presence in South Korea, even in the present form
of 42,000 troops, were to be a protective and impartial shield for
each of the three Asian powers against the aggressive intentions
of the other two, the Asian powers should be willing to accept
the American role for the sake of peace in Asia. There seems to be
no other alternative. The strategic importance of an independent
and stable Korea for Asian peace cannot be overemphasized. A
peaceful Korea is a linchpin for a stable Asian balance of power.
The Asian powers are all too preoccupied with relative power
advantages on the Korean peninsula to leave the linchpin alone.
Only the United States has enough detached interest in South
Korea to help keep the linchpin functioning properly.
One of the highest policy objectives of the Republic of Korea
today is the prevention of another war on the Korean peninsula.
It is on the basis of this objective that the Republic of Korea has
been working toward the easing of tensions with her three big
neighbors. She has been willing to risk the formalization of the
division of the nation by taking the initiative in contacts with
North Korea in spite of North Korea’s continuing revolutionary
commitment to its “war of national liberation” and military
provocations. She has made it very clear that, if the only means
for achieving national reunification is another fratricidal war on
the Korean peninsula, she is prepared to defer national reunifica-
tion indefinitely. This has involved a serious political sacrifice on
the part of the Republic of Korea because the issue of national
reunification is such a nationalistic imperative that any appear-
ance of procrastination in trying to achieve it is liable to provoke
charges of national betrayal. But she is convinced that the only
legitimate, or even “patriotic,” means for reunification is a
peaceful one. She has publicly renounced force as an instrument
of national reunification.
Given the revolutionary commitment of North Korea in its
“war of fatherland liberation,” the policy of peaceful unification
of the Republic of Korea has put her on the defensive against
the North. But it has been a consistent foreign policy of the
Republic of Korea during the past decade to ensure peace on the
Korean peninsula by deterring North Korea’s war of national
liberation. Every foreign policy move of the Republic of Korea
350
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
has been designed so as to pressure North Korea into abandon-
ing its avowed method of war. From her stand on the involve-
ment of the United Nations to the Red Cross negotiations, the
policies of the Republic of Korea have aimed to increase the
prospect of peace on the peninsula.
It is sincerely hoped that the United States will be coldly
realistic in redefining its participation in the newly emerging
power equilibrium in East Asia. It is understandable that the
United States does not wish to be a belligerent again in that part
of the world. But its desire for peace in East Asia cannot be
fulfilled by retreating completely from Asia. America is a Pa-
cific power regardless of her desires. Whatever happens in East
Asia is bound to affect her immediately and profoundly. A war
there would be brought to America against her wish. Therefore,
whatever form U.S. participation in the East Asian power
balance may take, it must be for the sake of increasing the prob-
ability for peace.
The chances for peace in East Asia, however, will be dimin-
ished without American involvement in South Korea as a force to
keep Korea’s neighbors from warring against one another. If the
newly emerging power system which must revolve around the
Korean peninsula is to maintain itself, the participants must
come to an agreement on the common rules of the game within
which the participant roles are defined. Unless the United States
succeeds in convincing the other three participants to consent to
its role as a referee on the Korean peninsula, neither the power
balance nor peace in East Asia is a realistic possibility.
Japanese- Korean Relations
by
I. Yana gat a
GIFT
From the Library of
REV.
NORMAN CLARK WHITTEMORE
1870 - 1952
B.A., Yale University, 1892
B.D., Union Theological Seminary
New York, 1895
Presbyterian Missionary to Korea
1896 - 1938
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
KOREA BRANCH
OF THE
ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
Vol. IV Part II.
Supplied gratis to all Members of the Society.
Price to Non-Members, Yen 2.50.
On Saie at
Seoul,- Korea : Hon Librarian.
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JAPANESE=KOREAN RELATIONS AFTER THE
JAPANESE INVASION OF KOREA IN
THE XVIth CENTURY.
BY
I Yamagata, Editor, Seoul Press.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : —
Some time ago Dr. Gale kindly suggested to me that I
should read a paper before a meeting of this learned society.
I was very much flattered, but well knowing that I am but
slightly qualified to undertake the task suggested I hesitated to
reply in the affirmative and gave him a rather vague reply. My
hesitation was all the greater because I knew too well what a
bad speaker of English I was. Moreover, I knew that the
lecturers who preceded me were all gentlemen possessing pro-
found knowledge of the subjects they dealt with. Mr. Komatsu,
Prof. Starr of Chicago University, Dr. Gale and Mr. Gillett —
these were the gentlemen who spoke before me and the lectures
they gave were all of absorbing interest. After these learned
gentlemen, I was sure I should make myself a langhing stock,
bor these reasons, I hesitated to accept the suggestion thus
made to me by Dr. Gale, though an extremely flattering one.
On second thought, however, I decided to agree to it, for this
reason, that I possess one great advantage which is denied to all
the learned lecturers who preceded me. By the advantage I
mean, paradoxical though it may sound, the very fact that I am
a bad speaker of English. Now as you may have already noticed
I speak English in an extremely outlandish way and without
endeavouring to be amusing, I can amuse you by simply talk-
ing in my quaint Japanized English. All my learned predeces-
sors had to say something interesting in order to delight you.
2 JAPANESE-KOREAN RELATIONS AFTER THE JAPANESE
Your humble servant, however, has only to speak in English
and it is enough to make you smile.
I remember having spoken before a great assembly of stud-
ents in Tokyo some four years ago. The speakers on the oc-
casion were, besides myself, the late Rev. Dr. Lloyd, of the Im-
perial University, Mr. Iwaya, who is the best writer in Japan for
young people, and Captain Sakurai, hero of Tort Arthur and the
famous author of “ Human Bullets.” I may say I am a better
speaker in Japanese and I believe I made a pretty good speech.
Mr. Iwaya and Captain Sakurai are eloquent speakers and were,
as usual, eminently successful. But the laurels of the day were
won by Dr. Lloyd, and he was accorded the loudest applause
by the audience. It was not because his speech was specially
good, but it was because he spoke in Japanese and that in very
quaint Japanese. The late Dr. Lloyd was a great scholar of
Japanese literature, but I must say he spoke very funny Japanese.
Every sentence he uttered was greeted with immense delight by
his hearers and for half an hour, during which he spoke, he re-
ceived round after round of thunderous applause. I do not
venture to hope to score such sucess as was won by him that
day, but I do hope that the quaint English in which I speak will
prevent you from sleeping for half an hour.
With this rather long introduction, I now propose to read
my little paper, which, I assure you, is not such a long one as
my introduction may suggest. The paper I am going to read
deals with the intercourse between Japan and Korea immediately
after the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 16th century and
during the Tokugawa or feudal government of Japan. As you
are no doubt well aware, the Japanese invasion of Korea in the
1 6th century was a dismal failure. Toyotomi Ilideyoshi, often
called the Napoleon of Japan, undertook it with no higher motive
than satisfying his boundless ambition. The expedition was at
first quite successful. It was on May 24, in the year 1592, that
the advance guard, of the Japanese army under the command of
Konishi landed at Fusan. By the way, it is interesting to note
that Konishi was a Christian. He and the nineteen thousand
INVASION OF KOREA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 3
men under him were almost entirely Christians. Within less than
twenty days after landing at Fusan, Konishi, and Kato, Com-
mander of the Second Contingent of the Japanese Aimy, oc-
cupied Seoul, and the Korean King fled to Pyongyang. The
Japanese generals did not stop long in Seoul. Kato marched into
the province of North Hamkyong and went as far north as
Moilyong on the Manchurian border, while Konishi pursued the
King to Pyongyang, which town he occupied on July 16, that is
only fifty-four days after he had set foot in Korea. In the mean-
time the whole of South Korea was overrun by other Japanese
generals and everything looked rosy for them. But the Japan-
ese success stopped there. Konishi could not march northward
beyond Pyongyang and was ultimately driven back to Seoul by
a vast army sent from China to help the Koreans. The Japanese
were also greatly harassed by guerrilla warfare waged by
Koreans. They were especially placed in difficulty by the great
Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin, who wrested from them the com-
mand of the sea and frequently cut off the supply of men and
provisions from home. On land, however, they mostly got
the better of the Koreans and Chinese. And thus the war
dragged on for seven long years until the end of October of the
year 1 598, with the exception of a short interval when unsuccessful
peace negotiations were carried on. In September of that year
Hideyoshi died, and the Japanese invaders weary of the war
withdrew without accomplishing anything, except the ruin of
nearly the whole of Korea, from which the poor country has
never recovered. It is true that the Chinese who came to help
Koreans against the Japanese contributed not a little to the
devastation of the country ; but of course the main part of the
blame must be borne by the Japanese. Before that disastrous
Japanese invason, Korea was the equal, if not the superior, of
Japan in wealth, in culture and in civilization. That war was a
death blow to poor Korea and the country has since been grow-
ing weaker and weaker. To-day we are endeavouring to revive
Korea. It is a case strongly illustrative of the Japanese
proverb which says : “ The sin of a father is atoned by his
4 JAPANESE-KOREAN RELATIONS AFTER THE JAPANESE
children.” We are to-day doing our best to atone for the sin
committed by our ancestors in Korea three centuries ago. In
this connection, in the name of Japan I must thank you, ladies
and gentlemen, for the great and valuable help you give us in
our work to restore life to Korea.
Having been so cruelly dealt with by Japan, as described
above, it is but natural that after the war Korea did not regard
Japan as her good friend and was in no mood to resume friendly
relations with her. In fact it was Japan who first made over-
tures to become friends again. Tokugawa Iyeyasu, who became
the virtual ruler of Japan after the death of Hideyoshi, was bent
on restoring peace to the country which was in a perturbed
state in consequence of the passing away of the Japanese
Napoleon. In order that his attention to domestic affairs might
not be distracted by foreign complications, he wished to restore
friendly relations with Korea and instructed the Daiinyo or
feudal lord of Tsushima to put forth efforts for that purpose.
This order was a very welcome one to the Daimyo of Tsushima,
for that island lying midway between Fusan and Shimonoseki
had been suffering a great deal on account of the suspension
of its tradal relations with Korea. Being a mountainous
country and not having enough land to produce rice crops
to support its people, Tsushima had been accustomed to
send trading vessels to Fusan, fifty in number annually, and to
import Korean rice in exchange for various commodities.
The Japanese invasion of Korea interrupted this tradal rela-
tion to the great inconvenience of the people of Tsushima.
For this reason, the order from Iyeyasu to try to restore friendly
relations between Japan and Korea was received by the Daimyo
of Tsushima with great joy. In the year 1599, that is only two
years after the Japanese troops withdrew from Korea, the
Daimyo of Tsushima sent a messenger to Korea with the pur-
pose of sounding the feeling of the Korean Court towards Japan.
This messenger and two others, who were sent one after another
with the same purpose, were all made captives by the Chinese
troops then still stationed in Chosen and sent to Peking. A
Band <'■*)
INVASION OF KOREA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 5
fourth messenger, sent in the year 1601, succeeded in reaching
Seoul and returning home with a reply from the Korean Court.
In that reply Korea demanded of Japan the return of Korean
prisoners if Japan really wanted peace. The Daimyo of Tsushima,
therefore, collected some Korean prisoners and sent them back
to Korea and otherwise endeavoured to win the good will of the
Korean Court On the part of Korea, she also wished to con-
clude peace with Japan, if for no other reason than that of getting
rid of the Chinese braves stationed in the country, who con-
stantly acted outrageously and caused great suffering to the
Korean people. In the year 1603 Korea sent to Tsushima an
envoy in order to see if Japan was really in earnest in wishing
peace and in the following year again sent two messengers for
the same purpose. The Daimyo of Tsushima accompanied
these Korean messengers to Kyoto, where in the spring of the
following year they were received in audience by Tokugawa Iye-
yasu, the first Shogun. O11 this occasion, Iyeyasu consented to
the request made by the Korean messengers to return the Korean
captives. In consequence, more than 3,000 Korean captives
were allowed to return to their country during the same year.
This substantial proof of the desire for peace on the part of
Japan was sufficient to convince Korea of its reality and the
latter now showed herself ready to respond to Japan’s friendly
overtures. In the year 1606 the Korean Couit sent a note
to the Daimyo of Tsushima, in which two demands were
expressed. The first of these demands was that Iyeyasu should
first send a formal letter to the Korean Court asking for peace
and the second was that some Japanese soldiers who had opened
some Royal tombs during the Japanese occupation of Seoul
should be arrested and surrendered to the Korean Court. Upon
the receipt of these two demands, the Daimyo of Tsushima
found himself in a dilemma. It would be easy enough to send
to Korea some criminals pretending that they were the men
wanted by her, but how could he induce Iyeyasu to send a
letter to the Korean Court first? It amounted to Japan sueing
for peace — a great blow to Japan’s pride, which Iyeyasu would
6 JAPANESE-KORFAN RELATIONS AFTER THE JAPANESE
never consent to receive. The mere mention of such a demand
having been prefered by Korea would drive the Shogun Iyeyasu
into a violent fit of anger and all efforts put forth by him for
restoring peace between Japan and Korea would come to no
purpose. The poor Daimyo of Tsushima was at his wits’ end,
when Yanagawa, his prime minister, came to his rescue, by
devising a tricky solution to the difficult problem. It is not
known whether or not the Daimyo of Tsushima connived at
his prime minister’s act, but it is known that this crafty
and unscrupulous Yanagawa fabricated a state letter in
the name of Iyeyasu, the virtual ruler of Japan. He sent
this forged letter to Korea along with some criminals
whom he pretended to be the men who had desecrated the
Royal tombs and who were wanted by the Korean
Court. Now the funny thing was that' these criminals were all
young men little more than twenty-five years of age, so that at
the time of the desecration of the Royal tombs some fourteen
years before they were still children and could scarcely have
committed the heinous crime with which they were charged.
The Korean Court easily detected the trick but failed to see
that the alleged state letter of Iyeyasu was a forgery and ac-
cepted it in good faith. As for the criminals referred to, Korea
no less eager than Japan for peace, was glad to overlook the
minor point and received and executed them as the real
offenders.
The two demands preferred by Korea having thus been
satisfied, the Korean Court concluded that it was in duty bound
to respond to Japan’s courtesy. Accordingly early in the year
1608 it despatched a mission to Japan. It consisted of an
Ambassador, a Vice-Ambassador and a Councillor, with a suite
of about 270 men, and carried with it a state letter and some
presents to the Shogun from the King of Korea. This letter of
the Korean King was naturally worded in the form of a reply to
the letter of Iyeyasu, which, as before said, was a fabrication by
Yanagawa, Prime Minister of the Daimyo of Tsushima. Hence
if the Korean King’s letter were presented to the Shogun in the
Palanquin bearing King’s autograph letter (:!)
INVASION OF KOREA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
7
original form, the little trick played by Yanagavva would at
once be discovered. Under the circumstance, the crafty
Yanagawa did not hesitate to alter the wording of the letter in
a way convenient to himself and likely to be pleasing to the
Shogun. Not only that, he also added many costly articles to
the presents from the Korean King and said that all came from
His Majesty.
