中华人民共和国国家档案局
Mr. Roper Michael
Keeper of Public Records Office
TW94DU KEW, Richmond
London United Kingdom
Dear Mr. Roper,
Oct. 14, 1988
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It was a pleasure for us to visit the Great Britain on - September 3 - 9, 1988 and have a pleasant discussion with you and Mr. D. Thomas on Sep. 5. After that were given the opportunity to visit the restoring room, the computer management system etc. of your Public records Office, which left us a deep impression.
we
Meanwile, we were also given the chance to visit the Reocrds Office of London University and the Indian Office Library and Records. We had a fritful discussion on the exchange of microfilms in the future. So this visit is effective.
Here I'd like to confirm the agreement reached during our meeting on Sep. 5.
We stated our views on claiming back the historical records (altogether 1,956 files) of our Guangdong province which are now being kept in your Office due to various historical reasons.
As these records are part of the historical records of our Guangdong Province and have norrelations with Britain. So it is no use to be kept permanently in your Office. Besides, some historians and scholars of other fields are deeply concerned about this part of history and are anxious to access them. So we hope to claim them back.
In the discussion, you showed your sympathy for this problem from the professional point of view, but mentioned that the return of these records involved government's
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