INTRODUCTION 



From the Wei valley, occupied twenty centuries 

 before the Christian era, the Chinese, themselves 

 an invading race, driving out or exterminating 

 the aborigines, spread steadily eastward and 

 northward, till, in the reign of the illustrious Shih 

 Huang- ti, the boundaries of the Empire were 

 marked by the Great Wall. This for many 

 centuries divided the actual territories of the 

 Chinese from those of the Mongols, in spite of 

 further invasions and conquests on the part of the 

 latter ; that is to say, the dwellers on the south 

 side of the Wall remained Chinese and those on 

 the north Mongol, regardless of the nationality 

 of the ruling Emperor. 



This state of affairs was maintained up to the 

 middle of the nineteenth century, when as the 

 Tartar Power, both Manchu and Mongol, Eastern 

 and Western, gradually declined, the Chinese 

 pushed beyond the Wall, settling further and 

 further out on the Mongolian Plateau. This 

 was not done by force of arms, but by intrigue 

 and purchase, and it has led to much bitterness 

 and ill-feeling on the part of the Mongols. 



To-day, we again have before us the old drama, 

 being played in much the same old way. The 

 Chinese have risen, have shaken off the enfeebled 

 Tartar yoke, and are endeavouring to add yet 

 another portion of Mongolia to the ever-increasing 

 domains of the Middle Kingdom. 



The aggression of the New Republic, whose 



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