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06 MISSIONS AND CHURCHESmuch work the East China Mission should undertake, andhow much it can do in an intensive way and with someapproach, to adequacy, with a view to the concentrating olefforts and of the appropriations available to the undertaking of only so much work, in so many places as it is believedan be carried on satisfactorily and also carried on in sucha way as to stimulate the Chinese constituency to do itsshare of the common task.ftheThis effortto apply the Intensive Policy hasalreafl 1(y d t() several results. One of thesehas been the decision of the board to withdraw from its work in central China. For about twentyyears, the board has been conducting work in Hanyang, oneof the three cities of the Wuhan centre. When the workwas begun there, it was hoped and taken for granted thatthe board would be able to build up a mission in thatcentre with three or more main stations. After mostlengthy consideration involving four or five years of studyof the problem and the sending of four or five differentcommissions to Hanyang to report on the situation, the hoardreluctantly decided to withdraw from that centre altogether,not because there is not a splendid opportunity there for thebuilding up of a strong mission, but for the simple reasonthat the board did not believe that in justice to its otherwork both in China and in other countries, it could makeI he increase in staff and in work appropriations that wouldbe called for in the development ol a mission in such nnimportant place as that. Fortunately, some of the othermissions in that centre were willing and able to care for thework on which so much money and time had already beenspent.This, perhaps, is the most striking example ol theresults of the application of the Intensive 1olicy, but, boththe Fast and West China Missions have been driven to a,serious consideration ol the advisability ol withdrawingfrom territory already occupied in order to make moreeffective their work in the remaining stations. What theresults of such consideration may mean in the near future,it is too early to say. One thing is sure, a strong desire anddetermination has been developed among the missionaries to