The Chinese Government replied on May 21, suggesting that Tibet should depute a Tibetan and India an Indian Government official to negotiate, and that the actions of the Tibetan representative would be subject to the approval of Mr. Chang, and those of the Indian representative to that of the Viceroy of India. This was a thoroughly Chinese device to put India on a par with Tibet and Mr. Chang on a par with the Viceroy. What reply it met with is not on record, but on July 18 the Secretary of State telegraphed to the Viceroy that he should address to the Tibetan Government a friendly and uncontroversial letter, notifying them of the negotiations to be held at Simla, and requesting that their delegate might be supplied with proper credentials. In carrying out these instructions the Viceroy telegraphed that he had also told the British Trade Agent to give a copy of the communication to Mr. Chang, and that the Foreign Secretary had written a friendly letter to Mr. Chang announcing that he, Sir Louis Dane, had been appointed British delegate.
The Regulations were eventually signed at Calcutta on April 20, 1908, by Mr. Wilton (who had taken Sir Louis Dane’s place), Mr. Chang, and the Tsarong Sha-pé. The questions relating to extradition, the levy of Customs duties, the export of tea from India into Tibet, and the appointment of Chinese Trade Agents, with Consular privileges, were reserved for future consideration.
By these new Regulations it was laid down that the old Regulations of 1893 should remain in force, in so far as they were not inconsistent with the new Regulations. The boundaries of the Gyantse mart were fixed. British subjects were allowed to lease land at the marts for the building of houses and godowns; the administration at the marts was to remain with the Tibetan officers, under the Chinese officers’ supervision and directions; the Trade Agents and Frontier Officers were to hold personal intercourse and correspondence one with another, and the Chinese authorities were not to prevent the British Trade Agents holding personal intercourse and correspondence with the Tibetan officers and people; and British subjects were to be at liberty to sell their goods to whomsoever they pleased and to buy goods from whomsoever they pleased. China engaged to afford effective police protection at the marts and along the routes, and on due fulfilment of arrangements for this, Great Britain undertook to withdraw the Trade Agents’ guards at the marts and to station no troops in Tibet, so as to remove all cause for suspicion and disturbance among the inhabitants. In a letter accompanying the Regulations Mr. Wilton wrote to the Chinese and Tibetan delegates that the strength of the armed guards at Gyantse and Yatung would not exceed fifty and twenty-five respectively, and the desirability of reducing these numbers even before their actual withdrawal would be carefully considered from time to time, as occasion might offer.
These Regulations would have been of value if they had been observed, but even in 1910 the Indian Government reported that the Chinese did not allow the Tibetans to deal directly with our Agents, and once they were concluded the Chinese seem to have been more engrossed with the great forward movement which, I have stated, they commenced as soon as we had evacuated Chumbi, than in carrying out their part of the agreement.
The first indication of this significant change of Chinese policy was the appointment of Chao Erh-feng, the Acting Viceroy of Szechuan, as Resident in Tibet, in the spring of 1908. It was unusual, said Sir John Jordan in reporting this, to select an official of his standing and record for this position. The appointment was all the more significant because his brother, Chao Erh-hsun, who succeeded Chang Chih-tung as Viceroy at Hankow in the previous September, was suddenly transferred to the less important post of Viceroy of Szechuan at the same time as Chao Erh-feng was sent to Tibet.
A Memorial of the Board of Finance, approved by an Imperial Rescript of March 19, which was published in the Chinese press on March 31, threw some light on these appointments and the intentions of the Chinese Government. Chao Erh-feng was apparently expected to perform in Tibet functions similar to those of the Marquis Ito in Korea, and especially to extend the control of the Chinese Government over the Tibetan Administration. The appointment of Chao Erh-hsun as Viceroy was intended to strengthen his brother’s hands and insure harmony of action.
The Memorial of the Board of Finance stated that Tibet acted as a rampart for the province of Szechuan, and, in view of its extent and the backward civilization of the natives, plans for such important measures as the training of troops, the promotion of education, the development of agriculture, mining and industries, the improvement of means of communication, the increase in the number of officials, and the reform of the Government, should be prepared without delay, so that the administration of the country might gradually be put on a better basis. Chao Erh-feng had been appointed to the post of Imperial Resident in Tibet, and, as a mark of the importance of his office, exceptionally high rank had been conferred upon him.
Chao Erh-feng was directed to investigate the local conditions in concert with Lien Yu, to prepare comprehensive schemes for all the measures to be undertaken in Tibet, and to draft Regulations. The officials should receive liberal salaries, and be generously rewarded for meritorious service. They should all be permitted to bring their families with them, and would be required to hold their appointments for long periods. To meet the necessary expenditure, the Board of Finance was to provide a sum of from 400,000 to 500,000 taels every year in order to aid in this important undertaking, and the Viceroy of Szechuan was to give his assistance when required, even beyond the limits of his own jurisdiction.
Sir John Jordan, as events have proved, was amply justified in drawing attention to the significance of this appointment of Chao Erh-feng. He was a man of both ability and energy, but also of severity. His dealings with the semi-independent States of Eastern Tibet will be related in the following Chapter. Here it is important to emphasize the facts that he was turning these States one after another into districts directly administered by Chinese officials, and that he was making a special set against Lamaism[[50]]—regulating the numbers who might become priests, curtailing the donations to monasteries, increasing the taxes they had to pay, prohibiting the construction of temples except by Chinese officials, and declaring the inefficacy of the Lama’s prayers—excellent reforms in many ways, but when carried out with the severity with which Chao was introducing them in Eastern Tibet, inevitably calculated to arouse anger and suspicion at Lhasa.
Following the appointment of this high-handed Viceroy bearing a special mandate to “reform” the Government of Tibet appeared anti-British articles in a Lhasa newspaper,[[51]] published by the Chinese officials and circulated throughout Tibet. The Tibetans were exhorted not to be afraid of Chao and his soldiers; they were not intended to do harm to Tibetans, but “to other people.” The Tibetans were to remember how they felt ashamed when the foreign soldiers arrived in Lhasa, and oppressed them with much tyranny. Chinese and Tibetans must all strengthen themselves on this account; otherwise their common religion would be destroyed in a hundred, or perhaps a thousand, years. In the west the “foreign frontier” was very close. In that direction, also, was Nepal. The Tibetans were therefore to make friends quickly with the Nepalese, and “become as one to resist the foreigners.” In Tibet were “some wicked, aggressive foreigners,” with whom intercourse had to be maintained, and for this purpose English schools would be opened. Then, again, in the south was Bhutan, and “Tibet and Bhutan were as inseparable as the cheek from the teeth.” It would be even more advantageous to make friends with Bhutan than with Nepal. If at any future time the Bhutanese wanted help, the Chinese Resident would give it. “Bhutan is like a wall of Tibet. The Emperor thinks that the Gurkhas, Bhutanese, and Tibetans should live like three men in one house.”