The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-18
MongoIS, Once Terror of
Half the Earth, Only
Shadow of Past.
WAR CLOUDS HANG LOW
Russia, China and Japan
Gaze With Covetous
Eyes on Country.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS,
scrIpps-Howard Foreign Editor


WASHINGTON. Sept 1S.-The
Mongols. once lords of half the
earth, whose terror scattering
legions swept everything before
them like chaff as far as the gates
Of Vienna. today are a dying race
Of weaklings, their very country
bone Of contention for three ma
tons.
Part Of Asia's new Balkans. for
the control of which another bloody
international war yet may be waged,
Mongolia lies just west of Man
churia, scene of the present guer-
rilla warfare between Chinese and
Russian troops. Indeed, the last
$50 miles of the Chinese eastern
railway, over which the two coun-
tries are quarreling, runs through
its northeastern corner.
China claims suzerainty over it,
and both Russia and Japan tacitly
agree to the claim, but it is auto
nomous. to al intents and purposes,
and Chinese control is entirely nom
inal. Like the rest Of these Oriental
DdAhdllos I'D 4dIC w OC AC-
termined.
Conquered Chinese Foes
1t was the Mongol emperor. Chen
gis Kahn, who some years ago
launched his yellow horde against
the Chinese; and 100 years later
his grandson, Kublai Khan, saw the
completion of the conquest and the
establishment of Mongol rule over
conquered China.
Not only Asia, but Europe as we'll,
quaked at the mention of the name,
for a harder, drawer, or more ruth
less race Of fighting men never ex-
listed They we're the worthy sue
cesSors of the Huns.
But Kublai wanted to civilize his
people. Through Marco Polo, the
great Venetian adventurer, and
others, he heard of western world
ideas and he started to introduce
them to the fighting Mongols.
1t was the beginning of the end.
however, of his race. For, denied
the 100 Christian missionaries he
demanded of the pope of that day,
in a fit of pique, he encouraged
Lamaisn, a degenerate Tibetan form
of Buddhism, to which his followers
quickly adapted themselves. Lazi-
ness. indifference to all the affairs
of this world. celibacy and general
inactivity. with the idle monks of
their religion as its ideal, slowly
undermined the race, morally, men
oy,d T11tY,1 llXr
Only Remnant Left
Today, occupying a territory ap-
proximately as great as the whole
Of that part of the United States
lying east of the Mississippi. and
once swarming with a vigorous
fighting race, there we're hardly
more than 100000 poverty-stricken
monks and nomads left in the land,
and their number is said to be
shrinking steadily.
Their ancestors once made the
blood of Europe run cold, but now
nobody gives them thought, save
when they run in packs, like wolves,
and become dangerous to individuals
or small groups of intruders. AS
border raiders, OF course, they Stlll
could do mischief. but as people,
they stand doomed to eventual ex-
tinction
Who will succeed them as the
masters of Mongolia only the future
can tell. 1t may take war to de-
eide. Russia already is actively in
triguing there and Japan plainly
tells the world that eastern Mon
golia. like Manchuria, is vital to the
existence of that empire.
That is to say no nation antagon-
istic to Japan ever will be permitted
to become dominant there, even II
Japan must fight to prevent 1t.
China. on the other hand, claims
Mongolia belongs to her, for, after
being conquered by the Mongols,
she absorbed them. just as she alb
sorbed the Manchus after the Man
chu conquest.