Having thus completed preparations for the presentation of
the Korean mission, the Daimyo of Tsushima accompanied the
Koreans to Yedo, that is the present Tokyo, the seat of the
Government of the Tokugawa Shoguriate. They left the island
of Tsushima on the 21st day of the 3rd moon of the year 1608
and arrived at V^edo after spending about sixty days on the
way. Iyeyasu had retired from the office of the Shogun two
years before and his son Hidetada had succeeded him. The
three superior Korean representatives were received in audience
by the Shogun Hidetada, when they presented him with the
king’s autograph letter and some presents, including 300 kin of
ginseng, 20 tiger skins and other Korean products. The recep-
tion of the Koreans by the Shogun was very cordial. They
were entertained at dinner and presented with 600 pieces of
silver and 1 5 swords. They were also entrusted with a reply
by the Shogun Hidetada to the Korean King. The Korean
mission, on its way home, stopped at Sunpu, which is the
present city of Shidzuoka, at the foot of Mt. Fuji, where Iyeyasu
had retired. Here the Korean messengers were received in
audience by the ex-Shogun and besides being dined and wined
were given some presents. One good result of this Korean
mission was that several hundred Korean prisoners, who still
remained in Japan, were allowed to return home and many
Japanese retained in Korea were allowed to come back.
In this way friendly relations between Japan and Korea
were at length restored. In recognition of the service rendered
in this connection, the Daimyo of Tsushima was rewarded with
an increase in his revenue and promotion in Court rank. Besides
this, the Daimyo of Tsushima had the satisfaction of being
8 JAPANESE-KOREAN RELATIONS AFTER THE JAPANESE
allowed by Korea to send 20 trading vessels every year to the
port of Fusan to sell Japanese products to Koreans and buy
Korean rice. All this was the good result of the little trick
played by Yanagawa, his ingenious and unscrupulous prime
minister. I may add that Yanagawa again tampered with state
letters exchanged between Japan and Korea in the year 1624.
Some years later, this and former crimes were discovered, with
-the result that Yanagawa and some subordinate officials, who
were concerned in the business, were tried and found guilty.
Yanagawa was stripped of his position and exiled, while some of
his subordinate officials were beheaded.
As I have already said, peace was formally restored between
Japan and Korea in the year 1608, the latter having sent a
mission to the former. It was quite natural, however, that the
relations between the two countries were not all that could be
desired. Korea still harboured suspicion against Japan and for
some time continued to respond rather indifferently to courtesies
shown by Japan. In the year 1615 a great civil war in Japan
resulted in the downfall of the House founded by Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, who undertook the invasion of Korea. This event
was utilized by the Tokugawa, who was now supreme ruler of
Japan in reality as well as in name, to win the goodwill of the
Korean Court. A special messenger was despatched to Korea
with a message that the enemy of the Korean Court was destroyed
by the Tokugawa, and Korea should congratulate the House for
this. The Korean Court was pleased and in the year 1617 sent
another mission to Japan. From this time down to the year
1763 Korea sent ambassadors to Japan on the occasion of the
appointment of a new Shogun. Altogether such missions
arrived in Japan eleven times. On the part of Japan, she also
sent envoys on the occasion of the death of a Korean King and
the accession to the throne of a new King. These Japanese
envoys were usually sent from the Island of Tsushima and men
appointed as envoys were chief retainers of the Daimyo of
Tsushima.
l et me now give you a brief account of the Korean mis-
Pages to Ambassador (■*>
INVASION OF KOREA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Q
sions in Japan. The mission was invariably composed of three
superior dignitaries, that is Ambassador, Vice-Ambassador and
Councillor, beside a very large suite, which exceeded 300 and
sometimes totalled nearly 500. The mission came to Japan via
Fusan and Tsushima. From Tsushima to Yedo the Koreans
were accompanied by the Daimyo of the island. They took the
sea-route as far as Osaka through the Inland Sea. Landing at
Osaka, the party proceeded to Kyoto and thence passing
through the province of Omi, which is my native place, and the
neighbouring province of Mino, went to Nagoya and then
travelled along the Tokaido highway until it arrived at Yedo.
After an audience with the Shogun, the Korean party visited
Nikko and then went home by the same route they took in
coming. The journey took seven or eight months to complete.
From the time the Koreans set foot on the Island of Tsushima,
they were treated as guests. All the Daimyo or feudal lords
along the route on which they travelled appointed special com-
missioners to welcome and entertain them. On their arrival at
Yedo, they were very cordially received, some big and fine
temples being assigned as their hotels, and the entertainment
given them in the castle of the Shogun was of the most cordial
nature. The fact was that the visit of the Korean mission came
to be regarded as the chief event attendant upon the appoint-
ment of the new Shogun and was made very much of. The
expenses incurred by the feudal lords and the Shogun in con-
nection with the visit of the Korean mission were great. For
this reason, about the end of the XVIII century, when the
finances of the Tokugawa Government were in a crippled state,
the Government could not afford to receive the ceremonial visit
of the Korean mission at Yedo and made arrangements to receive
it in the Island of Tsushima. From this time the visit of the
Korean mission to Yedo was discontinued.
On the occasion of the audience with the Shogun at Yedo,
the Korean Ambassador presented him with the King’s auto-
graph letter, besides a large number of presents. The wording
of the letter was almost identical every time and expressed
IO JAPANESE-KOREAN RELATIONS AFTER THE JAPANESE
cordial congratulations on the appointment of the Shogun. On
the part of the Shogun, he also gave in trust to the Ambassador
a reply to the King, acknowledging and returning his courtesy.
The Shogun also sent many presents to the Korean King by the
same Ambassador. He also gave the Ambassador and all the
members of his suite valuable presents. I have brought here
with me some pictures showing the procession of the Korean
Ambassador on the occasion of his formal call on the Shogun.
These pictures are reproductions from an old painting in the
possession of Viscount Akimoto of Tokyo, whose ancestors
probably took part in the reception of the Korean mission.
I hope those pictures will give you some idea of the gorgeous
procession.
I am now about to conclude my little paper. In doing so,
let me tell you a little story. I was born in the province of
Omi, near Kyoto, through which the Korean mission passed in
going to and returning from Yedo. My native place is a little
feudal town called Minakuchi, a post station on the Tokaido
highway’. Travellers going to Yedo from Osaka and Kyoto
along the Tokaido highway usually passed through my native
town. Oddly enough, however, the Korean mission did not
pass my native town, but swinging to the left from the town of
Kusatsu, some ten miles away from my native place, they fol-
lowed a highway known as Chosenjin Kaido or highway for
Koreans. The reason that the Korean mission did not honour
my native town with a visit was probably that the feudal lord of
the place was too poor to entertain them. At any rate while
passing through the province of Omi and the neighbouring
province of Mino, the Korean mission did not travel on the
regular Tokaido highway, but followed the Chosen-jin Kaido or
highway for Koreans. This highway is a fine road with rows
of pine-trees growing along both sides. I remember having
travelled on foot along this road in my boyhood with my
father. I was tired and foot sore and the road seemed to be un-
reasonably long and winding. I asked my father why the road
was so winding and the reply given me was : “ Don’t you see,
Ambassador (5)
Vice- Ambassador f(b
INVASION OF KOREA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURR. I I
my boy, that this is a road specially made for Koreans to travel
along ? It is made long and winding in order to impress them
with the extensiveness of our country.” I don’t know whether
the road was really made with such a purpose, but, I tell you, I
thought on the occasion that if it was, it was really a very
foolish policy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to thank you all heartily for
the patient attention with which you have followed my paper.
Volume XXX
MAY 1968
Number 2
THE
WESTMINSTER
THEOLOGICAL
JOURNAL
PUBLISHED BY
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
CHESTNUT HILL
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19118
THREE DOLLARS A YEAR
ONE DOLLAR FIFTY CENTS A COPY
STUDIES IN THE THEOLOGY OF THE
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
An Historical Outline
Part IV
HARVIE M. CONN
IV. Conflict and Division — 1945 to 1954
HE early months immediately following liberation had
made clear to many the tremendous complications that
would be involved in any reform program within the church.
Some, like the Chaikun (Reconstruction) movement leaders,
felt the program so impossible that they had withdrawn from
the Presbyterian fold almost immediately upon liberation.
Others, like Lee Ki Sun and his sympathizers, had severed
their connections, or had been put out of the church, in 1946
and following. Many, as Kim Yang Sun has indicated, simply
felt that reform was unnecessary. Conservatives in Korea
north of the 38th parallel, particularly in North Pyungan
Province, had taken a stronger position against the Japanese-
enforced compromises of the war years and may have been
less in need of rehabilitation than those in other areas.1 In
any case, these men quickly found themselves facing another
dangerous foe to the church’s purity — Communism. Their
attention, of necessity, was turned in another direction.
1 Kim Yang Sun, History of the Korean Church in the Ten Years Since
Liberation ( 1945-1955 ), (K), Religious Education Committee of the
Korean Presbyterian Church, 1956, p. 44. Kim’s remarks that "the
several hundred churches of this Presbytery really did not need any
rehabilitation”, may be excessive in view of the nationwide capitulation
to the Japanese demands. But, at the same time, the refusal of the North
Pyungan Province Presbytery to become part of the Japanese-made
‘united church’, indicates a stronger degree of resistance than was evident
in other areas of the church.
136
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
A. Program for Reform
It was in South Kyungsang Province that the first successful
step for reform was executed. There, in the summer of 1946,
at the instigation of Han Sang Dong and Choo Nam Sun,
a theological institute was held. And, on September 20,
1946, “at the urgent request of the church”,2 it continued its
services as Koryu Theological Seminary.
Conceived in the minds of its two Korean founders during
their prison years,3 the school quickly became a rallying
place for conservative thought in the church. Consciously
aware of the liberalism of Chosun Seminary, the institution
intended to carry on the old ideas of Pyungyang Seminary.
Because of the stand of its founders, it quickly became
associated with “the spirit of the martyrs” during the war.
Most of the 53 students who enrolled during its first year
2 Ibid., p. 153. Cf. Bruce F. Hunt, “Trials Within and Without”,
Presbyterian Guardian, February 25, 1960, pp. 37-40.
3 The prison diary of Han Sang Dong was printed in The Watchman,
(K), March, 1953, pp. 9-15; April, 1953, pp. 11-16; May, 1953, pp. 10-15;
June, 1953, pp. 11-16. His intentions regarding the erection of a new
seminary may be found in the June, 1953, issue, pp. 15—16. Kim Yang
Sun’s remark, that Han intended “to rehabilitate the seminary closed by
the shrine worship demands”, is inaccurate. In his diary, Han speaks of
the erection of a new seminary (Cf., to the contrary, Kim Yang Sun,
op. cit., pp. 146—147). In this same connection, some confusion also exists
as to the participation of missionaries of the Independent and Orthodox
Presbyterian Boards in the erection of the seminary. Rhodes and Campbell,
for example, imply that the erection of the seminary was done jointly with
missionaries of these two boards (Harry Rhodes and Archibald Campbell,
History of the Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1935-
1959, Volume II, Commission of Ecumenical Mission and Relations, the
United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1965, p. 215). However, the
first returning missionary of these groups was the Rev. Bruce F. Hunt
of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He did not reach Korea until
October, 1946, some months after the founding of the seminary. The
only information Mr. Hunt had concerning the institution seems to have
come from an Orthodox Presbyterian Church chaplain stationed in Korea
at the time. He was not even asked to help in the seminary until his
arrival on the field. It is true that these missionaries became intimately
associated with Koryu Seminary. But they were not at all instrumental
in its founding.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
137
“had been imprisoned by the Japanese for their faith”.4
/Their spirit was clearly reflected in this letter of matriculation
read on the opening day of the seminary by a student:
“We did not come to this school to study at magnificent
buildings, and we do not ask for splendid arrangements.
We have come to this school to be inspired by you with
the spirit of the martyrs who laid down their lives for the
gospel of Christ, and we have come to this school to learn
the truth of the cross. We will be satisfied with a small
cottage, if you teach us this truth and make us the ministers
who can be the servants of Christ and useful to Him in
our age”.5
The direction of the Seminary quickly took form. And
perhaps the one man who formed it more than any other was
Pak Yune Sun, Th.M., D.D. (1906- ). The acting presi-
dent of the fledgling institution during its first year, Dr. Pak
provided a link with Pyungyang Seminary, where he had
lectured on biblical languages from 1936-1938. He brought
to Koryu Seminary an insistence on the promotion of a
distinctive Calvinism. From research under J. Gresham
Machen at Westminster Theological Seminary (1934-1936),
and again under Dr. C. Van Til (1938-1940), Dr. Pak saw
more than the need for just the continuation of an old tradi-
tion. He had learned that there were areas in Korea’s Calvin-
ism that needed strengthening. In 1939, he wrote of those
areas in these words: “The Korean Church must now proceed
to a higher plane — the plane of right understanding of the
Scriptures. This advance can be made through Calvinism
and through nothing else. It will be Calvinism, as it has
always been in the past, that will really impart Bible truth
as a system to human souls”.6
4 “Korean Presbytery Founds Orthodox Seminary”, Presbyterian
Guardian, August 25, 1946, p. 233.
5 Quoted in Chun Young Chang, Modern Daniels in Korea, pamphlet
published by author, n.d., p. 18.
6 Pak Yune Sun, "The Korean Church and Westminster Seminary”,
The Presbyterian Guardian, April, 1939, p. 71. The effect of Westminster
Seminary upon Dr. Pak and Koryu Seminary was most profound. By
1952, the school had six full-time teachers and five of the six had received
full or extensive training at Westminster. Pak Yune Sun’s classes were
138
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Fearful of the weaknesses of fundamentalism, Dr. Pak
envisioned a seminary where those weaknesses might receive
needed attention, where Korean affections for pietism, other-
worldliness, and mysticism might meet the pure light of
sound theological training. Pak feared that the old Pyungyang
Seminary had concentrated its scope on too limited an area,
and by doing so had created a church unaware of the areas of
common grace. He wanted something larger than a mere
fundamentalism. He wanted the Korean church to see, and
be moved by, the larger perspectives of Calvinism.* * 7
Unlike Pak Hyung Nong, his associate in the Reformed
faith,8 Pak Yune Sun sought to achieve these purposes, not
primarily through the discipline of Systematic Theology,
but through New Testament research. His approach was
the first to introduce the apologetic system associated with the name of
Cornelius Van Til to Korea.
7 These larger perspectives are frequently displayed in Pak’s early
articles appearing in The Watchman, (K), the monthly magazine published
by Koryu Seminary, which began making its appearance in 1951. Note
especially his lengthy series on Calvinism, which began in April, 1952.
Reminiscent of Kuyper’s approach to the same subject in the Stone
lectures of 1898, Pak treats such themes as “the fundamental principle
of Calvinism”, “Calvinism’s world-and-life view”, and “Calvinism’s
View of the State”. The articles also make frequent use of H. Henry
Meeter’s Calvinism (Baker Book House, 1939), a title Pak, in association
with the Rev. Kim Chin Hong, translated in 1959. Cf. Pak Yune Sun,
“Calvinism”, The Watchman, (K), April, 1952, pp. 6-13; May, 1952,
pp. 7-14; July, 1952, pp. 32-35; September, 1952, pp. 26—32; October,
1952, pp. 9-15; November, 1952, pp. 5-7; December, 1952, pp. 11-13;
January, 1953, pp. 18-20; March, 1953, pp. 22-24. Cf. also Pak Yune
Sun, “Calvinism and the State”, The Watchman, (K), October, 1953,
pp. 9-13; “The Believer and the Development of Culture”, The Watchman,
(K), August, 1953, pp. 7-9. For a later sample of Pak’s writing on these
themes, note Pak Yune Sun, “Weaknesses of Fundamentalism”, Logos,
(K), edited and published by the Students’ Association of the Korean
Presbyterian General Assembly Theological Seminary, Seoul, 1964,
pp. 5-11.
