China is a large country to be sure, but after 50 years of missionary service at the center of the Yangtze River in Yichang, Mary Emelia Moore – one of the most universally respected women – had encountered plenty of people, including some of the most influential.
Warlord armies fought fierce battles there. The Japanese dropped its first mass-scale chemical bombs in Yichang. Mary Emelia Moore reckoned that by 1938, two million refugees had passed through Yichang on the way to the west. She served them faithfully with dedicated support from New Zealand, her home country. By 1939, she joined the migration west, moving to Chengdu to reunite with her two adopted daughters – my grandmother Isobel and her sister Clara.
Moore and her daughters took up residence on Qinglong Road, at the Friends Quaker Mission in one of the Davidson brother’s original homes. A link to the homes can be found here.
At age 76, it should come as no surprise, that Moore would strike up a friendship of mutual respect with the Chinese General with 50 years of service, known as the “Christian General.”
Letter from Moore printed in New Zealand Evening Star, Issue 25713, 9 February 1946
November 1945
“Two days ago I had a most interesting and delightful experience. Marshall Feng…, learning that I was in Kiang Beh [Chongqing], sent deputies over to invite me to visit him at a luncheon party of a club composed of young men belonging to the larger body of the Y.M.C.A…In this [Li Ta Club], he is father, beloved, but the quietness, the order, the alacrity with which any wish expressed to any individual was responded to, bespeak the disciplinarian. Several invited guests were present – fine Chinese, each in some special work of Church or State – and myself.“
“Marshall Feng is among ordinary men as Saul of Israel was among his subjects. He makes everyone look small beside him, and, though stout, has not developed an outrageous waistline. He is noted for his plain living both at the table and in the matter of dress. He, however, has a wonderful social gift. His face radiates benevolence and his tones resound with kindness. He loves people, and is ever at the call of anyone in real need. Among all classes he is most popular. Advertise a meeting at which he is to speak or preach, and the hall is packed with an attentive audience.”
“The marshal is not called to be an evangelist, but he is none the less a wonderful power for good not only in the Church but in society in general, as far as I know, he practices what he preaches. While I was in Chengdu he and his staff were for three weeks my guests, and I never have had more thoughtful or considerate guests – nor guests who so cheerfully did with almost nothing in the way of furnishings, for I was an evacuee, and most of our rooms were very bare of furniture. He brought his own enormous camp bed, and I supplied a small table, a chair, and a Chinese wash stand. To add to his kindness, at the luncheon he presented me with a little poem, recording a few events in my life and the names of principal guests, and also a copy of his biography…I count it a privilege to have been his guest and to have entertained him as my guest….
Image of Feng from wikipedia and image of Moore is a family photograph.