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37.

[[underlined]] ENROLLMENT OF MISSIONARIES. [[/underlined]]

The China Monuments Society, of which Mr. McCormick is Secretary, has recognized the value of the missionary force distributed over the length and breadth of China, in urging propaganda against the vandalism which has been destroying monuments. I have had an opportunity to see some of the correspondence sent in to Mr. McCormick on this subject from missionaries, and am convinced that the American School cannot afford to ignore so widely distributed a force as that of the foreigners connected with the Christian churches.

While I recognize that the missionaries are not by taste or training often capable as collectors of objects of art or archaeology, they are usually students of the language and always in close touch with their communities.

I therefore suggest that the School conduct a vigorous campaign among the China Missionaries of all denominations, urging them to send to our headquarters at Peking such things as rubbings of local inscriptions, accounts of old town and building sites, samples of local pottery (ancient and modern), photographs of monuments, folk-lore, news of valuable collections in their localities, stone implements, etc., etc.

In return for this service, the School could undertake to keep them in touch with its field and other work and allow them to purchase its publications at reduced prices.

The general average of intelligence and education among missionaries has increased rapidly of late years, and I am en-