SLOW BUSINESS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 11

SLOW BUSINESS

IN,REDDENED MONGOLIA

NOT SO PLEASANT NOW

TRADE IN THE SACRED CITY,

•.'Mongolia under Soviet rule-is' not the pleasant land, that it was in the good old-days when the Mongols ably .handled their, own. affairs, writes Mr. T. A. Frankland, in the New York "Times." Mr; .Frankland is a New York business man, who in piloting a cai'avan out of Mongolia.recently,-had to run the gauntlet of tlie officials of Soviet Russia, who have taken the place of the old regime under the famous Bogda Khan, or Living Budda. The sad state of the country affects not only the common people and foreigners who transact business with them, but even the greatest Mongol of all, Bogda Khan, the Hutukhtu, or Living Buddha. For Bogda Khan cannot be said to reign over his. country any longer. His Tjoliii- ' cal power is gone, and even his spiritual influence is waning. The Reds have stripped hinigpf. his prestige as a god. Bogda Khan still dwells in Urga, the capital and sacred city of Mongolia. Fast going -blind.' he seldom lets himself be seen, although in other days he received visitors often. Of old he had almost unlimited wealth at his command, and bought motor-cars, motion picture machines, miniature steam engines, in fact, anything his fancy desired. Many an otherwise'unsaleable article was foisted upon this unsuspecting monarch, the deals being put through by his No. 1 garage man, who had to be approached in turn through lesser lamas. The day of resources is past for Bogda Khan, With a Soviet representative in every Cabinet office, very little money finds its way into Bogda's coffers. Instead, he receives a limited allowance quarterly. Once a quarter his creditors wait in a long line at the'palace gate, hoping that the allowance will ■hold- out until all are paid. ■■■■-. MONGOLIAN RED TAPE. '■To aell; an article—say, an automobile :._— :tb -Bbgda Khan, you*1 must first approach a-good friend of the JSo. 1 garage man.- "After delays of days or even weeks, the chief purchasing agent may consent to see you. Several conferences must be held before the business in hand ■is broached. Th© sound of hard .Chinese dollars or lump »ilver will usually overcome any further difficulty. A day. is set. for you to drive the car around. The day may be a' week away, but then, time is no object in Mongolia. You drive your machine to the rear of the palace, close to a small house where Bogda prays. There are fat-tailed sheep on the grounds, pets of Bogda. They may become your only company for several days. But at last, if you. are patient, a personage, wearing big smoked spectacles and dressed'in scar Jet robes, beautifully embroidered, will come to greet you, leanjng on the arm of a tall lama. You gaze, awed, until you are told that in these days Bogda Khan ■never' appears. Tho personage before you is his proxy—a woman! She seems to .command as much respect as Bogda himself, for the lamas kneel to her. This strange lady, says, you ask too much for your car, and sets a limit about half as high. You are prepared for this; you have asked twice what you hoped to get. Then follows the usual bargaining familiar to ill,who have dealt with Asiatics. The.buyer comes up a little, the seller- comes -down, until a happy.medium is reached., ';.. Perhaps. the..price agreed upon is 9000' dollars. -You 'take your turn in line on the royal payday and presently the royal Treasurer counts out tp you 9000 Chinese dollars. You must ring each dollar against its neighbour to-sec jf it is silver, ,nnd you must test the money on the spot. One man sold a bill of goods to Buddha and took his money home to count. Out of 6000 coins ' he had received 186 that he could not give away. So it ,is .well to count' your money when you get it, for Bogda's 1 Treasurer holds strictly to the principle of -"no mistakes rectified after leaving tho window." . » CUSTOMS METHODS CHANGED. ■ The Custom House at Urga was a cheery place to visit in the days when Mongolia was governed by Mongolians. Tho primitive building was filled with bustling officials dressed in long robes,, with- sleeves almost to'- the ground and riding whips dangling from their elbows.' They laughted, shouted, slapped one another's backs, got in one another's Vav, yet somehow accomplished their tasks quickly.. ' . . . .' ■ Perhaps you had a cargo of wool or, skins on the backs of a caravan of 400 camels, which you were sending to Kalgan, at the southern, or Chinese, end of 3 the Gobi Desert. You wished your caravan to camp a few miles outside of town that evening so as to get a good' start next day. You explained your1 desires to the Commissioner of Customs himself, and you got his assistance. He bellowed orders, clerks ran to check up your documents and to inspect and pass your bales of goods, and in a brief while, when ypu had paid the duty, you were at liberty to proceed. To-day you must deal with the Soviet adviser to the Customs Commissioner. At last accounts the office was held by a Pole, a radical of radicals. His power was supreme. By his word, a caravan could bo pushed through with amazing swiftness, or it could be hold up indefinitely. My experience with • him was typical. I had,-a. caravan of wool, goatskins, squirrel;skins, and marmots, qhierly the last-named. ■ Tho Soviet had fixed :i duty on marmots; each skin was valued at 40 cents, on which the Customs collected 5 per cent. In all I had 50,000 "of" these skins, 20,000 of which I had purchased from tho Soviet representatives th/mselves, with the understanding that .1 was to take: them out by paying Hi.uty at the rate -that had prevailed under the Mongol regime, or 5 per, cent, oil a'-20-cent valuation. The cargo bought from; Government consisted of skins'confiscated1, from unfortunate merchants who hatl fallen into disfavour when the Reds first entered Urga, although it was represented to me as haying been received in lieu of taxes. ..-.'; ■* With my caravan and papers I appeared at the Custom House. My men waited. Outside in a temperature of thirty below zero while I waited inside for hpurs to catch the ear of the Soviet adviser.' Before I had finished telling him my story he burst into wild anger against those who had dared to say how •much duty I should pay and how he should..run his department. He told mo that my -camels might freeze before ho would agree to the bargain I had made with the Soviet people. I offered to dire a carriage and take him to tiie Minister of Finance, where we might straighten out the matter. He refused tb go. At last I went myself and fetched an agent of the Ministry ; yet even then .the. autocrat would not budge. So I paid the duty he demanded. '■ OFFICIAL HOLD-UPS. There 13 no regular postal service to Urga item China now, though there was

