031.11 American Museum of Natural History (4th Asiatic)/11
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the Chinese Minister (C. C. Wu)
Subject: Roy Chapman Andrews expedition under auspices of American Museum of Natural History
I told the Minister that I had received a communication from Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of the American Museum of Natural History, who is an old friend of mine and whom I had known for many years, in regard to the Andrews expedition; that I was also familiar with those expeditions while I was in Peking and that I had seen and knew Mr. Andrews and was very much interested in the results of his previous trips; that I was informed that the expedition had been held up since April 15th by the Chinese Government which had sought to impose certain conditions which I had before me before they would consent to its proceeding; that I had read the conditions and I thought they were wholly impossible and subversive of the expedition’s going forward. I pointed out too, particularly, the first article, which I read to the Minister, requiring the expedition to be composed of half Chinese and half foreign members and each half to have a leader. I said that such a division of responsibility was violative of every principle of scientific expeditions, as indeed any military expedition or any other kind of expedition, that the success of Mr. Andrews’ expedition depended upon his personality and his leadership and this would destroy that. I pointed out that I myself am personally familiar with exploring expeditions, having participated in them and I knew what the destruction of leadership meant.
The other condition that they have imposed upon foreign membership in the expedition, that they make the Museum pay for all of the expenses of these added members, was grossly unfair in view of the difficulty which the Museum had in raising money for these expeditions. In short I told him that I thought these conditions would make impossible such an expedition. I told him further that I was sympathetic with the efforts which China was making to preserve its good name and its advances and had respected the achievements [Page 842] which its present leaders were making in those respects, but if such an attempt to hold up—and I said the word might be disagreeable but it meant nothing less than that—this expedition were made upon such terms it would cause a very bad impression throughout the world and that impression would go everywhere because all scientists were virtually brothers; therefore I hoped that a word to the wise would be sufficient and I would be glad if he would convey my impressions to Dr. Wang23 the Foreign Minister, whom I knew personally, so that this expedition could go forward as soon as possible.
- C. T. Wang.↩