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 DRONES
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®
 DRONES
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®

SARAH KREPS
Cornell University

1
 3
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© Oxford University Press 2016

First Edition published in 2016

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kreps, Sarah E. (Sarah Elizabeth), author.
Title: Drones : what everyone needs to know / Sarah Kreps.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]
Identifiers: LCCN 2015040590| ISBN 978–0–19–023534–5 (hardcover: alk. paper) |
ISBN 978–0–19–023535–2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Drone aircraft. | Air warfare.
Classification: LCC UG1242.D7 K73 2016 | DDC 623.74/69—dc23 LC record
available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040590

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Courier Press, USA
 CONTENTS

FOREWORD VII

1 Introduction 1

2 Armed Drone Technology 7

3 Proliferation of Drones to Other Countries 59

4 Drones for the Ground and Sea 82

5 Noncombat Technology 106

6 The Future of Drones: Nano, Autonomous

Systems, and Science Fiction 145

NOTES 165
INDEX 187
 FOREWORD

My first encounter with the idea of a drone came in the days

after the 9/​11 terrorist attacks. I was a lieutenant in the E-​3
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) office outside
Boston and worked on advanced programs related to the E-​3
and other intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sys-
tems. I recall my boss telling me that our office had received
a “snowflake” originating with the Pentagon. Then-​Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was famous for issuing snow-
flakes, a system of communication between the Secretary and
the many employees of DoD. This particular snowflake was
essentially an all-​hands-​on-​deck call for our community to
think through ways to retrofit as many Predators as possible
with Hellfire missiles. Predators had been used for surveil-
lance in the Balkans, but there had been reservations about
arming them with missiles. After 9/​11, the “gloves came off”
and there was no question about whether the military would
now make the decision to arm Predators. The question was
how to do it quickly so they could be deployed to the field.
The acquisitions community, of which I was a member, was
not known for expediency. The Secretary, who was known for
urging a leaner and meaner system, was trying to speed things
up. He succeeded. The rest of the story is somewhat famil-
iar. The Air Force, along with the CIA, deployed Predators
viii Foreword

to who reportedly survived the strike, in October 2001, with

the first strike likely a CIA strike of the Taliban’s number-​
three leader, Mullah Akhund, on November 8, 2001.1
After that initial introduction to unmanned aerial vehicles,
often referred to as drones, I did not follow their employment
much until 2011. By then I was a professor at Cornell University,
having left the Air Force in 2003 to pursue a PhD that focused
on issues of international security and defense policy. By that
point, the wartime use of drones had not only spilled over into
non-​battlefield settings such as Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen
but had also escalated considerably. A US counterterrorism
official reported that there had been about 305 drone strikes
just in Pakistan between 2004 and 2011, with an estimated
2,050 individuals killed, of whom about 392 were civilians.
As a former military officer-turned political scientist, I could
see the operational arguments in favor of drones but was con-
cerned about the strategic and political ramifications. Drones,
armed with precision weapons and able to loiter over targets,
might actually be better positioned to minimize unintentional
damage than alternatives such as local Pakistani air forces, for
example, or ground troops. But because they imposed no risk
to the country that used them, they could also create a moral
hazard, being used in ways, times, and places that might not
otherwise be used were these actors to use the caution that
goes along with having skin in the game with manned aircraft
or ground troops. Plus, from studying theories of democratic
checks in wartime, I had a hunch that the populace, which
would see few obvious burdens of a technology that intro-
duced no casualties, would not be itching to end conflicts in
which drones were involved. This could mean wars without
limits in time or space.
I set out to study the politics, law, and ethics of drones. My
first foray was with John Kaag, a colleague who studies phi-
losophy. We wrote an academic article, several op-​eds, and a
book on the topic. The topic of drones did not seem to be going
anywhere and I continued several other projects involving
 Foreword ix

public opinion and drones. It turns out Americans think they

love drones but it is in part because of how strikes and casual-
ties are portrayed in media accounts, focusing on contentious
assumptions such as the targets being militants rather than
the possibility that these targets are civilians. Once individu-
als know of the possibility of civilian casualties, they are much
more reticent in their support.
In 2013–​2014, I was a resident fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations, where I turned to more policy-​oriented questions.
In particular, as a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, I was inter-
ested in drone proliferation, which is governed by the Missile
Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the 1986 agreement that
guided potential nuclear delivery vehicles, including drones.
My colleague Micah Zenko and I worked on several articles
for both Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy as well as a Council
Special Report, Limiting Armed Drone Proliferation. I then had
the pleasure of hosting several Council on Foreign Relations
roundtables on the topic everywhere from Dallas to Boston to
New York to Tokyo, where I had the benefit of hearing a range
of feedback on the topic.
It was around this time that Dave McBride, whom I had
worked with on my first book, Coalitions of Convenience,
approached me about writing the Drones: What Everyone Needs
to Know book. He is a wonderful person to work with so I was
tempted. Plus, it seemed like it was something I could write
in my sleep after working on the topic for years. Wrong. The
topic of drones is a moving target. It has evolved considerably
in the last several years, as it surely will in the coming years.
But it is endlessly fascinating and I hope the readers of this
book agree.
In my writing of the book, I must obviously thank Dave for
giving me the opportunity to write it, and to the various CFR
Roundtables where I received feedback on the topic of drones.
I would also like to thank Amy Zegart for inviting me to pres-
ent my research at Stanford’s Center for International Security
and Cooperation and again as a Summer Security fellow at
x Foreword

the Hoover Institution. I would also like to thank Frank Gavin

for the invitation to present at the LBJ School of Government
at UT-​Austin and John Mearsheimer and Robert Pape for the
opportunity to present at the University of Chicago’s Program
on International Security Policy.
I would also like to thank many individuals who collabo-
rated on work related to this book, including John Kaag, Geoff
Wallace, and Micah Zenko, as well as Neil Chitrao, Christian
Covington, Shaan Franchi, and Jesse Saldana for valuable
assistance in researching and editing the manuscript. As ever,
I thank my family for being endlessly patient and supportive.
 DRONES
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®
 1
INTRODUCTION

Not a day goes by without another spectacular story

about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as
drones: Amazon announces it will deliver packages via drones,
the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) worries that
drones given as holiday gifts will become safety hazards as
they take to the skies, the New Zealand government releases a
request for proposals to use drones to combat pests and disease
on the ground, and Google renames itself Alphabet, whose
marquee innovation is its future drone delivery service. These
stories have a way of captivating the mind. They bring together
the world of science fiction and 21st-​century consumer culture
that values instant gratification and personalized service. Yet
the commonplace, and now barely newsworthy, stories remain
about American drones killing suspected militants in Pakistan.
Drones, both for the civilian and military applications, are
clearly here to stay. The aerospace analyst Teal Group proj-
ects that spending on unmanned systems and sensors will
increase 73% in the next decade, totaling $89 billion.1 Much of
that increase is on the military side, where the United States
but increasingly also other countries are investing in drones.
Drones are also in high demand by civilians with both recre-
ational and commercial interests. By some estimates, the num-
ber of drones in US airspace could reach 30,000 by 2020.2 Those
drones will operate in the service of law enforcement, border
patrol, real estate photography, crop inspections, and other
tasks that are too “dirty, dull, or dangerous” for humans yet
well-​suited to drones.
2 Drones