once a fast camel' service every two weeks. At present one must depend on whatever motor-cars happen to be making the trip, and trust to luck that letters confided to the care of Chinese chauffeurs will get through. At Urga all letters are confiscated, held for weeks, then delivered, opened. I have paid as high as 5 dollars to a Chinese chauffeur to carry <i letter from Urga to Knlgan. These chauffeurs conceal such letters inside, spare tires, under the battery box, inside the upholstery of the- seat, .and even in the headlight, behind the reflector. Even then the letters are found by the prying ruffians of the Soviet examiners, and the ear looks like the wreck of the Hesperus by the time they have finished searching it. You do not " run into Urga " any more. You are held up outside of town by soldiers with loaded rifles. They escort you to the yamen, or office of the military commander. You leave your car in the yamen compound at the mercy of the hoodlums who have captured you, while you go into session with the military commander. You give him a short history of your life. He takes an hour or so to consult with his subordinates, then sends you to the Custom House under escort. At the Custom House you give your . biography in greater detail. The process here takes from two to seven hours,' at the end of which time you are told how much you owe the Soviet Government. You are taxed so much for bringing the car in, so much for each seat, whether occupied or not, and so much for each item of your equipment, including th'^ packet of cigarettes in your pocket.. They do not offer to reimburse you for the damage done to your-car in their search for letters and papers. Then you are taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. . I have had many pleasant hours with Roda, the former Minister, since executed by the Beds. But now it is different.' Again you unburden yourself of your personal history, and all of it is recorded in a large, black book.- If you pass inspection you are provided with a passport upon payment of a certain sum. But the passport is of no use to you when you leave. You must buy your way out of Urga as you bought your way in. Every Chinaman in Urga is regarded as a spy. In the spring thousands of Chinese make the trip from Kalgan or Kuei Hua, walking the 700 miles1 across the desert, believing that Urga is the other end of the rainbow and that there they will find work. Upon arriving they are herded into the yamens, kept prisoners for .weeks, accused of being spies seeking/to ptve the way for another Chinese occupation, and then are turned back into the desert to make their way home if they can. These are some of the changes that has worked in Mongolia, that wonderful country that lies between China and Siberia. Bogda Khan and his faithful ones suffer- their indignities in silence, hoping for the day when succour will come from China or Tibet. And huge commercial , projects wait—gold and silver mining, and great engineering schemes, with foreign capital to back them. Everything is at a standstill until the political turbulence has subsided; and confidence has been restored.