8 The association has been a long and close one. The two men co-
authored a commentary on II Corinthians, appearing in 1939 as part of
the Standard Bible Commentary series of the Korean Presbyterian General
Assembly. From 1941 to 1943, Pak Yune Sun served as professor of
Biblical Exegesis in the Manchurian Theological Seminary, of which
Pak Hyung Nong was president. The seminary was a project of thei
Korean Presbyterian Church in Manchuria. 1
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
139
A
both literate and positive. From 1953 to 1962 he published
eight volumes in commentary form, covering the entire
New Testament.9 And if one can regard his methodology
in writing as typical of his approach in the classroom, one
finds great difficulty in understanding the assaults on the
so-called inflexibility, dogmatism, and crudity of Pak and
the Koryu Seminary he helped to shape.
Whether magazine article or full-length book, Pak’s work
shows a steady reluctance to produce strictly polemic or
critical study.10 Writing primarily with inadequately trained
church leaders, or ministers lacking theological background,
in mind, Pak produced commentaries that did not dwell at
great length on advanced critical or introductory problems.11
9 Though Pak’s full impact on New Testament studies did not really
begin until 1953 and the publication of the first of his now completed
eight volume series, Commentary on the New Testament, his writing had
begun long before. From 1944-1945, he had stopped teaching to devote
full time to his commentary writing. During this time, portions of his
commentaries on the Synoptic Gospels, Psalms, and the Book of Revela-
tion were completed. For this reason, his work, though published at a
later date, provides us with a fairly reliable picture of his early approach
to theological studies. His titles during this period cover The Synoptic
Gospels (1953), Romans (1954), The Revelation of St. John (1955), The
Pauline Epistles (1955), Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles (1956), The
Gospel of John (1958), Acts (1961), and I-Il Corinthians (1962). With
the exception of the last volume, all the titles were published by the Sung
Moon Publishing Company. A commentary on the Psalms also appeared
in 1957 and, since completing the New Testament, apart from revisionary
work, Dr. Pak has undertaken a similar series on the Old Testament.
10 An early series of articles on mysticism illustrates Pak’s methodology
quite well. In the opening article, he traces briefly the history of mysticism
in the western church, then discusses its Korean aberrations, and con-
cludes with a rather thorough refutation of the general characteristics
(Pak Yune Sun, “A Critique of Contemporary Mysticism”, The Watchman,
(K), July-August, 1956, pp. 4-24). The second and third articles in the
same series are almost completely exegetical, consisting of a careful analysis
of John 14 and 15, in terms of the original problem he had posed in the
first article. In fact, if any charge be laid against the series, it would be
that the exegetical materials are so positive that their polemic intent is
almost lost sight of altogether! {Cf. Pak Yune Sun, “The New Testament
and Mysticism: A Commentary on John 14”, The Watchman, (K), Novem-
ber, 1956, pp. 4-11; “The New Testament and Mysticism: A Commentary
on John 15”, The Watchman, (K), December, 1956, pp. 4-19).
11 The first post-war commentary Pak produced was a 1116 page com-
140
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
While he himself was fully aware of these problems, he chose
to underplay them in his titles. Beginning to write when
New Testament commentaries were virtually unheard-of in
the Korean language,12 Pak planned his books as something
more than merely grammatico-linguistic commentaries. He
was writing for a church that was not fully prepared to deal
with such technical questions, a church he felt to be lacking
in theological depth. To meet those needs, he produced titles
strongly theological in character, tapping the resources of
Holland Calvinism for the first time in Korea.13 For the poorly
trained lay leader, he provided full-length sermons at the end
of each chapter of exegesis. In keeping with this goal, his
writing had much more the flavor of Matthew Henry than
H. A. W. Meyer.
But behind all his writing was an immense desire to promote
Reformed theology as the only antidote for Korea’s grave
theological situation.
mentary on the synoptic gospels, using the harmonistic method adopted
by Calvin in his work on the gospels. The introductory material covers
only nine pages and only half of these are devoted to questions of origin
and authorship ( Cf . Pak Yune Sun, A Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels,
(K), Fourth Edition, Yung Eum Publishing Company, 1964, pp. 27-35).
By contrast, a recent commentary on Matthew’s gospel by a conservative
writer, Lee Sang Keun, Th.D., occupies 22 pages of its 406 page total
with a rather full discussion of the synoptic problem (Cf. Lee Sang Keun,
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, (K), General Assembly Education
Committee of the Korean Presbyterian Church, 1966, pp. 1-22). Dr.
Pak’s approach to introductory problems has not changed over the years.
His last commentary on the New Testament appeared in 1962. Seven
pages are devoted to introductory questions of authorship, unity, and
content (Cf- Pak Yune Sun, A Commentary on I-II Corinthians ( Com-
mentary on the New Testament ), pp. 9-12, 263-265).
12 A very brief sketch of the progress of New Testament studies in
Korea, with some attempt to place Dr. Pak’s significance in that history,
will be found in Pak Yune Sun, “New Testament Studies in Korea: An
Historical Outline”, Reformed Bulletin of Missions, September, 1966.
13 Pak spent 1953-1954 in the Netherlands, at the Free University of
Amsterdam, pursuing work on his doctorate in theology, when his studies
were cut short by the death of his wife in Korea. His commentaries
constantly show the impact of these studies. Herman Bavinck, F. W.
Grosheide, Herman Ridderbos, and others are repeatedly referred to in
his work.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
141
“In terms of the commentary, I am convinced that the
principles of Calvinism are Biblical and have adopted
them uniformly. At those places where I have quoted
the interpretations of other scholars, I have quoted prin-
cipally from Calvinistic commentators. Even though there
occur instances where I have quoted from the contributions
of other writers, this is not to be understood as an acceptance
of the totality of their theological thought but merely
demonstrates agreement on questions of exegesis. . .”.14
The Calvinism Pak advocated was militant. Han Sang
Dong had conceived of the school as an institution which
would “prepare ministers willing to share their fate with the
Korean church on behalf of the truth”.15 Pak sought to carry
out those convictions. In the years immediately following
liberation, the seminary became the center of protest over
the church’s Shinto shrine collaboration. And when Chosun
Seminary began its vocal propagation of Barthian theology,
Koryu Seminary, and particularly Dr. Pak Yune Sun, de-
nounced Barth in classroom and pamphlet.16
14 Pak Yune Sun, A Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels ( Commentary
on the New Testament), p. 7.
15 “The Prison Diary of Han Sang Dong”, The Watchman, (K), June,
1953, p. 15. Further reflections on the founding purposes of the seminary
will be found in the special issue of The Watchman, published in com-
memoration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the school. See
particularly, Pak Son Hyuk, “A History of the Seminary’s Ten Year
Development”, The Watchman, (K), September, 1946, pp. 13-17.
16 A sample of this criticism is provided in Pak Yune Sun, The Crisis
Theology of Barth and Brunner in Comparison with Orthodox Theology,
(K), Publications Committee of the Koryu Theological Seminary Student
Body Association, 1950, pp. 1-15. One of the earliest printed pamphlets
to come from Dr. Pak’s pen, the booklet was circulated widely in the
nation’s Presbyterian circles and was the first in a series of several such
small tractates. The brief preface comments on the 1949 visits of Mackay
and Brunner as the occasion for writing. The pamphlet itself is restricted
to a contrast, in parallel columns, between the Westminster Confession
of Faith and the writings of Barth and Brunner. Some comment is also
made on the apparent divergencies. Beginning in April, 1953, a much
expanded series on the same general topic began to appear in The Watchman.
Cf. Pak Yune Sun, “The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Crisis
Theology”, The Watchman, (K), April, 1953, pp. 5-10; May, 1953, pp.
6-9; June, 1953, pp. 6-10; July, 1953, pp. 9-14. Compare also Pak Yune
Sun, “The Basic Principles of Calvinism and the Basic Principles of
Karl Barth”, The Watchman, (K), January, 1952, pp. 14-18; “A Critique
h'1"1 “ "
142
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
That criticism is perhaps nowhere more clearly drawn
than in Dr. Pak’s commentary on Romans. After each chapter
of exegesis, a critical appendix is added, drawing specific
attention to Karl Barth’s comments on the same passage.
A verse-by-verse analysis of Barth’s study is then made, with
searching criticism following the line of Pak’s early mentor,
Dr. Cornelius Van Til.17 Eighteen pages of such criticism
are documented in the first ninety pages alone.18
It was this vigorously conservative posture that gained
quick support for Koryu Seminary, particularly from the
Kyung Nam Presbytery, in whose area it was located. Even
before the seminary had officially opened its doors, a July,
1946, meeting of the Presbytery gave “enthusiastic ap-
proval ... to the setting up of the seminary by the formerly
imprisoned group, and a promise of support in the enrollment
of students and securing teachers was given. . .”.19 But it
may also have been this same posture that gained equally
quick opposition for the seminary. For at the next meeting
of Presbytery in December, 1946, that decision was reversed
of Karl Barth’s Exegesis of I Corinthians 15”, The Watchman, (K),
April-May, 1956, pp. 15-18.
17 Unlike the more philosophically oriented criticism of Dr. Van Til,
Dr. Pak has structured his criticism around the exegetical patterns set
up by Barth. Nevertheless, though the approach is different, the view-
point both of Van Til and of Pak is the same. Pak still believes, as he
did in 1939, that Van Til’s “thorough-going philosophical defense of
Christian theism reveals that the systems of all human beings . . . have
no ground upon which they can rest. We may justly say that he is the
one who has exploded the cannon ball on the playground of the modernist
theologians. This great theologian is the one who teaches us how we may
truly defend the Word of God against non-Christian attacks. His system
of thought is not mere human speculation, but the system of defense
presented by the Bible itself, and a means of honoring God” (Pak Yune
Sun, “The Korean Church and Westminster Seminary”, loc. cit., p. 72).
Note also the introductory essay by Dr. Pak which prefaced the Korean
appearance of Cornelius Van Til, Has Karl Barth Become Orthodox?,
(K), Korean Society for the Reformed Faith and Action, 1959, pp. 3-11.
18 Pak Yune Sun, Romans, (K), Fourth edition, Yung Eum Publishing
Company, 1962, pp. 50-59, 83-90.
19 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 151. Kim concludes the sentence by re-
marking that the approval “seemed proof that all were in favor of the
plan for rehabilitating the church”. In view of the action taken by the
same group only months later, this statement seems rather precipitous.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
143
“and it was decided not even to recommend students to
4 it”.20
Kim Yang Sun, in exploring the reasons behind this rather
quick and sharp reversal by the Presbytery, is willing to
admit that part of the blame for this sudden shift must be %/
placed on the shoulders of the church’s ambition-motivated
liberals. But his strongest attack is reserved for the sup-
porters of Koryu Seminary, its founder, Hang Sang Dong,
and its co-operating missionaries, the men associated with
the Orthodox Presbyterian Mission and the Independent
Board for Presbyterian Missions. “Thus, the Koryu Seminary,
while keeping the co-operation of the Machen group of
missionaries, began to estrange itself more and more from the
leading group in the presbytery and finally, became critical
of each other, defending their own party and indulging in
self praise. . .”.21
Some grounds are provided Kim’s charges by the action of
Han Sang Dong at the December Presbytery meeting. He
announced his withdrawal from the body because of its
reversal. However, Kim’s emphasis and interpretation of
this action seems misplaced and inaccurate. He terms it
“a threat”, aimed at forcing the Presbytery to concede its
control to the Seminary supporters.22
But it may be fairer to regard Han’s withdrawal as a
protest, honestly given in the face of some rather obvious
political maneuvering by unrepentant ecclesiasts in the
church court. The fuller picture of that meeting, provided
by a missionary supporter of Koryu Seminary to his home
board, would seem to corroborate a more favorable picture
of the Rev. Han’s action. The missionary notes, “. . . a man
whom I consider one of the worst in the Korean Church was
elected moderator. It was a definite slap at our group. After
he got in, it was moved to have this presbytery join the
Southern General Assembly. Several spoke against it. When
Mr. Han was calling for the floor the moderator rushed the
vote through. A move to reconsider was lost. Then the
moderator turned the church over to the vice-moderator
20 Ibid., p. 152.
22 Ibid., p. 152.
21 Ibid., p. 151.
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
and from the floor moved to reconsider the action of the
last presbytery meeting taking action to back our seminary,
so now the presbytery is not back of it. Han has withdrawn
from the presbytery. . ,”.23
Kim’s appraisal of this meeting seems to be regulated by
his consistent refusal to see the Koryu Seminary program as
anything other than a political struggle for the control of the
J church. It was, to be sure, a struggle for the control of the
church. But it was far from political. The questions were
theological in their character. And the mos't basic one re-
v volved around the marks of the church and the proper
exercise of discipline as one of those marks. Han’s with-
drawal was not a political threat. It was a theological protest.
The theological character of the protest seems to have
been emphasized in the subsequent activity within the
presbytery. Eventually 67 churches in the presbytery repu-
diated the December decision and issued a statement support-
ing Han Sang Dong. Reactions from the presbyters included
even the possibility of “all the officers resigning”. The sole
missionary of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church present
on the field records Han’s reaction to this possibility: “Han
says this will not help. He says the presence of 49 votes,
, j supporting the man they did, indicates that there is a serious
lack of repentance in the Presbytery”.24 Surely, if legal
control of the presbytery had been Han’s motive, his reaction
to such a possibility as the resignation of the entire slate of
presbytery officers would have been far more positive than
the reaction recorded in this letter.
In March, 1947, the presbytery dealt with the rising threat
of division by accepting the resignations of all the officers in
the presbytery, and reaffirming their own repentance for
Shrine worship. The motives behind the action, however,
have been held suspect by both Kim Yang Sun and the
Koryu Seminary supporters. Kim notes that the Seminary’s
proposed plan for church rehabilitation was endorsed “in
23 Bruce F. Hunt, “Report From Korea”, The Messenger (Missionary
periodical of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), February, 1947, p. 2-3.
24 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, January 25, 1947.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
145
order not to hurt the feelings of the ex-prisoners”. 2S This
^ apparent lack of theological motivation was also felt by
Han Sang Dong and others. One observer notes, . . when
they re-elected officers they said that none of the commissioners
of the churches which had signed the protest could be elected
as officers, either, and to me nullified the action of the
Moderator thereby, for they thus kind of put it down on
the level of a personal quarrel, where both sides were to be
reprimanded. The protestors are not completely satisfied
and are holding a meeting on the 15th of this month”.26
Some perspective on this conflict is also added by remem-
bering that it was precisely at this moment that 51 students
in the Assembly-recognized Chosun Seminary were protesting
the theological liberalism of their school and demanding action
by the Assembly’s courts. The question being raised by Han
was not a narrow one, limited to the ecclesiastical control of
one presbytery. In the midst of the conflict in the Kyung
Nam Presbytery, another reminder was provided by the
students at Chosun Seminary of the larger issue at stake.
It was this very issue that had kept the Kyung Nam Pres-
bytery from membership in the Assembly until now, and the
action of the moderator, in urging membership in the Southern
Division General Assembly while seeking to refuse recognition
to the Koryu Seminary at the same time, could not help
but be understood by many as an attempt to avoid the
theological questions precisely at the heart of the Koryu
Seminary protest, the same questions now emerging again in
connection with the Chosun Seminary students’ protest.27
Great encouragement came at this time for the Seminary’s
2s Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., pp. 152-153.
26 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, April 5, 1947. '
27 Kim Yang Sun’s study, by dealing with the Koryu Seminary question
and the Chosun Seminary question in two sharply separate sections of
his book (op. cit., pp. 146—165, 173-288), does not seem to this author to
give a proper historical perspective to the theological aspects of the Koryu
Seminary question and to its interrelatedness with the Chosun Seminary
problem. His division of the two questions seems to be dictated largely
by his own evaluation of their significance, rather than by their chronolog-
ical place in history. A more chronological treatment might help to set
the basic similarities of the two questions in a more proper setting.
