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The belated formation of the China Bible House (1937): Nationalism and the indigenization of Protestantism in Republican China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2015

George Kam Wah Mak
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Abstract

This paper investigates the belated formation of the China Bible House, the first national Bible society in China, as a result of the interplay between the politics of foreign Bible societies and the indigenizing Chinese church in relation to rising nationalism during the Republican era. The challenge of Chinese nationalism to Christianity drove foreign Bible societies and Chinese Protestants to work towards the indigenization of Bible work. However, distrust and conflicts hindered foreign Bible societies' co-operation among themselves and also with Chinese Protestants. While Chinese church leaders saw the founding of a Chinese Bible society as a manifestation of the Chineseness of the Protestant church in China, they agreed with foreign Bible societies on the global identity of Bible work, which justified the latter's continuing presence in China. This understanding, together with the need for foreign financial support and expertise, explains why Sino-foreign co-operation existed in Bible work in China.

Keywords

American Bible SocietyBritish and Foreign Bible SocietyChina Bible HouseIndigenizationNational Bible Society of ScotlandNationalismProtestant ChristianityRepublican China
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , October 2015 , pp. 515 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2015 

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References

2 James Moulton Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954 (London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1965), 344–6, 354–61; Daniel K.T. Choi (Cai Jintu 蔡錦圖), “Zhongwen Shengjing de liuchuan” 中文聖經的流傳 (The Dissemination of the Chinese Bible), in Marshall Broomhall, Dao zai Shenzhou: Shengjing zai Zhongguo de fanyi yu liuchuan 道在神州: 聖經在中國的翻譯與流傳 (The Word in China: The Translation and Dissemination of the Bible in China), translated by Daniel K.T. Choi (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2000), 251–2. The English original was first published in 1934: Marshall Broomhall, The Bible in China (London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1934).

3 Minutes of the Committee, 7 October 1811, the Archives of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS Archives) BSA/B1/5. Materials from the BFBS's archives are used with the permission of the Bible Society's Library, Cambridge University Library. Many secondary sources, including the BFBS's publications, show that 1812 was the year. For example, “Historical notes”, British and Foreign Bible Society. Report of the China Agency for the Year Ending December 31st, 1932, BFBS Archives. See also D. MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China (1807–1907) Being the Centenary Conference Historical Volume (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1907), 553.

4 Li Xuande 力宣德 (George Carleton Lacy), “Meiguo Shengjing Hui zai Hua bai nian shiye de dashi” 美國聖經會在華百年事業的大勢 (A Hundred Years of the American Bible Society's Work in China), in Meihua Shengjing Hui bai nian jinian zhuankan 美華聖經會百年紀念專刊 (The Centennial of the American Bible Society in China: A Commemorative Volume) (Shanghai: American Bible Society, 1933), 29, Shanghai Municipal Archives U125-0-15; MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 576.

5 William C. Somerville, From Iona to Dunblane: Story of the National Bible Society of Scotland to 1948 (Edinburgh: National Bible Society of Scotland, 1948), 76.

6 MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 565; Henry Otis Dwight, The Centennial History of the American Bible Society (New York: Macmillan, 1916), 562, 566–7.

7 For an overview of the history of Chinese Protestant Bible translation, see Jost Oliver Zetzsche, The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version or The Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1999).

8 The Fifty-Ninth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1863), 177, BFBS Archives BSA/G1/1. Colportage here refers to Bible distribution through a corps of travelling Bible sellers known as colporteurs. Wylie was not the first BFBS agent in China: the BFBS appointed George T. Lay as its agent to China in 1836 to distribute Chinese Bibles on coastal voyages. After three years of service with slim prospects, Lay returned to England in 1839 because the BFBS decided not to extend his appointment. The Thirty-Second Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1836), lxiii–lxiv, BFBS Archives BSA/G1/1; MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 555; William Canton, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. 2 (London: John Murray, 1904), 391–3.

