'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎544] (607/714)

544
PERSIA
reception at the hands of the Christians, from Mar Shimun down
wards. The establishment, whose headquarters are also at Urumiah,
under the charge of Canon Maclean, has grown so rapidly that
it now consists of a College for Priests and Deacons at Urumiah,
which, at the beginning of last year (1891), contained seventy
students, a High School for boys, with a membership of fifty, the
same for girls with twenty, and an establishment of the Sisters
of Bethany. There is also a High School at Superghan, eighteen
miles north-east of Urumiah, with forty scholars, another at Ardi-
shai with the same number, and seventy-two village schools in
Persia and Turkey combined, with a total scholars" list of nearly
fifteen hundred. There are five English clergymen engaged in the
work, one of whom, the Eev. W. Browne, under circumstances of
great peril and privation, spent the winter of 1887-1888 in Mar
Shimun's village of Kochannis, and was thereby instrumental in
preventing a massacre of the Christians by the Kurds. In 1889 the
income of the Mission was one thousand pounds from subscriptions
and nine hundred from donations.
How far the laudable attempt to enable this archaic and inte
resting Church, which, in spite of persecution, ignominy, and
Results of desertion, has resolutely clung to its ancient faith, to stand
Missions a g a i n upon its own legs, is likely to succeed, or how far
regeneration can be kept divorced from organic and doctrinal
change, it is as yet too early to determine. There are some who
cling to the belief that reunion between the Anglican and Syrian
Churches is possible. There are others, and they are perhaps the
wiser, who look to education and moral nurture as the true field of
missionary enterprise among these peoples, and who either care little
for, or have not much hope of, ecclesiastical communion or eccle
siastical reorganisation. One thing is certain, that immense benefit
has already resulted to the Christian populations both of Persia and
Turkey from the labours of the various missionary bodies, American,
French, and English. Persecution is much rarer ; disabilities have
been removed; education, for which the Nestorians, even in the
wild, mountainous districts, clamour with avidity, has rendered
them docile, law-abiding 3 and industrious. They are a warm-hearted
people, prone to hospitality, fond of festivity, and neither so preco
cious nor so crafty as the Armenians. On the other hand, they are
very quarrelsome amongst themselves, are avaricious of money, and