Treaties, Laws and Speeches

PRINCE TE WANG

By TAKAYOSHI MATSUMURO

PRINCE Te or Te Wang is chairman of the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia. He is forty years old. He is the hereditary dzasak of the Sunid right-wing banner of the Silingol League of Inner Mongolia. Sometimes, therefore he is called the Prince of West Sunid. The dzasak is a hereditary prince, who rules a banner. Te Wang is a Chinese abbreviation of the Mongolian Temchik Torb.

The family of the Prince of West Sunid is traced back to Buyangun Taiji, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan (1162–1227). During the reign of the Emperor Taitsung, the second emperor of the Ching Dynasty (1616–1912), the head of the family was created a dzasak, or prince, which title has been handed down to the present head of the family, Te Wang, or Prince Te.

When the Ching Dynasty succeeded in pacifying the Mongol tribes, it created its chiefs peers, whose titles were divided into six classes. The Prince of West Sunid was third in rank. Following the birth of Manchoukuo, however, the Emperor of Manchoukuo promoted Te Wang to be the highest prince in Inner Mongolia.

Some may raise the question whether the Emperor of Manchoukuo is entitled to create Mongol tribal chiefs peers or to advance their titles. But His Majesty is entitled to do so on his historical authority. In this connection, it must be remembered that the ruler of the Ching Dynasty had a double title, one being the Emperor of China as chief of the Manchu tribes, while the other was the Great Khan, or Emperor of Mongolia. Early in the Ching Dynasty when the Mongol tribes pledged their

allegiance to the Ching Dynasty, they did so in the form of an alliance with the latter. The federation of Mongol tribes nominated the Emperor of the Ching Dynasty as the Great Khan, or Bogyan Chochenkhan (Divine, Valiant and Illustrious Emperor).

As a sequel to the Chinese Revolution, the young Emperor Hsuantung, or Pu Yi, abdicated his throne as Emperor of China, but has never abdicated his throne as the Great Khan of Mongolia. When the Empire of Manchoukuo was founded, Pu Yi was enthroned as Emperor of Manchoukuo, at the same time retaining his title of the Great Khan, or the Emperor of Mongolia. Thus, the Emperor of Manchoukuo still is entitled to create Mongol tribal chiefs peers or to promote their titles. There is no wonder that His Majesty should promote Te Wang to be the highest prince in Inner Mongolia.

Te Wang was born on January 1 in the twenty-eighth year of the Kuangchu era (1902). His father died while he was still very young. He was brought up by his wise mother and faithful tutor Amban Jehelakti. In his eighth year, he succeeded to his hereditary title and was married at fourteen, becoming father at sixteen. His wife died soon after giving birth to the eldest son Togalsulun. Te Wang was married again. By his present wife, he has had three sons and one daughter. While he was assigned to the Board of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs in Peking, he went through a Chinese style education. His modern education was given him by tutors, specially engaged by him.

Being wise by nature, his abilities have been long recognized by the public. He is well versed in the world situation, though apparently so far situated from the centre of world activities. He championed the cause of Mongol independence for a long time, declaring "The Mongols must behave themselves so as to be worthy descendants of Genghis Khan. We cannot bear to see the Mongols going to ruins. We must construct an independent Mongol State promptly, by repulsing Soviet pressure and by shaking off the yoke of China." At the age of twenty-three in 1924, he made his début in political circles in Peking in

the capacity of Vice-Chief of the Silingol League. He was also appointed a member of the Reorganization Commission by Tuan Chi-jui. When the commission was dissolved within three months of its appointment, he was nominated a member of the Extraordinary Senate. In 1929, he was appointed Representative of the Provincial Government of Chahar and in 1932, Garrison Commander of Mongolia. In July, the next year, he launched his movement for Mongol autonomy, by convoking a Mongol autonomy conference, to which all the tribal chiefs and princes of Inner Mongolia were invited.

The Mongol princes are very influential in their own banners, and some are wild, while some are stupid. But Prince Te is very democratic, having no domineering air about him. His democratic way sometimes makes one wonder whether he is really that famous prince of Mongolia, but nonetheless he never forfeits his dignity through his democratic manners.

The first impression one obtains in contact with Prince Te is that he is possessed of an aristocratic personality, which is innate, but mellowed through his daily contact with a large number of retainers as well as through guidance given by his able tutors.

He has a fine, clear head, endowed with strong reasoning faculty, so that he is always in quest of the truth. For instance, when he obtained a rifle or a machine gun for the first time, he took it to pieces for his critical study. He did not stop there, but on the contrary he went a step farther and built a small arsenal for the manufacture of rifles and machine guns. The same thing occurred when he bought a motor car. He took it to pieces and studied its structure with the aid of an explanatory diagram. It is said that he spent more than ten months with the motor car, thus dissembled and carefully studied.

