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Dear Mr. Gardner,
The Council of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was asked, earlier this year, by a well-known Hong Kong resident, Mr. F. A. Nixon O.B.E., to assist him to establish the authenticity of two manuscript fragments in his possession which may have come originally from Tunhuang.
Mr. Nixon's account of how he obtained these two fragments is as follows:-
In the early 1930's Mr. Nixon was Postal Commissioner at Peking, and had under him a Chinese clerk, a Mr. S. T. Han, whom he was helping to learn English. In return Han used to look out for any objects of interest which he could acquire for Mr. Nixon. At this time Mr. Nixon was making a collection of Nestorian Crosses which are now in the Museum of Chinese Art at the University of Hong Kong. (See Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 2 1962, article by Professor F. S. Drake).
In 1932 S. T. Han had been sent to Sian on duty and had acquired two manuscript fragments as explained in the following letter which he wrote to Mr. Nixon on his return to Tientsin. Mr. Nixon was Postal Commissioner in Tsinan, Shantung, from 1932 December to 1934 December.
Copy
Tientsin, 14th April, 1933
Dear Mr. Nixon,
I was in receipt of your letter. The book and the magazine are being returned herewith with thanks.
All the statements in the book are based upon facts and with proofs, so we have not the least doubt in accepting them.
With reference to the Tun-Hwang "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" in page 52, I am very glad to inform you that I have two rolls of
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