RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942 - 46

W. A. REYNOLDS*

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the transport work of the Friends Ambulance Unit, China Convoy in West China during the four years 1942-45. This transport operation was only part of the work undertaken from 1941 to 1951 in medical, transport and rehabilitation work in China. The data on which the paper is based has been culled from records at Friends House, London and personal records. There are other (and possibly fuller) records in the archives of the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia, but it has not so far been practical to consult these. It is possible that when this is done a more detailed study can be undertaken.

The record here presented is not only of historical interest. It is intended to show what resources are required and what can be achieved in operating road transport in arduous conditions with little services or spares available from outside the organization and a minimum of imported fuel. This may be of value in planning and comparing transport systems in underdeveloped countries.

Background

The Friends Ambulance Unit had its origins in World War 1 when it was set up to provide alternative service to Quakers and others who, for reasons of conscience, refused to bear arms. It was re-established in 1939 for the same purpose and its members served as unpaid volunteers in various capacities in Finland and Norway, Egypt, Greece, with the Free French in Syria, in Ethiopia, India, France, as well as in China. After the war the work in Europe merged into relief and reconstruction and was largely taken over by the Friends Relief Service. A full account of the work is given in Davies. (Ref 1)

The FAU China Convoy was thus part of a larger organization but had distinguishing characteristics. Much of the financial support...

Mr. Reynolds is head of Department, Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Hong Kong,

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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572
313

teachings of the mission are Christian, the appearance of the eight-sided church and its surroundings are uncompromisingly Chinese, a gesture to the Buddhist pilgrim monks who found shelter there.

Karl Ludvig Reichelt was born in 1877 at Bardu, near Arendal, Norway. The son of a sea captain, who died when Karl Ludvig was a child, he trained as a teacher at Notodden. He taught for a short period in Telemark and became a lay preacher in his spare time before entering the Norwegian Missionary Society training college at Stavanger.

Shortly after his ordination, Reichelt sailed for China, where, after language study, he was appointed to Ninghsiang, Hunan, where the Norwegian Missionary Society was active. It was his experience at Ninghsiang that influenced the rest of his missionary career. The impressions gained while on a visit to the famous Weishan monastery remained with him for the rest of his life.

“I got a glimpse,” he wrote, “of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world charged with deep religious mysticism, a world full of tragedy and heart-rending but also marvellously rich in points of contact with sacred religious material.”

In response to what he felt to be a call from God, Reichelt decided to prepare for “special work among these people by the cultivation of friendly intercourse with the monks and enlightened lay people.”

From that time Reichelt devoted himself to the study of Far Eastern religions and became in time one of the greatest contemporary authorities on the subject.

Reichelt's influence grew and he was later appointed to the staff of a Lutheran Theological Seminary at Shekow, near Hankow. His ideas on a Christian-Buddhist relationship matured sufficiently for him to submit to his home board a proposal for special work among Buddhists in China. He received support from his own missionary society, from the Church of Sweden and the Danish Missionary Society. He also toured Germany, Finland and the
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