The increased use of drones raises a number of questions

and concerns. First, how does the proliferation of military
drones both within and across countries affect international
and regional security? President Obama acknowledged in
2013 that being able to deploy drones with little scrutiny or risk
caused him to see drones as a “cure-​all” for terrorism, with the
United States using drones more often than it would alterna-
tives such as manned aircraft or ground troops. This tendency
to rely on drones at times and in ways that actors would not
otherwise use force has enormous and troublesome implica-
tions if replicated in countries that acquire armed drones in the
future, in other words, each of these countries could come to
see drones as the cure-​all to their domestic or regional security
challenges. This is especially true in regions such as East Asia
and the Middle East, which are already susceptible to conflict.
The proliferation of armed drones also has potentially destabi-
lizing consequences in a domestic context where states might
be more inclined to use drones as a low-​risk option against
insurgents, for example in China, Turkey, or Russia.
Second, can the use of nonmilitary drones including for
recreational purposes increase without compromising safety?
The FAA reports about 25 incidents per month in which drones
have flown too close to manned aircraft or airports.3 There
have been a number of well-​publicized incidents involving
hobbyist drones meddling with wildfire prevention efforts,
flying around major sporting events, or landing near heads
of state. Federal regulations may seek to limit such activities
in part by requiring that individuals register their drones, or
companies themselves may try to limit where individuals can
fly drones through “geofencing” software, but enforcement
promises to be a challenge.
Third, does the increased use of drones raise potential
privacy concerns? Americans express reservations related
to recreational use of drones but especially about the use
of drones for law enforcement. As of 2013, 30 states had
initiated legislation against drones. As one state senator
 Introduction 3

in Virginia argued, “I think it’s important to get ahead on

issues like these before they get out of control … we can
imagine the problems that drones will bring in the future.”
He proposed a bill that would put a moratorium on drones
because of potential violations of the Fourth Amendment
of the Constitution, the right against “unlawful search and
seizure.” It was the first anti-​drone legislation passed in the
country.4
Cities and countries have followed suit. Seattle’s Police
Department had acquired two drones only to have them
decommissioned and transferred to the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) without having been used. The LAPD,
in turn, then faced public outcry over the question of how the
drones would be used and put a moratorium on their use.
Some countries have outlawed domestic drones altogether.
The FAA still bans commercial drones in national airspace,
though it has granted more than a number of exemptions and
is reviewing hundreds more as of the end of 2014. This pat-
tern in itself creates the prospect of writing policy through a
series of exemptions, which would reflect a certain ad hocness
rather than purposeful design.
In order to understand the implications of drones as their
uses change, the book begins by looking at their roots in mili-
tary use. It then surveys commercial use and the regulation
of drones both domestically and internationally. As Chris
Anderson, the former editor-​ in-​
chief of Wired magazine,
describes drones in the context of agriculture, “what started
as a military technology may end up better known as a green-​
tech tool, and our kids will grow up used to flying robots
buzzing over farms like tiny crop dusters.”5 While commercial
applications seem to be growing, they still represent only a
small percentage of the market, about 11% of that spending,
compared to 89% of the spending on military drones. While
the proportion of investment in civilian drones is expected to
reach 14% within a decade, it is still a small fraction compared
to that spent on military drones.6
4 Drones

Consistent with the investment of resources over time,

the book focuses its analysis on the military use of drones.
However, it also looks into the burgeoning uses of drones
for civilian purposes, including individual industries and
the turn to recreational use. During the 2014 holiday sea-
son, “drone” joined “house,” “car,” and “stock” in populat-
ing the top of Google’s auto-​f ill list when someone typed,
“I want to buy.” Or as The Verge put it, “there’s no cooler
toy right now than a drone.”7 For as little as $100, individu-
als can increasingly buy small drones such as the mini-​
drone made by Parrot, a French company whose sales have
increased 300% per year since 2012. While recreational
drones flown in the United States are still required to fly
within the line of sight and no higher than 400 ft., they are
increasingly popular as “the functional descendent of the
thoroughly nerdy RC plane; [with] an injection of edginess
due to their big brothers’ militaristic misdeeds.”8 The same
is true abroad. Even the Pope now has a yellow and white
drone, the colors of the Vatican flag, with the papal emblem
emblazoned on it. As the school that gave Pope Francis the
drone noted in a statement, the drone represents “the val-
ues of technology in the service of man,” noting the help-
ful applications for earthquake relief after the big Nepal
earthquake.9
With the increased demand for drones has come increased
attentiveness toward their regulation. The question of how
to regulate drones is a nettlesome one, given the vast range
of applications, both recreational and commercial, and the
growing volume of each. But the status quo is also problem-
atic, as made manifest by the January 2015 incident in which
a hobby drone, operated by an inebriated government worker,
landed on the lawn of the White House. Against this back-
drop, it is not surprising that the new world of drones has been
referred to as the “wild west” when it comes to regulations on
their use, referring to the growing number of such incidents,
uncertainty about how to balance safety with the seemingly
 Introduction 5

inevitable spread of drones, and ability to enforce any existing

and future legislation.10
Beyond starting with military drones and turning to com-
mercial drones later in the book, the book largely focuses
its lens on the United States before turning to other coun-
tries. Although Israel helped initiate and deploy many of the
unmanned military technologies in the 1980s, it has been
the United States that has represented more than half of the
world’s research and development and procurement costs
until now, according to the Teal Group’s forecast. The United
States accounts for 62% of worldwide spending on research and
development and 55% of procurement. As the Congressional
Research Service concludes, “the Department of Defense
Remains the Key Driver” of drones because of its development
and acquisitions related to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, “and
other countries where terrorist groups were or are active.”11
This dominance is projected to change in the coming years as
the rest of the world increases its spending, especially in pro-
curement, but the United States and in particular the United
States military represent a useful starting point in terms of
understanding drones in general.12
Nonetheless, the next chapter in the story about drones
is about proliferation to countries other than the United
States. Between 2005 and 2011, the number of countries with
drones went from 41 to 76. The increase consisted primarily
of tactical drones that have limited range and are nonlethal,
but a number of countries have observed the US experience
with combat drones and sought to acquire them as well. As
President Obama himself acknowledged in a major speech
about drones in May 2013, “the very precision of drone strikes
and the necessary secrecy often involved in such actions can
end up shielding our government from the public scrutiny
that a troop deployment invites.”13 The ability to use force at
no risk to one’s own troops while skirting domestic criticism is
clearly attractive to states, evidenced by the growing prolifera-
tion of armed drones. Russia reports that its development of a
6 Drones

combat UAV, which it plans to begin testing in 2017, is meant

to emulate the US drones that have conducted strikes in places
such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Russia now has a base near
Moscow dedicated to the training of drone operators.14 Israel
and the United Kingdom have already used drones in combat;
Iran and China are thought to have armed drones; and others
such as Pakistan, India, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates
are trying to acquire armed drones as well.
Lastly, the book focuses most on aerial systems as opposed
to unmanned sea and ground vehicles. Almost all of the devel-
opment having to do with drones has taken place on the aerial
side. In the United States military, for example, more than 90%
of the research and development and procurement has been
allocated for aerial systems, and that trend is projected to con-
tinue into the foreseeable future. In 2014, air systems fund-
ing amounted to $3.8 billion compared to just $13 million for
ground and $330 million for maritime, with air making up
the lion’s share of the $4.12 billion total. The trends are con-
sistently tilted toward aerial systems through 2018.15 While
ground and maritime systems receive treatment later in the
book, the aerial drone is its primary focus.
In short, the book covers quite a bit of territory, but a sur-
vey of every country, every technology, and every modality is
beyond its reach. Nonetheless, it seeks to highlight the most
prominent developments of the past, while looking at likely
or promising developments in the future. While that journey
is sometimes technical, as it travels from avionics to political
science, its other aim is to reach an audience that reads the
news headlines about drones on a daily basis and wants to
learn more.
 2
ARMED DRONE TECHNOLOGY

Over the last decade, the United States went from having
unarmed surveillance drones to sophisticated armed drones
capable of conducting prolonged surveillance and then killing
the target. This chapter will take stock of those developments
by answering a number of questions that provide context for
the recent evolution of armed drone technology.

