National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

schooled archaeologist, and had already acquired a considerable reputation among fellow-scientists in the West; he, too, had been in touch with the modern methods of Western science for sufficiently long to realize the importance of the work we intended to carry out. The fifth member of the delegation which now came to my hotel was a young secretary who took notes of all that was said at this meeting.

The delegation had drawn up a list of all the questions I had to answer. They numbered 14 points — just like Wn soN's! The meeting was not unlike a court of justice in which I appeared in the rôle of prisoner at the bar, being subjected to a detailed cross-examination. They wished to orient themselves in the light of my answers and then to draw up the contract they intended to offer me. The points were as follows.

I. Maps, mapping work and astronomical observations. The most important restriction was that no maps were to be drawn on a larger scale than is 300.000.

2.  Wireless. This was simple, since we had never contemplated taking a wireless transmitter, but only a receiving set with which we could register the time-signals from Nauen, Bordeaux, Cavite etc. for longitude determinations.

3.  Meteorological observations and their significance for military purposes. It turned out that grave fears were entertained in connection with a thorough investigation of the climate and prevailing winds of Inner Asia, as a knowledge of these conditions might facilitate, in the event of war, a hostile invasion by air. We had thus to cope not only with their very understandable aversion to the idea of their archaeological and palaeontological treasures being carried off by Europeans, but also with their fear that foreigners might get to know too much about their winds and weather. Meteorology had a special importance for us, apart from the purely scientific point of view, as we still hoped for an opportunity to open an air-route through Asia after the conclusion of the preliminary caravan journey. My attempts to explain away the military importance of meteorology were, however, without effect. But this talk of meteorology as a danger to China was only a pretext, and it died down after a time. My plans also included the establishing of at least four permanent meteorological stations. My offer to present these, with the whole of their instrumental equipment, to the Chinese state after the conclusion of the expedition did not make any noticeable effect on the delegation.

4.  Scope and distribution of the geological collections.

5.  Scope of archaeological research, including exploration along the route and detail research, excavation and collections. This question was one of the most important, and the Chinese were inflexibly determined that all objects that were collected should remain in China. The question afterwards gave rise to endless discussions. Professor ANDERSSON and I argued consistently that a representative collection of duplicates ought to fall to Sweden's lot. Among the Chinese there were some who considered this claim justified — when one spoke with them

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