It was no wonder that the situation in Peking was becoming more and more exciting. On the same day as Jehol fell all the thousands of rickshaws in the city had disappeared. They had been requisitioned for the transport of ammunition! And on March 16th martial law was proclaimed; one might not appear in the streets after eleven without a pass.
There was an atmosphere of general unrest in the city. Professor Liu Fu asked for the loan of two Swedish flags to hoist on the 3rd Compound of the National University, where our collections were stored, to show that foreign property was kept there.
All the branches of the post office in and immediately outside Peking were instructed to send their day's takings to the central office every evening, as it was feared that marauding Chinese troops might at any moment overrun and plunder the city. Such things had happened before.
On April 30th the Japanese troops were less than eighty kilometers from Peking.
AN OLD DIPLOMATIST
In the company of the head of the National Library, Dr YUAN TUNG-LI, a brother of our geologist, Professor YUAN, I had an opportunity of visiting an old diplomat who had played a part in the shaping of my earlier destinies. The old gentleman in question was CHANG YIN-T'ANG, who was Chinese Amban in Lhasa during the period 1905-07, just when I was trying to gain access to this city, that was at that time forbidden to foreigners. He had also been Commissioner for Tibetan Affairs and had conferred with Lord CURZON in Calcutta. He was one of those
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