Q. What is a drone?
The term “drone” has come to loosely refer to “unmanned aerial
vehicles” (UAVs), or what the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) refers to as an “unmanned aerial system” (UAS) and the
US Air Force to as a “remotely piloted aircraft” (RPA). The lat-
ter organization prefers to incorporate “pilot” because of the
significant training required, even for a remotely positioned
operator. All of these names speak to the attribute that unifies
drones: that they operate without pilots on-​board.
For some observers, this essentially means that everything is
a drone. As Kelsey Atherton of Popular Science puts it, “ ‘drone’ as
a category refers to any unmanned, remotely piloted flying craft,
ranging from something as small as a radio-​controlled toy heli-
copter to the 32,000-​lb., $104 million Global Hawk. If it flies and
it’s controlled by a pilot on the ground, it fits under the every-
day-​language definition of drone.”1 Despite this broad defini-
tion, Atherton suggests that until recently, model airplanes have
been governed by a different set of laws from drones. Indeed,
Canadian laws have distinguished between drones and hobby
8 Drones

aircraft, stating that a drone is “a power-​driven aircraft, other

than a model aircraft, that is designed to fly without a human
operator on board.”2 For the United States, the line between
drones and model aircraft is increasingly blurred. In 2015, the
FAA passed regulations requiring any unmanned aircraft
greater than 0.55 pound and less than 55 pounds to register their
aircraft (those greater than 55 pounds require FAA approval,
a step beyond registration), which effectively includes model
aircraft. All unmanned aerial systems (UAS), as the FAA calls
them, must fly below 400 feet, be kept within the visual line of
sight, and not fly within 5 miles of an airport.
Indeed, one reason the FAA essentially subsumed model
aircraft is that the line between the two is increasingly arbi-
trary as drones have become smaller and hobbyist model
aircraft have become more sophisticated. For example,
hobby aircraft can be equipped with first-​person view (FPV)
capabilities in which a camera is mounted in front of the
model aircraft and flying the aircraft via a video down-​l ink
that is displayed on either a portable monitor or video gog-
gles, thus extending the visual range of the pilot and raising
concerns about collisions. At the point that this FPV goes
beyond the line of sight, the FAA would likely consider it
a drone that would fall under their regulatory framework.
However, operating within the line of sight does not mean
an aircraft is not a drone. Quadcopters are traditionally
operated within the line of sight and yet they are commonly
considered drones.
Another source of potential confusion is the differ-
ence between a drone and cruise missile. While the Missile
Technology Control Regime (MTCR, which will be discussed
later) considers cruise missiles as a type of drone, they are
actually distinct platforms. As with drones and model air-
craft, cruise missiles can be confused with drones because
they too are unmanned. However, drones, according to the
Defense Department, are meant to be recovered while cruise
missiles are one-​way systems. Furthermore, a cruise missile’s
 Armed Drone Technology 9

munitions are integrated into its airframe, while the drone’s

are more segregated and detached.3 In addition, while both
drones and cruise missiles are used for stand-​ off strikes,
drones have a shorter range and are slower than cruise mis-
siles. The one-​way nature of cruise missiles, their long-​range
capability, and their speed as compared to drones impacts
the types of missions for which cruise missiles and drones
are used. Drones are therefore more likely to require forward
operating bases because of their limited range compared to
cruise missiles.4
Even this theoretical difference between drones and cruise
missiles can become blurred by some of the drones operated
by countries other than the United States. For example, Israel
has developed a weapons system that is considered a drone
(the Harop, also known as the Harpy) that is essentially a one-​
way drone in which the platform itself acts as the munition,
though it does carry limited amounts (less than 10 kg or less
than 5 lb.) of explosives in its nose. In this regard, the drone is
essentially acting as something of a suicide aircraft, rocket, or
cruise missile. What makes this drone different from a cruise
missile is its ability to loiter over a target; after loitering, it
attacks by self-​destructing into the target.

Q. What is the historical genealogy of armed drones?

Identifying the first appearance of drones in warfare depends
on the definition of drone being used, which the previous dis-
cussion suggests can present a vexing question. If one considers
a drone simply to be a remotely piloted vehicle, then one could
say that the first balloons used in battle were drones. Indeed,
using this definition, which would require some conceptual
stretching, the first occurrence of drones occurred in 1849,
when Austria attacked Venice with nearly 200 explosive-​laden
unmanned balloons. Once the balloons were over Venice, the
explosives were detonated “by means of a long isolated copper
wire with a large galvanic battery.”5 While the Austrian attack
10 Drones

helped lay the groundwork for the use of drones in war, the
operation was far from a glowing success—​some of the bal-
loons were blown back over Austrian lines. Moreover, these
vehicles were remotely piloted only insofar as they depended
on the direction of the wind.
World War I saw the testing and development of another set
of remotely piloted vehicles, though none actually operated
before the war ended. One such vehicle developed by Orville
Wright and Charles Kettering during WWI, but not used in
battle, was the Kettering Bug; it was a 12-​foot-​long wooden
biplane weighing only 530 lb. (including a 180-​lb. bomb). To
get the Kettering Bug to fly the right distance, operators had
to account for wind speed and direction, and then calculate
the correct number of engine revolutions required; then, the
vehicle would act as an unmanned torpedo that would strike a
target. The Dayton-​Wright Airplane Company built around 50
of the unmanned vehicles, though this system acted more as
the Harop discussed above, rather than what we would think
of as the two-​way Predator or Reaper.
Between WWI and WWII, the United Kingdom and the
United States both developed a series of radio-​ controlled
drones which they used primarily as aerial targets on which
their pilots could practice. In the 1930s, the Royal Air Force
began developing the de Havilland Tiger Moth, a training air-
craft used for target practice. In 1935, a variant of the Tiger Moth
came online called the Queen Bee, thought to be the namesake
for the term “drone” often used to describe unmanned sys-
tems because the rear cockpit had a radio-​control system. The
Queen Bee had a radio-​control system in the rear cockpit that
allowed the aircraft to be flown unmanned and under radio
control, which was of course desirable given its role as a target
drone for anti-​aircraft gunnery practice. While the company
made 400 of these aircraft, almost all were destroyed, having
served the function for which it was intended.
Around the same time, Reginald Denny, an actor and
former member of the British Royal Flying Corps, formed a
 Armed Drone Technology 11

model plane shop that eventually became the Radioplane

Company—​which was later acquired by Northrop Grumman.
The Radioplane Company developed inexpensive radio-​
controlled aircraft that could be used for training antiaircraft
gunners, similar to the purpose of the Queen Bee. The com-
pany’s most popular aircraft was the OQ-​3 target drone, with
over 9,000 manufactured for the US Army during WWII. It is
this aircraft that Norma Jeane, who later became known as
Marilyn Monroe, helped assemble during the war. She was
spotted by an Army photographer in June 1945, photographed,
and, as a veteran of drone-​building in World War II, became a
model soon after the war’s end.
During WWII, both Germany and the United States began
developing more sophisticated unmanned platforms. At the
beginning of WWII, Adolf Hitler commissioned a project to
develop an unmanned vehicle used in combat, which resulted
in the V-​1 rocket, which was more like an early cruise missile
than drone, although it was later used as a target drone by the
French after the V-​1 technology fell into their hands toward
the end of the war. The V-​1 had a range of approximately 160
miles, permitting the Germans to use launch sites in France
to hit targets across the Channel. The weapon killed over
900 British citizens and injured over 35,000 in Britain during
WWII. To counter the V-​1, the US Navy developed drones that
were able to destroy the launch sites. These drones took off
with a two-​person crew that would bail after setting a course
for the target. The vehicles were then flown by remote con-
trol and were often successful in eliminating the ramps the
Germans used to launch the V-​1s.
In the postwar period, the United States continued in the
target drone business, developing a series of Firebee aircraft
that could be launched from the air or the ground. The sub-
sequent generations of Firebees made slight modifications on
this principle until the contractor produced a reconnaissance
version, called the Lightning Bug, which was used exten-
sively in Vietnam. Toward the end of the Vietnam War the
12 Drones

