with any difficulties worth mentioning. The conditions that Professor ANDERSSON had long before secured for the work of the Swedish China Committee in the country had also been granted for my expedition. But just at this time Kuomintang, or »The People's National Party », released an anti-foreign campaign and a wave of nationalism that came sweeping up from South China, and that in its limitless self-confidence preached the doctrine that the Chinese were perfectly well able to manage their own affairs in all spheres of activity — they needed no European help. A couple of recently concluded expeditions, especially ANDERSSON's and ANDREWS'S, had borne in upon the learned Chinese world the fact that their native soil contained a wealth of palaeontological, archaeological and other objects of inestimable scientific value; and now, when this new wave of nationalism set their minds and their pride afire, they asserted — with perfect justice, from the Chinese point of view — that they themselves had more right to reap these harvests than representatives of foreign nations. At the same time they raised the equally natural claim that relics of China's geological and human history should not be taken from their rightful owners, but should hereinafter belong to China and be preserved in Chinese museums.
The whole of this privately initiated opposition came from university circles and learned institutions in Peking. Some of these were The National University of Peking, The Tsing-hua University, The Historical Museum, The Central Observatory, The Peking Library, The Art Museum and other institutions — altogether about a dozen. Two bodies of opinion had emerged at the meeting, one representing the extremists, who wished to forbid everything and force the expedition to go home, the other, to which Professors LI Cm and P. L. YUAN lent their voices, being more moderate. When the last-mentioned group stated that a contract between the expedition and Dr WONG WEN-HAO had already been signed, the extremists vented a stream of anything but benevolent criticism against both Dr WONG and myself.
Thus began the duel between West and East — a conflict that provided a succession of dramatic scenes for the next two months. Our position seemed indeed hopeless from the outset, and the majority of our friends saw no gleam of light in the compact darkness. Here I stood, then, in the Chinese capital, with this great expedition that was my own creation — a German-Swedish enterprise with fifteen European members and a very expensive equipment, with provisions for a year and a half, weapons, tents, heavy coats, sleeping-bags and the main part of the final outfit already purchased; in a word, with everything ready and on the point of setting out for the interior — and now, like a bolt from the blue, this totally unexpected and crushing blow, thwarting all our plans! And the drama was not simplified by the fact that these scenes and events were played out against the background of the political upheavals and the sweeping movement for reform led by the forceful General CHIANG KAI-SHEK.
IIIF Color HighRes
