WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MONGOLIA
which were arising in the near East. Russia is a virile race, possessing a country with endless resources. Her merchants are constantly seeking new ground where profits are large and easily obtained. It would be fatal to Great Britain to allow Russia to further increase her influence in Tibet.
The relations of the Russians with the Mongols compare very favourably with those that have always existed between Chinese and Mongols. This no doubt is partially accounted for by the intermarrying for many years between Russians and neighbouring tribes on the frontier. The Chinese rarely intermix in this way with the Mongols; rather have they ousted the Mongol from his pasture grounds in Inner Mongolia, to make room for Chinese colonisation. Russia has made but little effort to convert the Mongols to Christianity. Peter the Great attempted to convert the Hu-tuk-tu himself about the year 1700, but met with no success. Urga itself can only boast of one solitary priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. The very nomad habits of the Mongols prevent them from ever becoming westernised, and disease and insanitary conditions aided by Lamaism are very gradually reducing their population. A race that is too lazy to till the ground, and that looks upon trade as almost degrading, devoting itself cheerfully to obtaining its
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