United States transferred 33 Lightning Bugs to Israel to be

used in their 1973 Yom Kippur War.
As drone analyst, Chris Cole puts it, the more contemporary
drones were “the offspring not of the American initiatives of
the 1960s but of the Israeli initiatives of the 1980s.”6 In particular,
the technology was used in the service of surveillance of troop
movements, among other things, during the 1982 invasion of
Lebanon.7 During this time the Israelis, who remain one of the
two largest producers of drones, began building several surveil-
lance drones—​including several that were sold to the United
States. The Pioneer, for example, was used in the 1991 Gulf War.
Israeli Abraham Karem also developed the Gnat, which he later
sold to General Atomics. The company used the design as the
archetype for its Predator. The United States deployed the Gnat
750 for surveillance in the early 1990s in Yugoslavia, followed by
the unarmed Predator during the conflict in Bosnia and Kosovo.
The Predator improved upon the Gnat 750 with more accurate
targeting technology using advanced sensors.
Like previous drones, the Predator remained unarmed. The
US Air Force discussed the possibility of arming the aircraft and
investigated whether or not an armed Predator would be com-
pliant with the Intermediate-​range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
The INF treaty bans warheads from a “self-​propelled vehicle
that sustains flight through the use of aerodynamic lift over
most of its flight,” specifically “a ground-​launched cruise missile
that is a weapon-​delivery vehicle.”8 In their legal deliberations,
the Air Force, in consultation with the State Department, deter-
mined that an armed drone was outside this ban and that an
armed drone would not violate the treaty.9 Nonetheless, while
General Atomics had equipped a Predator with a Hellfire mis-
sile and successfully fired it in a February 2001 practice flight, the
decision to field armed Predators had languished until the 9/​11
attacks. “It was the War on Terror that finally enabled the mili-
tary to weaponize drones, giving them the capability to take out
designated targets.”10 Armed drones became a way to expand
the range of options but without risks to American personnel.
 Armed Drone Technology 13

The Predator deployed to Afghanistan soon after the 9/​11

attacks, and by November 2001, the CIA had conducted about
40 Hellfire missile strikes in Afghanistan. In comparison to the
number of airstrikes by manned platforms, which numbered
6,500 in the first three months of the war, the reliance on drone
strikes was still minimal, though the scope of operations soon
expanded to places other than Afghanistan. In 2002, the first
drone strike outside an active combat zone occurred in Yemen.
The CIA used a Predator to target Ali Qaed Senyan Al-​Harthi,
who was linked to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, as well
as several individuals suspected of being Al-​Qaeda affiliates.
What followed was a roughly two-​ year pause in drone
strikes for counterterrorism—​that is, the strikes against sus-
pected terrorists carried out outside active battlefields such as
Afghanistan or Iraq—​until the United States expanded such
strikes into Pakistan in 2004. It conducted the first such strike
against a suspected Al-​Qaeda facilitator, Nek Muhammad, and
four other suspected militants, beginning a long and increas-
ingly sharp increase of drone strikes in Pakistan. While the
United States conducted 52 strikes in Pakistan between 2001
and 2008, there were 300 in the four years following (2009–​2012),
a steep escalation in counterterrorist drone strikes that made
the United States the leading state in the use of armed drones.11
During this time, drone strikes in conflict zones also increased,
with the British increasingly complementing US attacks in
Afghanistan, allegedly accounting for about one-​fifth of drone
strikes by 2012.12 Thus, in a somewhat dramatic fashion, the
use of drones after the 9/​11 terrorist attacks quickly revealed
the potentially transformative nature of armed drones both in
active conflict zones and in the context of counterterrorism.

Q. What types of drones are or will be available?

As mentioned above, the attribute that unifies drones is that
they are all remotely piloted. Beyond those similarities, the
differences are vast. They vary enormously in terms of size,
14 Drones

capability, and range. Some are semiautonomous, meaning they

rely on a human in some fashion—​even if remotely. Others are
autonomous, in which case the system is preprogrammed and
based on the artificial intelligence of the robot making decisions.
Some are armed; others are used for intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance. Some are hand-​launched; others can take off
and land by themselves from an airfield. Given the large range
of aircraft that can plausibly fit under the heading of drones, it
is not surprising that there are many ways to categorize them.
The main international institution that regulates drones is the
MTCR, a 1987 regime that sought to limit proliferation of nuclear
delivery vehicles, including drones. Drones with a payload of
over 1,102 lb. and a range of 186 miles or greater were classified
as Category I systems. This includes Global Hawk drones, which
are only used for reconnaissance and surveillance, and armed
Predators and Reapers, which have been used in combat in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia, among other countries, and
are seen as being more capacious and therefore only able to be
licensed for export on rare occasions. Category II systems include
materials that are less sensitive but still capable of covering a
range of 186 miles, irrespective of payload, and have less stringent
export prohibitions. An example includes Iran’s Ababil, a recon-
naissance, surveillance, and attack aircraft that has a payload of
40 kg (or about 88 lb.) and is thought to be the system exported
to Hezbollah and potentially Venezuela.13 Some drones fall out-
side the MTCR altogether—​meaning they can be exported with-
out any scrutiny—​and these include smaller-​scale, limited-​range
drones, or smaller drones that are designed for one-​way missions.
While the MTCR classification focuses primarily on payload
and range, a related categorization is to organize by capacity, an
aggregation of dimensions such as altitude, range, and endur-
ance, which tends to correlate with the type of mission or oper-
ation that the drone could carry out. These categories include
mini, tactical, and strategic drones, depicted in Table 2.1 and
drawn from the 2012 Government Accountability Office report
on drone proliferation.14
Table 2.1 Categories of Drones Organized by a Combination of Altitude, Range, and Endurance

Category Mini Tactical Strategic

Attitude Low Low to medium Medium to high

Endurance Short (about an hour) Medium (up to several hours) Long (ranges from hours
to days)
Range Close-​range Limited to line-​of-​sight Long range
(approximately 300 kilometers
or less) (about 186 miles)
Example Raven Shadow Global Hawk

Source: CIA (information); DOD (photos).

