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(1935) Successful Mission Schools

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On July 16 about eighty bandits took thirty people captive at two villages twelve and thirty li from Kiaochow. The bandits had modern weapons and were equipped with horses. Police and government troops were alerted to the trouble by telephone. They rushed to the Ta Hang a former railway station west of Kiaochow. On July 17 the townspeople and missionaries heard cannon fire close to Kiaochow.

The bandits had been very active in the southern part of Kiaochow district since the spring. The tall sorghum crops provided them with protection. With this continued bandit harassment leaders of he villages were training one member of every well-to-do family among the farmers in weapons. Members of the less well-to-do would be trained in the fall. Rifles and ammunition were to be supplied by the villagers. Even students in middle schools and colleges were compelled to take a course in military tactics.

During the summer students from the five junior middle schools in Kaomi, Tsimo and Kiaochow finished their State examinations. Three of these were government and two were missionary schools. Of these five the Swedish-Chinese middle school came out on top. Among all middle schools in Shantung the Swedish-Chinese school was in fifth place among forty schools. Not bad.1

1935 was a time of floods in Shantung. An estimated 3000 refugees were in Kiaochow itself. Most were staying in temples in the city while the rest were in Wangtai and Lug Shan Wei. A great many of the refugees were women and children. The government tried to supply needed food.2 The mission did what they could to help with the refugees. Johan Alfred, Hellen and Oscar visited the mission station in Wangtai. Also, the government ordered both government and mission schools in Kiaochow to teach two hundred illiterates among the refugees. Kiaochow was ordered to supply four hundred men, two hundred wheelbarrows and two hundred donkeys to repair the dikes damaged by the flood along the Yellow River.

Egron Rinell Family Take Trans-Siberian Railroad

On March 28, 1935 Gerda, Egron and Lolli together with Ester Wahlin left for Sweden via the Trans-Siberian railroad. (See photos in album at train station in China). Among the people they visited in Sweden was their cousins the Jansson family.

Jansson and Rinell Families: Midsummer, Göteborg and Gråbo, Sweden, 1935

Johan Alfred, Hellen and Oscar in Wangtai

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Meal in Wangtai, 1935
Johan Alfred Rinell
Hellen Rinell
Oscar Rinell
1935
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The Hsien Tang Pu or local committees of the Kuomingtang in Shantung during this time appeared doomed to extinction. All subsidies for them from the Provincial government was being stopped. The local committee in Kiaochow was ordered to stop toward the middle of September.3

A Swedish-Chinese Baptist Conference occurred on October 9 in Wangtai.

Margaret Jewett - United States Citizen

On December 2 Margaret became an American citizen through the District Court of American in San Francisco. Her appearance was noted as:

  • complexion: fair
  • color of eyes: hazel
  • color of hair: brown
  • height: 5 feet, 8 inches
  • weight: 140 pounds
  • visible distinctive marks: none

Her Certificate of Citizenship13 Certificate Number 3982643 noted Margaret as living in Weaverville, California, but rather than giving a street name, a box number was given, Box 215.

Boat in Ice

Roy now nine years old91 This event is estimated to have occurred when Dollan was 9 years old, so Roy would have been about 11. Info from phone conversation between LJH and Dollan on August 30, 2008. had a new sailboat, but now where to sail it, so Roy and Dollan decided to build an ocean. Thinking their parents would not approve they waited until the parents were away [or occupied with other things]. Out in the yard outside the kitchen window was a slight depression. With sand from the sandbox they created a dike to hold back the waters on one side. Walking to the well they lowered the bucket, cranked it back up, and each holding on to the bucket's [rope?] they carried multiple buckets to their ocean. After some time and a lot of work the ocean was a few inches deep, and measured about 3 by 3 meters. . Roy joyfully sailed his boat.

During the night the temperature dropped. The next morning Roy and Dollan found the ocean frozen over with Roy's boat boat stuck in the ice. Roy walked on to the ice to retrieve his boat, slipped and fell. Pain shot up his arm from his wrist.

"Du måste inte något att säga något till mamaen och fader." "You must not say anything to mama and papa."

"Jag skar något att säga ingenting." "I will not say anything."

During the next several hours the pain grew worse and worse. Roy did his best not to be noticed, but eventually started holding his wrist, so it wouldn't dangle in pain by his side.

"OK. What is wrong with your arm," his mother asked.

Roy confessed. His mother found a cloth, folded it into a triangle, put his arm into the sling, tied the corners behind his neck, and put a large safety pin affixed to the corner to help raise his elbow. Later they found he had broken his wrist.

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Footnotes

  1. "Swedish Mission's success: Kiaochow news: bandit activities, conscription,in embryo: examination results." Tsingtao News , July 21, 1935.

  2. "Tang Pu Bureaux (Kuomintang) in this province doomed lacking subsidy." Tsingtao Times , September 6, 1935.

  3. K'm'tang bureau closes at Kiaochow and plan for dyke repair made." Tsingtao Times , September 12, 1935.

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Foreign Devils: A Swedish Family in China 1894 to 1951
© 2012-14 Lennart Holmquist
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Updated: 10-Feb-2017

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