ons are
modest enough, surely. At the present moment, with communication via
India closed, with no official representative or agent present, with
relations unsettled and unregulated, the position of China _vis-a-vis_
Tibet is far from satisfactory and altogether anomalous, while as
between China and Great Britain there is always this important question
outstanding. An early settlement in a reciprocal spirit of give and take
and giving reasonable satisfaction to the legitimate aspirations and
claims of all parties is extremely desirable.

4th OUTER MONGOLIA

The world is more or less acquainted with the events in Urga in
December, 1911, and the proclamation of independence of Outer Mongolia
with Jetsun Dampa Hutukhtu as its ruler. By the Russo-Chinese
Declaration of November 5, 1913, and the Tripartite Convention of
Kiakhta of 1914 China has re-established her suzerainty over Outer
Mongolia and obtained the acknowledgment that it forms a part of the
Chinese territory. There remains the demarcation of boundary between
Inner and Outer Mongolia which will take place shortly, and the
outstanding question of the status of Tannu Uriankhai where Russia is
lately reported to be subjecting the inhabitants to Russian jurisdiction
and expelling Chinese traders.

The Tannu Uriankhai lands, according to the Imperial Institutes of the
Tsing Dynasty, were under the control of the Tartar General of
Uliasutai, the Sain Noin Aimak, the Jasaktu Khan Aimak and the Jetsun
Dampa Hutkhta, and divided into forty-eight somons (tsoling).
Geographically, according to the same authority, Tannu Uriankhai is
bounded on the north by Russia, east by Tushetu Khan Aimak, west by the
various aimaks of Kobdo, and south by Jasaktu Khan Aimak. By a Joint
Demarcation Commission in 1868 the Russo Chinese boundary in respect to
Uriankhai was demitted and eight wooden boundary posts were erected to
mark their respective frontiers.

In 1910, however, a Russian officer removed and burnt the boundary post
at Chapuchi Yalodapa. The matter was taken up by the then Waiwupu with
the Russian Minister. He replied to the effect that the limits of
Uriankhai were an unsettled question and the Russian Government would
not entertain the Chinese idea of taking independent steps to remark the
boundary or to replace the post and expressed dissatisfaction with the
work of the Joint Demarcation Commission of 1868, a dissatisfaction
which would seem to be somewhat tardily expr