11 OCTOBER 1919, Page 23

The hundred and fifteenth Report of the British and Foreign

Bale Society (Is.) as usual contains much curious and interesting information. It is significant of the rapid growth of Chinese immigration into Malaya that more Chinese than Japanese or Malay books were issued by the Society's agents in 1918. The Malaya, despite or because of their traditions, prefer the Gospels to the Old Testament. The number of languages in which portions of the Bible are printed runs to 517. Even Mezzofanti would have been baffled by the six •lately added to the list-- Nsenga, Kono, Jukun, Fula, Bhili, Halka—and hundreds more are quite as obscure as these. But nothing deters the missionary scholars of the Bible Society, whose work was never more needed than it is to-day.