146
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
reform program. Dr. Pak Hyung Nong, the leader in the
church’s early struggle against liberalizing influences, and
for years connected with theological education in Manchuria,28
was persuaded to join the faculty of Koryu Seminary as
President. He reached southern Korea in late September,
1947, and began his duties at Koryu the following month.
Apparently strong appeals from former Pyungyang Seminary
board members and influential church leaders had been made
to Dr. Pak before he reached Pusan to re-establish another
conservative seminary.29 But Dr. Pak chose^ to cast his lot
with Koryu Seminary and the reform effort it represented.
This needs to be stressed. Contemporary studies, by and
large, emphasize Dr. Pak’s eventual decision to withdraw
from the Seminary and his differences with them.30 However,
28 Dr. Pak had been associated with the United Theological Seminary
of the Korean Church in Manchuria since the fall of 1942. Though he
had taken part in the “Workers’ Cleansing Meeting” in November, 1945,
in northern Korea, he had returned to Manchuria to continue his labors
with the work there, apparently out of concern for the Manchurian churches
and with hopes of reforming the church from that vantage point. Appealing
by letter to the Rev. Bruce F. Hunt to join him in Manchuria for the
restoration of the church, he comments on his own motivations for service
in Manchuria, and why he did not return to Korea after liberation. “I
wanted to go to Korea when many other Korean pastors were going.
But I could find no footing there. For in the North the Churches are
suffering under the red rule, and the Southern Churches are under the
theological leadership of those who do not agree with me in faith. So at
the request of the remaining church leaders here I decided to stay with
them and to re-establish the seminary. Being arrested in this pocket
area I am very lonely. But I am trying to be patient with the hope that
the Korean churches may be restored to some extent and the seminary
may be increased” (Letter of H. N. Park to Bruce F. Hunt, December
24, 1946).
25 “Even after he arrived in Korea, we were not sure that he would
come to the Korea Seminary, because a great effort was made in Seoul
to keep him there to start another orthodox seminary there. He is here,
however, and our Seminary is entering into another phase of the strug-
gle . . .” (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee,
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, October 31, 1947). Cf. Kim Yang Sun,
op. cit., p. 227.
3° For examples of such emphasis, cf. Kim Yang Sun, ibid., pp. 227-228;
G. T. Brown, Mission to Korea, Board of World Missions, Presbyterian
Church, U. S., 1962, pp. 178-179; Allen D. Clark, History of the Korean
Church, Christian Literature Society of Korea, 1961, p. 246.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
147
emphasis needs to be placed also on his basic support of the
/theological motivations of Koryu Seminary’s rehabilitation
program, and the convictions of the men who stood with her.31
Along with Koryu Seminary, Pak disapproved the failure
of the presbyteries and the General Assembly to carry out
the church reform plans. In profound sympathy with the
doctrinal views of the “Machen group missionaries”,32 he
held also that “the ex-prisoners’ appeal for repentance and
confession, loyalty to the truth, and active growth in faith”
were “all goals toward which the church must press forward”.33
His presence in Manchuria after liberation seemed to come,
in part, from his disillusionment with the church’s leadership
and their lack of concern over the disintegration of the church
as a guardian of truth. And, of course, his earlier controversies
31 His invitation to Bruce F. Hunt to participate in the restoration of
the Manchurian work, although Mr. Hunt had renounced the jurisdiction
of the Korean Presbyterian General Assembly in 1938, echoes these
convictions. He wrote, “If you take up the work and send out graduates
with conservative theology it will contribute very much to the Korean
church in preserving conservative faith. At present the seminary in
Pyeng Yang is going on very feebly by the labours of a few pastors there.
The General Assembly of South Korea is supporting the liberal seminary
in Seoul which was established when the old Pyeng Yang seminary had
closed. So it may be good for the church that a conservative seminary
should remain in Manchuria in order to furnish conservative ministers
to Korea. Will you think over the matter . . .?” (Letter of H. N. Park
to Bruce F. Hunt, December 24, 1946). Mr. Hunt’s reaction to the letter
was a sympathetic one. “But his letter rather assures us, as it indicated
that he didn’t hold anything against us, in fact held us in high enough
esteem to invite us to work with him and expect we could assume quite a
position of leadership there” (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign
Missions Committee, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, February 18, 1947).
32 “The Machen group missionaries”, a phrase found repeatedly in the
work of Kim Yang Sun, is generally descriptive of missionaries of the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Independent Board for Pres-
byterian Foreign Missions. Actually, at the time of Dr. Pak’s installation
as President of Koryu Seminary, there was only one missionary in the
country, representing the so-called "Machen group missionaries”. That
was Bruce F. Hunt. By mid-year, 1948, only two others had arrived,
William H. Chisholm, M.D., and Dwight R. Malsbury, both of the
Independent Board. A third under that same Board, Floyd E. Hamilton,
arrived at a later date. Further male members of the two missions were
not added until following the Korean war.
33 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 164.
148
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
/
|
with Kim Chai Choon would only make him more sym-
pathetic to the Koryu Seminary’s attack on Chosun Seminary
and the liberalism it represented. In the language of one
missionary, “Anyway, he did what a lot of others (missionaries
and pastors) have not done, he did come to this despised
seminary”.34
With the presence of Pak Hyung Nong on the faculty,
the Seminary’s hopes for genuine revival in the church seemed
brighter than ever. Over thirty students transferred from
Chosun -Seminary in Seoul.35 At Pak’s urging, Han Sang
Dong appeared at the December, 1957, meeting of the South
.. Kyungsang Province Presbytery to withdraw his statement
of a year before and to resume his relations with that body.
The Presbytery itself finally voted to join the General
Assembly and Koryu Seminary was again recognized by the
Presbytery.
It is at this point that a second concept for reform in the
church must be introduced. For it was basically due to this
second concept that, within months of Han’s return to the
Presbytery and Koryu Seminary’s brightest anticipations, I
Dr. Pak Hyung Nong left the institution and plans were
initiated for another conservative theological school. What
jWere the reasons behind Dr. Pak’s sudden departure from
Koryu Seminary? The answer to that question provides a
microcosm of the basic differences that divided conservative
from conservative in the struggle for church rehabilitation. -A/
There had never been any disagreement among conservative
forces within the church over the necessity of reform and
rehabilitation. The week-long “Workers’ Cleansing Meeting”
in 1945 had found Pak Hyung Nong supporting such demands.
Pak’s very presence at Koryu Seminary was a testimony to
that common desire. But regarding the nature and meth-
odology of the reform, there were differences. And these
differences had been mirrored in the church almost from
the beginning of liberation.36
34 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, October 31, 1947.
33 Ibid.
36 One might even say that these differences could be detected before
liberation, latent in the reactions of the church itself to the Shrine worship.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
149
One area of difference had been displayed almost imme-
diately upon Pak Hyung Nong’s arrival in Pusan. That
was the question of the relationship of Koryu Seminary to
the General Assembly. Those laboring in the orbit of the
Seminary, fearful of the lack of Assembly interest in reform \J
and a return to the church’s pre-war conservative posture in
theology, had not placed the institution under the direction
of the General Assembly. The possibility of eventual separa-
tion may even have been contemplated by some.37 Han Sang
Dong had contemplated seriously such a necessity as early
as 1940. But, though the Seminary insisted on remaining
independent, their original intention was not division or
separation.38 Their intention was a reform of the existing
One observer described these reactions thus, “The Presbyterian Church
in the South is divided into five camps: (1) Those who aggressively
propagated and fought and worked for the Japanese policy. Some of
these are unrepentant, still defend themselves and are still trying to push
themselves forward and assume places of responsibility in the church
and in society. They are naturally very strong, aggressive leaders. . . .
(2) Those who compromised but did so under pressure and rather reluc-
tantly. They are for the most part sorry for their weakness but are not
esteemed too well by many. (3) Those who did not compromise, or, if
at all, on some of the lesser points, men and women who suffered imprison-
ment and wanderings in the hills to keep their faith. This group, though
recognized as uncompromising themselves are trying to win back their
erring brothers. They say if true confession is manifested we must receive
them back as brothers. They do not want to overlook their past sin, but
they are willing and anxious to receive as brothers and sisters, those who
have sinned if they truly repent. Of course it is hard to tell when one is
truly repentant but they say we have to take a man’s word until he proves
otherwise. (4) Those who were uncompromising to the last, who feel the
church became a temple of Satan and the ministers, priests of Satan.
They say we must no longer recognize ministers who survived as ministers
and that we dare not use the buildings polluted by shrines. They will
not speak to or greet men who have compromised or receive them into
their houses. (5) A group that, whatever their past history, are now using
the church as a sounding board for their political views, and are extreme
nationalists . . (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Com-
mittee, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, November 7, 1946). The second
group may be somewhat representative of the background forming the
supporters of Pak Hyung Nong, the third group supported the Koryu
Seminary.
Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 151.
38 “We are not starting a new church. We are trying to re-form a church
150
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
body. They seemed to be willing to have Koryu Seminary
under the Assembly, but only insofar as the institution was
left free of interference in the choice of its faculty and
students. But, above all else, the school’s supporters were
determined to keep Koryu Seminary as it had been started —
a Calvinistic institution pressing for truth in a compromised
church.
This refusal to discard the possibility of division was
opposed by Pak Hyung Nong. Pak, who had felt such a
policy was rash in 1945, continued to feel it was dangerous
to harbor at Koryu. In keeping with this feeling, he insisted
that Koryu Seminary be under the Assembly and be sup-
ported by the whole church. Perhaps somewhat akin to the
reluctance of Clarence Macartney and Samuel Craig to enter
fully into the program of the Constitutional Covenant Union,
organized in 1935 to “defend and maintain the Constitution
of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.”,39 Dr. Pak feared
the costs that might be involved in such an attitude.
During the year that Pak spent at Koryu Seminary, it
seemed to him that such nation-wide support for the Seminary
that he coveted was not forthcoming. In March, 1948, he
attended a meeting of conservative church leaders from all
over the country. Called to consider the erection of a con-
servative General Assembly Seminary,40 the group postponed
concrete action for such a plan. But it seemed clear from the
that has thrown over its creed and constitution. The evangelists and lay-
men are demanding fast action, and things may take shape before I can
get an answer back. The laymen have a tendency to be more extreme
than I am. I tremble at a division because even the leaders get a bit
extreme, and those who follow go off the beam on this or that point, and
make a sharp division without a foundation of faith to make it on . . .”
(Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to Mrs. Kathy B. Hunt, February 7, 1947).
39 N. B. Stonehouse: J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir,
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954, pp. 493 ff.
40 Kim Yang Sun intimates that the beginnings of this Seminary re-
habilitation movement came “as a result of the changed attitude of the
Koryu Seminary” {op. cit., p. 228), and that these attitudes were basically ,
self-righteousness and spiritual pride. The accusation ignores the deeper
theological roots of Koryu ’s protest and the consistency of that protest.
The only change of attitude on the part of Koryu Seminary at this time>
seemed to be an increasing despression over the lack of response to appeals
for reform. Reform movements always seem to get a notoriously bad press.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
151
discussion that “those who called the meeting are not sure
tljey want to back the Koryu Seminary. They are sure they
can’t back the Chosun Seminary”.41
When the 34th General Assembly met a month later in
Seoul, the issue that concerned Pak Hyung Nong was brought
to a head through a question raised by a South Chulla Province
presbytery. Was it all right to send their students to Koryu
Seminary? Though the Assembly, now facing this question
for the first time, declined to discuss the problem, the Chair-
man of the Assembly Committee on Church Polity, the C
Rev. Kim Kwan Sik, a man whose liberal convictions we have
noted in other parts of this outline, presented “a rather cool
legal ruling to the effect that ‘Since the Koryu Seminary
has no connection with this General Assembly, there is no
need for Presbyteries to recommend students to it’.”42 Kim’s
reply was adopted by the Assembly.
Though the ruling did not face the issue squarely, it was
sufficiently clear to indicate the growing lack of support for
the Koryu Seminary program. In the face of that indication,
and feeling strongly the necessity for Assembly recognition,
Pak Hyung Nong took the course his principles dictated.
In the middle of May, 1948, after the Assembly had been v
held,43 he submitted his resignation to Koryu Seminary.
41 Letter of Bruce Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, March 17, 1948. Cf. Kim Yang Sun, op. cit.,
pp. 228-229.
43 Ibid., p. 157. Cf. Lee Dae Yung, et. al., A Brief History of the Korean
Presbyterian Church: in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Founding of the General Assembly, (K), Calvin Publishing Company,
1962, p. 76.
43 Kim Yang Sun says that Dr. Pak “had already left the Koryu Semi-
nary” before the Assembly convened {op. cit., p. 156). However, in a
letter dated May 25, 1948, we read, “Our Seminary has been in quite a
turmoil for the last month or so. Dr. Pak has been talking of withdrawing
and taking a bunch of the boys who came down from Seoul with him.
Some of the boys have already left in fact. Dr. Pak finally gave in his
resignation last week. Some of the middle of the road Presbytery men
have been urging him to stay as well as we . . .” (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt
to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox Presbyterian Church,
May 25, 1948). Mr. Hunt’s dating would also seem to indicate Dr. Pak’s
timing was much more consistent with the basic principle he seemed to
be trying to defend.
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
About fifty students accompanied him. Fearful that “just a
few men are running the Seminary”,44 one of his main corn-
el plaints was that the Seminary was “fighting from outside the
church, trying to form a new denomination”.45 The Seminary,
on its part, tried to reassure Dr. Pak of their intentions.
“We tried to show that we are not outside the church and are
not trying to form a new denomination, though our present
course may lead to that. . .”.46 But, in the face of other
actions taken by the Assembly, the Seminary could say no
more or no less. #
A second area of difference came to light also in the year
of Pak’s association with Koryu Seminary. And, like the
question of the relation of the Seminary to the Assembly,
it also illustrates the reformers’ inability to arrive at complete
agreement on methodology. We refer to the question of the
relationship of the missionaries to the re-constituted Assembly.
When Pak Hyung Nong assumed the presidency of Koryu
Seminary, a fear of the alignment of the Seminary with
“the Machen group missionaries”, long labelled as a rebel
minority,47 was growing in the church. Many were concerned
that the Machen group would refuse to co-operate with the
other missions.48 Some cause for this alarm may have been
44 Ibid.
45 Letter of Bruce Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, June 6, 1948.
46 Ibid.
47 This fear seems to have been used, according to Kim Yang Sun, in
July, 1948, when “the formerly humiliated politically-minded group’’
issued a statement on the situation, in another of their bids for power.
The statement at least shows how many in the church regarded “the
Machen group”. They wrote in part:
“Let us now consider. When a faction was formed from the American
Northern and Southern Presbyterian Churches and peace and order
were destroyed, the rebel minority which withdrew was the Machen
group. To entrust our Korean Presbyterian Church to them would
mean cutting the Church off from the world body of Christians. . . .
Also, to follow blindly their lead would be to forget about setting up
the nation and we would be like the Communists, subordinating our-
selves to other countries . . .” (Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 155).
48 Ibid., p. 154. The difficulty, as a matter of fact, seemed to be the
reverse, i. e., the refusal of the other missions to co-operate with the sole
missionary representing “the Machen group” at that time. “. . . The
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
153
provided by the action of the Rev. Bruce F. Hunt at what
came to be called the 33rd General Assembly in April, 1947.
