The missing papers do not require a conspiracy. The National Archives preserves millions of records, but departments also condensed or discarded material judged to lack lasting historical value. A later reviewer may have seen only a place name in China and failed to recognize the seriousness of the naval confrontation. The survival of indexes without the files is consistent with different departments retaining catalogue and case material separately. The example shows how routine appraisal decisions can remove the evidence needed to recover an event's importance.
Notable Point · 1:43:00-1:43:38
How routine archival selection can erase a crisis
The lost Tsingtao files may reflect ordinary archival disposal rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal the confrontation.