Mission Correspondence

I have much of my father's official correspondence from the mission -- he was Chief Missionary in the Gilbert Islands. The London Missionary Society caused him endless grief -- and looking at the correspondence, it seems clear why. The Missionary Society had little idea what he was doing, or what the conditions were: travelling week by week from village to village to strengthen the Church, in primitive conditions. He, on the other hand, wrote to them about the business of the Society: say, ageing water supplies or students' bunks. What he was really doing appeared in other, often local or personal documents. OBSERVATION: He did an impressive work, and his name is still revered among the people. He told me that, when he met with the Society afterwards for a debriefing session, the General Secretary introduced him to the Board as their Chief Missionary from the Gilbert Islands. A Board member asked, "Where's that?"