Nonproliferation: Agencies Could Improve Information Sharing and End-​Use Monitoring on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Exports.
United States Government Accountability Office, July 2012
16 Drones

Mini-​drones are designed for quick deployment and easy

mobility, making them ideal for reconnaissance, surveillance,
and target acquisition. These drones include the Raven, which
the manufacturer (AeroVironment) reported in 2015 is “the
most widely used unmanned aircraft system in the world
today.” These systems are launched by hand and powered
by an electric motor, and have the capability to be operated
remotely or operated autonomously using global positioning
system (GPS) navigation. Because they do not require intri-
cate support systems, mini-​drones are ideal for supporting
forward-​deployed units within the army.
Tactical drones are designed for reconnaissance, battle damage
assessment, surveillance, and target acquisition; they are launched
from a pneumatic catapult mounted on a trailer and recovered
with equipment meant to decelerate the drone as it lands. One of
the most common examples of the tactical drone is the Shadow,
which the US military had planned to weaponize contingent on
having sufficient funds.15
Strategic drones are used for many of the same purposes as
tactical drones but are able to fly higher, farther, and for longer
periods of time. Strategic drones include the Global Hawk, the
Predator B, and its successor, the Reaper, which has a large
number of functions including reconnaissance, surveillance,
weapons delivery, and targeting, and can fly for over 30 hours
without refueling.
The Rand Corporation has yet another classification sys-
tem, organizing drones into four categories based on a two-​
by-​two matrix describing whether the technology is long or
short range and high or low technology: (1) long-​range, high-​
technology such as the Predator or Reaper; (2) long-​range,
low-​technology such as the Iranian Ababil; (3) short-​range,
high-​technology such as the Raven; and (4) short-​range, low-​
technology such as model airplanes.16
Another way to think of the differences across drones
would be based on function. The typologies above tend to
group nonlethal and lethal drones together; for example, the
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the beginning of his missionary career, and as he unswervingly
adhered to them all the rest of his life. He disclaimed any intention to
exalt education as a missionary agency above other
instrumentalities, and especially not above preaching the gospel;
and claimed for it only its legitimate place. As to this he laid down
and elaborated certain great principles involved in the nature of the
case and verified by experience. Education, he said, is important in
order to provide an effective and reliable ministry; to furnish teachers
for Christian schools, and through them to introduce into China the
superior education of the West; to prepare men to take the lead in
introducing into China the science and arts of western civilization, as
the best means of gaining access to the higher classes in China, of
giving to the native church self-reliance, and of fortifying her against
the encroachments of superstition from within and the attacks of
educated skepticism from without. On the last of these propositions
he enlarged with wise foresight:

So long as all the Christian literature of China is the work of

foreigners, so long will the Chinese church be weak and
dependent. She needs as rapidly as possible a class of
ministers with well-trained and well-furnished minds, who will
be able to write books, defending and enforcing the doctrines
of Christianity, and applying them to the circumstances of the
church in China.... Again, as native Christians increase in
numbers, and spread into the interior, they will pass more and
more from under the direct teaching and control of foreigners.
Then will arise danger from the encroachment of heathen
superstition, and from the baneful influence of the Chinese
classics. Superstitions of all kinds find a congenial soil in the
human heart, and they often change their forms without
changing their nature. The multiform superstitions of China
will not die easily; and unless they are constantly resisted and
ferreted out and exposed, they will commingle with
Christianity and defile it.... The day is not distant when the
skepticism of the West will find its way into China. The day
when it shall be rampant is not so distant as might be
supposed. Error is generally as fleet-footed as truth. To repel
 these attacks, and vindicate the truth in the face of heathen
unbelief, will require a high order of education. An uneducated
Christianity may hold its own against an uneducated
heathenism, but it cannot against an educated heathenism.
We want, in a word, to do more than introduce naked
Christianity into China, we want to introduce it in such a form,
and with such weapons and supports, as will enable it to go
forward alone, maintain its own purity, and defend itself from
all foes.

In view of these ideals with regard to the object of such schools,

he concluded his paper by urging that they should be of an
advanced grade rather than primary, though not excluding the
primary; that the natural sciences should be made prominent in the
instruction; and that the pupils should be of Christian parentage,
rather than of heathen. His prophecy as to skeptical books from the
West is already in process of fulfillment.
It needs to be recognized that the substance of all this was in his
mind when he opened that little elementary school. But he had to
begin with something that fell almost pitifully short of his ideal. The
first thing that was necessary was to secure a few pupils under
conditions that made it worth while, in view of his object, to teach
them. One of these conditions was that the parents of the boys
should formally bind themselves to leave them in the school six or
seven years, so that they might finish the studies prescribed.
Otherwise they would stay only as long as suited them or their
parents, and they would all the while be exposed to heathen
influences that likely would nullify the Christian instruction received.
On the other hand, this arrangement made it necessary for the
school to furnish gratuitously not only the buildings and the teachers,
but the food and lodging and clothes of the pupils. Gradually this was
so far modified that the parents provided their clothes and bedding
and books. To meet the running expenses of the school the average
cost of each pupil was ascertained, and an effort was made to
secure from Sabbath schools in the United Stales a contribution of
that amount. The plan of designating a particular boy for support by
a particular Sabbath school was suggested from home for
consideration, but was discouraged, on the ground that it might often
prove disappointing, through the uncertainties as to the conduct of
the boy; and it was rarely, if at all, practiced. In order to secure these
contributions each year a letter had to be carefully prepared, and
then duplicated, at first by hand, and later by lithographing process,
and sent to the Sabbath schools that shared in giving for this
purpose. These letters were of a very high order, taking for the
theme of each some important phase of Chinese life and manners or
of mission work. They might to advantage have been gathered into a
volume; and if this had been done, it would be entitled to rank with
books of the very best kind on the same general subject. The
preparation of these letters and their multiplication and distribution
cost very considerable time and labor; to lighten this for her
husband, Julia rendered valuable assistance, even to the extent
eventually of taking upon herself the entire work, except the printing.
The average expense of a boy was at first estimated at forty
dollars, but with the rise of prices as the years went by, this estimate
had to be raised. The scheme worked well enough to enable the
school not only to go on, but gradually to increase its numbers as
other events opened the way. Nor was there any difficulty in
obtaining all the pupils that could be accommodated. At the
beginning all were from families who were too poor to educate their
boys in native schools, and to whom the fact that in addition to the
good education received, their boy was also clothed and fed, proved
inducement sufficient to overcome the opprobrium of allowing him to
fall under the influence of the hated foreigner. It really meant no little
in those early days, and, in fact, in all ante-Boxer times, for parents,
even though Christians, to send their boys to the Tengchow school.
An honored native pastor who was at one time a pupil there wrote:

When my parents first sent me to school, there was a great

protest from all the village. They tried to scare my mother by
saying that the foreigners were vampires who could extract
the blood of children by magic arts. Nevertheless I was sent;
though I must own that I was a little scared myself. When I
 came home at Chinese New Year vacation, I was most
carefully examined by all these prophets of evil; and when
they found that not only my pulse was still a-going, but that I
was even rosier and in better flesh than before, they said that
the three months I had been there were not enough to show
the baneful results; only wait! After the Germans took
Kiaochow and began the railroad, the rumors in that region
became worse. Under each sleeper a Chinese child must be
buried. To furnish axle grease for the “fire-cart” human fat
must be tried out—anyone could see the great boilers they
had for the purpose; and under those great heaps of fresh-
turned earth they buried the bones.

At the time of the Tientsin massacre it was currently reported that

Mateer was fattening boys for the purpose of killing them, and then
taking their eyes and hearts to make medicine with which to bewitch
the people.
Nevertheless the numbers were always full, except at brief
intervals, when reduced by popular disturbances, epidemics or such
causes. The school in its second year had twelve pupils, just double
the number with which it began its work. It will be remembered that
in 1867 the Mateers built and occupied their new home. This vacated
the old Kwan Yin temple premises. In the application to the Board to
erect the new home Mateer said:

We do not propose to vacate the old premises, but to

appropriate them to the school, for which they would be
admirably adapted. We look forward with confidence to an
increase of the school. Our present number of scholars,
however, occupy all the room we can possibly spare; if we
increase we must build not only sleeping rooms, but a large
schoolroom. This would not, it is true, cost as much money as
a foreign house, but it would not come as far below as
perhaps you might suppose. The main building would make
one or two most admirable schoolrooms, which will
accommodate any school we will likely ever have. One of the
 side buildings would make a very convenient dining room and
kitchen, and the other, with additional buildings made vacant,
would with a very little refitting furnish at least ten new rooms
besides what we now have. It will probably be many years
before we will have more than these.

