031.11 American Museum of Natural History (4th Asiatic)/64
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The Chinese Minister called and referred to the case of Mr. Roy Chapman Andrews. He stated that he had received a telegram from C. T. Wang, Chinese Foreign Minister, stating that he had arranged with the Cultural Committee in Peking about the question of the co-director so that the expedition could go into the field. The Minister stated that he now understood that Mr. Andrews had canceled his expedition and he wondered what had happened as he hoped everything had been fixed up.
I told the Chinese Minister what had happened. After Mr. Andrews’ interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he consulted the Cultural Society only to find that the Cultural Society was insisting that all material found by the expedition should be brought to Peking and there to be gone over and divided by the Chinese before any of it could be sent to New York. I stated that this went back to [Page 852] the beginning of things when we had discussed the whole question of the distinction to be drawn between archeological remains and paleontological remains; that the Museum was acting on what I understood to be a well-known fact, namely, that paleontological remains discovered in public domains belonged to the finder while archeological remains, having a connection with the national history of the country where found, naturally were subject to such claims as the people of that country might care to exert. I stated that Mr. Andrews with the approval of their principals here had refused to agree to any such method and that we could hardly expect them to agree.
The Minister stated that he had not heard that there was any such dispute, that he had thought all of that settled.
I stated that it was my understanding that Mr. Andrews would doubtless remain in Peking for some time although the expedition was now off because it was too late for them to go into the field. I still had hopes, as did Doctor Osborn, that we could arrange this misunderstanding.