031.11 American Museum of Natural History (4th Asiatic)/17
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The Chinese Minister called at noon by appointment. The Minister stated that he had called for the purpose of informing the Secretary of two replies he had received to his two messages concerning the Roy Chapman Andrews Expedition, one message sent as the result of his conversation with Doctor Sherwood24 and the other message sent as the result of his conversation with the Secretary on May thirteenth.
The Minister stated that in reply to his first telegram, the Minister for Foreign Affairs at Nanking stated that the question had previously been handled by an organization for the preservation of antiquities in North China and had not been up for consideration by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but now that it was before the Government, the National Legislature (Legislative Yuan) was giving consideration to a law on the subject of the preservation of antiquities which would be general in its application, and it was hoped then that the question of the Andrews Expedition could be properly handled.
The Secretary asked the Minister whether he had communicated to his Government the Secretary’s anxiety with regard to the future prospects of the Andrews Expedition as every day’s delay was making it less probable that the Expedition would be successful and the Minister’s remark that the matter was to be dealt with by the Legislature sounded ominous. The Minister stated that he was coming to that: that in a second telegram, a personal one from the Foreign Minister, Mr. C. T. Wang, to himself in reply to the second telegram reporting his conversation with the Secretary, the Foreign Minister had stated that the Secretary of State should not be worried about [Page 843] the matter as he was sure that every just consideration would be given to the requirements of Mr. Andrews.
The Secretary stated that he felt these replies did not quite meet the situation, that it was not a question of human antiquities whose preservation for historical and national reasons he could understand and sympathize with, but it was a question of scientific research into the remains of early prehistoric life, of interest to the entire world, a research in which all peoples would equally benefit, which was being held up by the Chinese at the present time. Mr. Andrews was not a new investigator in this field. He had proved his ability by previous expeditions and was now asking for permission to proceed on an expedition for this coming summer and he was being delayed by requirements and demands which the Secretary said appeared to be most unusual and most burdensome. The Secretary felt that perhaps the Chinese Government did not appreciate the fact that further delay was calculated to jeopardize the entire expedition as the summer would soon be over and communication impossible.
The Chinese Minister stated that he felt the requirements which the Secretary referred to had been made by inexperienced persons engaged in cooperating with this party in North China; that he felt sure the authorities at Nanking could and would recognize the importance of the matter. He said that he would telegraph again and that he hoped to have a more favorable reply to his next telegram. He said that after all the dinosaur bones had been there a long time and perhaps a delay of a day or two would not make too much difference. The Secretary stated that of course it was quite true that the dinosaur bones had been sitting a long time but that the expedition was in the field and could not wait and it was very important that something be done very soon.
- George H. Sherwood, director of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.↩