SECRET RELIC SALE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21040, 31 May 1930, Page 25

SECRET RELIC SALE.

PUBLIC ANGER AT LOSS OF HISTORIC DOCUMENTS. Widespread indignation was aroused by the announcement made that the famous Dorchester or Carleton papers, comprising 20,000 manuscripts relating to the War of American Independence, had been sold by the Royal Institution to Dr A. S. Rosenbach, the American collector. Prominent people are behind a mqvement to stop depredations of this sort, which of late years have been numerous, by Government action. In this instance the moral right of a body like the Royal Institution to dispose of historic documents is brought into question. Although the Royal Institution announced that it contemplated the sale of the documents in order to raise the necessary £04,000 for the reconstruction of its buildings in London, negotiations were kept more or less secret until it was announced that the sale had been completed, and that the rare volumes were already in the possession of Dr Rosenbach. The collection includes letters written by George Washington to English officers. In 1798 the papers passed into the possession of a Mr John Symmons, who presented them to the Royal Institution of Great Britain in ISO 4. While British historians are indignant at the transference to America of these rare volumes, Americans librarians are rejoicing in their capturing manuscripts which deal -with a most important epoch in American history.