When his name was called at the time of the reading of the
roll call, he responded by saying simply, “I am not a member
of this Assembly”. His remark, badly misunderstood, was
apparently taken as an accusation that the Assembly had
not repented. Though Kim Yang Sun defends the remark,
he too takes it as a turning point in the relationship of “the
Machen group” to the Assembly. “From this time on, the
Machen group missionaries regarded the General Assembly
as a set of ignoramuses and left the General Assembly to
form a new organization with the ex-prisoners”.49
Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., Board took a dim view of the Pusan Semi- ^
nary and strongly disapproved of its missionaries cooperating closely
with those who supported the seminary. Its attitude, of course, was
chiefly aimed at the Independent Board and constituted an extension of
the controversy raging in the United States” (Kim Chang Yup, Protestant
Theological Education in Korea, an unpublished thesis submitted to the
Biblical Seminary in New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Sacred Theology, 1960, p. 102). Early evidence
would seem to indicate that Bruce Hunt, the one Orthodox Presbyterian
missionary on the field until mid-1948, although not seeking Mission-wide
support for the movement, had not refrained from co-operation, or from
seeking support from individuals whom he felt might be one with the
program theologically. Reflecting this mood, Koryu Seminary had ap-'
parently sought for the services of Dr. J. C. Crane, of the “Southern”
Presbyterian Mission, even before the arrival of Mr. Hunt on the field in
late 1946 (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee,
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, November 7, 1946), and Mr. Hunt then
joined them in seeking his co-operation (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the
Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, February
18, 1947). In this same spirit, Mr. Hunt did not refrain from inviting
missionaries of the larger Boards as speakers to the youth meetings in
the Koryu Seminary orbit, nor did he officially protest re-entry into the
General Assembly in December, 1947. The Independent Board of Pres-
byterian Foreign Missions and their representative laborers in Korea J
may have had a more severe policy on the question of “separation” from
fellowship with the larger Boards. They reached Korea two years after
Mr. Hunt.
w Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 163. Kim, like the Assembly, seems to
be reading much more into the sentence than was intended. It was pri-
marily, as Kim himself admits, simply a statement of fact. Mr. Hunt had
not been a member of the Assembly since 1938 when his name was dropped
from the rolls of Presbytery. Further, the 1947 Assembly had still not
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
In this background of fear and suspicion, Pak Hyung Nong
joined Koryu Seminary. And, though strongly sympathetic
with the theological convictions of “the Machen group”,
he was not willing to cut the church off from co-operation
with the four large missions which had always been tradi-
tionally associated with the Korean Assembly.50 If a choice
would have had to be made between “the Machen group”
or the other boards, Pak would, at this time, most likely
have sided with the latter. On the other hand, the founders
of Koryu Seminary and many of its closest supporters,
through temperament and theological convictions, shared
much closer affinities with “the Machen group”, and, in this
deteriorating situation, though willing to work with the
four boards as well, if a choice had to be made, would have
chosen those laboring with the Orthodox Presbyterian and
Independent Presbyterian Boards.51 As far as this writer
can judge, Pak’s departure from Koryu Seminary was not
made on the basis of such a choice.52 But it was most cer-
tainly part of the background that framed the differences
declared itself, in any sense, an official general assembly, but simply a
“Southern Division General Assembly”. Later, at this same session,
without northern representation, the 1946 session was officially declared
to be the 32nd General Assembly of the Korean Church, and the 1947
body therefore declared itself in session as the 33rd General Assembly.
Mr. Hunt seems to have regarded this section as, in some sense, an illegal
one, and this might also explain his reluctance in responding to the roll.
In any case, his actions were misunderstood and “because of this, the
feeling between the General Assembly and the Machen group gradually
(deteriorated” {ibid., pp. 162-163).
J so Even Dr. Pak’s 1946 invitation to Mr. Hunt to be associated with
him in the Manchurian Seminary work was not an exclusive sort of
relationship. The closing paragraph of the letter indicates a similar in-
vitation had been sent to missionaries representing other Boards as well
{cf. Letter of H. N. Pak to Bruce F. Hunt, December 24, 1946).
s1 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., pp. 153-156.
s* Kim Yang Sun alleges that continued disagreements arose between
“the Machen group missionaries” and Dr. Pak on matters of theological
education and finally, the self-righteous attitude of the Koryu Seminary
orbit drove him from the school {ibid., pp. 153-156, 227-228). Though
friction of some sort may have been present to an extent, it was not a
motivating factor in the proportions with which Kim has presented it.
The differences in the Seminary stemmed more from very different
approaches to the question of reform methodology.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
155
between conservative and conservative in the struggle for
reform.
A third area of difference also came to light through Pak’s
departure from Koryu. Pak, representative of a sizeable
portion of conservatives in the church, had, as early as 1945,
urged against possible rashness in a precipitate use of action.
And there were many who felt that the actions of Koryu
Seminary were the actions of rash men. Han Sang Dong’s
withdrawal from the presbytery in 1946 did not help that
image. Many seemed to fear that Koryu Seminary’s insistence
on repentance for Shrine worship was too excessive, and that
their desire for repentance, though wholesome, needed modera-
tion. The situation, they said, demanded instruction and
forbearance more than discipline.53
This seemed to be one of the main complaints given by
Dr. Pak when he left Koryu Seminary. In the language
of one missionary observer, Dr. Pak said that “we were
emphasizing the Shrine issue too much and offending many
good men by so doing. . .”.54 In 1951, Dr. Pak uttered much
the same charges in an appeal to the Koryu Seminary group.
“Can it be right to say that our whole church has given
insufficient evidence of repentance, and, for this reason, to
go out as a separate denomination? A reformation of the
entire church is a difficult matter. Would it not be better to
bear with these imperfections, and is it not your very mission
sj This difference in approach to discipline seemed to be mirrored in
the student body of Koryu Seminary as well. The students who came
down from Seoul showed rather obvious differences on this issue almost
from the moment of their arrival in Pusan. ‘‘The students from Seoul
are pleased with the instruction they are getting, and find they have to
work harder than they did there, but they are not so clear cut on the
issues in the church, it seems to me. They are strong against liberalism
but not on opposing the ecclesiasticism of the men who ran the church
under the Japanese and led it in Shrine worship and are still running it.
They recognize the sins of these men, but their great desire for keeping
the peace of the church at any cost, almost, is a little different from the
attitude of the present student body” (Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the
Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, October
31, 1947).
54 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt to the Foreign Missions Committee, Orthodox
Presbyterian Church, June 6, 1948.
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f .
I :
to point out these imperfections, with a view to encouraging
repentance?”.55
Many of the same charges seemed to have been made by
the students who left with Dr. Pak. “Some students in
leaving sounded like it was because they were not willing to
go as far as we. Others, however, didn’t want us to feel that
that was their reason. They wanted us to believe that it
was so they could carry on the battle right in the camp of
the enemy, where they had started it — Seoul. They asked
us to think of them as the front line trench, as a bomb, etc.
I told them if that was the case we could most heartily recom-
mend their Seminary. That group did make a scholarly
battle against liberalism but they seem not to see the dangers
of the present ecumenical movements or the fundamental
defection in the church over the Shrine issue”.56
The whole incident was a sad one, perhaps the saddest
part of the reconstruction period. The conservatives had
made an attempt to join forces in their effort for reform.
J The attempt was an honest one, genuinely made. But it had
ended in failure, a preview of the final results of their efforts
as well. Though they shared a common desire, there simply
did not exist a common approach to the achievement of that
desire. The conservatives had been sharply divided, almost
from the first, regarding the nature and methodology of
reform. And this very disagreement was to provide one of
the reasons for the ultimate failure of rehabilitation efforts.
One group saw the Shrine issue as integrally related to the
question of Chosun Seminary’s theological defection. The
other did not. One group regarded the existence of an in-
dependent seminary within the church structure as highly
exceptional but necessary under the unusual circumstances.
The other group did not. One group insisted on the proper
exercise of discipline in the church as the proper method of
purification. The other group pleaded extenuating circum-
stances and moderation. The disagreement was fatal.
From this picture emerges also another defect in the con-
servative effort. And this defect was to be amplified repeatedly
ss Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 159.
56 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt, June 6, 1948.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
157
in the years ahead. It was particularly magnified among the
^.“moderates” of conservative stripe. “Church politics” be-
came a substitute for discipline. Theological questions began
to be handled through political adjustments, maneuvering
in the Presbytery. Administrative discipline replaced judicial
discipline. Theological issues became questions of good order.
From moderation, conservatives moved to maneuvering.
And from maneuvering to manipulation. All this, plus the
continued unrepentant attitude of Korea’s liberal leadership,
was to bring not only failure but also division.
B. The Failure of Reform
1. The Growing Tension Before Division
Pak Hyung Nong’s departure from Koryu Seminary had
signalled the failure of Korea’s conservatives to find a common
course of action. In the same way, the 34th General Assembly v
of 1948 signalled the failure of church reform.
Attention has been drawn earlier in this article to the
Assembly’s action regarding the Koryu Seminary. Before
the body also was the awesome task of dealing with the
alleged liberal teaching of Kim Chai Choon and his associates
at Chosun Seminary. A committee had been appointed by
the 1947 Assembly in response to the accusations of a large
group of the institution’s students. In our previous chapter,
we drew attention to some of the areas covered by the Com-
mittee’s investigations. The Committee’s conclusion had
been that Kim Chai Choon’s teaching “was not acceptable.
The Committee reports that Professor Kim denies the in-
fallibility of Scripture and unanimously agreed that his
statement ... be sent to the Board of Trustees”.57 It should
be noted that the Committee, though affirming the Rev.
Kim’s negative position regarding the Scriptures, made no
recommendations regarding disciplinary action, either to the
57 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 226. Out of eight members on the Com-
mittee, five supported the conclusion of the report, regarding the ac-
ceptability of the Rev. Kim’s teaching, two were against it, and one
abstained. Cf., to the contrary, H. Rhodes and A. Campbell, op. cit.,
p. 265, who comment that the charges were not sustained.
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school’s Board of Trustees or to the coming Assembly. Nor
was such action ever taken at the 1948 Assembly. Rather,
the Board of Trustees “recommended the re-election of
trustees and expulsion of the present professors, as their
idea of an enforced reform for Chosun Seminary. But the
Board members were outnumbered and the recommendation
failed’’.58 The motion that was eventually passed restricted
itself to Professor Kim and, rather than demanding his expul-
sion, requested that he be sent to the United States for study
for a one-year period. To Rev. Kim’s friends, this seemed
“an indirect way of dropping him”.59 To the Koryu Seminary
circle, it seemed “like a promotion”.60 In no sense was it an
act of discipline. The Assembly had sought to solve a difficult
question through indirect manipulation. A pattern had begun
to be cut.
Coupled with this recommendation of the Assembly was
the presentation of a list of seven men as a new temporary
faculty. Among the names were men that Koryu Seminary
had tried to secure: Pak Hyung Nong, Nyung Shin Hong,
Kim Chin Hong. But among them also was Dr. William
Scott, recognized by many as one of the mission force’s
leading liberal theologians.61 Though the move was an
obvious effort to provide conservative leadership in the
Seminary, it was not without compromise. Scott’s nomina-
tion insured that. It provided no reassurance to the Koryu
Seminary group. “The move was supposedly to purify and
make the Assembly Seminary more orthodox but by appoint-
ing this liberal they show they don’t have the discernment
to make it orthodox if they wanted to”.62
The program failed on every side. Chosun Seminary
refused to accept the recommendations and continued as
before, still the Assembly’s only recognized theological
training school. The Koryu Seminary group, in the face of
s* Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 229.
s’ Letter of Bruce F. Hunt, June 6, 1948.
60 Ibid.
61 Dr. Scott’s theological convictions received some attention in an earlier
part of this outline ( Cf . The Westminster Theological Journal, Vol. XXIX,
no. 2, May, 1967, pp. 138-139).
62 Letter of Bruce F. Hunt, June 6, 1948.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
159
the Assembly’s rebuff to them and its efforts to handle theo-
logical liberalism through postponement and adjustment,
grew increasingly distant. Conservatives like Pak Hyung
Nong, who had sought moderation, saw that moderation, in
the face of Chosun Seminary’s resistance, was not enough.
Two months after the conclusion of the Assembly, the earlier
proposal for another conservative seminary was taken up
again and, with Pak as temporary president, the doors of a
second independent school were opened.
In the year that followed, the lines began to harden in
many areas and the final stage was set for division. Again,
the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery became the center V
of controversy. In September, 1948, the Presbytery met to
discuss again the issues involved in their recognition of
Koryu Seminary. In the light of Pak Hyung Nong’s with-
drawal, and against the background of the April Assembly’s
rather cool attitude towards Koryu Seminary, prospects for
a favorable attitude of the Presbytery seemed dim to say the
least. Coupled with these tensions were the efforts of a
minority group in the Presbytery to have the “action of the
Presbytery, for showing public repentance, rescinded”.63
Though the abortive plan failed at this time, the plotters
were surely not to be sympathetic to Koryu Seminary. They
combined their votes with those conservatives who wanted
the Seminary under the direction of the Assembly and, for
the second time in two years, the Presbytery cancelled its
recognition of the school. When the Presbytery reviewed this
decision at a December meeting, the September decision was
reiterated.
Three groups now sought the leadership of the Presbytery,
in many respects, the same three groups that sought the
leadership of the church: Koryu Seminary’s supporters, a v
vocal minority of liberals opposing repentance of any sort,
and those conservatives who feared Koryu Seminary’s in-
“Presbyterianism in Korea”, The Messenger, July-August, 1953, p. 4.
Twelve men, under the leadership of Kim Kil Chang, sought to have the
action rescinded. Kim is described as “the man who was declared to have
been the tool of the Japanese in forcing this sin upon the local presbytery”
(William Chisholm, “A Welcome Development in Korea”, Biblical
Missions, March, 1953, p. 22.)
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dependent status but opposed also the liberal character of
Chosun Seminary. In the spring of 1949 there were three
presbyteries representing each of these groups.
The first division in the Presbytery apparently occurred
when that body’s dissident liberals, who had sought can-
cellation of Presbytery’s action recommending repentance,
became aware of imminent Presbyterial disciplinary action
against them. Approximately eleven presbyters “did not
come to the regular presbytery meeting, but instead formed
themselves into another presbytery”.64 Within a very brief
span of time, a second minority pulled away from the Pres-
bytery, this group strongly sympathetic to the actions of
Pak Hyung Nong and his desire for an Assembly-controlled
school. Led by Noh Chin Hyung, pastor of a large Pusan
church, this second group also decided to set up its own
presbytery, again without authorization. Fearful of the
attachments made by Koryu Seminary, but equally opposed
to the theological liberalism of Chosun Seminary’s followers,
Noh seemed confident that he would be supported by the
majority of the Korean church and by those missionaries
moving in its main stream. Though this second group also
had no legal authorization, it too formed itself into yet another
presbytery. The majority remained in the “legal Presbytery”,
now basically sympathetic to Koryu Seminary. They promptly
expressed that sympathy by once again reversing their pre-
vious action, again supporting the school, and by doing so,
“going contrary to the declaration of the 1948 Assembly”.65
The events within the Presbytery from 1948-1949 were
to prove prophetic of the larger situation. They helped to
provide part of the reason for the eventual division of the
church in 1951. And the same groups that formed their
presbyteries were to form their own assemblies eventually,
along much the same lines. The conflict had begun to shatter
the church’s monolithic structure.66
64 Pak Yune Sun, “Presbyterianism in Korea”, The Presbyterian
Guardian, June 16, 1952, p. 105.
65 “Bruce Hunt Finds New Doors Opening in Korea”, The Presbyterian
Guardian, June, 1949, p. 117.
66 Kim Yang Sun’s account completely ignores these events in the
Presbytery’s history and speaks with some scorn of the Koryu Seminary
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
161
In April, 1949, the 35th General Assembly met to face
several acute problems threatening the unity of the church:
an already thrice-divided South Kyungsang Province Pres-
bytery; a liberally oriented theological seminary with no
intention of changing its course; two independent, conserva-
tive seminaries vying for Assembly recognition; three groups
within the church, each represented now by its own semi-
nary, each expressive of its own program for reform in the
church.
