these principles need not prevent Great Britain from co-operating with Russia, for the purpose of setting up in Mongolia and Outer China a stable regime based on Mongolian autonomy under Chinese suzerainty. As joint-guarantors with Japan of the integrity of China, England could not morally agree to any attack on the suzerain rights of Chinese authority in Outer China, whether in Tibet, Chinese Turkestan, or Mongolia. But events of recent years show that the Chinese have tried to consolidate their sovereign rights, and have made oppressive attacks upon the autonomy of the Mongol tribes. In fact since 1900 Chinese policy outside the Great Wall has been directed towards the forcible breaking down of all racial barriers, and the absorption of subject nationalities into the vortex of Chinese civilization. Broadly speaking, the same policy has been pursued by China in Mongolia as in Tibet, and its fruits have been seen in the revolt of the latter province during 1910 and the recent peaceful revolution in the former province during 1911. This was the situation, therefore, in Mongolia in January 1911, when Russia intervened in the political affairs of Outer China, and intimated her preference for a policy of creating Mongolia an autonomous province of China, whereby Mongolia would act as a buffer to prevent Russian and Chinese civilization from coming in contact with one another. It is not improbable, however, that the financial question is likely to prove the chief difficulty, and the solution of the problem of Outer China on an autonomous basis can, in my opinion, only be found in a scheme, whereby the revenues drawn from Outer China will be apportioned between a nominal Imperial tribute due to the
