FROM SOMEWHERE EAST OF SUEZ
Following is part of a letter, recently received by the Dartmouth Christian Association:
"Insein, Burma, Dec. 3, 1921.
"My next furlough to U. S. is not due till 1926. As far as I know, there are no other Dartmouth men in this part of India.
"Political, social and economic conditions in this part of the world are very much like a boiling pot just now. The flashing of new ideas brought about by the war has lighted a hitherto sleeping people and there is unrest in the art. India is demanding Home Rule and complete autonomy. She is about as ready for it as a sixteen-year-old boy is ready to be President of U. S., but she wants it as bad as any youngster wants to manage his father and run his own auto. The nationalist movement has much that is good in it and many of its leaders are practising (in their own way) the self-denial, loyalty to their own ideals and such things that we have taught them in mission schools, but they still need guidance and direction. Our problem just now is to keep on the right side of them and save their movement from extravagant and unwise manifestations.
"Religiously, it is a time of questioning. The old religions are attempting to revise themselves by combining religion and patriotism. For instance, in Burma, the Buddhists are shouting that the one who leaves their religion to become a Christian is unpatriotic. But, with the incoming of new ideas, the old customs are being left behind and the ignorant, lazy priesthood are becoming discredited, as for example, last month over 200 Buddhist priests raised a great row at a big religious festival at the holiest shrine in Burma, the big Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Ragoon, and beat up the manager of a theater that was running there because he would not give them all free admission to his show. And this at about 1 A. M., when the Buddhist law requires that no monk shall be out of his monastary after sunset!
"The newly inaugurated Reform Government here in India is going to give the Franchise to a large number of people who have not yet learned the A B C of Democracy. Our community of native Christians, numbering about 250,000, will have special representation in the legislatures. I feel that one of the greatest tasks that lies before us is to give practical instruction in democracy. lam planning to introduce courses in this theological seminary next year which will give the one hundred and twenty young men here some practical training along these lines, as well as the spiritual and religious training which we are already imparting.
"This Karen Seminary is one of the oldest Christian theological schools in the Orient. It is now in its 77th year. It supplies the pastors and teachers for the 800 odd Karen churches in Burma, as well as sending some of its graduates across the border to the tribes of Siam and Yunnan in the south of China. We are to graduate a class of forty-two men on February 1.
"You ask how you can help us in our work. I believe you already have an organized Dartmouth work in Turkey and so probably you would not want to send us contributions. In fact, we hardly need them, for the largest part of our support is from our own Karen churches, who gave last year 4,900 rupees ($1,666.00).
"But we should be glad to have you remember us once in a while by sending us some interesting copies of The Dartmouth or old copies of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, or other current publications that will help us to keep in touch with the old college. We sometimes get hungry for news from you. Don't buy new copies of these papers. They will mean just as much to us if you have read them first. It will not take from them, but only add to them.
"Greetings to all the Men of Dartmouth! How we love them! Thank God for the dear old college. May she ever grow greater in those things that make for strong Christian manhood."
