When the railway was "cut at Tatyngfe,- alt camels were immedisively commandeered for military transport, Fortunately for the caravan traders, most of the heavy caravans with goods had already left for Kuchengtze and Uliassut any of the merchants themselves, however, leave later in the spring, when the worst cold is over, and 1 out by fast camel across the ort. These men have all been stranded. Even Mongol-owned have, for the first time, been requisitioned—a drastic measur when it is considered that the prosperity of Kueihua trade depends Largely on Mongol 00d) and that the administration has " hitherto consistently fostered good relations: with the Mongols. Soldiers in search of camels have avoided camping on Mongol territory as far as possible, but they have raided several hundred li across the border. The nearest of the rich and influential Inner Mongolian princes protested as soon as possible, and some of the camels were returned, Dut others had already been sent off in the direction of Kalgan. would be an irreparable setback to Chinese commercial enterprise if Chinese interests in Inner Mongolia were to be sacrificed to war for the political control of Peking. AM the great trading firms, whose operations used to mean an enormous flow of revenue into North China were terribly shaken when the foolish policy of econo-mie plunder needlessly lost Outer Mongolia to China.
Mongol debts to Chinese _merchants, running into millions of dollars, were cancelled outright and Chinese-owned lands were expropriated. If Inner Mongolia goes the way of Outer Bfongolia then Chinese merchants, who have already Tost heavily in trade to Russian enterprise, will also lose the advantage of the only trade - route to. Sinkiang/whidh is' not hampered with taxes. The longer routes, by cart, from Lanchow to the Lunghai and from Lanchow by raft down the Yellow River, are in constant danger of _interruption by civil war or banditry. Moreover—and this could happen, nowhere but in China—Chinese trade through China proper _is throttled by Chinese taxation, while Chinese trade through Inner Mongolia is free of likin except on the borders of Chinese, administration in Sinkiang and tie Northwestern area.
After the camels, the carts, mules, 01 jeered "Money next," said 13 and even wheelbarrows were
the Chinese, and they were right. In Kueihua' alone four lakhs dollars were demanded of the Chamber of Commerce. The six or seven yang-hang of [were separately required to contribute $50,000.
These yang-hang are in a peculiar position. They are mostly brokers and commission firms who have gone out of their original] business because of the decline of} the Outer Mongolia trade and the' dangers of trying to do a "forward feontract" business with Tientsin lover an unreliable railway. They Have therefore associated themselves with foreign firms in Tien-sin, whose names they now bear and' to whom they are invaluable because of their long-standing con-noxious in the interior and their knowledge of local business. Al-"though some of them do well {enough to be able to speculate on [their own little, the main part of ti sir business is to buy Contract for cargo. at prices, agreed their prieipals in Tientain, Part of the purchase money is paid in advance by. the. foreign principals, and the credit of their Connexion' enables them to finance with the local banks. In way they make smaller but! less risky profits on an assured turnover, and the foreign firm "carries the baby" during periods of railway stoppage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.