Mention must be also made of his unswerving devotion to the cause he has espoused and of his strong sense of responsibility. In the autumn of 1933, when he demanded the Nanking Government to grant autonomy to Inner Mongolia, representing the mounting desires of the Inner Mongols, the crafty representative

of the Nanking Government did everything in his power to win the leaders of Inner Mongolia over to Nanking's side. He succeeded in winning a certain prince of the Ikh Chao League over to his side. On the eve of Te Wang's negotiation with the Nanking representative at Pailingmiao, the prince in question attempted to rise in arms against Te Wang so as to shake the latter's contention for Mongol autonomy. The aged Tosolakti, Premier of the Silingol League, who was one of the closest to Te Wang also fell a victim to Nanking's persuasion. The old premier asked his master to modify the demand for autonomy, communicating to the latter that Nanking was prepared to present the autonomy leader with half a million yuan in cash. Te Wang's reply was: "What are you going to do with our pledge given to the Mongols? I do not want anything but the revival of the Mongol race, the descendants of Genghis Khan, who are now threatened with destruction." And he did not hesitate to dismiss the aged Tosolakti, who had been faithful to him from his boyhood.

Any one who deserves to be punished shall be punished, how much dear or close he may be to Te Wang; this is his motto. So the pledge given to the Mongols shall be redeemed at all costs, by rejecting all sorts of temptations for the attainment of salvation of the Mongol race. This lofty attitude of Te Wang's has won him implicit confidence of all the Mongols, thus making him what he is now.

Te Wang is also full of courage. When the Pailingmiao conference got under way under his auspices to discuss autonomy of Inner Mongolia, General Huang Shao-hsiung, representative of the Nanking Government, arrived at Pailingmiao at the head of 300 soldiers, sent by General Pu Tso-yi, chairman of the provincial government of Suiyuan. The Nanking representative trained his machine guns upon the conference room, which was not a permanent, armed one, but a simple Mongol-style tent, while deliberations were going on within. And those machine guns were trained upon Te Wang when he left the tent to ease his nature. Under such an

intimidation, Te Wang continued the conference with perfect aplomb. He did not yield an inch from his stand, which demanded complete autonomy for Inner Mongolia. This courage and dignity of Te Wang's strongly impressed the Mongols, who paid a glowing tribute to him.

Incidentally, it may be noted that when he started his movement for autonomy of Inner Mongolia, his following consisted of only several thousands of the people under the West Sunid banner. At that time, most princes in Inner Mongolia had not the vestige of intrepidity, which characterized the ancient Mongol generals, being emasculated as they were to the marrow by three-century peace which prevailed during the Ching Dynasty as well as by various privileges granted them by the Chinese Government. It apparently required a great stretch of imagination for them to see the vital necessity for autonomy of Inner Mongolia. The result was their indulgence in idle discussion, punctuated with their aristocratic caprices. The situation seemed to be helpless.

It may be easily imagined what difficulty Te Wang experienced in dealing with those princes of Inner Mongolia. He spared no efforts in explaining to them the reason why autonomy is necessary for Inner Mongolia and also in guiding them with full consideration. Some, however, remained sceptical and some critical, while in some cases he was distrusted by both his followers and opponents. Credit is due to Te Wang for his unswerving devotion to the cause of autonomy for Inner Mongolia, under the banner of which he has fought so valiantly and so steadfastly.

Will the Mongols, who have spent the past three centuries in idle slumber and who have been enervated by Lamaism, follow Te Wang's lead of their own accord? Miss Anna Louis Strong, an American journalist, who traversed China and Mongolia in 1927, accompanying General Borodin, military advisor to the Nanking Government, is sceptical about the future of the Mongols. In her work, China's Millions, she doubts whether the Mongols are possessed of national consciousness

strong enough to construct their own state. She fears that the descendants of Genghis Khan who not only occupied the entire Asia, but extended his territory to Europe, may kill themselves in the whirlpool of the internecine wars in China. Pointing out the fact that Mongolia became a pawn on the chess-board of struggles, first between Czarist Russia and Japan, and then between Red and White Russia, the American authoress is sceptical as to whether a handful of Mongol intelligentzias will be able to rouse the national consciousness of this great nomadic people.

