Poking, Nov. 30.
The local papers report every day, in one form or another, the distress which the Urga situation is causing the high officials in the Peking Government. One day they have decided to appeal to Chang Tso-lin, the next day they would send reinforcements from Kalgan, and the next they are praying that Feng Yii-hsiang will agree to go into the wilderness and take over. They speculate upon the cause of all the trouble and one day they hold the Hutukhtu responsible. The next day they decide that Simionov is behind the present Russian assault upon Urga and that the Japanese are behind him, Having reached this conclusion they appeal to their foreign friends for diplomatic support and advice, The root of the whole situation ig so simple, and yot the Chinese would make it so complex. It is glaring example of China's in. ability to deal diplomatically or even tactfully with her dependent peoples and of Chinese officialdom's stubborn unwillingness to seo wherein their attitude towards these dependent peoples is wrong.
ina never cultivates either the Joyalty or the friendship of her dependencies. The old imperial Policy towards these people was not to cultivate but to rule. And to rule well was to rule harshly. To abuse the dependents and "got away with it" was an evidence of power. It was policy fo show the dependents that, however bad the government which China inflicted upon them, it was inflicted by right of conquest and was there to stay.
Aut Caaxce ur Cris.
This worked well enough while the dependents were conscious of their weakness and had no. neigh-hours more powerful than China with whom they could ally themselves against the Middle Kingdom. As soon as these powerful neighbours appeared it would have been good policy on China's part to have reversed her policy entirely, to have cultivated the friendship of the frontier peoples so that they might form a first line of defence against the powerful neighbours; to have taken them into the councils of the Empire or the Republic and to have cultivate ed their loyalty to the Central Government. This of course China never did. "The Tibetans, having come into contact with Russia and then with the British in India, took courage and repudiated Chin. ese authority. The Turki of Turkestan were leaning so far towards Russia when the European war broke out that a match would have started a conflagration in the New Dominion which China would have been powerless fo extinguish. The Mongols actually went over to Russia, as we all know. And still China's policy did not change, Opportoniries Torown Away.
When Little Heu took advantage of Russia's preoccupation and the decrepitude of the Mongol army to cancel Mongolian autonomy China was given a splendid opportunity to reunite Mongolia with China through a complete change of attitude towards the Mongols. This opportunity Little Hsu did not take, as we all know. He followed the old policy of repression and got himself and his following in Outer Mongolia most cordially hated. Last summer, when the Anfu Club was overthrown and Little Hsu's men were left leaderless, unpaid, and only too eager to return to their homes, the new. Government in Peking was given another splendid chance to patch up all differences with the Mongol princes in Urga and to earn the true gratitude and loyalty of all classes of Mongols. If the troops had then been withdrawn, if an experienced diplomatic agent had been sent to Mongolia to explain away past errors and to promise the Mongols ce-operation and. not. repression, the Mongols would have made a most cordial response.
Tue Curse or "Face."
This is not the opinion of the writer, but of every European who has visited Urga during the past six months, many of whom have frequently asked that this view of the situation be put in print so that the Chinese people might understand the fatuity and wickedness of their Government's policy in Mongolia. Many high officials were approached by foreigners familiar with the situation in Outer Mongolia and the state of the Mongol mind was carefully explained to them. To all appeals for a change of policy the Chinese Government nevertheless turned a deaf ear.
To the Chinese mind no such change of policy as was suggested was possible. The abominable institution known as "face" intervened and blocked every suggestion of reform. It would have been a "loss of face'' to have treated the Mongols decently or to have offered them 2 square deal. The Mongols have been, in Chinese eyes, an inferior and dependent people for some centuries. The Chinese throughout these centuries have tun Mongolia through alternate bribery and flattery of the Mongol rulers and repression and abuse of the people. To depart from this precedent even in this ninth year of the Republic, even when Mongolia has @ stripe in the Chinese flag, would have been, in Chinese eyes, an admission of weakness and a loss of dignity.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.