With all his largeness of vision he did not yet foresee the coming
Tengchow college; though he was planning for greater things for the
mission as well as for the health and comfort of himself and wife.
Because the language employed was solely Chinese, at the
beginning neither Mateer nor his wife could take part in the
instruction; all had to be done by the Chinese assistant, who was a
professing Christian. It was not long, however, until both the Mateers
were able to help; though at no time did he give himself exclusively
to teaching. The boys were taught to read and write in their own
language, so that for themselves they might be able to study the
Bible and other books which they were expected to use. Arithmetic
was a part of this course in the elementary department with which
the school began, and it was one of the very first of the branches of
which Mateer took charge. Mrs. Mateer had a class in geography,
and widened their vision of the world by informing them of other
lands besides China. Three times a week she undertook the
peculiarly difficult task of instructing them to sing. Of course, there
was morning worship. This was held in the schoolroom. The service
consisted of a hymn, of a chapter in the New Testament read verse
about, and a prayer. There was also evening worship. On Sabbath
morning all attended the little native chapel. In the afternoon a sort of
Sunday school was held, and in it Mateer taught the bigger boys,
and Mrs. Mateer the smaller, in the Scriptures. At worship on
Sabbath evening he questioned them all in turn about the sermon in
the morning. Such was the very humble way in which the school was
nurtured in its infancy, and started on the road to become what has
been pronounced to be the very best of all the colleges in China.
Three months after the first opening the six pupils admitted were
reduced to three, because the fathers of the other boys were
unwilling to sign the obligation to leave them in the school the
required number of years. A decade after the school was begun
Mateer said in a Sunday-school letter:

Our boys are from nine or ten to eighteen or twenty years,

and a number of them have been in school seven or eight
years. If they have never been to school, we require them to
come for twelve years, but take them for a less time if they
have already been several years in a native school. We try to
get those who have already been to school, as it is a saving
both of labor and of money.

At the end of a quarter of a century after the school was begun he

said:

During these years we took many boys into the school who
came to nothing. Some were too stupid, and we had to send
them away after they had learned to read and knew
something of the Bible. Others were bad boys, and we had to
dismiss them; and some got tired and ran away, or were
taken away by their parents because they wanted them at
home to work. We sifted out some good ones, who were
bright and promised to make good men.

The pupils they retained at the end of the first ten years were
culled out of more than twice their number. Of the routine of the
school he wrote:

The boys go to school at six o’clock in the morning, and

study till eight. Then all meet in the large schoolroom for
prayers. After this there is a recess of an hour for breakfast.
At half-past nine they go to school again, and remain till half-
past twelve. In the afternoon they have another session of
four hours. During the shortest days of winter they have an
evening session instead of a morning session. These are the
ordinary hours of study in the native schools. At first we
thought so many hours in school too much for either health or
profit, but after trying our plan for several years, we were
convinced that for Chinese children and Chinese methods of
study the native plan is best. The great business in Chinese
schools is committing the classics, which they do by chanting
them over rhythmically at the top of their voices, each one
singing a tune of his own, and apparently trying to “hollow”
louder than the others. The din they make would be
distracting to one of us, but the Chinese teacher seems to
enjoy it. The exercise it gives the lungs compensates,
perhaps, for the want of more play hours. When Mrs. Mateer
or I go into the school to hear classes, we, of course, make
them stop their uproarious studying, and study to themselves.
About half the day our boys devote to Christian and to
scientific books. They learn a catechism of Christian doctrine,
“The Peep of Day,” Old Testament history, “Pilgrim’s
Progress,” “Evidences of Christianity,” and memorize portions
of Scripture. They study also geography, ancient history,
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, natural
philosophy, and chemistry. They are trained in singing, writing
essays, and debating. The native books which they study are
composed mostly of the maxims and wise sayings of
Confucius and Mencius, together with a large number of
poems. These books teach people to be honest and upright.
They teach children to obey their parents and elder brothers.
They also contain a great deal about the duties of the people
to their rulers, and of the rulers to the people. They praise all
good and virtuous men, and exhort all to lead virtuous lives;
but they offer no motives higher than the praise of men. They
teach nothing about God or future life. They are all written in
what is called the classical style, which is to a Chinese boy
what Latin is to an American boy. These books the boys
commit to memory, and recite to their teacher, but without
understanding them. When a book has been memorized and
a boy can repeat it from beginning to end, the teacher
commences to explain it to him. He has neither grammar nor
dictionary to help him, but must learn all from the teacher’s
lips. When a young man can repeat all these books and give
 the explanation, and can write an essay in the same style, the
Chinese consider him a scholar, and when he can do this,
and in addition has mastered all the other branches of study
mentioned above, we consider his education finished, and he
graduates from our school. A boy must have a good mind,
and be very diligent if he gets through in twelve years.

The clothes of the boys, of course, were entirely Chinese as to

material and style. Their food was of like character. The dormitories
were low rooms with earthen floors and the bedsteads were of dry
mud. The letter continues:

Teaching the boys their regular lessons is but a small part

of the work to be done in such a school as ours. Ways and
means have to be provided to have their food bought and
properly cooked. The cook must be prevented from stealing it,
and the boys from wasting it. Their clothes have to be made
in proper season, and mended and washed, and the boys
watched that they do not destroy them. Then each boy’s
grievances have to be heard and his quarrels examined into
and settled. Bad boys have to be exhorted or reproved, and
perhaps punished and every possible means used, and that
constantly, to make the boys obedient and truthful and
honest. We also strive to train them to habits of industry,
perseverance, and self-reliance, without which their education
will do them no good. Thus you see that to train up these
boys so that they shall become good and useful men requires
a great deal of labor, patience, and faith, and prayer.
 Large College Building End of Chapel College Bell
(formerly Kwan Yin Temple) Small Schoolroom

These are homely details, but we cannot overlook them, and

understand the life of the Mateers in its connection with this work.
Discipline in any school composed of so many boys and of such
varied age could not be an easy task; in this Chinese school it was
peculiarly perplexing. There were some unusual incidents.
Falsehood, stealing, quarreling, gluttony, and even sodomy were
offenses that had to be dealt with according to the circumstances
attending each case. One instance of discipline was so distinctively
Chinese that the description of it by Mateer in his Journal deserves a
place here. Under date of April 9, 1869, he wrote:

One very distressing thing has happened within a month.

Leon Chin Chi was being persecuted by his father in relation
to the matter of his marriage engagement with Shang Yuin,
 when in a fit of desperation he went and bought opium, and
took it to kill himself. Some of the boys suspected him, and
went to see. They found him lying on his bed evidently in
great distress of mind, and refusing to answer any questions
save to say that his affairs were all over with. I inferred from
this, as also from his saying to one of the boys that he would
never see him again, that he had taken poison—most likely
opium. I went and got a strong emetic, and mixed it up, but he
refused to take it. I then got a stick and used it to such good
purpose that in a very short time he was glad to take the
medicine. It had the desired effect, and in a very short time he
vomited up the opium. He seemed to lay the beating to heart
very much. It was evidently a new idea to him to be put
through in such a style. After a day or two, when he had gone
to school again, I gave him a formal and severe whipping in
the presence of the school. I thought very seriously over the
matter of whipping him, and concluded that it was my duty to
do it. I believe now that it did the boy good. He was called
before the session last week, when he manifested a good
deal of sorrow and penitence. He was publicly reproved and
admonished on Sabbath morning. I am sorry that he had such
a weakness; it greatly decreases my reliance on him, and my
belief in his genuine Christian character. It must be allowed
that there is some little excuse, in the way in which the
Chinese all regard suicide. He had not got those ideas all
educated out of him.

