were enthusiastic at the prospect of accompanying us the four best were to be selected on the basis of examination results. What I was most keyed up about was whether we would be able to leave Peking and Pao-t'ou before the expected political disturbances broke out. The opposition had formally accepted my proposition No. 2, that no archaeological activities should be carried on. In reality, however, two of the Chinese members were archaeologists, and no-one insisted on the dismissal of FOLKE BERGMAN, the Swedish archaeologist, or on the exclusion of the three Chinese excavators CHUANG, PAI and CHIN, who had been trained in archaeological excavation by Professor ANDERSSON. It had also been decided that a selection of duplicates of the archaeological finds should be presented to me »comme souvenir de collaboration ». By not giving me a written guarantee regarding the duplicates the Chinese had saved their faces. They were also in a position to point to pecuniary gain. In their own eyes and the eyes of the general public they had won the game. But the decisive tug-o'-war was to take place in the deserts of Central Asia.
On April 21st I received a visit from the two most prominent Chinese members of the expedition, Professor Siu PING-CH'ANG and Dr P. L. YUAN. They wished to hear some details of my plans concerning the archaeological work in the field. I assured them that this question would not lead to any complications and that it could easily be resolved from case to case. In this connection I expressed my surprise at the strange attitude of the opposition regarding the preservation in China of all objects that were related to archaeology or the history of art. There had been an account in the daily papers of the total disappearance of about eighty precious pieces from the porcelain museum in The Forbidden City. Ancient relics in Peking were allowed to go to ruin and the authorities winked at the thefts of the beautiful yellow tiles from the tomb of the Emperor YUNG Lo that were committed every year by tourists; nothing was done to save and preserve these memorials of an older time. In my view it would be better to conserve and protect the city-wall of Peking, the wall around The Forbidden City, and the precious objects in the museums than to squabble about collections that had not yet been made and that were to be fetched from innermost Asia. Dr YUAN replied: »The opposition has protested against the plan to raze the wall around The Forbidden City. You are, moreover, quite right in what you say. If we impose certain conditions on you this is only because all subsequent expeditions, for example ANDREWS'S or ANDERSSON'S, will refer to you. If we made the conditions for you too easy the others would demand the same privileges. For my own part I would like to be much more generous than the Federation. »
On April 23rd Governor Cnou and Professor Liu FU came with the contract. An important Chinese standpoint was that the expedition should be regarded as a purely Chinese enterprise, and that for the future, when other European explorers
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