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[[scholarship did not predispose them to set small value on our modest beginnings.  Indeed quite the contrary was the case.  They both held out high hopes for immediate and important results from the work which I outlined to them, even though I did not conceal from them the fact that America is sadly behind in the matter of Oriental Scholarship and that of China in particular.  They laid stress on the fact that scholarship could be developed by degrees and that meantime we could make very considerable contributions to available data on any of the subjects which we hope to undertake.
[[underline]]VALUE OF FUTURE ASSOCIATION WITH FRENCH SCHOLARS[[/underline]]
We must by no means let such auspicious beginning of a friendship with the learned French gentlemen end with these consultations, and I earnestly recommend that we avail ourselves of their generosity and keep in constant touch with them--appealing to them for advice, supplying them with material which we have collected and in general making ourselves felt as an integral part of their Oriental interest.  In fact I so far assumed a responsibility for the future actions of the School as to assure them that this would be our policy. 
As both these gentlemen are still closely affiliated with the "Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient" in Hanoi, and as everything which they said on the subject of our proposed school was independently repeated by MM. Maitre and Finot in Cochin, China, I feel that the whole body of French scholars may be regarded as our friends and cooperators from the very start. - typed]]