Chapter 74.
(Helen) During the winter of 1925 two more little Chinese baby girls were added to the Yeung Kong household. One day two old women came to the door with a baby—just skin and bone. It weighed only a few pounds but had all its teeth. They said the father had died and the baby had been born after the mother had been married off to another man who did not want it. The baby had been given to a woman who brought up babies as if they were kittens or dogs or pigs. She grew tired of this baby and gave it to the two old women to drown. They had heard that the foreigners in South Gate Street took babies. The servants, who were all Christians, said: “If you’ll only take it we’ll do all the work”. The poor little creature didn’t know how to smile and did not dare to cry and would hardly eat. She was named Tien Fook (“Heaven’s Blessing”).
Soon afterward a baby girl was born to a family just down the street. They were determined to get rid of it, so Mother took it (she and Daddy had been able to return to Yeung Kong by this time in early 1925). The child was called Be Booey (“Precious”).
There were now four little Chinese girls in the household, and that seemed enough. But three or four years afterward we were told of a baby whose mother was dying, and the father did not know how he could keep the baby. She was a particularly attractive baby three months old, and was a great joy to the family. That baby was Hei Mong“Happy Hope”— who grew up to be a most precious and beloved daughter, now a nurse in Canada.
(Letter to Somerville from Father, Yeung Kong, 29 May 1925) “We have been to Kwong Mei again and I have seen and heard for the first time a person talking to a mud idol. She was telling it about some person she hated and requesting it to put him out of the way, and the visage of the idol was such as to give one the impression that he would have much pleasure in granting such requests. She was diligently fanning it (I was going to say ‘him’) all the time and talking in a most insinuating manner. I listened for some time before she knew I was there, and when she turned around and I told her the thing could not hear, she only laughed, not in scorn, but as though she really knew it was so. He was only an attendant idol. His superior was seated between him and another, both standing. I shall never forget the picture—that ugly, senseless thing, his garments fluttering in the air from the fan and the woman also ugly and senseless and both of them vindictive—both idol and woman. This happened in a temple near a small market town. The shops and a few people are still there, but the business has all removed to another place about a quarter of a mile distant. We sang that hymn, ‘Nothing but the blood of Jesus’. In Chinese it says ‘Precious Blood’. I was led to a striking illustration or demonstration of the preciousness of living blood in general. I offered a 20 cent piece for one drop, with no takers; then 40 cents and then 100, but no one dared. How precious was His, Who poured forth all—and all for me, a poor vile sinner. I never realized more than I have of late how absolutely it must be of grace if one is to be saved.
“‘Were I with the trespass laden, Of a thousand worlds beside, Yet by that path I’d enter Heaven—
The Blood of the Lamb Who died.’”
It was not long before increasing unrest in the Yeung Kong area, indeed in much of South China, caused the family to move to Hong Kong again. They arrived there for the general strike. They stayed in the flat David had rented for them from Mr. Arrowsmith, Rector of St. Andrews, while he was away for the summer. They brought Hei Ling and Tien Chei and our faithful cook Yee Koo with them. The two little ones were left in Yeung Kong with the old nurse, She Tai.
(Letter to Helen from Mother, Hong Kong, 5 July 1925) “We are all so tired and it is so hot, we do not feel equal to much. Then the general nervous excitement rather tells on everyone. No one knows what is likely to come next. Shameen (Canton) is regularly besieged and no food is allowed to come into Hong Kong. Everyone is doing the best they can. Hardly any eating houses are open, but the Hong Kong Hotel, where the general manager and his wife are working in the kitchen. Some boys have refused to leave, but in some cases the men have left good positions, giving up their chance of a pension even. Yesterday the post office men walked out and the garbage men. The garbage cart came however this morning and mercifully we do not need a coolie here, there being proper water works. Yee Goo is very good with the children but it is hard to impress on her that cleanliness is next to godliness. Dorothy feels she is no use but I am thankful we have anyone, so many have not. Mr. Smith’s last servant went yesterday and poor Miss McGill is very weary with cooking and cleaning. They have no one at the Diocesan Girls’ School and 10 girls still there. A, good many of the missionaries at the St. George are going to Canada on the Empress of Canada next Thursday. They work their way over and it is cheaper to live in Canada than here, and nothing could be much more uncomfortable than the St. George; dirt and discomfort, no attendance, not even sheets for your bed and a tremendous bill to pay—$14.00 for Dorothy and me for the bare room for two days. But a person has to be housed. David is living at the office and catering for hielf, but he has to go on paying for his room.... Most of the servants would be glad to stay on in their places, but these Bolshevists intimidate them. Mr. Smith says they force them to remain in Canton at the point of the bayonet. Thousands have left here. The ferry is now being run by sailors and they have a great time getting it up to the wharf. The Navy men had just got in the way of it but had to go off to Canton. There are a number of gunboats there now. Today a demonstration was declared, but we have seen nothing of it. David is looking very large and fat and prosperous. He has gained 20 lbs. and shows it. On Wednesday there was a holiday so we 4 went to the H.K. Hotel and had a good dinner, meals having been very scant hitherto. After dinner we all felt revived and Daddy and Dorothy went back to the St. George and got the children and we took the motor bus to Repulse Bay. It was a lovely drive and then we sat on the beach, a beautiful sandy beach, and the children played but Tien Chei would not go into the water. All Thursday we were busy moving into the flat. We got coolies but then had to get passes for them and for Yee Goo and Chung Lai. On Friday we unpacked and settled and yesterday went shopping. Food is rather hard to get and very dear.... An American gunboat went to Yeung Kong to get the missing nuns, but no word can be got out yet, that is the gunboat has not returned. “I am glad we did not have to run away, but came out decently and in order, but I wish we had brought the medicines and the steamer rugs.”
