Islam is avowedly the state religion, and the Constitution will be operative only so far as it does not conflict with Mohammedan law and custom. Missionaries were once regarded much as foreign consuls. But the spiritual nature of their work is now understood and the government no longer feels obliged to strive for their protection. Nor does the government protect in any special way the communities under their charge. No doubt this also is of God. The Gospel of the Cross of Christ must be presented in the spirit of peace and without worldly power. From this point of view opposition may be interpreted in terms of sacrifice.

Indeed, there is reason to take heart and thank God. In a list of questions submitted to experienced missionaries in Constantinople, Salonica, Van, Marash, Aintab, Sidon and Beirut I closed by asking, "On the whole, have you reason to feel encouraged by the present attitude of the Ottoman government towards Christian missions?" The answer was unanimously affirmative although touched with the shadow of approaching trial. Assuredly this gives hope of a glorious consummation to a very dark part of the world's history.

XII

CONDITIONS IN CENTRAL ASIA

COL. G. WINGATE, C. I. E., LONDON

W

HEN we were children, in spite of childish griefs for which we regarded Virgil as wholly responsible, there was no more captivating story to us than the siege of Troy. How we delighted in the Greek stratagem of the wooden horse which brought the long siege to an end, and trembled with fears for the accomplishment of the maneuvre when we read of the wise old priest Laocoön who "feared the Greeks even bringing gifts," and begged his fellow Trojans, triumphantly dragging into their city the innocent-looking horse, to leave it outside their walls. We rejoiced when Ulysses' clever scheme was crowned with success, and wished we had been the Lesser Ajax or some other of the hundred heroes who climbed down out of the horse by night and opened the gates of the city to the waiting Greeks outside.

But we have lived to have more sympathy with the suspicions of the sagacious old priest, and there is a curious similarity to the ancient legend, which we would fain shut our eyes to, in this question of Christian missions to non-Christian countries. The West again confronts the East, and "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" seems borne to our ears, this time from the mouths of non-Christian rulers and very specially of the priests and mullas of those rulers who are apt to regard Christian missionary enterprise as a modern Wooden Horse which, however innocent it looks, will introduce foreign ele

ments into their fastnesses and in due course throw open the gates to that enemy of whom it has been all the while the emissary.

It is necessary to meet and remove this prejudice in the minds of native rulers, for in too many well-founded instances the establishment and progress of Christian missions has seemed to native rulers the precursor of political agitation and local discontent, and finally the interference of Christian governments on behalf of the missionary and mission property resulting in the loss or restriction of power or territory to the native state.

While missionaries may see and find advantages in government recognition and protection, they must also remember that in every contract there are two contracting parties and that if they receive practical benefits from their own government, this confers a right to government to look for a corresponding return. The missionary becomes all unwittingly the government agent to extend its sphere of influence, which may be followed by demands for "rectification of frontier"; for a government is often unwillingly forced to this procedure by purely political considerations. Much as the missionary may regret these consequences it is then impossible for him to detach himself from the obligations of the position, which often result in making him appear in the eyes of the people among whom he is working as an agent of the foreign power.

Many missionaries have already laboured to remove this reproach, and if we can in Central Asia dissociate our presentation of the claims of Christ from any national colouring, we shall not find so much reluctance on the part of either Mohammedan or Buddhist to listen to what we have to say. They will recognize that it is a question of the soul, and that it concerns the appeal of God to the conscience.

In considering the attitude of Moslem governments to Christian missions, our remarks will have reference chiefly to the attitude of Central Asian governments, and specially of Afghanistan.

We shall be led to wrong conclusions if we think of Afghanistan only as an isolated Moslem government with, at the most, a population of five million people. Its significance is great because of its geographical position in the heart of Central Asia, which subjects it to the reflex influence of a far-reaching Mohammedan population on all sides. It is the core and homogeneous centre of a great extended area of contiguous countries, Moslem in belief, whether or not under influences or governments of other nationalities, Turkestan, Persia, Baluchistan, Chitral, Kashmir, etc., so that Afghanistan represents what is to them the ideal spectacle of an orthodox Moslem ruler, free and independent ruling over Moslem subjects, standing as a model for other countries. It must be remembered that at present "No power has any right to interfere in its administration, although it is obvious that certain contingencies might alter its position in this respect. The government of Afghanistan national debt, nor any war indemnity, and the Emir is not hampered by any capitulations with foreign governments." To the faithful, Afghanistan has much the same theological position and prestige in the East as Turkey in the West, and the Emir of Afghanistan is supported in the aloofness of his relations with Christian rulers, whether England on the one hand or Russia on the other, by the unanimous sentiment of races that people the vast areas of Central Asia surrounding his country. Further, the universal approval of his co-religionists in countries that are under foreign rule tends to strengthen him in the continuance of this policy. The Mohammedan centres on the east-Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan-may

no