LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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226 MISSIONARY WORK IN JAPAN. n.nd explained to him all about our school, -how it started and how it is sustained. His reply was, 'You have a right to exist and also to employ foreign teach­ers if you use your own fund instead of that of the Board. The Foreign Office objects to your depend­ing upon the American Board altogether.' I told him this annual aid was a free gift, and that we made a good use of it. Is it forbidden us to receive any aid from a foreign nation? If so, the law ought also to prohibit us from aiding other nations. Did not our people send an immense quantity of rice last year to a famishing district in China, and can we not also re­ceive some aid for our moral and intellectual famine? This argument was just enough to bring him around to our side, and through his kindness I obtained the extension of Mr. Learned's passport for five years. "When I applied this summer for Dr. Gordon's passport there was a sharp discussion between Mr. Mori and the minister. I must inform you why the latter is so bitter against us. He is a hater of Chris­tianity. He does not clearly discriminate between us and some native merchants who keep shops open for foreigners outside the concessions in Tokyo, by using their own names although they are hired and paid by the foreigners. Such is strictly forbidden by the law of the empire, yet is done by shrewd natives. The minister ranks us with these merchants, and is ready at any time to drive us out from Kyoto. But Mr. Mori stood up for us nobly, and persuaded him to grant our application. At the same time he sent me word by a friend to be cautious, and ad vised me to raise a perma­nent fund at once. For if it be proved that our school is sustained by the Board, I shall be heavily punished, our WOTS will be suspended, we shall be driven out of

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