Father Van Dyke, who has stayed long in Ningsia, predicts that the Mongols will be ruined in another three centuries. A Soviet consul, who has been assigned to north-eastern Mongolia, laments that the Mongols have no intention to learn, none of them striving to become a member of a nation. A darker picture is drawn of the future of the Mongols by a British military officer at Hongkong. In 1934, the British officer told the writer:

The Mongols are illiterate and savage. And they are completely enervated. They cannot survive these days of advanced science as well as of keen competition in both economic and cultural fields. Any help will be simply wasted on them.

The doubt may arise in every mind whether this benighted and enervated people will recover intrepidity of their forefathers, who, led by Genghis Khan, so successfully and so spectacularly overrode the Asiatic and European continents.

The Mongols, however, are not so enervated to the marrow as generally supposed by outsiders. They are neither savage nor ignorant. The fact is that unfortunately they have not been educated or trained. Nowadays, the young educated Mongols stand fair comparison with those of advanced nations. The courage and intelligence which inspired their forefathers still runs in their blood. There is no manner of doubt that a strong stimulus will serve to rouse the Mongols from their three-century old slumber. And the needed stimulus has already been imparted to them in the form of the formation of

an autonomous republic in Outer Mongolia as well as of the birth of Manchoukuo.

In his Mongols of Manchuria, Owen Lattimore, who is known as friend of the Mongols and authority on the affairs of the outlying provinces of China, observes that the Mongols of Manchuria as a whole find themselves confronted with two alternatives: either to espouse the cause of revolutionary nationalism in conjunction with the Soviet Union or to adopt conservative nationalism by arming themselves with their own religion in co-operation with Japan and under the guidance of their princes who are the descendants of Genghis Khan. Noting that Inner Mongolia, which has so far remained under China's sovereignty, is inflamed with the aspiration for its autonomy, the author states that the most vigorous leader of the autonomy movement is Te Wang, or the Prince of West Sunid in the Silingol League, who firmly believes that Inner Mongolia will be able to secure independence and safety if only the Mongols are fully determined for the purpose.

Now, Te Wang has roused the Inner Mongols, who have been in prolonged slumber or who have been in suspended animation. The Mongols, who have made Miss Anna Louis Strong sceptical about their future, who have despaired Father Van Dyke and who have caused a Soviet consul and a British military officer to arrive at a pessimistic conclusion, are now brought on to the stage by Te Wang with the eyes of the world riveted on them.

In order to determine the position of the Inner Mongols in the sphere of influence of the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia, presided by Te Wang, among the entire Mongols, the Mongolian organization must be studied.

The Mongolian organization was originally based upon the tribal system, in which a group of tribes formed an administrative unit. The Ching Dynasty, however, carried out an administrative reform in Mongolia, under which a banner became an administrative unit, while several banners were made into a league. The current Mongolian organization is as follows:

N.B. During the Ching Dynasty, no league was set up in Chahar, which was divided into 8 groups with 30 banners. The league system in Chahar is a recent introduction.

Of the 6 western and eastern leagues with 52 banners in Inner Mongolia, 3 eastern leagues with 15 groups of 28 banners are incorporated in Manchoukuo, together with 1 Ikh Chao banner in North Manchuria, and 17 Holonbair banners. They are ruled by the Emperor of Manchoukuo, who has succeeded to the hereditary title of Great Khan of Mongolia, a title borne by all the emperors of the Ching Dynasty. Four leagues with 4 groups of 80 banners in Outer Mongolia are incorporated in the autonomous republic of Outer Mongolia under the Soviet régime, together with 2 leagues with 7 groups of 20 banners in Kobdo, 5 banners in Tannu-Uring-hai, and 11 banners in Altai. Not only has their old tradition been destroyed under the Soviet régime, but they are now at the beck and call of the Buriats, whom they, the Khalkha Mongols in Outer Mongolia, have long looked down upon. The Buriats inhabit round Lake Baikal, being one of the Mongol tribes. They have been ruled by the Russian Government since the Czarist régime. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Buriats have espoused the Bolshevik cause. Young Buriats, who have been trained in Moscow and elsewhere under the Communist doctrine, are sent by the Moscow Government to Outer Mongolia for the guidance of the local Mongols.

The Mongols under the jurisdiction of the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia, led by Te Wang, correspond to only one-fifth of the entire Mongol population, comprising the 3 western leagues, with 10 groups of 24 banners in Inner Mongolia, 2 banners at Kukukhto Tumed, 8 banners and 8 groups with 20 banners in Chahar.