Strongly sympathetic to those conservatives concerned
with the continuing influence of Chosun Seminary, but un-
willing to commit themselves to the full-orbed reform de-
manded by Koryu Seminary and its supporters, the Assembly
moved most strongly against Koryu, while seeking a more
moderating course regarding Chosun Seminary.
The problems raised in connection with the divisions of
the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery were referred to a
special committee “with full powers”,67 appointed by the
Assembly to examine the situation. The action regarding
Koryu Seminary was more direct. “In accord with the
statement of the last General Assembly, the Koryu Seminary
has no connection whatever with this General Assembly.
Since it is contrary to the action of General Assembly for
any Presbytery to have any connection with this seminary,
it would be well to be careful in this matter”.68 In this same
connection, expressing the fears of those who were concerned
about Koryu Seminary’s western connections, the Assembly
took action against the missionaries of the Orthodox Pres-
byterian Church and the Independent Board for Presbyterian
Foreign Missions. “The South Kyungsang Province Pres-
bytery should sever its relation with missionary Bruce Hunt’s
group and take every caution against the Koryu Seminary,
group’s defense of their presbytery as “the legal presbytery”. The existence
of “the legal presbytery” is thus made out by Kim to be grounded largely
in the divisive, martyr-spirit of the group ( op . cit., pp. 156-157). The
omission of this history is most unfortunate and misleading.
67 The extent of these “full powers” was apparently not even under-
stood by the Committee, later to be rebuked by the 1950 Assembly for
their excessiveness.
68 Kim Yang Sun, ibid.
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according to the previous decision of the General Assem-
bly”.69
None of these actions provided any encouragement to
those who had struggled for church reform. Many denounced
them as illegal.70 Others, like Pak Yune Sun, deplored them
as symbols of the church’s unrepentant mind, and a tragic
misunderstanding of Koryu Seminary’s program. ‘‘In the
five years that have followed liberation, we have never had
thorough repentance. Because of this the church has not
yet found unity. . . . The problem of the South Kyungsang
Province Presbytery, severely misunderstood by the Korean
church, finds its source in the legitimate request that the
motion for repentance be fairly practiced. . . . The past
69 Quoted in Kim Eui Hwan, “The Christian Conflict with Shintoism
in Korea”, unpublished Th.M. dissertation, submitted to Westminster
Theological Seminary, 1963, p. 107. Cf. Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 162.
70 Kim Eui Hwan points out, for example, that the Form of Government
of the Korean Presbyterian Church clearly endorses “the right of the
Presbytery to recommend any ministerial candidates to any seminary
according to the applicant’s desire. ‘Any seminary’ here indicated not
only refers to a seminary which is run by the denomination but also any
other seminaries which have sound Reformed doctrine. Therefore the
action taken by the Assembly against the Koryu Seminary was unlawful
and contradictory to the principle of the church government because it
made the decision without examination of the doctrinal position of the
Koryu Seminary and even without condemning it to be heretical, in
spite of the fact that Koryu Seminary, though independent, was approved
by the South Kyungsang Presbytery. Therefore the responsibility for
the split lies with the General Assembly rather than with the so-called
‘Koryu-pa’ church. There is little justification to label the formation of
the ‘Koryu-pa’ church as schismatic” (Kim Eui Hwan, op. cit., p. 108).
The action against Mr. Hunt was open to similar criticism. States one
report, “The Assembly also stated, with no reasons attached and no form
of trial, that the Presbytery at Pusan was to have nothing to do with
Bruce F. Hunt and the missionaries associated with him. In spite of the
fact that the Korean Presbyterian Church was officially on record as
receiving missionaries from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, it was
alleged privately by some at the Assembly that Mr. Hunt belonged to a
heretical group. Actually Mr. Hunt is not currently connected officially
with the Korean Presbyterian Church, so that the declaration means
little. However, since he is frequently being invited to preach in particular
churches — at the request of local sessions — the matter is being pressed
in some circles” (“Bruce Hunt Finds New Doors Opening in Korea”,
loc. cit., p. 117).
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
163
^5th General Assembly has broken off relations with Koryu
Seminary and missionary Bruce Hunt. . . . Because this
action seems to raise many difficulties regarding the repentance
movement, we cannot help but be deeply concerned”.71
Other actions at the Assembly caused even deeper concern
among the reform supporters. Again, as in 1948, the Assembly
sought to deal with the question of Chosun Seminary’s
liberal direction through ecclesiastical indirection. Still ignor-
ing the application of juridical discipline, the body secured
the passing of a motion supporting the conservative theological
seminary, which had begun under the presidency of Pak
Hyung Nong the previous year. Then, pleading the financial
inability of the church to maintain two recognized seminaries,
conservatives began to maneuver towards “action disallowing
the Chosun Seminary. If a proposal to merge the two semi-
naries succeeded, demanding submission to the conservative
seminary, the only conservative seminary would be in the
ascendancy. If it failed, the removal of the liberal seminary
could be effected by church politics, or so it was thought.
Therefore, the Assembly decided to merge the two seminaries
and make a joint board as a compromise, and so make the
joint seminary a fact”.72 A committee to execute such a
plan was selected by the Assembly, and, within two months
of the Assembly, seven principles for merger were proposed
to both seminaries by the committee.73
71 Pak Yune Sun, Where is the Korean Presbyterian Church Going?,
(K), Publications Committee of the Koryu Theological Seminary Student
Body Association, 1950, pp. 1-2. The same posture is also displayed in
William H. Chisholm, “The Battle for Korea”, Biblical Missions, Novem-
ber, 1951, pp. 24-31.
73 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 246.
73 The seven principles were:
(a) Theological education to be basically evangelical and in accord
with the Creed of the Korean Presbyterian Church.
(b) All employees of both seminaries to resign.
(c) The board to be made up of members approved by the Assembly,
and decisions to be by an affirmative vote of 3/4 of the members
present.
(d) The president and faculty to be chosen by the board; the president
to be chosen from among the older Korean ministers, the pro-
fessors, and three Northern Presbyterian missionaries, two
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Again, the merger proposals failed. Chosun Seminary,
fearful that most of their faculty members would be rejected
under the terms of the agreement, urged that the two faculties
should be unconditionally merged, and that board actions
be by majority vote of those present. The conservative
institution insisted, in reaction, that no one could be a pro-
fessor who did not accept the Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch. Kim Chai Choon, long the Korean spokesman
for liberalism, was singled out by tjje conservatives as defi-
nitely unsuited for faculty status. Concerned also that a
mere majority vote on board actions might provide Chosun
Seminary with too much political leverage, the conservatives
insisted on 2/3 majority decision. With both groups at a
stalemate, the merger was as doomed as the 1948 proposals.74
Neither side was to emerge with clean hands. Both con-
servative and liberal seminaries had freely resorted to parlia-
mentary posturing to resolve a deeper issue. The issue still
remained to trouble Pak Hyung Nong’s group and the fol-
lowers of Koryu Seminary’s program.
At this point of confusion, the Assembly Committee ap-
pointed to examine the situation in the South Kyungsang
Province Presbytery undertook action. Their actions even-
tually provided the match to ignite the smoldering fuse.
Without even calling the Presbytery together, the Com-
mittee met with Lee Yak Sin, its moderator, and, until now,
one of those conservatives not associated with the Koryu
Seminary movement. Lee was told that his presbytery was
to be divided into three presbyteries, and those men who had
withdrawn were ordered reinstated. Mr. Hunt and other
missionaries associated with him were not to be allowed in
the pulpits of the Presbytery. Ministers associated with
Southern Presbyterian missionaries, one each from the United
Church of Canada Mission and the Australian Presbyterian
Mission. The important courses to be entrusted to missionaries
and others to Korean ministers.
(e) The name and constitution to be decided by the board.
(f) Rules governing students of both institutions to be revised.
(g) The property and furnishings of both institutions to be un-
conditionally given up (Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 247).
74 Ibid.., pp. 247-248.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
165
Koryu Seminary were to be tried. The Committee also
appointed conveners for the three new presbyteries, and a
time and place for convening. The three conveners appointed
were all members of the liberal minority associated with
Kim Kil Chang, who had escaped presbyterial discipline by
earlier withdrawing to form their own presbytery.73
Nothing could have delighted the liberal element more
or infuriated the conservatives less. Kim Kil Chang’s liberal
party submitted quickly to the demands of the Committee
and went into the three newly erected presbyteries. The
action turned Lee Yak Sin into a strong supporter of Koryu
Seminary and provided even more fuel for the Pusan Semi-
nary’s case against liberal machinations in the higher church
court. Even those like Noh Chin Hyung, supporters of a
more inclusive sort of conservative thinking, were incensed
by the action of the Committee.76
2. The 36th General Assembly and the Koryu Group Division
In this state of tension, the 36th General Assembly con-
vened in April, 1950. Five groups came representing the
South Kyungsang Province Presbytery, each demanding
recognition from the Assembly.77 The two seminaries now
75 “Missionary Life in Korea Has Good and Bad Sides”, The Presbyterian
Guardian, July, 1949, p. 137.
76 The gravity of the situation may be judged by the large “pamphlet
warfare” that began almost immediately after the action of the Com-
mittee. Lee Yak Sin, moderator of “the legal presbytery”, circulated
“A Notification”, in June, 1949, attacking the decision of the Committee.
In July, a small booklet appeared from the pens of Han Sang Dong and
Choo Nam Sun, explaining the character and reason behind Koryu
Seminary’s foundation. By September “An Appeal and Declaration of
Public Pledge” had come from the pen of Bruce Hunt. In October, still
another "Proclamation Statement” was circulated, this time by Sim
Moon Tae. (The general contents of the papers are described in Ahn
Yong Choon, The Atom Bomb of Love, (K), Sinmangae Publishing Com-
pany, 1966, pp. 272-273.) In view of the importance of the events, it is
very unfortunate that Kim Yang Sun completely neglects their narration.
The omission places the Koryu Seminary supporters in a very ill-deserved
light.
77 The five groups represented the three presbyteries set up by the
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actively seeking the support of the church courts had been
“extremely active in spreading their opinions and defenses.
Both sides were trying to seize church control. Whoever
won control would control the Assembly’s traditions and
power, and whoever failed would criticize the other group as
politicians”.78
The power struggle erupted almost immediately, centering
over the question of the seating of delegates. Even here the
motivations were theological. “The Chosun Seminary group
contended that missionaries not related to the Church-
Mission Conference had no qualifications as delegates. The
Presbyterian Seminary group thought that the five delegates
of the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery should be denied
their qualifications. If the Chosun Seminary opinion pre-
vailed, a number of Southern Presbyterian missionaries who
were not in the Church-Mission Conference, would lose their
right of membership, and the Chosun Seminary would be
free of their strong opposition. If the Presbyterian Seminary
group prevailed, the delegates of the South Kyungsang
Province Presbytery who supported the Chosun Seminary
would be out of the Assembly, and that would give them the
majority”.79
For three days the issues were debated with great heat.
And most of the Assembly time was spent in a discussion of
the seating of delegates. The actions of the Assembly Com-
mittee appointed in 1949 “with full power” to examine the
situation existing in the southern presbytery met with rebuke
from the Assembly. They were told that they had no au-
thority to set up presbyteries, but had been instructed merely
to investigate and seek to settle problems in the area. In
this same connection, the presbytery established under the
leadership of Noh Chin Hyung received some censure by the
Assembly Committee, the self-appointed presbytery associated with the
name of Noh Chin Hyung, and the “legal presbytery”, whose moderator
was Lee Yak Sin.
78 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., pp. 248-249.
79 Ibid., p. 249. Cf., to the contrary, H. Rhodes and A. Campbell,
op. cit., p. 267, who, in asserting that “the specific questions were not
with regard to the seminaries themselves nor in the realm of doctrine”,
separate, more than necessary, the essential unity of the problems.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
167
.-Assembly. The conclusion of the Assembly was not to seat
the four illegally formed groups associated with Kim Kil
Chang and Noh Chin Hyung. However, when the “legal
presbytery” prepared to be seated, Assembly action was
blocked in a climax of fistfights and “rowdyism”, apparently
led by the Chosun Seminary group members.80
When further debate seemed fruitless, the Assembly named
a committee to study means of resolving the situation.
Several recommendations of the committee were presented
and eventually adopted. The Assembly was to be adjourned
until September. A special committee of seven was named to
settle the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery matter.
“On the seminary question, two representatives from each
presbytery and four missionaries, with the Assembly offi-
cers . . . were named as a special committee to meet during
July in Chungju to work out a plan. If this meeting works
out a proposal, that this be sent at once to each presbytery
for discussion, and if approved by the majority, that it be
passed”.81
Considerable debate seemed to have centered around a
committee recommendation regarding section one of the
Creed, that pertaining to the infallibility of the Bible. Ap-
parently supported by those conservative elements seeking
the ouster of Chosun Seminary’s liberal teachers, the motion
was regarded by those like William Scott as an unfortunate
change in the creedal basis of the church, moving towards a
theory of “Biblical inerrancy” or “verbal inspiration”.82
80 “Korea Presbyterian Assembly Blocked by ‘Rowdyism’,” The Pres-
byterian Guardian, June, 1950, p. 114.
81 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 250.
82 Scott’s own analysis of the debate is included in a letter written by
him on May 20, 1950, to some of his Korean associates:
“. . . I then, unfortunately, entered upon a discussion of the issue and
pointed out that the creed had been wisely and purposely drawn up in
terms which are generally used in the Presbyterian Church throughout
the world, and to which we are all heartily subscribed. But when we
tampered with the creed and began to add such words as ‘Biblical
inerrancy’ we were fomenting strife.
"I then said that this issue had been brought into prominence after
‘Liberation’, and that it had come from America, which is the only
country where you can find any considerable body of Christian people
—
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
As it finally passed, the motion stated “that anyone holding,
propagating, or arguing contrary to section one of the Creed
on the infallibility of the Bible (original manuscripts) be
subject to Chapter 6, Section 12-13 of the Book of Discipline
by each presbytery”.83 Though the motion was not specifically
directed to any individuals in the church, many regarded it
as the preparatory step in proposed disciplinary action against
Kim Chai Choon and William Scott.
The step, however, was taken too late to allay the fears of
those concerned with the undisciplined liberal leadership of the
churches and its moderating drift. Its very ambiguity in
terms of specifics, an ambiguity clouded by ecclesiastical
holding that view. I said that no responsible seminaries in Canada,
Australia, Britain or Europe taught that kind of ‘Biblical inerrancy’. . . .
I pointed out that the presence of errors did not invalidate the scriptures
as the Word of God — that it was the Spirit rather than the letter
which constituted the Word of God. I quoted Paul’s words in II
Corinthians that ‘the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life’. I men-
tioned that even in America, no responsible seminary of the Northern
Presbyterian Church taught ‘biblical inerrancy’, and referred to Dr.
John Mackay’s repeated warnings against the danger of placing the
Bible above Christ.
“I then urged that they leave the creed as it is, without adding any
words which might be the cause of strife, and that we do all that is
possible to avoid a split in the church. . . . My thought was that even
a good word like ‘inspiration’ could raise questions in people’s minds and
be readily used to read ‘verbal inspiration’. Unfortunately I did not
know the word for ‘verbal inspiration’ and so left the matter in-
adequately explained. I ended with a strong plea that such a momentous
question be not settled in such undignified haste but be referred to the
special committee that was to meet during the summer to discuss the
seminary issue.
