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0296 History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.2
History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.2 / Page 296 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000210
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ally a minus quantity and at a time when the civil war had probably destroyed the few that existed.

Our committee was anything but pleased by the private initiative that HUANG had taken to be able to come with the expedition, and expressed its disapproval of his way of going about things. The committee would otherwise have been glad to have sent one of its own nominees, although there were already three Chinese among our number, but the railway authorities would not agree to this. That they were unable to exert their influence in HUANG's case was due to the fact that the Minister of Education had sent him, and the latter would lose face if the railway authorities removed his protégé.

We for our part were dismayed to get another passenger, for our load was already much too heavy. Counting ourselves and everything we should be taking with us, we had no less than ten tons for the three lorries, and the load was supposed not to exceed four and a half tons. We should never manage with only three lorries and without an auxiliary caravan. I telegraphed, therefore, to HENRY FORD, asking him to present me with two trucks as a contribution to the expedition, that was to be carried out entirely with Ford cars, and would thus be a good advertisement for him.

PREPARATIONS

Together with BERGMAN, I had already drawn up plans for the equipment before the arrival of the other members of the expedition. BERGMAN saw to the purchase of provisions and all such things as must be taken with us from Peking. Fortunately, we did not need to draw upon our slender funds for the purchase of any instruments or cameras, for all such accessories were left over from the great expedition. But GEORG reckoned that he would need considerably more spare parts for the cars than the Ford agent had supposed; but then GEORG had incomparable experience of the difficult country we were to traverse.

During the latter part of the summer BERGMAN saw to the packing and despatching of the ethnographic collections that were still left in Sweden House, as well as other collections that were to be sent home to Sweden. He also made everything ready for the winding up of our headquarters. Sweden House was nearing its last hours. After a happy and eventful summer in the delightful surroundings of this compound its inhabitants were now to be dispersed, its furnishings sold, and the staff of servants discharged.

The mapping work carried out by NORIN in 1927 in Inner Mongolia largely covered the route we intended to take with the cars. These maps were thus of inestimable value for the projected road-construction. SHEN CHANG had also

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