Page:League of Nations-Appeal by the Chinese Government.pdf/108

 Generally speaking, the attitude of the town population is a mixture of passive acquiescence and hostility.

While we found the Chinese majority either hostile or indifferent to the "Manchukuo", the new Government receives some support from among various minority racial groups in Manchuria, such as the Mongols, Koreans, White Russians and Manchus. They have in varying degrees suffered oppression from the former administration, or economic disadvantage from the large immigration of Chinese in the last few decades, and, while no section is entirely enthusiastic, they hope for better treatment from the new regime, whose policy in turn is to encourage these minority groups.

The Mongols have remained a race apart from the Chinese and have, as already stated, preserved a strong race-consciousness, as well as their tribal system, aristocracy, language, dress, special modes of life, manners, customs and religion. Though still mainly a pastoral people, they are increasingly engaged in agriculture and in the transportation of products by carts and animals. The Mongols bordering Manchuria have suffered increasingly from Chinese immigrants who obtain possession of and cultivate their lands from which they are being gradually extruded. This leads to chronic and unavoidable ill-feeling. Mongol delegations we received complained also of past sufferings from the rapaciousnsss of Chinese officials and tax-gatherers. The Mongols of Inner Mongolia have seen Outer Mongolia pass under the influence of the U.S.S.R., whose extension to Inner Mongolia they dread. They wish to preserve their separate national existence against the encroachments of the Chinese on the one hand and the U.S.S.R. on the other. Placed in this precarious position, they have greater hope of preserving their separate existence under the new regime. It must be observed, moreover, that the Princes are mainly dependent for their wealth on fixed property and on their special privileges, and that they therefore tend to become amenable to de facto authorities. A deputation, however, of Mongol Princes was received by the Commission in Peiping and stated their opposition to the new regime. At present, the connection between the Mongols bordering on Manchuria and the "Manchukuo Government" is undefined, and the "Manchukuo Government" has so far refrained from interfering in their administration. While the support of certain of these Mongol elements at present is genuine, if cautious, they are quite prepared to withdraw it should the Japanese prove a menace to their independence or economic interests at some future date.

The Manchus have been almost completely assimilated with the Chinese, although in Kirin and Heilungkiang there still exist small and politically unimportant colonies of Manchus who, though bilingual, remain distinctly Manchu. Since the establishment of the Republic, the remnants of the Manchu race lost their privileged position: although the Republic promised to continue the payment of their subsidies, they were paid in depreciated currency, and were therefore forced to take up farming and trade, in which they had no experience. The few distinct Manchu groups that remain may cherish hopes that, with the establishment of "Manchukuo", whose backers spoke so often about the inhabitants of Manchuria being distinct in race from those of the rest of China, and in which the last of the Manchu Emperors is the chief executive, they may once more get privileged treatment. Persons of Manchu race have entered the Government with such hopes, but Chinese witnesses in Manchuria alleged that these office-holders have been disillusioned by finding all the power in Japanese hands and their own proposals ignored. Although there may still exist some sentimental loyalty to the ex-Emperor among persons of Manchu blood, there does not exist any race-conscious Manchu movement of any significance. They have been so largely assimilated with the Chinese that, although efforts have been made to recruit Manchus for the administration