国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

COMMENTS AND EXPLANATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH THE

CONTRACT

1.  The name given to the combined enterprise was thus »The Scientific Mission to North-Western China ». The word »mission » was used as »expedition » was considered to be derogatory and applicable only among uncivilized peoples. It is emphasized that it was the Federation that organized the mission in collaboration with me and that the enterprise was under the jurisdiction of the Federation. In the English press in China the expedition was generally called simply »The SinoSwedish Expedition ».

2.  The Board of Directors, commonly called »The Committee », had its seat in Peking while the expedition was working in the field. Its membership changed as the years went by. The soul and the driving force of the committee was Professor Lm Fu, right up to his death in 1934. From the very outset he was our faithful friend, and it was above all due to him that the relations between the European members of the expedition and the members of the committee were always characterized by mutual confidence and trust.

3.  In reality only the ten Chinese members were appointed by The Board of Directors; all the European participants were of course approved by The Board of Directors in the same way as I naturally approved the Chinese appointments. In the following years many changes in the membership of the expedition took place.

4.  Professor Sm PING-CH'ANG was appointed as the Chinese Field Director, and I as the Foreign Field Director. As early as December 1928, or after a year and a half, Professor Sm returned to Peking, where he resumed his professorial chair. The whole arrangement with two leaders of the expedition was thus chiefly intended to save the face of the Chinese, a gesture to the gallery, that in the actual life in the field was completely without significance. We had not progressed very far in the desert before SIV PING-CH'ANG, professor of history and philosophy, openly and candidly assured me that he lacked all experience that might fit him to lead a great caravan through desert tracts where he himself had never been, and that he would be thankful if I would take this responsibility upon my shoulders. He himself was the pleasantest and most congenial travelling companion one could wish for, both as a human being and as a humanistic scholar.

5.  The distribution of the two Field Directors' power as it is laid down in this paragraph gave rise to no trouble and no differences, and was actually never spoken of. SIV PING-CH'ANG and I never once mentioned the existence of the contract that had been signed so solemnly and never needed to refer to its stipulations. I certainly took with me a copy of the contract in English, but I have never opened the envelope until now, thirteen years after the signing. Written rules and regulations are superfluous for sensible and educated men who are fighting for a common goal and the final success of co-operation.< The contract had, how-

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