That evening Mr. Ho, the Chinese delegate, sent word that he had arrived at Giri, just on the other side of the frontier, and asking that Mr. White would remain at Giagong.
The next day Mr. White and his escort rode quietly across the frontier, without meeting anyone except the Chinese Commandant of the small post of Giri, who passed by without speaking. Mr. White encamped near Giri, and received a visit from Mr. Ho, who communicated to him the contents of the Resident’s reply to the Viceroy, and made a request, which was politely declined, that the British Commissioner should remain at Giri in preference to proceeding to Khamba Jong. In this despatch the Chinese Resident informed the Viceroy that he had again deputed Mr. Ho, in conjunction with Captain Parr, the Customs Commissioner at Yatung, who, he said, were truly of equal rank to the Commissioner deputed by the Viceroy, to discuss all matters in a friendly manner. He further said that the Dalai Lama had deputed his Chief Secretary and a Depon (General) of Lhasa to negotiate in conjunction with the Chinese Commissioners. But the Resident understood, he said, that Khamba Jong was in Tibetan territory, and therefore the meeting could only be at the boundary near the grazing-grounds fixed by the Convention of 1890. The Resident contended, that is to say, that though the Tibetans had for thirteen years with armed men occupied territory on our side of the frontier laid down by the Convention, we were not even to meet temporarily for discussion on the Tibetan side of the same frontier.
On July 7 Mr. White, with his escort, marched to Khamba Jong, and encamped on a small stream not far from the Jong, or fort, which was an imposing building on the summit of a lofty crag some hundreds of feet above the plain. Mr. Ho wrote to Mr. White saying that he had instructed the Khamba Jongpen to provide him with supplies, and that he himself, accompanied by the two Lhasa officials, would arrive there on the following day. A letter of thanks was sent, and on the strength of Mr. Ho’s letter Mr. White wrote to the Tibetan Jongpen asking him to supply some grass; but the letter was returned unopened, with a somewhat unceremonious verbal message.
Major Bretherton, the energetic supply and transport officer, who had come up from Sikkim to arrange supply matters, on the following day found a rich and fertile valley some three or four miles from Khamba Jong, where grazing was abundant, and where barley crops were raised and sheep and cattle reared.
In the evening the Khamba Jongpen, with two junior officers bearing presents from the Lhasa delegates, arrived in camp. Mr. White received them, and sent polite messages in return, and Captain O’Connor afterwards interviewed the messenger in his own tent, and conversed very amicably for some time, the messenger being evidently very pleased with his reception, and altogether refusing to accept money, which was all Mr. White had at the moment, in return for their presents. The Jongpen also behaved with great civility, and repeatedly apologized in regard to his refusal to accept the letter, and promised to supply grass on the following day.
The two Lhasa officials, who were those referred to in the Chinese Resident’s letter to the Viceroy, visited Mr. White on July 11. They were well-mannered, but made protests regarding what they called our transgression of the frontier. After the interview with Mr. White they visited the Sikkim heir-apparent, who had arrived in Mr. White’s camp on the previous day; and here Captain O’Connor, in a less formal way, had a long conversation with them, endeavouring to find out under what amount of authority they had come. But they evaded all queries, and merely reiterated that if they had not had proper orders they would not, of course, be there. On the same day Mr. White visited Mr. Ho.
Captain O’Connor had a two-hours conversation with the Lhasa delegates on the 12th. He elicited that the Chief Secretary had been to Peking and back by Calcutta and Shanghai. The position they took up was that the place appointed by their Government for the discussion of affairs was the Giagong frontier, and on arrival there they would produce their credentials. As regards official correspondence, they said that by the terms of some treaty between the Chinese and the Tibetans all official correspondence between the Tibetans and foreigners had to be conducted through the Ambans, and, under these circumstances, they could neither receive nor reply to our letters. But they affirmed, nevertheless, that they were fully empowered to treat with our Commissioners at the proper place—the Giagong frontier.
Their dislike of the Chinese they plainly expressed. They said the Chinese despised the Tibetans, and were often instrumental in letting foreigners into the country—the poor Chinese who are accused by us of keeping foreigners out! The relations of Tibetans and Chinese were indeed extraordinarily anomalous. Whilst the Tibetans deferred to Mr. Ho in almost every matter, going so far as to forward to him official letters received from our camp for fear that they might get into trouble if they retained them, Mr. Ho himself admitted that in many matters he was powerless. The Tibetan officials appeared to be childishly impotent and terrified of their own Government, whilst at the same time they were deliberately obstructive in every matter, great or small, in which the British were concerned, and were quite ready to use the Chinese as a very convenient scapegoat whenever it suited them.
Mr. White made a formal visit to them on July 13, and at the close of the interview gave them presents, including two packets of tea each. They tried to raise some objections to receiving the tea, but no attention was paid, and the presents were accepted.
While all these proceedings were taking place, I confess that I at Tangu was in some anxiety. To march across the frontier in face of all protest, as Mr. White did, appears, when set down like this, as a very high-handed action. But it was also very risky. I had purposely, though not very wisely, but at any rate to avoid a direct collision at the very start, decided not to attack, and remove the Tibetans from Giagong, as they had been removed on the previous year. Mr. White was simply to march through to the place appointed by our Government in communication with the Chinese Government for the place of negotiation. But in so doing we left Tibetan troops in a good position on our line of communications, and as the Tibetans were evidently in an irritable state, this was no mean risk to take, and Colonel Brander and I at Tangu used to look out with considerable anxiety for the arrival of the daily dak from Mr. White.