Western Inner Mongolia, in which those Mongols live, is subject to Red pressure from Outer Mongolia in the north, troubled by the constant unrest among the Mongols and Mohammedans in the west and menaced by the incessant civil wars among the Chinese in the south. Further, Chinese through their obstinate penetration have steadily cultivated the steppe, on which the nomadic Mongols used to pasture their cattle. This naturally adds to the difficulty of living for the Mongols, when their eastern brothers in Manchoukuo are leading a happy, peaceful life. No wonder that the Mongols in Western Inner Mongolia are plunged into confusion, ideological, economic and political. Those who have grasped the real significance of the alarming situation sound a note of warning, urging their fellow-countrymen to rise up, while those, glamoured with the success of the Bolshevik Revolution, are assisting Soviet influences to penetrate into Inner Mongolia in attempts to inculcate Communism upon the young Mongols.

It is true that the Yuan or Mongol, Dynasty (1260–1368), founded by the descendants of Genghis Khan, went to ruin several centuries ago, but the Mongol race did not share the fate of their dynasty. When the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) replaced the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols withdrew from China proper to Mongolia, the country of their forefathers, where they have maintained their independence and kept up their struggle with the Ming Dynasty. When the Ching Dynasty supplanted the Ming Dynasty, the Mongols entered into an alliance with the Ching Dynasty, from whence they have since handed down their racial tradition intact from generation to generation. In the meantime, they were threatened with Czarist Russia's aggression, but they successfully repulsed it. Even

against the Chinese obstinate penetration, they succeeded, though with difficulty, in holding it back south of the Great Wall, which served as a boundary between the Mongol and Chinese spheres of influence. Since the Chinese Revolution of 1912, however, the social conditions of Mongolia have witnessed a sudden change, while Chinese who have fled from the civil wars in China proper have invaded Inner Mongolia in increasing numbers. The past more than thirty years have been an age of real ordeals for the Mongols, who have struggled in vain to escape from slow but steady Chinese pressure.

Te Wang has risen up to deliver the Mongols out of this helpless situation. Unfurling the banner of "Mongolia for the Mongols," he urges his compatriots to rouse themselves to resist the Red invasion in the north and to check the Chinese penetration in the south. He is inspired with a lofty ideal. He is not content with autonomy of Inner Mongolia, which he is now ruling in a capacity of the chairman of the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia. On the contrary, he means to construct a great Mongol State, by uniting the entire Mongol population. He envisions founding of a great Mongol State on the table land of Asia, bounded by the Altai mountain range in the north, by the Tienshan range in the west, by the Great Wall in the south and by the Hingan range in the east, by comprising all the Mongol population there.

Will Te Wang be able to attain his great aspiration? He is not tall for a Mongol, standing some five feet and four inches. But he is possessed of a strong, well-knit physique, which will go through any hardship. His mien is dignified, but not overbearing. He has a kingly aspect. His mole in the centre of his forehead and on the border of his hair is reputed, according to Chinese tradition, to be a sure sign that he will be eventually enthroned. However, he scrupulously is concealing the mole with his hair, though he inwardly seems to be posing himself as a second Genghis Khan. His hobby is music. He speaks both Chinese and English fluently. He is one of the best informed of all the Mongols, being eager to

obtain the latest information on the world situation. His aspiration, his faith, his courage and his vision seem to qualify him best for his leadership of the entire Mongols. Indeed, the Mongols could not find a better leader.

The world situation has grown too tense, however, to permit Inner Mongolia to lose any time in rising up. It is to be regretted that the Mongols, who should act like one man under Te Wang's command, are too shiftless. Nine years have elapsed since Te Wang launched his movement for autonomy of Inner Mongolia. And yet the majority of the Mongols are not sufficiently awakened to the vital necessity for their autonomy. In the meantime, however, Te Wang has succeeded in organizing an autonomy commission, which has been replaced by the Autonomous Government of Mongolia. The latter has in turn been replaced by the Federated Autonomous Government of Menchiang, which has been developed into the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia. A tribute must be paid Te Wang for his strenuous efforts in leading the Mongols, who have hitherto been slumbering, to such a drastic reform of their own administration.

A serious difficulty, experienced by Te Wang, is a scarcity of talent in Inner Mongolia. He has only a handful of followers on whose abilities he can rely with full confidence, including Wu Hao-ling and General Li Shou-hsin. Another difficulty, which handicaps him, is poor natural resources of Inner Mongolia. Still another is a small population of Western Inner Mongolia, which hardly exceeds half a million.

But nonetheless Inner Mongolia has risen up. There are various difficulties and obstacles ahead. How will Te Wang deal with them? What development will Inner Mongolia attain under the leadership of Te Wang? These are questions full of interest, which time will settle.