9 MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 579.

10 MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 568.

11 MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 568; Somerville, From Iona to Dunblane, 84–5. It was the NBSS's plan that Shanghai would “occupy much the same position as Hankow did prior to the sale of the Press”. Minutes of Western Committee, 10 March 1919, the Archives of the National Bible Society of Scotland (NBSS Archives). Materials from the archives of the NBSS are used with permission of the Scottish Bible Society, Edinburgh.

12 MacGillivray (ed.), A Century of Protestant Missions in China, 573, 579.

13 “Bible distribution in China 1889”, Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China, Held at Shanghai, May 7–20, 1890 (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890).

14 Choi, “Zhongwen Shengjing de liuchuan”, 258.

15 Ka-Che Yip, “China and Christianity: perspectives on missions, nationalism, and the state in the Republican period, 1912–1949”, in Brian Stanley (ed.), Missions, Nationalism and the End of Empire (Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2003), 133–4; Sumiko Yamamoto, History of Protestantism in China: The Indigenization of Christianity (Tokyo: Tōhō Gakkai, 2000), 116–21.

16 Yamamoto, History of Protestantism in China, 114.

17 Winfried Glüer, Christliche Theologie in China: T.C. Chao 1918–1956 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, 1979), 15.

18 John K. Fairbank, “Introduction”, in John K. Fairbank (ed.), The Missionary Enterprise in China and America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 3.

19 Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1929), 533.

20 Yip, “China and Christianity”, 135.

21 Paul Varg even argued that such a realization contributed to American missionaries' decision to support treaty revision in the late 1920s (“The missionary response to the Nationalist Revolution”, in Fairbank (ed.), The Missionary Enterprise in China and America, 311).

22 John Fitzgerald, Awakening China: Politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996), 14.

23 Yip Ka-che, Religion, Nationalism and Chinese Students: The Anti-Christian Movement of 1922–1927 (Bellingham, WA: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1980), 22–3.

24 F. Rawlinson, Helen Thoburn and D. MacGillivray (eds), The Chinese Church as Revealed in the National Christian Conference (Shanghai: Oriental Press, 1922), 30.

25 Ibid., 31.

26 Daniel H. Bays, “The growth of independent Christianity in China, 1900–1937”, in Daniel H. Bays (ed.), Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 308.

27 Rawlinson has even stated that “actually the Chinese representatives of the Churches outnumbered their Western colleagues who represented the Missions” (“Interpretative introduction”, Rawlinson et al. (eds), The Chinese Church as Revealed in the National Christian Conference, p. iv).

28 Bays, “The growth of independent Christianity in China”, 308.

29 Yip, Religion, Nationalism and Chinese Students, 72; Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 820.

30 In 1923, the ABS's sub-agency secretary in Canton was seriously ill and leaving the field, which led the organization to request the BFBS's permission for Burkwall to superintend its business through his BFBS office in Canton. Starting in 1924, the sub-agencies of the ABS and the BFBS in Canton were administered by Burkwall. This arrangement continued until Burkwall's retirement in 1937. Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 22 October 1923 and 31 March 1924, BFBS Archives BSA/C21/2; Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 29 October 1924, BFBS Archives BSA/C21/3; Janice E. Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VI-F-2. Distribution Abroad, 1901–1930: China, 1901–1930”, 88, 131, American Bible Society Archives (ABS Archives); One Hundred and Twenty-Second Report of the American Bible Society (1938), 211, ABS Archives. The archival materials of the ABS are used with permission of the American Bible Society Library and Archives, New York.

31 Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 29 June 1932, BFBS Archives BSA/C21/3; Luo Xiaochuan 羅嘯川, “Huanan Shengshu Hui baogao” 華南聖書會報告 (Report of the South China Bible Society), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 聖經公會報 (Bible Society Magazine) 14, 12.