“My remarks were immediately interpreted as a confession that I
did not believe in the inspiration of scripture. Mr. Kinsler quoted
II Timothy 3:16 and Rev. Kwun Yun-ho expressed horror. I replied
that I, just as truly as Mr. Kinsler, believed that the scriptures were
inspired, but that the same Holy Spirit which inspired them should
guide us in our reading and interpreting of them . . .” (Quoted in,
Shin Sung Kook, “A Historical Study of the Ecumenical Movement
in its Relation to Christianity in Korea”, unpublished thesis sub-
mitted to Emmanuel College, Victoria University, Toronto, in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology,
1963, p. 241).
83 Kim Yang Sun, ibid.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
169
maneuvering, seemed to nullify its effect as far as many were
concerned.®4
Now, to heighten an already tense situation, the special
committee of seven appointed by the Assembly to settle
matters in the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery acted.
Southern conservatives, already concerned about the make-up
of the committee, 8s were repelled by what they regarded as
the brutalizing manner in which the committee operated.
Ignoring the teaching elders, the committee called only
ruling elders as representatives of the presbyteries. The
outcome was a committee declaration that “the original
presbytery and the . . . new ones were all . . . dissolved ; and
they set up a . . . presbytery which they declared would be
the legal one and that any desiring admittance could make
application. Members of the . . . newly formed ‘presbyteries’
went into the . . . presbytery, newly formed by the General
Assembly’s committee. The discipline that was to fall on
those who refused to repent of Shinto obeisance was of course
lifted, because the General Assembly’s committee declared
the original presbytery (in the Pusan area) which had in-
tended to discipline these men, now dissolved and non-
existent. The true men of God in the original presbytery
here of course felt outraged. They believed the whole action
high-handed, unfair and illegal, and refused to enter the
newly formed presbytery along with those who refused to
repent or accept discipline on the shrine issue. They felt it
would be sin for them to do so”.86
84 These sentiments can be found reflected in Pak Yune Sun, “The
Historical Position on Which We Stand”, The Watchman, (K), September,
1946, pp. 12-13; Ahn Yong Choon, op. cit., pp. 274-276.
One missionary sympathizer with the Koryu Seminary comments
that “according to the present moderator of the General Assembly, the
committee was made up of four modernists, one U.S.A. Presbyterian
missionary, and two others” (William Chisholm, “The Battle For Korea”,
loc. cit., p. 26).
86 William Chisholm, “A Welcome Development in Korea”, loc. cit.,
p. 22. Chisholm’s account confuses rather badly the number of pres-
byteries involved in the dispute. For that reason, we have deleted his
references to the number of different groups involved. He seems to have
regarded the three presbyteries declared set up by the 1949 committee
as essentially one.
—
170 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
The situation now bordered on the explosive. Repeatedly
the reform efforts of the Koryu Seminary supporters had met
with opposition from the Assembly. The liberals attacked
their conservative stance and the conservatives, through
ecclesiastical pressure, ignored or nullified it. Five years of
efforts had brought the Assembly only to the point of passing
a general stricture regarding section one of the Creed. No
orderly steps of discipline had yet been initiated against the
church’s liberal forces. And the Assembly’s firmest steps had
been against the only presbytery seeking consistently the
rehabilitation of the church.
In the midst of this tension, communist troops poured
across the 38th parallel to initiate the Korean war and bring
still more delays in the reform efforts. The 36th General
Assembly, which had recessed to meet in September, 1950,
was forced to delay its reconvening until May, 1951, when
it met in Pusan. Also because of the emergency, the special
c o m m i t tee elected by the Assembly to meet in June, 1950,
and work out a seminary proposal to be submitted to each
presbytery, was unable to meet at such an early date. The
committee did meet, but the gathering took place just before
the reconvening of the 36th Assembly. Their recommenda-
tion, which had no time to be sent down to the presbyteries,
was that neither seminary be recognized but that a new
General Assembly Seminary be set up in Taegu.
The actions of the 1951 Assembly, in many ways, finalized
the growing rifts in the church. Especially for the supporters
of Koryu Seminary the time was decisive. The report of the
special committee elected to handle the South Kyungsang
Province Presbytery matter was presented and received.
The presbytery, newly organized by that committee, was
thus recognized by the Assembly. “The result was to drop
the traditional presbytery from the constituency of the
general assembly (and so from the church). Delegates from
the traditional presbytery were sent to the assembly, to
make their testimony before that body, but were refused
permission even to speak a word concerning the action of
the assembly”.87 The rejected commissioners, unable to
87 Pak Yune Sun, “Presbyterianism in Korea”, loc. cit., p. 105. Pak
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
171
speak on the floor, circularized the Assembly with leaflets,
interpreting the action of the Assembly against them as an
action against the cause of reform:
“We are sorry that the 36th General Assembly of the
Korean Presbyterian Church made an irregular decision
regarding the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery.
“That the General Assembly should accept a presbytery
with those of unsound doctrine contrary to the creed and
constitution of the Presbyterian Church, while at the
same time rejecting those of the orthodox theology and
evangelical faith, is a matter that even a child can discern
as not right.
“Representatives and ministers of this General Assembly
and all laymen who believe the evangelical faith! The
General Assembly maintains two seminaries which are
diametrically opposite in doctrine. How can you unite
truth and error, orthodoxy and modernism? The people
of the church recognize this as hypocrisy and surely will
not follow such leadership.
“You are willing to go along with Dr. John A. Mackay
who wishes to recognize Red China.
“We believe the reason God has spared this city of
Pusan where you are meeting is because of the true testi-
mony to the gospel which has been carried on here. We
feel that the action of the General Assembly toward the
local presbytery is analogous to the releasing of Barrabas
and crucifying Christ.
“Beware! You should lead the sheep into the truth.
This is your mission and one for which you are responsible
to God”.88
The very unsophisticated language of the protest emphasizes
again the basic nature of the Koryu group effort — a simple
appeal for the Assembly’s return to their own creeds, un-
cluttered by conservative latitudinarianism or liberal capitula-
tions. Again it failed. And again the basic responsibility for
its failure need not be imputed to the would-be reformers.
“. . . The few ambitious ones who held the reins in the
Assembly, and a few opportunists who hid behind them,
casting away any sense of Christian love for the sake of
their own ambition, pushed matters to the point of cutting
might have added that they were not even allowed to enter the build-
ing.
88 William Chisholm, “The Battle for Korea”, loc. cit., pp. 28-29.
172
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
off the ex-prisoner-centered Koryu Seminary group from the
Assembly. . .”.89
From this point, until September 2, 1952, when the first
“General Assembly” of a separate group oriented to the
Koryu Seminary was held,90 the actions of the 36th General
Assembly were amplified and reinforced, on both sides. In
August, 1951, the South Kyungsang Province Presbytery,
created by the Assembly committee and now having Assembly
authorization, forbade sending students to Koryu Seminary.
A time limit was also set for the return of workers and
members who had gone over to the Koryu presbytery. The
original presbytery, still refusing to disband, sent its delegates
to the 37th General Assembly in April, 1952, and again they
were refused admission.
The near-conclusion came in September, 1952, when the
presbytery, still refusing to be dissolved, “decided to enlarge
their presbytery and carry their testimony beyond the limits
of their original boundary”.91 This meeting is often called
the first General Assembly of the Koryu denomination.92
But it should be noted that, even at this time, the intent
of the group seems not to have been a divisive organization,
but rather an organization freed of compromise, an organiza-
tion which, they hoped, eventually, would effectuate a General
Assembly, not only spiritually, but legally,93 the successor
of the pre-war church. For that reason the September, 1952,
meeting called itself “a General Presbytery”, rather than a
89 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., pp. 157-158. Cf., to the contrary, Samuel H.
Moffett, The Christians of Korea, Friendship Press, 1962, p. 114.
9° Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea,
1952-1960, (K), Publications Committee, Korean Presbyterian Church,
1961, p. 3. Cf., to the contrary, G. T. Brown, op. cit., p. 179, who gives
the impression of a division as early as 1949.
91 “Presbyterianism in Korea”, The Messenger, September, 1953, p. 6.
92 Though the body is popularly called the Koryu group or the Kosin
group, its official name is exactly the same as the parent body.
9-* This insistence on being the “legal succession” of the Korean Pres-
byterian Church provides a rather different perspective from similar western
parallels familiar to us, such as the creation of the Orthodox Presbyterian
Church in 1936. However, the treatment of the southern presbytery by
the Assembly had convinced these men of the illegality of the Assembly’s
action and of the Assembly itself. And this insistence was one method of
drawing attention to a basic disorder.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
173
General Assembly.94 For that reason also, commissioners
from this presbytery attempted to be seated at each General
Assembly session until 1954, when “the General Assembly
reiterated its action that there was no connection between the
General Assembly and the Koryu Seminary. Whereupon the
group, after a final speech by the delegate from the ‘legal
presbytery’, Elder Um Choo Sin, formally withdrew from
the General Assembly”.95
The spirit and purpose of the group was manifested almost
immediately. Three weeks were set aside for self-examination
and self-judgment, “during which time all the ministers,
elders, and evangelists (helpers), were to refrain from carrying
on their official and public duties, and give themselves to
prayer that they might receive the leading of the Lord accord-
ing to His Word. The idea was that if any one had any part
in the shrine iniquity that he had not cleared up before God,
he should accept this to himself as discipline, and get right
with God”.96
At the conclusion of the three-week period, three days
of meetings were held in the church pastored by Han Sang
Dong. On the closing night a Manifesto was read, launching
the new movement and reflecting on its past and purposes:
“Mankind has fallen into a state of sin and misery and
the only hope is found in the cross of Christ, where God
alone dealt forever with the question of sin. God did not
leave mankind without a witness. Repentance has been
proclaimed throughout the ages by Moses, Elijah, Jonah,
Paul, Calvin and others, all witnessing to the completed
work of the Son of God on the cross.
“During the Japanese persecution our church was very
greatly oppressed. Among us there were a certain number
of faithful servants of God who suffered in Japanese prisons.
After the liberation there arose a goodly number of Chris-
Even periodicals friendly to the cause of the Koryu group seem to
have missed the significance of the title. Articles portraying the sig-
nificance of the General Presbytery — herald it as a “new church or-
ganized in South Korea” ( The Presbyterian Guardian, November 15,
1952, p. 206) or the formation of a “new church” ( The Messenger,
January, 1953, p. 1).
w Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 159.
*6 “Presbyterianism in Korea,” The Messenger, September, 1953, p. 6
174
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
tians who repented of the sins committed during the
persecution. We are very glad of this but on the other
hand we are very sad to see that the majority of Korean
Christians do not approve of this emphasis on repentance.
Their attitude of excusing themselves is the fruit of Modern-
ism and superficial evangelism which goes along with
modernistic indifference.
“The path they tread may be an easy one but it is not
the way of restoring the church of Christ to its original
purity. Speaking of the Korean Presbyterian Church it
has departed from the Presbyterian faith and constitution
to a large extent.
“Since the liberation we have insisted on true repentance
and Calvinistic theology, i. e. the Reformed faith. A
goodly number of Christians have responded to our appeal.
But we are sad to see so many hindering this noble move-
ment. We advised the General Assembly repeatedly but
they have ridiculed us and severed us from them. For
three years they have refused to recognize our delegates.
We have resolved therefore to organize a true General
Assembly according to the constitution of the Presbyterian
Church in succession to the old uncorrupted General
Assembly which was in existence prior to the capitulation
of the Korean Church to Japanese shrine idolatry. With
this goal in mind we today hold this service inaugurating
the General Presbytery. Our determination is that our
spiritual fight go on right straight to the end. . . .
“We hold to the great time-honored system of the
Reformed faith, i. e. the Westminster Confession of Faith,
its Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
“We hold that Calvinism is the most tenable system of
Christian faith and try to teach it according to the presen-
tations of Bavinck, Kuyper, Warfield, Hodge, Machen,
Berkhof, and others.
“We are opposed to liberal theology and to the so-called
neo-orthodoxy, i. e., the theology of Barth, Brunner,
Niebuhr, and other dialectic theologians”.97
The first rent of any sizeable proportions had taken place
in Korean Presbyterianism.98 It was not created without
97 Loc. cit. The Manifesto, in full form, appears in the Minutes of the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, 1952-1960, op. cit.,
pp. 11-14.
98 A July, 1953, report lists 363 churches and 50 ordained ministers in
the fledgling group. The 1956 Assembly Minutes note a total of 568
churches and 102 ordained ministers. From this year on, the church’s
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
175
fault from all sides — liberal opportunists “casting away love
for the sake of ambition”; inconsistent conservative modera-
tism, that sought for reform without renewal, purification
by pacification; Koryu Seminary supporters, whose zeal
sometimes exceeded bounds of knowledge; the prejudgments
and “mind set” of western missionary boards. But, in spite
of all these weaknesses, the creation of the Koryu denomina-
tion by no means could be called “only a question of control
within the church”.99 The question was more basically a
theological one. Should discipline be properly exercised in
the church against liberal perspectives? Or should it not?
Should the Word of God be truly preached? Or should it
not? Any alleged seeking of “control within the church” was
motivated by that question. Shall the liberals win?, asked
Koryu Seminary. Their proposed answer was, No.
3. The 37th General Assembly and the Kichang Group
Division
The 36th General Assembly had taken steps which were to
antagonize the Chosun Seminary supporters as well. Notice
of discipline had been issued against those uncomfortable
with the standpoint of the Creed regarding the infallibility
of Scripture. The adjourned session in May, 1951, had
moved still further. Acting on the hurried recommendations
expansion seems to have levelled off to a more normal rate of growth.
By August, 1960, 590 churches and 126 ordained ministers are listed on
the church roll. By contrast, the parent body, in 1960, claimed 2177
congregations.
99 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 164. Kim’s final judgment on the Koryu
group seems most ill-advised. He writes, “Even now, they brag of
eventually absorbing the whole church and of making their denomination
the governing body of the Korean Presbyterian Church. It is not really
a question of shrine worship or modernism. Rather, it is a question of
who controls the Korean Presbyterian Church, which is the reason for the
Koryu Seminary group’s remaining separate”. In view of Kim’s critical
appraisal of the political ambitions of the Koryu group, it is rather striking
to note his constant references to the same features in the struggle that
ensued between the remaining conservatives with the Chosun Seminary
supporters, but without similar condemnations ( Cf . ibid., pp. 248-249,
253-259).
176
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
of the committee appointed in 1950, Assembly recognition
for both Chosun Seminary and the conservative Presbyterian
Seminary of Pak Hyung Nong had been withdrawn and
instructions had been issued for the erection of a new General
Assembly Seminary.
The motion was not passed without strong protest from
the Chosun Seminary supporters. In particular, the group
argued the action “was unconstitutional and contrary to
the action of the Assembly. For the^36th General Assembly
had directed that the proposition be submitted to the pres-
byteries, and if it was necessary to suspend this action
because of the emergency, then the previous ruling should
first have been changed. Since it had not been set aside,
the whole thing was illegal”.100 But the protest was ignored
and a collision course was set.
In September, 1951, the decision of the Assembly was
implemented when the new General Assembly Seminary was
opened in Taegu. With a very strong conservative faculty,101
it was quite apparent that the movement of the Assembly
was throwing its weight against Chosun Seminary’s liberal
leadership. The independent conservative institution asso-
ciated with Pak Hyung Nong had closed its doors in answer
to the appeal of the Assembly. The direction of the Assembly’s
efforts had been clear to them. It was clear also to Chosun
Seminary.102 It refused to close its doors and, moving to
Pusan because of the war, it was reorganized under the name,
Hankuk Theological Seminary.
