324 THE NEAR EAST. 



we acted with less timidity and rather more common- 

 sense at the outset, might well have been avoided. 

 " We have in fact," writes Colonel Younghusband, " as 

 I have so often remarked, not one ounce of prestige on 

 this frontier. I have therefore nothing to work with 

 in making a settlement." ^ 



Bussian intelligence was not slow to grasp this fact, 

 with a result that Russian dealings with native races 

 show a marked superiority — if success be any criterion 

 — over our own. " The native," to quote one of the 

 most recent writers on the Russian advance, " soon 

 understands that there is no trifling, and — usually — 

 becomes resigned. He is given to understand un- 

 mistakably what is Russian power." ^ Native races 

 throughout the length of Asia from west to east who 

 have once come into contact with Russia have perhaps 

 disliked her, they have certainly feared her. " As the 

 Daimios of Japan in their anti- foreign manifestoes 

 declared that every foreigner could be insulted with 

 impunity except the Russians, so in China the name 

 was a talisman of security." ^ M. Popoff, the Russian 

 secretary at Peking at the time of the Anglo-French 

 expedition, had occasion to spend a night at a Chinese 

 inn. Chinese soldiers swarmed in during the night, 

 and finding a " foreign devil," at once decided to make 

 an end of him. His salvation lay in his nationality. 

 " That foreigner is a Russian," quoth the innkeeper ; 

 " it will be dangerous to lay a hand on him." * And 

 M. Popoff was left untouched. 



The last point which I mentioned with regard to the 

 commercial and strategic element being the dominant 



1 Further Papers relating to Tibet (CD. 2054). 



2 The Eussian Advance. A. J. Beveridge. 

 ^ The Englishman in China. A. Michie. 



4 Ibid. 



