Communism -- Soviet Union; Mongolia -- Description and travel
was passionate and stormy, so that we foreigners lost all hope of the
success of our mission. However, at midnight when the speakers were
tired, we secured agreement on two points: the Mongols announced that
they did not want to make war and that they desired to settle this
matter in such a way as to retain the friendship of the great Chinese
people; while the Chinese Commissioner acknowledged that China had
violated the treaties by which full independence had been legally
granted to Mongolia.
These two points formed for us the groundwork of the next meeting and
gave us the starting points for urging reconciliation. The deliberations
continued for three days and finally turned so that we foreigners could
propose our suggestions for an agreement. Its chief provisions were that
the Chinese authorities should surrender administrative powers, return
the arms to the Mongolians, disarm the two hundred gamins and leave
the country; and that the Mongols on their side should give free and
honorable passage of their country to the Commissioner with his armed
guard of eighty men. This Chinese-Mongolian Treaty of Uliassutai was
signed and sealed by the Chinese Commissioners, Wang Tsao-tsun and Fu
Hsiang, by both Mongolian Saits, by Hun Jap Lama and other Princes,
as well as by the Russian and Chinese Presidents of the Chambers of
Commerce and by us foreign arbitrators. The Chinese officials and convoy
began at once to pack up their belongings and prepare for departure. The
Chinese merchants remained in Uliassutai because Sait Chultun Beyli,
now having full authority and power, guaranteed their safety. The day of
departure for the expedition of Wang Tsao-tsun arrived. The camels with
their packs already filled the yamen court-yard and the men only awaited
the arrival of their horses from the plains. Suddenly the news spread
everywhere that the herd of horses had been stolen during the night
and run off toward the south. Of two soldiers that had been sent out to
follow the tracks of the herd only one came back with the news that the
other had been killed. Astonishment spread over the whole town while
among the Chinese it turned to open panic. It perceptibly increased when
some Mongols from a distant ourton to the east came in and announced
that in various places along the post road to Urga they had discovered
the bodies of sixteen of the soldiers whom Wang Tsao-tsun had sent
out with letters for Urga. The mystery of these events will soon be
explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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