I know not how to save them, in despair.
But again:
Should I such means adopt, perversely false,
Subversive of all Truth, dishonest, vile?
To utter falsehoods base would choke my throat;
But still to rescue them resolved am I
To seek for means, untainted by untruth;
To truth, unvarnished, perfect, will I cling.
So on the 10th I spent much time in the company of my host, who tried to persuade me into acting conventionally. He himself believed, he said, that I was truly a Buḍḍhist priest and nothing more, but counselled that I might better serve my purpose by acting on the King’s suspicion than by adhering to the truth. Had I not already had occasion to have recourse to falsehood, when it suited me, as for instance, in passing myself off for a Chinese Lama? Was not the most important thing in view the rescuing of my Tibetan friends, and did I not consider that the prospect of enlisting the Nepālese King’s assistance in the matter was greater by passing myself for a Japanese official than by trying to be strictly truthful? That was all so, I replied; but I dwelt on the points of difference between Tibet and Nepāl.
“Stratagems or temporary plans,” I said, “may be used in war, or in circumstances like war, or among rascals, in order to avoid difficulties for others as well as for ourselves. Now the Nepālese are not like the Tibetans, who do not allow a foreigner to enter into their country. The civilisation of Nepāl permits the people to hear reason and truth. How could I insult the Governor with falsehood? If he will not believe me I shall be satisfied with my own truth, and I shall go to Peking and there do my best for these Tibetan friends of mine.”