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0102 History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.1
History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.1 / Page 102 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000210
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the same time similar collections, in part in the same tracts, so that the Chinese museums got their share of the results in any case. Finds from historical time, for example BERGMAN'S collection of Han objects from the Edsen-gol, such as household implements, weapons, textiles etc., were to be preserved in China. I afterwards obtained permission to keep these collections in Stockholm for four years as a loan, for classification and investigation by BERGMAN. The objects dug up by BERGMAN, PARKER C. CHEN and myself from graves at Lop-nor, in 1934, were also lent to Stockholm, but only for two years. In March 1935 The Board of Directors promised that duplicates of the historical collections should be given to Sweden. The most important and valuable of all BERGMAN'S historic finds were the manuscripts on wood that he found in ruined towers of the Han period on the Edsen-gol. These documents were on no condition to be taken out of China. I shall have occasion to speak of the subsequent fate of this collection of manuscripts in another connection.

As for the geological collections, no notice was afterwards taken of the stipulation in clause b) in § 14. The collections of rock samples thus came permanently to Stockholm. Certain groups of the palaeontological collections are being investigated by European experts, while other sections were left behind in China to be dealt with by Professor GRABAU and Chinese specialists. A part of this valuable material was given to the custody of The Geological Survey of China in Nanking. When the Japanese attacked the capital at the end of the year 1937, the premises of The Geological Survey were plundered and destroyed, and at the end of 1939 I was informed that certain collections were then taken to Japan. Whether or not this is true I cannot yet say.

§ 15. This paragraph, with its five clauses, seems at first sight appalling. Like all the other paragraphs, however, it turned out quite differently in practice. A representative selection of the photographs was sent to The Board of Directors, and a couple of copies of the film at about the same time as it was shown publicly in Europe and America. Most of the expedition's European members and some of the Chinese had their own cameras. Herr LIEBERENZ had, moreover, nothing else to do but take photographs. To submit all these thousands of photographs for the approval of the committee in Peking would have been impossible, nor did The Board of Directors require this.

Still more absurd would it have been to hand over our diaries, notes, sketches etc. for inspection by the committee. Further, if all maps had been submitted to the committee, to be then entrusted to the general staff, this would have been tantamount to bidding a long farewell to our valuable chart material, or in the best case to submitting ourselves to an arbitrary discussion as to which points should be regarded as of strategical importance and therefore unsuitable for publication. Also this point, however, gave rise to no difference of opinion or any demands from the committee's side.

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