32 Carleton Lacy, “Notes on November Meeting of Advisory Council”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1. Sheppard was the successor of G.H. Bondfield, who served as the BFBS's agent in China from 1895 to 1923. During his final years in the BFBS, the title of Bondfield's position was changed to “General Secretary for China”. In the BFBS's publications, Bondfield and his successors were sometimes simply called the BFBS's secretary in China. Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 337–38; The One Hundred and Fifteenth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1919), 180, BFBS Archives BSA/G1/1; The Bible in the World 1927, 59, BFBS Archives BSA/G1/3/3. In 1918, the ABS approved that the people in charge of its foreign agencies be designated “Agency Secretaries” instead of “Agents” - Minutes of Committee on Foreign Agencies, 1 November 1918, ABS Archives. The NBSS's foreign agents in China maintained a direct relationship with its Glasgow office and were expected to report directly to that office. However, the position “Secretary for China” or “China Secretary” was created by the NBSS in the early 1920s. One of the NBSS's agents in China was appointed to the position. Stationed in Shanghai, the Secretary for China was the de facto chief representative of the NBSS in China. In addition to overseeing the NBSS's East China agency, he was responsible for the making of contracts for purchasing and dispatching Bibles throughout China on behalf of the NBSS. He also handled grants from Glasgow and distributed them to other NBSS agencies in China. Janice E. Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2. Distribution Abroad, 1931–1966: China, 1931–1966”, 154–5, ABS Archives; Minutes of General Board of Directors, 3 March 1920 and 11 January 1937, NBSS Archives; Minutes of Western Committee, 14 July 1919 and 13 July 1925, NBSS Archives. For the sake of clarity, the holders of the aforementioned positions, who were the chief representatives of the Big Three in China, are collectively called “China secretaries” in this paper.

33 Carleton Lacy, “China matters: a talk by Rev. Dr. G. Carleton Lacy, Agency Secretary of China Agency (now at home on furlough) before the Committee on Foreign Agencies, Meeting in the Bible House, Oct. 25, 1928”, RG#27 China Mission, ABS Archives.

34 Lacy, “China matters”.

35 After Carleton Lacy joined the ABS's China agency, his very first survey of the field indicated that “there was much discontent” about the Big Three's “apparent rivalry and competition” (Lacy, “China matters”).

36 Letter from Carleton Lacy to Eric M. North, 6 November 1931, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 105.

37 “Memorandum on reorganization of Bible Society work in China”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/4.

38 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VI-F-2”, 97.

39 Minutes of Committee on Foreign Agencies, 29 May 1930, ABS Archives; Letter from G.A. Frank Knight to David McGavin, 16 September 1930, NBSS Archives.

40 Letter from G.A. Frank Knight to Walter Milward, 23 April 1931, NBSS Archives.

41 Somerville, From Iona to Dunblane, 79.

42 For details about the “without note or comment” principle, see Roger Steer, “‘Without note or comment’: yesterday, today, and tomorrow”, in Stephen K. Batalden, Kathleen Cann and John Dean (eds), Sowing the Word: The Cultural Impact of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1804–2004 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2004), 63–72.

43 Hubert W. Spillett, A Catalogue of Scriptures in the Languages of China and the Republic of China (London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1975), 46, 91, 93–5, 141.

44 Minutes of Editorial Sub-Committee, Special Meeting, 11 January 1911, BFBS Archives BSA/C17/1/37–38.

45 “Translational helps for gospel portions in Chinese issued by the B.F.B.S.”, BFBS Archives BSA/E3/5/2/1.

46 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VI-F-2”, 101.

47 Eric M. North, “ABS Historical Essay #16, V-A. Text and Translation: A. Principles and Problems, 1901–1930”, 13–6, ABS Archives.

48 Erroll Rhodes, “ABS Historical Essay #16, VI-G. Text and Translation: Asian Languages, 1931–66”, 15, ABS Archives.

49 “Memorandum on reorganization of Bible Society work in China”.

50 Letter from David McGavin to G.A. Frank Knight, 31 December 1931, NBSS Archives. McGavin succeeded Walter Milward as Secretary for China of the NBSS in 1937.

51 Letter from G.A. Frank Knight to David McGavin, 1 February 1932, NBSS Archives.

52 “Copy of letter written by Dr. Lacy of the China Agency to Dr. North under date of February, 23, 1931”, RG#27 China Mission, ABS Archives.

