208 Peking Hotel
Peking
Friday 15th Aug 1952

[In margin, by hand:] Copy of letter sent to Holland in case it misses you @ Jaap’s[end]

Darling Pipit:

It is half past seven pm and from where I sit I can see the wonderful long blue line of the western hills, with the orange glow of the sunset behind it, and the ever-beautiful roofs of the Imperial Palace in the middle distance, a sea of trees between my verandah and it. To the left, through another window, is the bustle and trams of Chhang-An Ta Gai [Chang'an dajie 長安大街?]. Dinner looms ahead about 8 1/2, possibly with Rewi, who returned this morning from Shanghai and Hangchow and the Huai River, with marvellous tales of the great dams that are being put up and which will outdo the TVA [Tennessee Valley Authority]. I am feeling absolutely exhausted, however. We got back from Shenyang (Mukden) on the 9th at 7 am, and since then I’ve hardly left the hotel, and had no time for anything; except continuous writing punctuated by meetings.

Here's how I got incorporated, sucked in, you might say, having intended originally to be nothing but liaison. There were so few, and there was such a tremendous amount of evidence to be sifted. It was not long before my Fr [French] colleague and I found a "formula" for safeguarding my (our) positions, along the lines of the letters originally written from Prague. It runs like this:

“From the beginning, the Commission felt uneasy concerning the qualifications represented by its members. Only two of them were eminent in the fields of bacteriology and medical entomology (though reinforced before the end of the work by Dr G [Graziosi]), and two of them lacked the professional medical qualification. It was of course evident that on all matters where a knowledge and understanding of the scientific method as such was the main desideratum, everyone could contribute. It was also clear that in certain fields . . . . no group of biologists could expect to meet the need, though here it was advantageous that one of them had had a long and thorough aviation training. But within the biological domain, members of the Commission naturally felt that they could not append their signatures to this Report in such a way as to appear to claim qualifications in fields such as bacteriology which they did not possess. The names signed below, therefore, bear appropriate indications as to the fields of competence of the signatories, and each one regards him or herself as taking full responsibility for all matters in the Report which belong to that particular field. For the rest, that is to say, for all those questions which do not properly belong to his own field, he declares that the explanations of his better qualified colleagues, and the discussions which followed, instructed him sufficiently to carry his conviction. It is in this sense that the present Report is a truly collective work."

Then against my name underneath will come against my name [sic]:-

/Biochemistry: Embryology; Chinese Language and Literature/

which is all that I can take absolute responsibility for. I hope (though I doubt, but can’t help) this will satisfy the Roy. Soc. [Royal Society] purists.