In the time that intervened between the 36th and the 37th
100 Ibid., p. 251.
101 A popularized account of the school’s beginnings can be found in
Arch Campbell, The Christ of the Korean Heart, Falco Publishers, 1954,
pp. 107-116. Campbell was the first president of the institution. The
full-time teaching staff included Pak Hyung Nong and Myung Shin Hong
(both sought formerly as teachers for Koryu Seminary), Han Kyung Chik,
Kim Chi Sun, and missionary Francis Kinsler of the Northern Pres-
byterian Church. Kim Chi Sun was much later to be instrumental in the
formation of the Korean Bible Presbyterian Church, a denomination
similar, in intent and goals, to the same named American denomination.
102 It does not seem so clear to Samuel H. Moffett, op. cit., p. 115, who
emphasizes a fear of division in the church as the main factor in pressing
for a new seminary under its own authority.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
177
General Assembly, Chosun (now Hankuk) Seminary con-
tinued its emphasis on the so-called illegality of the action
taken against it at the 1951 gathering. And coupled with
this legal protest was a strong reaction to the newly set up
Assembly Seminary in Taegu. The new institution recognized
by the Assembly, completely dominated by former Pres-
byterian Seminary men from the church’s generally con-
servative wing, was denounced as “a retreat to the control
of missionaries”, a return to the former days of Pyungyang
Seminary.103
The issue came to a head at the 37th General Assembly,
in April, 1952. And the first clash centered on the seating of
north Korean refugee presbytery commissioners. Hindered
since 1945 from communication and joint action, the northern
churches had fled to the south in the years of the war. By
1952, several hundred thousand Christians and more than
400 northern church workers had found their way to the
south. Should representatives of the northern churches now
be seated in the Assembly? Ten northern presbyteries and a
possible 67 delegates were involved in the decision.
Conservative forces in the church, eager to ‘‘guarantee
church control”, supported the seating of the northern
presbyteries. They ‘‘believed the northern presbyteries would
103 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 253. These sentiments seem to be reflected
also in the statement made by Hankuk Seminary three days prior to the
37th Assembly, on the occasion of the school’s tenth anniversary:
“(1) The 36th (continuation) Assembly’s illegal and unconstitutional
decision on the seminary should be reconsidered to remove from
Korean church history this unparalleled disgrace.
(2) We protest last year’s illegal action and state that the reply was
confused, so at this Assembly, the fact of the reconsideration should
be made clear and a sufficient reply given.
(3) If this Assembly, carried away by the influence of numbers, re-
presses or ignores free speech and thought, the Assembly should
let the Korean church judge for itself the responsible response to
such repression.
(4) If the Assembly continues this illegal action and ignores righteous
protests in order to maintain the peace of the church, some definite
action must be taken.
(5) Unless this is done, there will be an appeal to world opinion”
(Ibid.., pp. 255-256).
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
unconditionally join their side and be a great help to them,
and so favored it. The liberals felt that their joining the
Assembly would not necessarily mean their joining the
seminary fight and were delighted at the petition and ap-
proved it, thinking they could swing over about seventy
neutrals to their side”.104 With politicking from both con-
servative and liberal side, the 67 delegates were seated.
A tactical mistake had been committed by the Hankuk
Seminary supporters. The action only increased the pro-
General Assembly Seminary’s majority.
The Assembly now proceeded to deal with Hankuk Seminary
and its president, Dr. Kim Chai Choon. Hotly debated on
both sides, the motion was eventually passed, ordering the
Kyunggi Province Presbytery to suspend Dr. Kim from the
ministry.105 In this same connection, Dr. William Scott,
long a supporter of liberal causes, was asked to be recalled
to his homeland. In both cases, the basic reason for the
action was directly related to the two men’s rejection of the
infallibility of Scripture. The 1951 decision of the Assembly
regarding this doctrine was now concretely applied.
None of this was done without charges or counter-charges.
Dr. Kim’s liberal supporters ‘‘criticized the vagueness of
the condemnation and insisted that the theological views
of these men should be determined before they were con-
demned”. There were even conservatives, themselves not
yet altogether clear about the exact nature of Dr. Kim’s
position on the Scripture, who were sympathetic to this
criticism. After all, no trial in a formal sense seems to have
been held and the decision to suspend Dr. Kim and Dr. Scott
i was made without testimony of the accused. “The nervously
upset conservatives, for the sake of control, had tried by every
104 Ibid., pp. 256-257. Chun Sung Chun estimates that conservative
and liberal forces were about equally divided around this time. He
asserts “there were exactly 51 conservative representatives in the General
Assembly and only 46 liberal representatives to contest them at the
legal General Assembly in 1951” (Chun Sung Chun, “Schism and Unity
in the Protestant Churches of Korea”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, sub-
mitted to the Graduate School of Yale University, 1955, p. 202).
105 Lee Dae Yung, op. cit., pp. 78-79. Cf., to the contrary, H. Rhodes
and A. Campbell, op. cit., p. 269, who state simply that “the General
Assembly proceeded to suspend him from the ministry. . .”.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
179
means possible, to root out the liberal seminary”.106 Un-
fortunately, in their quest for judgment, they had ignored
Presbyterian order. The mistake was not to be forgotten
in the ensuing conflict.
The Assembly also took direct action against Hankuk
Seminary and its students. A motion not to use workers
who had come out of that institution was “passed by a large
majority”.107 The effect of the motion was to bar any
graduates of the seminary from ordination.
The body was not adjourned before a sign of things to
come took place. “In protest against what they felt to be the
illegal activities of the Assembly, the main body of the liberal
group present walked out of the Assembly. On May 2, 1952,
a statement was issued by the dissident group and, according
to Kim Yang Sun’s account, they “set about setting up a
separate denomination”.108
Now the situation rapidly began to deteriorate. The
Kyunggi Province Presbytery, in which Dr. Kim held his
membership, met on May 13, 1952. The largest in area and
membership, the presbytery had its geographical center in
Seoul, long the focus of liberal sentiments. In reaction to
the Assembly’s demand for the defrocking of Dr. Kim, the
presbytery attacked the illegality of the Assembly’s recent
actions against Kim and the Hankuk Seminary:
“The following three actions of the Assembly at Taegu,
April 29 — May 3, 1952, are not in accord with the Con-
stitution and are therefore illegal:
(1) At the 36th General Assembly in Taegu, in April,
1950, an action was taken on the seminary question
106 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., pp. 260, 261.
107 Ibid., p. 261. Cf. , to the contrary, G. T. Brown, op. cit., p. 217, who
states that “they ruled that graduates of the Hankuk Seminary must
attend the General Assembly’s institution for one year before ordination”.
Actually, the ruling was much stronger than Brown contends. The actual
motion was that “graduates of other seminaries, after a year of study in
the Assembly Seminary, may be licensed”. Then, after some fiery debate,
conservative forces succeeded in placing an interpretive rider onto the
original motion. Passed by majority vote, the explanatory motion ruled
that “The phrase, ‘other seminaries,’ means an orthodox seminary and
not a liberal one like the Chosun Seminary. . .”.
108 Kim Yang Sun, op. cit., p. 262.
180
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
which, after approval by each presbytery, would be
considered passed. Kyunggi Province Presbytery named
a seminary committee to work on this motion, . . . but
then, without any action by this presbytery, the
so-called Assembly Seminary was illegally set up.
(2) The refusal to use as ministers graduates of Chosun
Seminary, which up to now has been supported by the
Assembly, is completely illegal.
(3) It is illegal to expel the Rev. Kim Chai Choon, a
member of this presbytery, Jn defiance of the Con-
" stitution and Book of Discipline, and to so order this
presbytery without testimony of the accused. . .”.109
Sympathy movements began to form from those who
supported the Hankuk Seminary program for the church.
A national Presbyterian Convention in Defense of the Church
Constitution was held September 17 in Taegu. The 35
ministers and 12 elders present attacked again the illegality
of the Assembly’s decisions and issued worldwide appeals for
clarification. Insisting also that their intent was to support
those movements concerned with constructive counter-
measures, they emphasized their plans to maintain the unity
of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. Their goal was not
schism but justice.110
“After this convention, the conflict between the liberal
and conservative groups became daily more intense. (Four)
presbyteries broke away; many single churches seceded, and
quarrels arose over church buildings”.111
The 38th General Assembly opened in April, 1953, to
face still more conflict. Again, after fiery debate, the body
repeated its former declaration discharging Kim Chai Choon
from the ministry. Myung Shin Hong, long a conservative
leader in the church, and the Assembly moderator, an-
nounced that “the Rev Kim Chai Choon, having ignored
the decision of the 36th General Assembly and continuing
to hold to the fallibility of the Scripture, according to Chapter
6, Section 12 of the Book of Discipline, he is expelled from
109 Ibid., pp. 265-266.
110 The full statement of the Convention is recorded in Kim Yang Sun,
ibid., pp. 270-271.
111 Ibid., p. 268.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
181
the ministry and forbidden to exercise his office, in the name
of the Lord Jesus”.
It was the beginning of the end. On June 10, 1953, repre-
sentatives from nine presbyteries gathered in the auditorium
of Hankuk Seminary to open “the legal 38th General As-
sembly”. Still smarting from the rebukes of the past assem-
blies, fearful of what they felt to be the one-sided, minority
rule of fundamentalist influences from the west, yet still not
wanting to divide the church, the Assembly stated its in-
tentions:
“It is now some seventy years since the gospel of God
broke down the doors of our nation bringing the joy of
freedom to this nation, and during that time, by the
wisdom of the missionaries and the active faithfulness of
our scholars, the Korean Presbyterian Church has become
an influential church, giving glory to God and honor to
our teachers. But after liberation, in our Presbyterian
Church circles, a group standing for an extreme ‘fighting
fundamentalism’ appeared, and by the 1951 General
Assembly counted the delegates’ places, and being a one-
sided, self-righteous group, did not work with or make
friends with the membership, but formed their own group,
a ‘holy gathering,’ and led a lying and abusive quarrel.
So the Constitution and conscientious scruples were tram-
pled under foot and the majority’s established practice
became heavily oppressed. This group (which in 1929
split off from the American Presbyterian Church and in
all the United States and Canada barely numbers 300,000
members and is hardly worthy to be called a separate
denomination), after liberation, taking advantage of the
Korean Presbyterian Church emergency situation, brought
its influence to bear. We are of the normal Presbyterian
Church. We cannot entrust its world-wide traditions to
this small group or hand over our freedom in the gospel
to this extreme legalism or our freedom of conscience to
their illegal church control. . . .
“We are not schismatics. Rather, we wish only to restore
the spiritually, legally, morally self-destroyed General
Assembly, which has only the shell left remaining. Our
door is always open and there are still many churches and
teachers who sympathize but have not declared them-
selves. . . .
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WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
“This, now, is the statement of our convictions:
(a) We stand for the freedom of the gospel which is salva-
tion through the living Christ, opposing all Pharasaic
attitudes.
(b) We stand for firm doctrine and also for freedom of
conscience.
(c) We oppose slavishly-held views and encourage freedom
of thought.
(d) We oppose a narrow-mind’fed isolationism and urge
cooperation with Christians around the world in the
formation of a world church attitude. . .”.112
During the year that followed, presbyteries continued to
divide, congregations moving in one direction or another.
By the summer of 1954, “the legal 38th Assembly” had
approximately 568 churches from 12 presbyteries. 110 of
those congregations were from the Kyunggi Province Pres-
bytery. 291 ministers had joined the cause of the Hankuk
Seminary group, and 20,937 baptized members were listed
on their rolls. The climax came on June 10, 1954, when the
liberal group “decided to show clearly the fact that it had
set up a new denomination” by taking a new name.113 Ap-
proximately a week later, the United Church of Canada
Mission joined them in their efforts. The remaining large
missions continued to labor with the parent body.
4. Conclusions
1954 is a sad year in Korean Presbyterianism from anyone’s
point of view. Less than ten years before, there had been
one organized church in Korea. Now there were at least
three major ones. Within the memory of the church’s leaders,
there had been a time of firm biblical Christianity, rather
firmly held. Now two religions were competing for the
112 Ibid., pp. 281-284.
113 Ibid., pp. 287-288. The officially selected name, “Daehan Kidokyo
Changno Hwe”, is commonly westernized as “the Presbyterian Church
of the Republic of Korea”, in distinction from the larger body, called in
English simply “the Korean Presbyterian Church”. The group is also
popularly called the Kichang group.
KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
183
control of the church. One was Christianity. The other was
liberalism.
How was the issue to be joined? The conservative forces
insisted, as their counterparts had done in the similar struggle
in the west, that “it is highly undesirable that liberalism and
Christianity should continue to be propagated within the
bounds of the same organization”.114 However, there was
disagreement on the methodology by which that result could
be secured. Some sought to do it through a renewal of
Christian education and the exercise of biblical patterns of
discipline. Some sought to do it through administrative
handling of the key centers in dispute and, seemingly when
this failed, through judicial discipline. Within one conserva-
tive fold, charges and counter-charges were made. One side
was too narrow, the other side was too broad. One side was
too severe, the other side was too mediating. And then, to
add to the conflict, were the tensions of a divided land,
a war, and what some have felt to be a natural regionalistic
spirit that often pits Korean against Korean.”5 And, behind
all this, was the background of the western struggle reflected \j
in the mission bodies supporting one side or another in the
conflict.
On the other hand, those expressing liberal postures,
particularly with respect to the Bible, sought to avoid any
such separation. Presupposing the relative unimportance of
doctrinal issues, many could not understand the conservative’s
attention to what they felt to be trifling matters. The major
issue faced at this time was the infallibility of Scriptures. -/
And Kim Chai Choon, speaking for many in the church,
was perfectly willing to recognize that infallibility in terms of
the bounds of faith and doctrine. Where then, many thought,
could there be substantial differences if both sides admitted
such a common platform? The conservatives pleaded for
repentance. But the liberals felt there was nothing that
demanded repentance.
114 J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1956, p. 160.
115 Paul S. Crane, Korean Patterns, Holly Corp., Publishers, 1967,
pp. 93-97.
184
WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Then, to complicate the picture, the struggle often descended
into questions of law and technicalities, for which both sides
had to accept partial blame. Liberal pressure joined with
conservative moderatism to denounce the southern presbytery
that had been a prime mover in the struggle for reform. This
turned the presbytery to a strong defense of its “legality”
and may have dissipated its broader theological case to some
extent. It most certainly antagonized even conservative
friends from a wider circle. Then, on the other side, the
s.ame conservative maneuvering*' that eventually rejected the
Koryu group was turned against the Chosun Seminary sup-
porters and was denounced again (and with some justice)
as an illegal quest for power by the liberals. Neither con-
servative nor liberal hands were completely clean in the
bitter ten-year struggle.
The conflict cannot be fairly described in any comprehensive
sense as a failure. It had drawn attention to the basic issue
\ dividing conservative and liberal — one’s attitude toward
J the foundation of Christianity, the Bible. That issue would
remain. It had resulted in the formation of two churches,
both committed to a more or less conservative position re-
garding that issue. It had aroused the church to the dangers
latent in liberalism, and, through struggle, forced the church
to re-examine its own thinking in these areas.
But it had not finally resolved the issue. Future years
would see it returning in other forms, particularly, the ques-
tion of membership in the World Council of Churches as
it developed in the largest of the three denominations now
formed. Again, the question would be clouded and troubled
by many weaknesses on both sides. But it would be still
the same question. Should the church be broad enough to
include both conservative and liberal? Should honesty with
regard to doctrine and truth be relinquished for the sake of
harmony and peace? Unlike the results of the battle within
J American Presbyterianism, the Korean church has, by and
large, stood far more firmly for biblical answers.
Presbyterian General Assembly Theological Seminary,
Seoul, Korea
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