第2巻第3章 中国(承前)
![]() けれども,長沙の人々の好意を無にしないよう私のベストを尽くすために,その24時間の間に,講演を4回,晩餐後のスピーチを2回,午餐のあとのスピーチを1回行なった。長沙には近代的なホテルがなかった。そこで,たいへん親切にも,宣教師たちが私たちを泊めることを申し出てくれたが,しかし彼らは,ドーラはある宣教師グループと,また私は他の宣教師グループと一緒に泊るということを明確にした。(注:結婚していないものを同宿させられないということだと思われる。)それで私たちは,彼らのその招待を断わるのが一番いいと考え,中国の現地ホテルに泊った。そのホテルでの経験はかならずしも楽しいものではなかった。南京虫の大群が夜通しベットをつたって歩いたのである。 |
Our time in Shanghai was spent in seeing endless people, Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Korean, as well as Chinese. In general the various people who came to see us were not on speaking terms with each other; for instance, there could be no social relations between the Japanese and the Korean Christians who had been exiled for bomb-throwing. (In Korea at that a time a Christian was practically synonymous with a bomb-thrower.) So we had to put our guests at separate tables in the public room, and move round from table to table throughout the day. We had also to attend enormous banquet, at which various Chinese made after dinner speeches in the best English style, with exactly the type of joke which is demanded of such an occasion. It was our first experience of the Chinese, and we were somewhat surpised by their wit and fluency. I had not realised until then that a civilised Chinese is the most civilised person in the world. Sun Yat-sen invited me to dinner, but to my lasting regret the evening he suggested was after my departure, and I had to refuse. Shortly after this he went to Canton to inaugurate the nationalist movement which afterwards conquered the whole country, and as I was unable to go to Canton, I never met him. ![]() However, in order to do my best to conciliate the people of Changsha, I gave four lectures, two after-dinner speeches, and an after-lunch speech, during the twenty-four hours. Changsha was a place without modern hotels, and the missionaries very kindly offered to put us up, but they made it clear that Dora was to stay with one set of missionaries, and I with another. We therefore thought it best to decline their invitation, and stayed at a Chinese hotel. The experience was not altogether pleasant. Armies of bugs walked across the bed all through the night. |