2
III.
En Mongolie et dans la Chine occidentale, les sujets russes ont le droit de résider et de faire, en franchise de droits, le commerce de toute espèce de produits, de quelque
pas
être provenance qu'ils soient (article 12 du traité de 1881); ce commerce ne doit entravé par des mouopoles.
IV.
Le Gouvernement russe ayant le droit de nommer ses consuls à Kobdo, à Hami, et à Goutchan (article 10 du traité de 1981), le Gouvernement chinois ne doit pas refuser son consentement à leur nomination lorsqu'un nombre considérable de litiges entre les sujets russes et les sujets chinois dans les districts de ces villes indiquera que la présence d'un représentant consulaire russe y est devenue nécessaire.
V.
Les autorités locales chinoises du district consulaire d'un consul de Russie doivent le reconnaître en sa qualité officielle et n'ont pas le droit de refuser de régler con- jointement avec lui les litiges entre les sujets russes et les sujets chinois,
VI.
Dans les villes où le Gouvernement russe a le droit de nommer ses consuls, les sujets russes peuvent acquérir des terrains et y bâtir des maisons (article 13 du traité de 1881).
(Translation.)
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Extract from the " Official Messenger" of February 17.
THE Russian Minister at Peking has been instructed to hand to the Chinese Government the following note :----
The result of the conversations which have been held of late have convinced the Imperial Government of the unwillingness of the Chinese Government to take into consideration the clauses of the treaty of 1881; some of these clauses are ignored by the Chinese Government and their local agents, while others are interpreted in a sense or the letter of the treaty. The which by no means corresponds with either the spirit Imperial Government have come to the conclusion that a continuation of the long- existing friendly ties between Russia and China is impossible if the Chinese Govern- ment maintain such an attitude towards the treaty of 1881. As they are desirous of maintaining and strengthening those ties, they consider it necessary to make this statement and to request the Chinese Government to consent without delay to observe the following points which are drawn up in strict accordance with the provisions of the treaty of 1881, and with the principles which form the basis of the treaty relations between Russia and China.
(Then follow the six points enumerated in M. Sazonow's memorandum.)
The Imperial Government consider it necessary to warn the Chinese Government that they will regard a refusal to consent to the obligations set forth in the above six points, or in any one of the points, as proof of an unwillingness to maintain good and neighbourly treaty relations with Russia. In such an event the Imperial Government reserves to itself the right to take such measures as it may deem necessary for the restoration of the treaty rights of the Russian Government and of Russian subjects, rights which are being trampled on by the Chinese Government.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1,
Memorandum.
IN view of the statements in the Russian press that the Chinese Government are refusing to allow the establishment of a Russian consulate at Shara Sume, in the Altaishan" and, "in addition to their other conditions, the Russian Government will.
insist on establishing a consulate at Shara Sume," it may be of use to your Excellency if I put on record some information respecting this place, which is not marked on any map, which is a source of grievance on the part of the Russian Government against the Chinese Government, and which is likely to be alluded to again fairly frequently in the course of the next few years.
For some years previous to 1908 the Russian Government had made complaints to This Majesty's Government that the Chinese Government were trying to alter the status of Mongolia, to bring it more directly under the control of Peking, &c., and I offered to go and see what foundation there was for this Russian complaint.
I left Peking in April 1908. My route was by Kalgan, the cities of Northern Shansi, Kweihuacheng, the Ordos tribes, Ninghsiafu, Alashan, across the Gobi to Urga, Uliassutai, Kobdo, Shara Sume, Chuguchak, and Kuldja.
Though I found many traces en route of the endeavours of the Chinese to bind Mongolia more closely to them, it was not until Shara Sume was reached that the inward meaning of the Russian complaint became evident.
About 1906 a Manchu official, a henchman of Yuan Shih Kai and Natung-tan. arrived in the Altais with a force of 1,000 mea, with orders to found a new colony similar to Kobdo, Uliassutai, &c. The site chosen was Shara Sume (schera yellow, in Mongol, and sume= temple), where there were the ruins of a Mongol temple lying about a mile from the Kilingho (the Kran in some Russian maps), a tributary of the Irtish, among the folds of the lower slopes of the Altaishan. A twelve days' march by a bridle path over the Ermektu Daba (daba = pass) connects the settlement with Kobdo.
Here the expedition set to work to build with great activity, and soon a small village, the houses of mud and wood, was ready for occupation. Tien-tsin and Peking merchants and Turki merchants from Guchen were encouraged to open branches of their home shops, and everything was done to foster trade.
I stayed there five days, and had long and frequent conversations with the enlightened governor and his officials (one of the latter spoke English). The governor was most friendly; he was evidently weary with the cares of constructing his colony, and before I left he had even invited me to stay and help him in his task.
He was
His Excellency said that the colony was really eventually to be built 15 miles or so to the south-west, out of the mountains, on the plains, still by the banks of the Kilingho. I passed the future site some days later. The governor said that even when the latter colony was built the present one would still have its uses. trying to induce his Government to allow him to lay a telegraph line to Guchen (twenty-one days to the south). At present he had to send his telegrams by mounted messenger to Chuguchak (ten days to the south-west) to be despatched. The Chinese Government expected everything reported now-a-days, and all this was a waste of time. One official told me that the object of the new colony was to settle and open up the country, to bring order where chaos had hitherto reigned, to educate the Mongols and Turkis, to examine the mineral wealth of the mountains, to make surveys, paths, &c.
The officials said that the governor was a keen supporter of the forward move- ment in Mongolia, but that his Excellency realised the necessity of moving carefully. "We must go slow, otherwise if there is any trouble, we shall have the Russians over the frontier and shall never get them out again." The Russian consul at Uliassutai was very eloquent on the subject of the new colony. He had visited it and had had a sharp passage of arms with the governor. The consul at Chuguchak was equally angry about Shara Sume, and both the consuls were working for its downfali.
The chief grievance of the Russian Government is doubtless that the colony is provided with six new German guns. They arrived in sections while I was there, and were to be put together by a young Chinese captain, The transport of the guns over the mountains from Kobdo, where the hundreds of cases (ammunition, &c.) had littered the courtyard of my temple, had, indeed, considerably impeded my own
movements.
The general attitude of the governor leaves no doubt that the Chinese Govern- ment are in complete earnest with regard to the new policy to be followed with respect to Mongolia,
There were some disturbances among the natives at first, but this was quelled by the soldiers. It might break out again, as the governor's edicts comprise such things as education of children and decent burial of Mongol dead; these edicts strike a blow at cherished customs.
The governor's sway extends to Buluntogoi, into which district be bopes to bring some discipline.
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