Peking, March 9.
Outside of official circles there is a great deal of talk of a large and expensive relief expedition which is to be organized to recapture Urga. Within Government circles little or nothing, beyond Cabinet discussions, which are surface talk and are, therefore, meaningless, can be learned of any preparations for an expedition against the Ungern troops which now hold outer Mongolia: Chen Yi is in com. munication with Peking, but the information which he is giving the Government is not supplied to the public. He has been wiring foil accounts of the collapse of the Chinese defence of Urga from the town of Troizkosavsk, which is new Kiachta, but they do not seem to be available and since they have come in code there has been no news leakage by the way.
Part or Cainese Moxarcuy Prot.
The reasons for this situation are obvious to anyone familiar with the Ungern campaign. Ungern's r preparations were made with the knowledge if not with the actual connivance of Chang Tso-lin. (n 1919 General Birukoff was stationed Hailar by Simionov as Chief Quartermaster and chief of a Bureau for the promotion of trade between Mongols and Russians. His promotions were not limited trade. He made it his business to promote trouble as well and to arrange for a series of supply stations and ammunition deposits on the road between Hailar and Urga. This was done with the knowledge of the Chinese military officers, subordinate to Chang T'so-lin, stationed on the Heilungkiang-Mongolian border The Ungern-Simionov schemes for a campaign in Mongolia coincide ed with the Japanese desire for a buffer state in Manchuria and Mongolia and with Chang Tso-lin's desire for a base from which to conduct a campaign against China in the interests of a Manchu testoration. All the ends of the various parties concerned have been achieved. The Chinese soldlery and officials in Urga, whose conduct won them no foreign or native sympathy, were—saerificed to the fruition of the general plan after the Mongols had got their Buddha out of the way and the Simionov following, the Japanese and Chang Tso-lin now have a broad field from which they can operate against Eastern Siberia on the one hand and China on the, other. Chang Tso-lin now has a controlling interest in the Peking Government so all talk of recovering Urga is confined to Cabinet talk meant for publication, while the plaints of Chen Yi and his
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.