While Mateer differed in opinion from those missionaries who

favored schools simply as effective agents for the conversion of the
pupils, he regarded this as one of the leading results to be sought
and expected. It was almost two years after the opening of his
school when he had the great joy of baptizing one of the pupils. In
describing the event to a secretary of the Board, he said:

He is the oldest boy in the school, and is in fact a man in

years, though his education is not yet nearly finished. He has
 been for two or three months feeling that it was his duty to
profess Christ, but, as he is naturally modest and retiring, he
did not make his wish known. His mother, to whom he was
uncommonly attached, died recently, and this brought him to
a full decision. His examination before the session was most
satisfactory, showing that he has improved well his
opportunities of learning the truth. I have great hopes of his
future usefulness. He has a good mind, and is a most diligent
student, and if he is spared, and is taught of God’s Spirit he
may be a great treasure to us in preaching to the heathen.

Three months later he wrote again of this young man as

exemplary in conduct and as growing in grace, and added:

I am thankful that I can now say that another has since

been baptized. He is the most advanced boy in the school,
and is in fact very nearly a man. His conversion was not
sudden, but gradual, after the manner of almost all the
Chinese. We trust, however, that he is a true child of God,
and we have strong hope that if he is spared he will make a
very useful man.

The next year three more of the largest boys were received into
the church. The session examined two others, but thought it best for
them to wait a few weeks; and a number more were hoping to be
received, but were advised to defer the matter. Thus the conversion
of the boys gradually progressed, until at the time when the school
formally became a college, all who had graduated, and nearly all the
pupils still enrolled who were sufficiently mature, were professing
Christians.
Julia’s sister, Maggie Brown, came out to join the station at
Tengchow early enough to render valuable help in the initial stages
of the school. In 1871 she married Mr. Capp. One of the necessities
which Mateer recognized was that of a girls’ school, his reason being
the vital importance of providing suitable wives for the young men
whom he was training. After her marriage Mrs. Capp took charge of
such a school, and she and her brother-in-law, Mateer, continued to
coöperate in that important enterprise. For use in teaching she
translated a mental arithmetic, and in this she had his assistance. Dr.
Corbett wrote: “In spite of all discouragements in the way of securing
permanent and efficient heads, and of the paucity of results, he
never wavered in his support of the girls’ school, and always planned
for its welfare, because he saw in it an element necessary to the final
success of the Christian Church.” When Mrs. Capp died, she left her
little all for the erection of buildings to be used by the school which
he had encouraged, and to which she had consecrated the maturity
of her powers.
Thirteen years went by before any of the young men graduated.
The first class consisted of three men who had completed the
course, which by that time had been enlarged beyond the curriculum
already described so as to include astronomy, the text-book used
being a good, stiff one,—no other than a translation of Herschell’s
work. Of that first class Mateer said: “They will probably teach for a
time at least. There is more call for teachers than for preachers at
present.” Under date of May 2, 1877, he wrote as to this first
commencement:

We had a communion on the occasion. The speeches

made by the young men at graduation were excellent, and the
whole effect on the school was most happy. The boys saw
distinctly that there is a definite goal before them and their
ambition was stirred to reach it.

The report for that year speaks as follows:

All of the graduates are men of excellent talents. They are

really fine scholars both in their own language and literature
and in western science. One of them goes to Hangchow to
take charge of the mission school there,—a school which had
flourished well-nigh twenty years before the school in
Tengchow was born. Another of them goes to Chefoo, to
teach a school for the Scottish Presbyterian mission. The third
 goes to assist Dr. Nevius in his extensive country work, where
I am sure he will render the most valuable service. One of our
former pupils, who has been teaching in the school during the
last year, also goes to assist Dr. Nevius in the same way. This
he does of his own free will, knowing that he will have harder
work and less pay. We expect a large number of new pupils
next year. More are anxious to come than we can take. We
will try to do the best we can.

From May, 1879, to January, 1881, the Mateers were absent from
China, on their first furlough home. During this period the school was
in charge of other missionaries, and a part of the time was without a
regular superintendent; yet it continued its work fairly well. The return
of the Mateers was made the occasion of a reception that must have
been exceedingly pleasant to them. In the Sunday-school letter for
1881 he described it:

From Chefoo to Tengchow we traveled in a shentza. The

weather was cold and the ground covered with snow. We got
along comfortably, however, and reached Tengchow in safety.
The schoolboys had heard of our coming, and were all on the
lookout to meet us. It was Saturday afternoon, and they had
no school; so they all came out of the city to meet us on the
road. They met us in companies, and their beaming faces and
hearty expressions of delight made us feel that we were
indeed welcome back to Tengchow. Their faces looked very
familiar, though some of the smaller boys had grown very
much during our absence. The next week the school closed
for the year.

Late in 1881 they were gladdened by the arrival of Robert Mateer

and Lillian as reënforcements to the mission. Robert has been one of
the most efficient of the Presbyterian missionaries in Shantung,
especially in evangelism, and is still doing most excellent work.
Lillian was attractive in person and proved herself an accomplished
and successful teacher. In the course of time she married Mr.
Samuel Walker. The failure of his health compelled their return
home.
The year 1882 seems to have been marked by a distinct advance
all along the line. The average attendance rose to sixty-five. The new
students were selected out of the possible admissions, and
consisted of such as gave most promise as to work and character,
some of them being already well advanced in their studies, and full-
grown men. The secret of this was the enlargement of the
constituency of the institution, through the reputation it had already
won for itself among the Chinese in general, and through the
increase of native Christians. Perhaps the most remarkable
improvement was in the prosecution of their work by the students; a
state of things due to such causes as the presence of a larger
number of select and advanced pupils, with a fuller and higher and
prescribed curriculum, with formal public graduation at its
completion.
So straitened had their quarters become that in the following year
another building was obtained, care being taken that its outfit should,
as heretofore, be of so plain a character as not to lift the men who
went out from the institution above their own people in their ideas
and habits of living. Of course, the growth of the school and its
differentiation according to the stages of the curriculum necessitated
a considerable increase in the force of teachers. After graduates
began to go out, several of these were employed. Lillian Mateer for a
while helped in the school, but it was not long until her marriage to
Mr. Walker terminated her connection with the Presbyterian work and
her residence at Tengchow. In the autumn of 1882 very substantial
and permanent help came by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. W. M.
Hayes, whose large services will require further notice as this
biography proceeds. Were it not that the story of the life of Mrs. Julia
Mateer is told fully in a suitable volume, much would be said here as
to her remarkable achievements, especially in the school.
Mateer’s work in connection with the school lay only in part in the
classroom; but whatever shape it took, it was always of such a
character as to impress his own individuality in a remarkable degree.
Both he and Julia regarded personal influence as of such vital
importance that they were not quite prepared to welcome an
increase of pupils so great as to hazard this element of training. Dr.
Corbett says: “As a teacher he was enthusiastic and eminently
successful. He was always wide-awake and never dull; so he was
able to keep the attention of every student. Any attempt to deceive
him was useless, and students found no comfort in going to a
recitation unless they had been faithful in their preparation.” The
truth is that, helpful as he gladly made himself to everybody who
tried to conduct himself as he ought, he was a terror to all triflers and
evildoers, old or young. Dr. Mateer’s surname in Chinese was Ti.
The tiger is called Lao Hu. It is significant that among themselves his
students sometimes spoke of him as Ti Lao Hu. One thing he
believed with his whole heart, and endeavored to impress in every
legitimate way on his pupils. This is that the highest office to which a
Christian man can be called is the ministry of the gospel. In all his
conduct of the school his dominating desire was to raise up faithful,
able, well-educated men, filled with the Spirit, to go forth as
ambassadors of Christ to win China for Him. As Dr. Corbett adds:
“For this purpose he gave wise counsel, intellectual effort, unceasing
toil and daily prayer. He gave of his own money freely to help the
destitute, and make it possible for youths of promise to fit
themselves for usefulness.”
Such, briefly told, is the story of the Tengchow school. In the two
decades of its existence it had fully justified the consecrated wisdom
of its founder and head. From the little elementary department with
which it had opened, it had advanced so as to become also a high
school, and at length to do work of full collegiate rank. At the time
when it formally took the name of a college, there was an average
attendance of seventy-five, including three day scholars. It had
educated more or less completely perhaps two hundred pupils, who
had come up from Chinese families, some of them Christian and
many of them heathen. Of those who remained long enough to be
molded by the influences of the institution and were mature enough,
all made a public profession of their faith in Christ. They had been
trained to live upright, godly, Christian lives; and they had seen one
of their number die in peace through his faith in Christ. The character
and the work of those who had gone out to do their part in the
activities of the world were such as to command respect and
confidence and influence. For the graduates who were beginning to
be sent forth there was a demand to fill positions of high importance,
much in excess of the supply, and by no means limited to Shantung.
Besides all that had been achieved, the prospect of far greater things
in the future was assured.
 IX
THE PRESS; LITERARY LABORS

