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

To this he could not agree. »This is our offer, » he assured me; »and you are perfectly free to make your counter-proposals and to take up whatever points you like for discussion ».

I replied: »If you want the Chinese and the foreign members of the mission to be on an equal footing, well and good; but in that case the same equality should extend to the financing of the whole enterprise. I will bear the costs for the foreigners, and you will stand for the expenses of the Chinese ».

»So it may seem to you, » answered Liu Fu; »as far as I am concerned I am only empowered to communicate to you the decisions made at the meeting of the opposition. »

»The effect of your proposal is to degrade the foreign members to a lower level than the Chinese. Without any economic sacrifices on your side you want to arrogate to the institutions in Peking all the scientific results of our enterprise. However, I will consider your proposals carefully, but you must not be surprised if I wind up the expedition and return home. With the position that I occupy in the western world it must be clear to you that I cannot submit to whatever treatment my opponents may choose to mete out to me. »

We also discussed the question of publication, which in my opinion could not take place in China, and which would, moreover, entail heavier costs than any Chinese Government could grant. Liu Fu was convinced that when Kuomintang was once firmly in the saddle it would establish such wonderful order and bring about such prosperity that it would be easily able to grant 400,000 Mexican dollars for the publication of a scientific series.

The question of the Chinese members was also gone into, and I declared that I would with pleasure take as many students as might be necessary for the positions of observer at the meteorological stations.

To my query as to whether the fifteen points represented their last word Lm Fu answered »Yes! » But even if I accepted them I still could not leave for Paot'ou until the questions of the Chinese members and the passports were settled. When I objected that since receiving a travelling permit from Wai-chiao-pu I had nevertheless been obliged to wait for several weeks for the promised passports, he assured me that this would now be arranged in two weeks — provided that Peking had a government at all by that time, for Dr WELLINGTON Koo's days were numbered. For the rest, it would be sufficient, he said, to have one common passport for all the members. I pointed out to him that this would not do, as the expedition would certainly spread out over a wide area, different groups working in different places.

In this way the debate continued for two and a half hours, at the end of which I had a feeling that the Chinese would doubtless be willing to make concessions on a number of points, for it was clear that at bottom they were determined not to lose this opportunity of taking part in such a big and well-equipped expedition at foreign expense.

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