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

A COMMITTEE MEETING

On the evening of December 13th a big meeting with our committee was held at the Tung-hsing-lou, one of the foremost Chinese restaurants in the city, and well-known to all who have visited Peking. Business was discussed during the meal. I submitted the following desiderata:

1. Permission for HAUTE with MÜHI,ENWEG as assistant to carry out a meteorological expedition to Mongolia to supplement and extend the researches he had carried on there in 1927.

2. The drawing up of a memorandum to be addressed to Foreign Minister C. T. WANG and the Goverment in Nanking in connection with the detention of AMBOLT in Urumchi by Governor CHIN, together with an application for a passport for my projected journey to Sinkiang.

3. Prolongation of the expedition for a further two years and application for an official note to this effect from the government to Governor CHIN.

4. Compensation for the expenses to which the expedition had been put by Governor CHIN, such as Sin's and my journey to Nanking in 1928, the stopping of BERGMAN, BExELL, BOHLIN, HÖRNER and CHEN on the frontier between Siberia and Sinkiang in May 1929, the temporizing and shuffling regarding AMBOi,2's travelling-permit within Sinkiang, the exaction of 6,000 dollars' rent for our headquarters in Urumchi, although old Governor YANG had placed this house at our disposal free of charge.

5. Permission for the Swedish sinologue Professor BERNHARD KARLGREN to interpret the manuscripts on wood from the Han period discovered by BERGMAN.

6. A memorandum to the government regarding my plan for the re-opening of the Han-period road from Kansu via Lop-nor to Kashgar.

7. Enquiry into the truth of Governor CHIN'S statement that he had received the following telegraphed order from the government in Nanking: »Stop all further journeys of expedition and do not let HEDIN enter the province. »

All these requests were granted. BERGMAN'S Han-manuscripts, however, were not to be taken out of the country; Professor KARLGREN must be content with photographs of them — unless he should prefer to study the originals in Peking, which of course would be the most desirable course. Later, it was decided that two Chinese philologists should have charge of the examination of the manuscripts while KARLGREN was to interpret them and relate them to their great historical context. Liu Fu and MA HENG were chosen for this task. With the former we are already well acquainted; he was, actually, professor of acoustics at the National University. The latter was Director of the Archaeological Department of the Palace Museum and professor of archaeology at the National University. He was one of the two chief leaders of the opposition to our expedition in the spring of 1927.

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