53 Until 1945, the two senior executive officers of the BFBS were known simply as “The Secretaries”. For the sake of clarity, the term “general secretaries”, which then came into use, is employed in this paper. Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 477.

54 Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 239, 247, 251–2.

55 Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 252.

56 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 101.

57 Minutes of General Board of Directors, 13 February 1933, NBSS Archives.

58 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VI-F-2”, 87.

59 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VI-F-2”, 88–91, 131.

60 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 90.

61 Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 343.

62 Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 343

63 Lacy, “China matters”.

64 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 118.

65 Letter from Carleton Lacy to Eric M. North, 7 August 1931, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 95; Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 29 June 1932, BFBS Archives BSA/C21/3; Minutes of General Board of Directors, 13 February 1933, NBSS Archives.

66 “Members of first Council, June 1933”, “Shanghai Advisory Council. Précis of Minutes of Meetings One to Eleven. June 1933–June 1935”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1.

67 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 101.

68 Letter from Carleton Lacy to Eric M. North, 2 June 1934, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 114.

69 Minutes of General Board of Directors, 13 February 1933, NBSS Archives.

70 “Fifth Meeting-Shanghai-April 13.1934”, “Shanghai Advisory Council. Précis of Minutes of Meetings One to Eleven. June 1933–June 1935”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1.

71 Letter from Eric M. North to Carleton Lacy, 7 May 1934, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 113.

72 Letter from E.S. Yu to J.R. Temple, 30 September 1936, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 141.

73 Liuliu Shaonian 六六少年, “Shengjing hui bai nian dahui huiyi yu ganxiang jianzheng” 聖經會百年大會回憶與感想見證 (An Eyewitness's Report and Opinions on the Centennial Meeting of the Bible Society), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 2, 14.

74 Li Zhiming 李志明, “Shengjing hui yu Zhongguo jiaohui” 聖經會與中國教會 (Bible Society and the Chinese Church), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 2, 10.

75 Carleton Lacy, “Relation of local or regional organizations to the older Bible societies”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1; British and Foreign Bible Society. Report of the China Agency for the Year Ending December 31st, 1932, 20, 63.

76 Rao Zhian 饒志安, “Wuhan Zhonghua Shengjing Hui baogao” 武漢中華聖經會報告 (Report of the China Bible Society in Wuhan), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 14, 17.

77 Wu Xiaogu 吳筱谷, “Shanghai shi Huadong Shengshu Hui baogao” 上海市華東聖書會報告 (Report of the East China Bible Society in Shanghai), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 14, 16–7.

78 “Third Meeting-Shanghai-Nov.24.1933”, and “Fifth Meeting-Shanghai-April 13.1934”, “Shanghai Advisory Council. Précis of Minutes of Meetings One to Eleven. June 1933–June 1935”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1.

79 “Gedi chuxi daibiao baogao shu” 各地出席代表報告書 (Reports of Delegates from Regional Bible Societies), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 14, 12–7.

80 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 120.

81 “Shengjing Xiehui Guwen Weiyuanhui zhi gedi xiezhu Shengshu hui shiye tuanti shu” 聖經協會顧問委員會致各地協助聖書會事業團體書 (Letter from the Advisory Council of the Bible Societies in China to the Local or Regional Bible Society Committees), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 6, 1–2, Shanghai Municipal Archives Y4-1-653.

82 “Notes on November Meeting of Advisory Council”.

83 Letter from Eric M. North to Carleton Lacy, 4 November 1935, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1. According to Sheppard, “the ‘basic principles’ of Bible Society work” were not specified in the resolutions of the London Conference 1932, but the basic principle which would most be emphasized was that “the Bible Society exists solely for the publication and circulation of the Scriptures without note or comment”. G.W. Sheppard, “Relation of local or regional organizations to the older Bible societies”, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 242.

