The Chinese insisted that all collections that might be made during the expedition should be taken to Peking and placed at the disposal of the various institutions for treatment and future custody. In the course of the discussions on this point I had set forth as a just and equitable counter-request the proposal that representative duplicate collections of all objects found should be handed over to Sweden by way of thanks for my having procured the means for the expedition, without which it would never have been possible. Furthermore, I required that the Swedish research workers be allowed to investigate and classify their collections themselves.
The letter in which I developed these points began with some words in recognition of nationalism, which is a feature characteristic of most peoples, and ended with the hope that the openness with which I had approached them be met with generosity from their side.
REPLY OF THE OPPOSITION
In their reply, the opposition summoned me to a new meeting on March 19th in the Third Compound of the Peking National University. To this we objected that it would be more suitable if they visited me in Hotel Wagons bits. Five gentlemen turned up and declared that they had no executive power themselves, but were only representatives of scientific corporations and institutions in Peking. They were: Mr Cxou, formerly for a short period governor in Honan; he was an elderly gentleman with a grey goatee beard, very polite and affable in his manner, but firm and exacting, and cherishing in his heart an implacable hatred of foreigners. At the meetings and afterwards in the Peking Committee he acted as chairman. Professor Liu Fu, chairman of the executive committee, was an amiable and friendly disposed man, though he, too, considered Western interference as a danger and a threat to the hegemony of Chinese science in China. He afterwards became the real soul in the Peking Committee and the driving will behind its activities; and it was chiefly to him that in the following years I had to apply to get my desiderata granted. Unfortunately he died in 1934, one year before the conclusion of the expedition, and I deeply regretted his decease. P. L. YUAN, professor at the Tsing-hua University, was an extremely learned and skilful geologist, palaeontologist, archaeologist and topographer who spoke perfect English and had studied for many years in America. He was from the very beginning sympathetically disposed, and he understood the importance of co-operation with Western research for the future of Chinese science. He was the only Chinese with whom we collaborated intimately who had the capacity to organize and lead an expedition of his own in unknown or little known tracts. Professor YUAN had also, in 1923, taken part in ANDERSSON's expedition to Kansu. Dr LI CHI was a skilful and well-
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