I pressed
on and asked if the Japanese had plans to build any roads, which their cars
could use and whether they planned to build aerodromes, but this he
denied. I asked him what the
significance of the visit to Pai Ling-miao by the Japanese (the occupants of
the plane) was and I was told that it was merely social.
After my interview the
Embassy people especially our Military Attaché, descended upon me to hear the
Prince’s views. I then spoke with a
Mongol officer who speaks Russian and was in the Artillery College in Moscow,
he told me:
People in Urga are
discontented; there are still bread cards there. Two years ago there was a big rising.
The Soviets fought against the lamas and the princes, and people
don’t like the economy plans. Perhaps
there will be a revolt as there are many that want to join a big Mongolia. I am a nationalist, I believe in a big
united Mongolia with Outer Mongolia, Manchukuo Mongolia and free Mongols. Prince Teh Wang is a great man, and I hope
he will be the leader of a united Mongolia.
If there is a war,
we will be in a bad position. If the
Russians win then we will lose all, the princes will be crushed and the lamas
broken. If the Japanese win they will
set up a ‘Great Mongolia’, but Japan will enslave it. We are in a difficult position.
We don’t like the Chinese, or the Japanese, or the Russians. The Russians will give in on all hands, they
know they are too weak, and they will yield to the Japanese for at least two
years.
About seven o’clock in the
evening, we
returned, tired, to our yurt. After we
had eaten, a Chinese diplomat, knowing I had heard the Japanese point of view
and the Mongol point of view came in to impress upon me the Chinese point of
view!
Monday,
July 15th was a day of all days. “Gentlemen, it is four o’clock!” shouted the Baron just before
dawn. Plessen had decided to go back to
Peking, because there was practically nobody at the German Embassy. Müller and his ‘boy’ servant Liang (aged
46), who was as superior with the Mongols as an English butler among the Hottentots, Anatoli, the
Russian chauffeur and I decided to cross a big part of Inner Mongolia, almost
as far as the Soviet-Manchukuo frontier
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Gareth at the Lama service.
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