84 “Shengjing Xiehui Guwen Weiyuanhui zhuxi Yu Ensi Mushi kaihuici jilu” 聖經協會顧問委員會主席俞恩嗣牧師開會詞記錄, Shengjing Gonghui Bao 14, 11. The English translation comes from “Statement by Rev. E.S. Yu, Chairman of Advisory Council of the Bible Societies in China”, BFBS Archives, BSA/D8/4/5/2/1.

85 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 131.

86 “Yi jiu san er nian gedi xintu juanzhu san da Shengjing hui zhengxinlu” 一九三二年各地信徒捐助三大聖經會徵信錄 (List of Donations from Christians in China to the Three Major Bible Societies for the Year 1932), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 2, 1–22. In 1932, one Haikwan tael was equivalent to 1 shilling 11.25 pence. Hsiao Liang-lin, China's Foreign Trade Statistics, 1864–1949 (Cambridge, MA: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1974), 192. The exchange rate between Haikwan tael and yuan was about 1.558, based on the rate given in Tomoko Shiroyama, China During the Great Depression: Market, State, and the World Economy, 1929–1937 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008), 30.

87 Minutes of General Board of Directors, 12 January 1931, 11 January 1932, and 9 January 1933, NBSS Archives.

88 Sheppard, “Relation of local or regional organizations to the older Bible societies”, 240.

89 Zhang Zixiang Taitai 張子翔太太 (Mrs Zhang Zixiang),  “Tianjin Shengjing fenhui baogao” 天津聖經分會報告 (Report of the Regional Bible Society in Tianjin), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 14, 14–5.

90 Zhang Zushen 張祖紳, “Xuanjiaohui yu bendi jiaohui” 宣教會與本地教會 (Missions and Indigenous Churches), Shengjing Gonghui Bao 13, 5.

91 Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 29 June 1932, BFBS Archives BSA/C21/3.

92 The One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1929), 132, BFBS Archives BSA/G1/1.

93 Carleton Lacy, “Private and unedited notes on the Conference on Unification of Bible Society Work in China held in Shanghai, January 3 and 4, 1936”, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/2/1.

94 “Notes on November Meeting of Advisory Council”.

95 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 141–6.

96 Minutes of General Board of Directors, 11 January 1937, NBSS Archives.

97 “Constitution and by-laws of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui”, NBSS Archives. The official constitution of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui was “Zhonghua Shengjing Hui xianzhang” 中華聖經會憲章. “Constitution and by-laws of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui” is an English translation but not the official English version, and the organization's “Guizhang xize”. The version of the constitution which the author consulted comes from the copy of “Zhonghua Shengjing Hui yuanqi ji xianzhang” 中華聖經會緣起及憲章 deposited in the archives of the NBSS.

98 “Bible Society Conference Shanghai, April 2–4, 1937”, RG#27 China Mission, ABS Archives.

99 “Constitution and by-laws of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui”.

100 The title “China Bible House” appeared in the organization's letterhead. For example, see letter from David McGavin to W.C. Somerville, 7 June 1947, NBSS Archives.

101 Minutes of Committee on Foreign Agencies, 30 September 1937, ABS Archives. Bible work in Manchuria was not integrated into the China Bible House when it was established in 1937, because Manchuria was controlled by the state of Manchukuo (Manzhouguo 滿洲國) at that time. Indeed, a separate agency for Manchuria under the supervision of the BFBS was established in 1936. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Bible work in Manchuria was conducted through that separate agency. After the war it united with the China Bible House. Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 354; One Hundred and Thirty-First Report of the American Bible Society (1947), 220, ABS Archives; One Hundred and Thirty-Second Report of the American Bible Society (1948), 222, 235, ABS Archives.

102 The English terms “Branch Societies”, “Board of Managers” and “National Representative Convention” occur in “Constitution and by-laws of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui”. The corresponding Chinese terms in “Zhonghua Shengjing Hui xianzhang” are Fenhui 分會, Dongshihui 董事會 and Quanguo Daibiao Dahui 全國代表大會.

