THE SILKEN WAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 21, 22 December 1938, Page 16

THE SILKEN WAY

MOST HISTORIC ROAD. ‘ ASIA TO EUROPE. One of the most engrossing books that have been written for a long time has made its appearance in “Tlie Silk Road,” by Dr Sven Medin, the famous explorer. Dr Hedin, now over seventy years .if ago, has spent nearly half a century in Asiatic exploration, and whatever he writes of Central Asia •■ommands respect. When trouble occurred in China’s most western province, Sinkiang, in 1933, tl|e veteran traveller was asked what should be done. He replied that since the formation .of the Republic, the Chinese had lost Tibet, Outer Mongolia, Manchuria, and Jeliol, and • that Inner Mongolia vv as ■ seriously threatened. Sinkiang, though still Chinese, was riven by Mohammedan revolt mid civil war, and it was Hedin’s opinion that the most important thing for the Chinese Government to do was to keep uji first-class . motor roads between China proper and Sinkiang. His proposals were accepted by the Chinese War Office, and lie gathered an expedition to survey and lay down one road across the Gobi desert and another along . the southern Imperial Highway, through Kansu. Terms of the expedition forbade political sympathy with any one party, strict neutrality had to .be observed among combatants, and archaeological research was banned. Now, Dr Hedin had to violate this last condition in port, since lie was determined to uncover the old Silk Road, whose history is almost as ancient and romantic as Chinese culture; and this violation caused his party to he regarded dubiously by both warring factions.

This Silk Road is a single track running north-west and west from Sian, as far as Tun-Hwang ; then it divides into three main branches: One running via Kliotan, one by way of Loti-lan, and another by Hami and Turfan. These, of course, are not the only branches from that great artery. The entire Silk Road extends about 6000 miles, or one-quarter the length of the Equator, and it is, without cavil, “the longest, and from a cultural point ol view, tlie most significant connecting link between peoples and continents that has ever existed on earth.” The book is the tale of that exciting expedition, over the famed Gobi Desert, with multitudinous breakdowns and reverses, privations, interference, imprisonment, and what not. The work is as exciting as the best “thriller,” for Ma Chuiig-yin, who over-rail Sinkiang, commandeered lorries and cars to help him out of an impasse before sending the expedition on under his protection. But when the explorers reached and left Hami their troubles began in earnest, and we have amazing accounts of Chinese delays and Soviet kindness when Sheng Tupan, Govern-or-General at Urumchi, detained the leaders for weary months oil end. GREAT TRAFFIC ROUTE. Of the Silk Road, Dr Iledin says: “This iiunieiisely long road cannot be an unbroken entity without willing cooperation from the Rnssian side. But it China makes the necessary financial sacrifices and Soviet llussia is sympathetic, the undertaking will be comparatively simple. . . It should facilitate trade communications within the Chinese Empire and open a new traffic route between East and West. . . It should unite two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic; two continents, Asia and Europe; two cultures, tlie Chinese and the Western. Everything that is calculated to bring different peoples together, to connect and unite them, should be greeted with sympathy, at a time when suspicion and envy keep the nations asunder.” The author has no doubt that Sinkiang is politically and economically in the hands of Soviet Russia, and he ventures the. opinion that “the coming war between Russia and Japan for the mastery of Asia” will be fought in this western-most Chinese province. CARAVAN BELLS. The history of the caravans that once trod this old road is done graphically—indeed, the tinkle of caravan bells haunts the entire volume; the geographical and archaeological data presented are intensely interesting ; the lights that are shed on the Chinese factions and the Russians and the Mohammedans illuminate and never dazzle the Western mind ; and as a record of motoring achievement alone the book is a masterpiece. Tbe reader who travels this romantic road west even from Terek-dawan will preserve the memory of another world —-“the splendid mosques and mausoleums from Tamerlane’s time in Samarkand ; the theological colleges of Bokhara, with cupolas and minarets gleaming in gaily-coloured faience;, Merv. with its tradition of learning and knowledge ; Imam Riza’s tomb, to which pilgrims still throng from all over Iran; romantic Persia, home of Hadji Baba, and Bagdad the city of the Caliphs.” Thence to Ankara and Istanbul to enter the bustle of Western life, after the great silence and peace of the Asian deserts. Here is romance for the asking, following the old road by which the Chinese sent their famed silk hr caravan after connecting caravan until Roman Emperors in their purple flaunted two tlousand years ago. the most highly-esteemed and sought-after article of world trade