A Purist Speaks

St John's College, Shanghai, from its Wikipedia Entry

As the great Protestant Episcopal Mission debate developed in 1883, a certain Mr Appleton expressed his umbrage at the time and effort being wasted in teaching the Chinese English, and furthermore, introducing the Chinese to the literary products of their own culture, specifically referring to the running of St. John’s College in Shanghai, under the management of William Jones Boone, the proposed candidate for the Bishopric:



There are others things I do seriously object to, if I, a novice, may be allowed an objection. In the college no less than five teachers are employed who are openly non-believers. What their belief is I do not know; but I do know that they are not confessing Christians. Let me be just, however. There are two, sides to the question. It is argued that a Chinaman is not educated unless he knows the Chinese classics, and, furthermore, that none but these heathen can properly teach these classics. 

Here a question is suggested; Are missions intended to teach the impotent Chinese classics? 
Once more: Does the study of English tend to promote the cause of Christianity among the natives? You will understand that this is a principal feature of St. John's College, though I believe this branch is partly self-supporting. Apropos of this subject I clip the following from a religious paper published in Shanghai:

These last (viz., English, and the three 'R's') are all useful in their way and are no doubt much appreciated by juvenile celestials who look, forward to one day entering foreign Hongs as office boys, shroffs or compradores. 

But for missionaries to engage in elementary instruction of this description is in our opinion from a Christian point of view practically so much time wasted… Let those Chinese who desire to see their sons become acquainted with the English language provide them with suitable teachers, and let missionaries look to their marching orders and confine themselves mainly to preaching the gospel. 

From the perspective of the dogmatic Mr Appleton, the role of the missionaries was very simple – it was a direct method of conversion of the Chinese to Christianity through their own language, and with no diversions into any other kind of cultural or linguistic side avenues.