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

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0083 History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.1
History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.1 / Page 83 (Color Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000210
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

Finally, we came to the important question of an archaeological duplicate collection for Sweden. I drove this point home with a judicious mixture of mildness and diplomatic eloquence: »When I take upon myself the responsibility for the costs of this great expedition, when I make you a present of a system of meteorological stations complete with instruments, when I give your scientists the opportunity of field studies and enrich your museums you ought to be glad to seize the opportunity of showing your gratitude in some way. You are the greatest people on earth, you have the most ancient and the most brilliant history and a splendid future, you rank with the foremost civilized nations and you have a literature that is studied in all countries, your art and architecture is admired all over the world, you are a far-sighted, noble, clever and lovable people — and you are not delighted at the opportunity I give you of showing me this generosity in return for my great sacrifices for you! If I should not carry out this expedition and go home, you would get absolutely nothing. If I do go through with it you will get the complete series of finds, and the only thing I ask is duplicates. Your country and your ancient art and culture will then become better known in Europe; it is an advertisement for China. I attach great importance to this point, for I cannot go home without archaeological finds, I should be laughed at and criticised.

They: The term »duplicate » is very difficult to define. If a grave contains five similar pots, the set cannot be divided even if all the pots are exactly alike.

I:   Yes, but if we find two graves, both exactly alike?

They: Well, then you have the one. It is our intention to present you with a representative collection of archaeological objects from the enterprise. But we are bound by a treaty with Japan according to which nothing may be taken out of China or Japan — not even by expeditions that pay all their travelling expenses themselves. You have noticed that in our fifteen articles nothing is mentioned about any such gift to you. The reason is that the Japanese would otherwise have accused us of breaking the treaty.

I:   I understand. But if everything else is to be made binding by a written
contract I have no guarantee concerning this point, which is of the greatest importance for me. You, can, then, draw up a special secret contract covering this point, and give me an original copy that I may have to fall back on when the expedition is concluded.

They: With pleasure; you shall receive such a written promise.

Finally, I said that I hoped that they would clear up the points concerning the Chinese staff and the matter of the archaeological collections in a satisfactory way. In all the other points we were at variance only as regards details that could be easily arranged and that were not to be allowed to stand between us and our great common goal: the service of science. They pleaded, however, that they were only delegates and that the meeting would decide. When was it to be held? In four

41