Otcheroff stole back some of
the cattle and captured some of these Mongols. He then cut them up and hid their bodies.
When the Mongols could find no trace of their bodies, they became
terrified, presumably, because they are afraid of their spirits.
When we arrived, the
horsemen went to fetch some sheep to be killed for the feast tonight. We could see the flock far away in the
distance, a perfect white mass. The
Buriats are much cleaner than the previous Mongols we met and have beautiful
milk and butter. On our arrival, I was
given a fine bowl of milk before going into the yurt of the Prince. It was big, spotless and it even had a
bed. It had an altar with silver cups
and photographs of lamas. He studied
law at Petrograd before the war and by an amazing coincidence had met Müller
there in 1911.
Prince Otcheroff invited us
to have Brandy and Vodka. Suddenly he
started making a political speech to me:
You were the secretary of
Lloyd George, he is a vigorous old lion and he must come to the help of the
Mongols for we are the finest race in the world. Under Genghis Khan, we conquered half the globe, but what do we
see now. We see parts of Russia like
Latvia and Lithuania, which were mere provinces, are now independent nations,
while we are scattered and under submission; we, who received the tributes of
Russian princes, we who conquered Moscow and had Russians as our slaves.
What do we want?
We want to become an independent nation
under the protection of the League of Nations; we want England to help us. You see we are a dying people, perhaps we
cannot be saved, but we know we are doomed if the Japanese, Russians or the
Chinese dominate us. We hate the
Japanese, as they want to control us. The Chinese are too weak and they have been bribing some of the Mongols
with money and gifts. The Japanese are
doing the same. Teh Wang is too
friendly with the Japanese.