The Widow's Quest

Book excerpt: "Mrs. Clara Byers, the pregnant mother of four, was widowed in June 1924 when her husband George, a Presbyterian missionary, was murdered, in a botched kidnapping, at Kachek, in the interior of Hainan Island, off the south coast of China. The murder set off an extraterritoriality incident which quickly became a conundrum in which American, British, and Chinese officials; Mrs. Byers, her friends, and relatives; and church organizations in China and America all tried to decide how to enforce American treaty rights, protect mission interests, and provide support for the Byers family. Based on American and British consular archives and those of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and members of the Hainan mission, this is the story of how Mrs. Byers and her ally, Mrs. Mabel Roys, the sole woman on the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (BFM), successfully got the government and their church to take action."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved