But now that the Indian Government, knowing that they could perfectly well hold their own up to their frontier, and finding that the Chinese were of little use in controlling events beyond it, were quite prepared to drop negotiations, the Chinese themselves came forward and pressed for their conclusion. This is an important point. It was now the Chinese who were pressing for an agreement. Further, and this is still more important, they stated that “China will be quite able to enforce in Tibet the terms of the treaty,” and they asked the Government of India to depute officers to meet the Chinese Resident at Gnatong. For the agreement which was subsequently reached the Chinese are therefore in the fullest sense responsible. They had themselves sought it, and they had themselves undertaken to control the affairs of the Tibetans.
Agreement was eventually reached in 1890, and a Convention was signed by Lord Lansdowne and the Chinese Resident in Calcutta on March 17. It laid down that “the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet shall be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta, and the affluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu, and northwards into other rivers of Tibet.” It admitted the British protectorate over the Sikkim State. By it both the Chinese and British Governments engaged “reciprocally to respect the boundary as defined in Article I., and to prevent acts of aggression from their respective sides of the frontier.” The three questions of providing increased facilities for trade, of pasturage, and of the method in which official communications between the British authorities in India and the authorities in Tibet should be conducted were reserved for discussion by joint Commissioners from either side, who should meet within six months of the ratification of the Convention.
This Convention proved in practice to be of not the slightest use, for the Tibetans never recognized it, and the Chinese were totally unable to impress them. But it was at least a start towards effecting our ultimate object of regularizing our intercourse with Tibet, and for another three years we solemnly occupied ourselves in discussing the three reserved points; the Chinese Resident, Sheng, being himself the joint Commissioner on the side of the Chinese, and Mr. A. W. Paul representing the British Government.
Our principal aim was to get some mart recognized, to which our merchants could resort and there meet Tibetan merchants. We did not attempt to gain permission for our traders to travel all over Tibet, as Tibetan traders can travel all over India. We merely sought to have one single place recognized where Indian and Tibetan traders could meet to do business with each other. And the place we sought to get so recognized was not in the centre of Tibet, or even in Tibet proper at all. It did not lie on the far side of the Himalayan watershed. It was Phari, at the head of the Chumbi Valley, on the southern side of the main Himalayan range. Yet to even this the Chinese and Tibetans would not agree, and eventually Yatung, at the extreme southern end of the Chumbi Valley and immediately on our border, was agreed upon.
Having made this concession, and having refrained from pressing for permission to allow British subjects to travel beyond this or to buy land and build houses there, we had hoped that the Chinese would meet our wishes in regard to the admission of tea. Speakers in Parliament scoffed at the idea of pressing tea upon the Chinese, but for the Bengal Government it is an important point. All along the low hills bordering Tibet there are numerous tea-plantations, affording both an outlet for British and Indian capital and employment for many thousands of Indian labourers. To a responsible local Government it is of importance to encourage and foster this industry. Now, just across the frontier are three millions of tea-drinkers. Tea is just the kind of light, portable commodity most suited for transit across mountains, and it was perfectly natural, reasonable, and right that the Bengal Government should press for its admission to Tibet, that the Tibetans might at least have the chance of buying it or not, as they pleased. But the Chinese, in spite of concessions in other matters by the Government of India, remained obstinate, and still remain obstinate, in regard to the admission of tea, and eventually only agreed to admit Indian tea into Tibet “at a rate of duty not exceeding that at which Chinese tea is imported into England,” which, as the latter rate of duty is 6d. per pound, and the tea drunk in Tibet is very inferior, was in reality the imposition of an ad valorem duty of from 150 to 200 per cent., and was therefore a concession of not the slightest value.
On December 5, 1893, the Trade Regulations were signed at Darjiling. The trade-mart at Yatung was to “be open for all British Subjects for purposes of trade from the first day of May, 1894,” and the Government were to be “free to send officers to reside at Yatung to watch the conditions of British trade.” British subjects were not at liberty to buy land and build houses for themselves, but were to be free “to rent houses and godowns (stores) for their own accommodation and for the storage of their goods,” and “to sell their goods to whomsoever they please, to purchase native commodities in kind or in money, to hire transport of any kind, and, in general, to conduct their business without any vexatious restrictions.” Goods other than arms, liquors, and others specified, were to be “exempt from duty for a period of five years”; but after that, if found desirable, a tariff might be “mutually agreed upon and enforced.” The Political Officer in Sikkim and the Chinese Frontier Officer in conference were to settle any trade disputes arising.
No arrangements for communication between British and Tibetan officials were made, but it was laid down that despatches from the Government of India to the Chinese Resident should be handed over by the Political Officer in Sikkim to the Chinese Frontier Officer.
And as to grazing, it was agreed that at the end of one year such Tibetans as continued to graze their cattle in Sikkim should be subject to such regulations as the British Government might lay down.