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[[underline]] Chapter IV. [[/underline]]   58.

he had not quite concluded the agreement, owing to the temporary absence of an influential man, he expected to do so by the end of October or the beginning or November. It would, he believed, facilitate matters and prevent the rise of suspicion and jealousy if we delayed our appearance on the scene until that time.
   Mr. Lo had, with what was doubtless good reason from his point of view, carried on the above negotiations I the name of the recently organized Archaeological Society alone, [[superscript footnote]] (36) without mentioning the Freer Gallery
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   (36)
      See page 6.
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and the Boston Museum. For General Ts'ao Kun, the newly appointed president of China, had dismissed from office most of the men with whom we had been dealing, and had filled their places with creatures of his own, quite devoid of interest in scientific research. Their attitude toward our project, it was explained to me, had led the Society to feel that our chances of ultimate accomplishment would be materially improved were I for the present to appear in the matter solely as its own employé, conducting the Yen Tu excavation in its name alone instead of making it the joint Sino-American undertaking that we had planned. The cost of the work would however have to be borne entirely by the Freer Gallery and the Boston Museum; the Society's contribution to the enterprise being only such measure of official sanction, or at least tacit acquiescence, as it might manage to secure. Although I believed that I recognized the force of the Society's arguments in view of the existing political situation, I was reluctant to enter into such an arrangement, even temporarily The matter was therefore left in abeyance for the present; but the negotiations with the people at I Chou went on nevertheless.
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