366 UNKNOWN MONGOLIA 



places it means competition with the resident popula- 

 tion, while in others it results in the actual pushing 

 back of the rightful owners. If it were not for the zeal 

 shown by the Chinese in protecting the Mongol rights of 

 ownership, many localities would be rapidly overrun 

 by the Mohammedan-Turki tribes. All the regions not 

 exclusively reserved for Mongols are becoming, year by 

 year, more thickly populated by newcomers of Moslem 

 faith. 



As a rule, this movement appears to be from Russian 

 into Chinese territory, the Chinese being quite unable 

 to check the immigration. The Chinese do not want 

 these immigrants flooding their country, because they 

 get nothing out of them, for the newcomers still 

 remain Russian subjects, and are a constant source 

 of trouble to the authorities on this account. It is 

 equally certain that the movement into Chinese terri- 

 tory is caused by no love of Chinese rule. Whatever 

 M. Vambery says about " an approach between Moslems 

 and Buddhists," and a growing tendency for Moham- 

 medans to side with Celestials against a common foe 

 in the person of the European, his theories find no proof 

 in these localities. The Turki Moslems prefer to be 

 under Russian rather than Chinese rule, and, I believe, 

 would side with the West against the East, in the same 

 way as the Buddhist Mongols have recently thrown in 

 their lot with Russia against China. 



Whether, or not, the immigration is being directly 

 caused by the continual influx of Russian colonists into 

 Russian Central Asia, it is hard to say ; so far as one 

 can judge, this element probably plays a definite part 

 in producing a movement of the nomadic tribes from 

 the plains into the mountains, — which latter happen 