(Helen) Mother and Daddy could not get back to Yeung Kong, so in the autumn they went up to Shanghai. Dorothy remained in Hong Kong with the two children. She moved into a room in Shamshuipo (Kowloon) at $8.00 a month Hong Kong money, and furnished it for $10.00. She obtained a position as teacher at the Diocesan Girls’ school.
While I was in Canada Aunt Dora died, in May, 1925. As I had gone there specially to be with her, there was no point in my staying a whole year, so I returned in the autumn. I came back on the same ship as the Arendt family; I stayed in Shanghai for a week or two, before going up to Peking to teach again at Pei Hua school for a few months.
Mother and Daddy moved into the Missionary Home in Shanghai. It was during this period that Mr. and Mrs. Stanley McDowell and Dr. Dashwood visited. I am afraid they were shocked by the dirt and did not enjoy their visit.
When we all got back to Hong Kong, I also got a position at the Diocesan School. Mother cared for the house and the two little girls. Tien Chei was especially devoted to her, and we used to say
Granny had a little kid,
Her hair was black as ink;
And everywhere that Granny went you’d find that little Chink.
Daddy found work among the sailors from the British naval ships, and they enjoyed long walks on the hills (Extracts from the diary of Helen Willis, Hong Kong)
2 Feb. 1926 “The Maritimes Customs has blocked the West River and they say Canton is practically in a state of siege. The strikers interfere with cargoes before they pass customs. No boats are going up and down. There is a strong anti-British feeling in Pakhoi, where a British lady missionary was not allowed to land. Education directors have been appointed to the different districts of Kwangtung and all private schools have or are to be closed.
26 Feb. 1926 “The blockade is lifted, for the strikers submitted.
1 Mar. 1926 “Daddy has definitely, and he says finally, decided to return to Canada April 2. A miserable lookout it seems and less and less chance of returning to Yeung Kong. They have been having a very trying time in Kong Moon. The pickets keep coming onto the Compound and threaten them; their servants are terrified and can get food with difficulty, the Asiatic Petroleum plant was seized but retaken; the men supplying coal to the gunboats were attacked but those strikers were soon settled by the captain.
6 Mar. 1926 “This afternoon we had a ‘peripatetic meeting’. We cut up quantities of salmon sandwiches and bread and jam and cakes. About four o’clock, the four Braga boys and Maud arrived, and D. E. Wood, and we went up into the hills a lovely walk by gorges and through pine woods. We returned and ate a great deal, and Mrs. Braga and Paul arrived. Mrs. Braga says that a bath in water in which fish have been washed and scaled will take away insects. David to tea and spent the evening.
9 Mar. 1926 “Daddy is full of the idea of having a mission here, getting Taam Heang Ch’i (one of the Yeung Kong Christians) down to carry it on in the shop downstairs. 11 Mar. 1926 “Peking and Tientsin quite cut off by fighting at Taku. In Canton they have taken over the Canton Hospital—at least forced the workers to strike.
17 Mar. 1926 “There seems tension in the north over the firing at Taku and talk of an ultimatum. All direct communication has been cut between Pakhoi and Hong Kong.
18 Mar 1926 “This evening Daddy has gone on board the Empress of Canada, which sails at daylight tomorrow. We went over with him this afternoon and put his things on board, but Mother was feeling poorly, so she and I came back. David came to tea and went over with Daddy. It has been raining all afternoon and evening and the roof still leaks like a sieve. Tien Chei announced that she would call one of her dolls Bluebell and the other Dinner bell. They are both so jealous. Dorothy remarked to Tien Chei: ‘You are such a nice soft person to spank’, and Hei Ling at once asked: ‘Aren’t I nice to spank too?’ The northern trouble is settled.
1 Apr. 1926 “Have just returned from seeing Mother off on the Empress of Russia, cabin 560. David came up to supper (pig’s feet) and took us down in a motor. The babies slept through, or rather Tien Chei did and Hei Ling was awake when we left. This afternoon we went down to the boat with the trunks and came back by a second hand book store, where we laid in seven stories for Mother to read.
9 Apr. 1926 “Letter from Slai Po (Yeung Kong) that people had tried to break into the house and had stolen from the garden, so they want to get Wan Chik Yi to guard the property.”