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NOTES AND QUERIES
Another major group of letters consists of correspondence 'out', arranged alphabetically and by date, for the period 1907 - 1935.
A third group consists of correspondence ‘in', arranged in the same way, for the period 1907 - 1945, and includes letters from specialists on Chinese affairs such as Sir Robert Hart, Alfred Hippisley, C. S. Addis, Willard Straight, G. E. Morrison, (The Times correspondent), and Sir John Jordan, as well as letters from various scholars of Chinese history and culture such as H. B. Morse, Henri Cordier, Percival Yetts, Edmund Backhouse and Arthur Waley. This group also contains letters from a variety of literary and political figures, important in their own time, but not specifically connected with China.
7. Nine volumes of pamphlets on China, formerly belonging to Dr. George Jamieson, mainly dating from the period 1836-1898. (A list of titles is available in the Rare Book Department of the University of Toronto Library).
8. Twelve chapters in draft of an autobiography which Bland had started to write before his death. These appear, from a brief perusal, to be somewhat disappointing, mainly social trivia, and were declined by his publishers, William Heinemann.
The Bland Papers are housed in the Rare Book Department of the University of Toronto Library. (Head of Department: Miss M. E. Brown).
One piquant twist of fate. When I was staying with Mr. and Mrs. Packe on Alderney in 1951 I apparently met Mrs. Coombs. At that time, however, she was not yet in possession of the Bland papers and I had not yet developed a special interest in modern Chinese history.
University of Toronto, 1969,
Postscript
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG
Does anyone know of the whereabouts of the private papers of Sir Thomas Wade? I am working on his career as British minister in Peking from 1870 until 1882, but so far have failed to find any of his private, as opposed to his public, papers. Is anyone still sitting on them?