Two distinguished Chinese scientists have left the frontier for the Chengtu Plain. Dr. Ko and Dr. Tsu, both from Jinlin University, arrived on the border some two months ago. fon what was largely a vacation holiday. Chinese teachers and professors in West! China are now following the good example of many of their western confreres by de-Voting their summer vacations to scientific research among the Tibetan foothills. Dr. Graham, Dr, Kilborn and Dr. Agnew and other members of the West China Union University frequently give up a much-needed rest during the hot summer months and try find some undiscovered trail away among} the Tibetan mountains, where, if possible, the scientist has not yet penetrated.
Mr. 'T, Torrance, now at home in Edin~ burgh, during his summer vacations among the Tibetan foothills, made what is probably] the greatest discovery in West China, namely, the finding of a strange and interest ing tribe known as the Chiang, with very strong Tsraelitish affinities and who worship] the one and only true God, Mr. Torrance's finds have quite recently been published and) fare an important contribution to ethnology' and most of this scientific work was done when the terrible heat drove the Chengtu resident away up among the mountains.
Each summer finds these young scientists seeking new fields of adventure and higher worlds to conquer, And when the short} winter days come, making field work impos~ sible, the West' China Border Research] Society provides an outlet for the expression of new discoveries. Within recent years} young Chinese scientists, many of whom have been trained abroad, more and more are] taking an interest in border research, and they too are being invited to express themselves at the public meetings of the HRS. held at the West China Union University. During the past summer several well~ organized Chinese scientific expeditions have started out from Tachienlu for the interior.
Perhaps the most highly-organized Chinese party left Tachienlu a few weeks ago travelling along the north Lhasa road. Namka, the young Tibetan who spent a number of years in England, is giving considerable help to these expeditions as guide, and interpreter. Tents have to be made, boxes secured, provisions purchased, and! equipment arranged; and this takes weeks to do, Tachienlu is somewhat different from} Shanghai where much can be ordered and, arranged by simply calling "one, two, three, four please." Here in Tachienlu, if the expedition lacks any important item, some Genius in the party has an idea. There are close on 20 in the party including students, teachers, doctors and professors.
One decided by-product of these Chinese scientific expeditions is the helpful training in team work. Smythe in "Kamet Conquered" tells how he detested the ungainly' step of the climber immediately in front of] him; something he had never noticed before. And when a band of some 20 young Chinese scientists get together in research work, idiosyncrasies will grow and flourish when the weather is bad, the tent leaks, the rain puts the fire out, the wind blows the tent! down, the cook can't light the fire and when. the leader can't give a satisfactory explanation why the expedition should mess about] in this horrible hole.
The scientific expedition which Namka is leading is now making its centre at Dawe, a small Tibetan settlement some seven days! west of Tachienlu. Here the expedition is! breaking up into separate parties thus facilitate ing a wider range of research: the geologists marking out one field and the biologists! another. Among the geologists are some Chinese scientists who were here in 1030 in. connection with Dr. Heim's expedition to the Gongga. Most of the party, however, are! making their first acquaintance with border travel. Fortunately when the group was making its preparations a big caravan of animals arrived and this the expedition, with. the help of Namka, was able to secure without much difficulty.
Dr. Ko and his party were not so fortu ate, This sociologist learned what many other border travellers discovered, that there are some things not very good for the Christian's health and one of them is hustle. In due course the six members of the party, with some ten pack animals, were riding! Somewhat precariously along the big north yond towards the Lake Mountain Pass. As far as we can learn this is the first time that a highly-trained sociologist has tackled this branch of science along the Tibetan frontier. We were quite surprised to find that this subject branches off into historical sociology, biological sociology, economic sociology and traditional sociology: and apparently this in no way covers everything, sociology being a science which boasts of numerous ramifications.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.