Aggressive Nationalism vs Global Mission: German Missionary Societies in Hong Kong During the First World War

Abstract

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 caused severe interruptions to the evangelical work of German missions in Hong Kong. Being labelled as enemy missions, the Basel Mission, the Rhenish Mission, the Berlin Ladies Mission for China and the Hildesheim Mission for the Blind saw their missionaries expelled and their property placed in the custody of the colonial government. Although the War ended in 1919, a discriminative policy was introduced by the British Government to stop the return of German missions to their former mission fields within the British territories. Based on the government records and mission archive, this essay reviews the actions undertaken by Hong Kong colonial officials — with the help of British missionaries — in implementing this policy and the implications to the churches, the foundling house and the blind girl school associated with the four German missions. The author argues that the delay of the return of German missions to Hong Kong was associated with the attempts of the colonial government and the British missions in acquiring their land and property in the colony.