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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