CAMPBELL, W. L.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Military Report on the Provinces of Shensi and Kansu (Shen-Kan). First edition, found in three libraries only worldwide. As it bordered the buffer state of Xinjiang, Gansu - and its neighbouring province of Shaanxi - occupied an important place in the British geopolitical outlook during the closing phase of the Great Game. William Lachlan Campbell, later Charles Bell's successor as the British political officer in Sikkim, travelled through the region in 1903.The report contains valuable political intelligence and ethnographic information, as well as information on resource supply, communications systems, and the distribution of Chinese military forces. The maps and plans concern Lanzhou, Xining, other important towns, and the Tongguan Passage. The report also contains routes and itineraries followed by other operatives.Campbell (1880-1937), a man much admired by Sir Ernest Satow and Francis Younghusband, "made his name when, after secondment in Peking in 1903, he travelled from China to India by way of Kashgar, a notable achievement at that time... He was placed on special duty with the Foreign Department from January to May 1904, and then with the Intelligence Branch at Army Headquarters for two periods" (McKay, p. 407). Campbell spoke excellent Chinese.Copies are held at the British Library, National Library of Scotland, and the University of Oxford.

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