103 While the term jingchang shouru 經常收入 (regular income) appears in the Chinese original of the tentative constitution, it was translated as “all funds raised” in “Constitution and by-laws of the Chung Hua Sheng Ching Hui”. Similarly, the term jinkuan 款 (income) appears in the Chinese minutes of the first national representative convention of the China Bible House, whereas it was translated as “regular income” in the English minutes. The author opts for “regular income”, given the primacy of the Chinese original of the tentative constitution over other aforementioned documents. “Zhonghua Shengjing Hui di yi jie quanguo daibiao dahui jilu” 中華聖經會第一屆全國代表大會紀錄 (Minutes of the First National Representative Convention of the China Bible House), RG#27 China Mission, ABS Archives; “Bible Society Conference Shanghai, April 2–4, 1937”; “Zhonghua Shengjing Hui yuanqi ji xianzhang”.

104 Letter from Eric M. North to Carleton Lacy, 4 November 1935.

105 Minutes of General Board of Directors, 11 May 1942 and 13 July 1942, NBSS Archives; One Hundred and Thirtieth Report of the American Bible Society (1946), 222, ABS Archives. In addition, George Henderson of the NBSS in Japanese-occupied Shanghai accepted the invitation from the executive committee of the China Bible House there in 1942 to unite his work with the China Bible House. However, Henderson was interned as an “enemy national” in 1943. Minutes of Committee on Foreign Agencies, 24 November 1942, ABS Archives; George Henderson and David McGavin, Bibles for China: An Account of Over 80 Years' Service by Two Bible Society Missionaries (Edinburgh: National Bible Society of Scotland, 1969), 13.

106 One Hundred and Thirty-First Report of the American Bible Society (1947), 219, ABS Archives.

107 Letter from David McGavin to William C. Somerville, 23 December 1948, NBSS Archives.

108 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 166, 171–2; Minutes of Committee on Foreign Agencies, 24 September 1942, ABS Archives; Letter from C.S. Miao to J.C.F. Robertson, 12 May 1944, BFBS Archives BSA/D8/4/5/3/1.

109 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 148, 155.

110 Minutes of China Sub-Committee, 27 April 1939, BFBS Archives BSA/C26/1.

111 Letter from Eric M. North to Carleton Lacy, 6 January 1939, in Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 155.

112 Minutes of the Retreat of the Executive Committee of the China Bible House, 10 September 1948, NBSS Archives.

113 Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 177–8.

114 Liu Jianping's 劉建平 recent monograph offers a well-documented study of the policy of the Communist Government on Christianity in the early years of the People's Republic of China (Liu Jianping, Hongqi xia de shizijia: Xin Zhongguo chengli chuqi Zhonggong dui Jidujiao Tianzhujiao de zhengce yanbian ji qi yingxiang (1949–1955) 紅旗下的十字架：新中國成立初期中共對基督教、天主教的政策演變及其影響 (1949–1955) [The Cross under the Red Flag: The Policy Changes of the Chinese Communist Party towards Protestantism and Catholicism and Its Impacts in the Early PRC (1949–1955)]. Hong Kong: Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2012).

115 One Hundred and Thirty-Fifth Report of the American Bible Society (1951), 268, ABS Archives. Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 178. Indeed, Ralph Mortensen, who represented the ABS on the staff of the China Bible House, remained in Shanghai until 1953. However, he was instructed not to enter the China Bible House's headquarters again. Subsequently, he was openly accused of being an agent of American imperialism. Finally, he was able to get into Hong Kong in January 1953. Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 178–9; Roe, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905–1954, 360. The use of the terms “Board of Directors” and “Lishihui” instead of “Board of Managers” and “Dongshihui” is attested in the China Bible House's official records and correspondence. For example, Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of the China Bible House, 14 March 1951, RG#27 China Mission, ABS Archives; Letter from Baen Lee to Ralph Mortensen, 12 October 1951, RG#7 Treasurers Papers, ABS Archives.

116 One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth Report of the American Bible Society (1952), 285–6, ABS Archives; Pearson, “ABS Historical Essay #15, VII-F-2”, 178–82.