“Making books is a very important branch of missionary effort, which I

would by no means depreciate; but he who would undertake it should
be sure of his call, and should not begin too soon. There is a
temptation to forego active evangelistic work for the less laborious
and perhaps more congenial work of sitting in a study, translating or
studying the literature of the language. Much precious time is
sometimes wasted in this way, especially in the earlier stages of a
man’s life, before he is quite able to weigh himself against his work. It
is a rare thing indeed that a missionary should undertake writing or
translating a book inside of five years, and then he should be
supported by the advice and approval of his older associates.”—
missionaries and the language, 1902.

Mateer was at no time a very prolific contributor to the home

newspapers and periodicals. For about ten years, with some
frequency, he wrote for “The Presbyterian Banner” letters concerning
the work of the mission done by himself and others in China; but
after that he was too busy to continue such writing, except at long
intervals. Once or twice he sent to the United States more labored
replies to what he considered misleading articles that had appeared
in such periodicals as “The Princeton Review,” in regard to the
condition of things in China. He greatly deprecated laudation of
matters Chinese and unwarranted hopefulness as to the immediate
future of their country. He was strongly inclined to question the
wisdom of the policy which the United States was pursuing in China
forty or fifty years ago, and he did not hesitate to express in print
here at home his views on that line of topics. Beyond these fugitive
contributions to the newspapers and periodicals he published little
else in this country, save a booklet or two, one or more of which he
prepared for the use of the Board at their request. Sometimes he
questioned whether his slight use of the home press might not leave
the impression there that he was not doing as much as others who
were more frequent in their contributions; but all the same he gave
himself to the other work which his hands found to do.
Most of his contributions to current literature appeared in China
and were written for “The Chinese Recorder.” His articles in this
periodical extend over almost his entire missionary life, some of
them being brief, but many of them being elaborate discussions of
great subjects affecting directly or indirectly the work of
evangelization in non-Christian lands. His book on the Chinese term
for God was not published until 1902, and, of course, was in English,
though with copious extracts from Chinese literature. His only other
English book was a review of Dr. Nevius’ “Methods of Missions.”
His publications in Chinese, as we shall presently see, were very
considerable in number, and were of large importance to the work of
missions; for he at no time allowed himself to be diverted to the
production of any treatise that would not be helpful in the one service
to which he consecrated his life. But before he began to avail himself
of the press for his own books, he was somewhat unwillingly
compelled for a while to take the management of a printing
establishment. Down at Shanghai there was already a mission
press, the funds for the establishment of which had in large part
been contributed for that distinct purpose, and which had been left
hitherto to the management of the Presbyterian missionaries of that
general region. The Synod of China—by order of the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States—was
organized in the autumn of 1870, and the first meeting was held at
Shanghai. The condition of the mission press at that place was
brought before the synod, and was by that body handed over to the
foreign missionaries in attendance, as more properly belonging to
their control. A plan covering the entire operation of the plant, as
drawn up by Mateer in a committee and approved by the entire body,
was sent home to the Board for sanction, which in due time it
received. One of the things for which immediate provision was
necessary was a man to take charge of the establishment, and the
choice, after repeated efforts to secure some other suitable person,
and after his own refusal to take the place, returned to him in such a
way that he felt that he could not decline it, if limited to a period of a
year, and with the privilege of spending some time as necessary up
at Tengchow. Of course, temporary arrangements had to be made
for the conduct of the school. For this purpose Julia’s sister, Maggie,
was called into service; and with such assistance as she could
command she gave excellent satisfaction. She was also in
possession of the Mateer home. As to the work to which he was thus
temporarily called at Shanghai, he said in his Journal:

While it is a very great trial to me to come to Shanghai, it is

not without some inducement. It will increase very largely my
acquaintance, and will enlarge my knowledge of China and its
affairs. Also I hope it may be the means of getting something
of great benefit done for Julia’s health. I am very sorry that the
doctor who treated her before is not here now. My great
sorrow is that it will interfere with my Chinese studies, and
prevent me accomplishing what I had designed.

It was not until August, 1872, that he finally went back to

Tengchow to resume his work there.
The details of his life while at Shanghai probably would not interest
most readers. He said of it in his Journal, under date of January 29,
1872:

I neglected everything to do the work in the press, and I

worked with an assiduity that I have rarely given to anything in
my life. I had hoped when I went to Shanghai to have some
time to study, but I found it utterly out of the question. The
demands for the press were imperative, and I just gave
myself to the work.

Two sides of his capabilities were there brought into special

requisition. One of these was his efficiency as a business manager,
—a characteristic due partly to his native qualities, and partly to his
habits of accuracy, of wise forethought, of careful oversight, and of
insistence on the faithful performance of duty by all employees. This
side of his character is brought out by his “letter books.” Separation
by the space of half a globe from the base of supplies made it
necessary to anticipate wants by eight or ten months. For convenient
reference he caused every business letter, and many others, to be
copied. Especially as the school and college at Tengchow grew on
his hands he had to conduct what was in reality a large
miscellaneous business, under conditions that were very
exceptionally difficult. He had not only to provide for his own wants in
his family and in his work, but also to accommodate others by acting
as their agent. His orders had to go sometimes to Shanghai, but
more frequently to London, or to New York, or to some place in the
interior of the United States. Many are curiosities, owing to the
nature and the range of articles included—from a steam engine or a
telescope or costly chemical supplies to a paper of pins. Some of the
lists cover more than ten pages in the copy. Woe to the merchant or
agent in London or New York or Shanghai who by mistake or for
other reason sent without adequate explanation any article that was
not quite in accordance with the order! He might expect to get a
sharp letter, and a demand to rectify the mistake if that were
practicable. Service as treasurer of the mission also gave him drill.
Shilly-shally workmen are one of the horrors which sometimes call
from him in his Journal groans of anguish. When he had completed
his charge of the press establishment, including as it did a book
department, a job department, a dwelling for the superintendent,
quarters for the workmen, all of whom were Chinese, a chapel for
these workmen, and other equipments, it was a well-organized
business, running regularly and smoothly, and doing its work about
as efficiently as was possible under the conditions.
The other side of his capabilities there especially called into
exercise was his mechanical gifts. As an illustration, the following
from his Journal, under the same date as that just given, will answer:

I had to get a Japanese dictionary started, and it was a

most embarrassing affair. My predecessor had made
promises which he could not fulfill. The men were there to