“You come and travel and trade in India just as you please,” I said. "You go where you like, and stay there as long as you like. But if any one from India wishes to trade in Tibet he is stopped on the frontier, and no one is allowed to go near him. He can trade in Russia, in Germany, in France, and in all other great countries, and in all other dependencies of the Chinese Empire, in Manchuria, in Mongolia, and in Turkestan; but in Tibet alone of all countries he cannot trade. This is a one-sided arrangement, unworthy of so fair-minded and cultured a people as you are; and though His Excellency has no intention of annexing your country, and may, indeed, if you prove reasonable in regard to the admission of trade, make concessions to you in respect to the frontier lands near Giagong, yet he will insist that the obstacles which you have for so many years put in the way of trade between India and Tibet shall be once and for ever removed."
This speech was, of course, made for the benefit of the Lhasa Government. The Tibetan officials would receive no written communications, but I thought it barely possible that they might pass on a verbal communication, especially when it was made before a responsible Chinese official, and after I had given due notice of my intention.
The Tibetan delegates listened attentively while it was being delivered, but at its conclusion said that they could not enter into any discussion upon it. I replied that neither could I discuss it with them, for I had not yet heard from the Viceroy that he was satisfied that they were of sufficiently high rank to carry on negotiations. I had, however, as a matter of courtesy, taken the trouble to acquaint them informally with the Viceroy’s views, which I trusted they would report to their Government. They replied that they could not even do that much, that they could make no report at all unless we went back to Giagong.
Mr. Ho here interposed, and said that the Tibetans were very ignorant and difficult to deal with, and he asked me if I could not meet them by agreeing to go to the frontier. I said I would with pleasure, and when representatives whom the Viceroy would permit me to negotiate with were present I would gladly ride with them to the frontier and discuss the question on the spot; but the frontier was not at Giagong, as the Tibetans supposed, but at the Kangra-la (pass), only ten miles from where we where. Mr. Ho said the actual position of the frontier was not known yet, but that it was where the waters flowed down to India. I said five minutes’ investigation would make clear where that was, and Mr. Ho said that then the matter could be very easily settled.
Mr. Ho’s Chinese secretary then suggested that I should give the Tibetans the copy of my speech which the interpreter had read from. I assented with readiness, and, with Mr. Ho’s approval, presented it to them. But they could not have got rid of a viper with greater haste than they got rid of that paper. They said that they could on no account receive it, and handed it on to Mr. Ho’s secretary, to whom, as he spoke English, I had also given an English version.
These so-called delegates never came near us again at Khamba Jong, but shut themselves up in the fort and sulked. And in reporting the result of this interview to Government, I said that both Mr. White and I were of opinion that Government must be prepared for very protracted negotiations, and also for the possibility of coercion. The attitude of the Tibetans was fully as obstructive, I said, as Mr. White and every other person acquainted with them had predicted it would be, and I saw at present little prospect of coming to a settlement without coercion, though I would use every possible means of argument and persuasion.
And if the delegates did not choose to give me any work, I was quite content to do none, for I was thoroughly happy in camp there at Khamba Jong. All my staff were delightful companions, and we were very happy together. Mr. White was the best possible hand at making a camp comfortable and feeding arrangements good; and we had neither the stifling heat of the Indian plains nor the discomforts of the rainy season in the hills. We were beyond the reach of the monsoon. We had occasional refreshing showers, but for July, August, and September, the rainfall was only 4.9 inches, and, for the most part, the weather was bright and fine and clear. We could see immense distances over the rolling plains. We would watch the mighty monsoon clouds sweeping along the Himalayas; we would catch glimpses of some noble peak rising superbly above them, and Kinchinjunga close by and Everest in the farthest distance were a perpetual joy.
Some of us went out shooting antelopes and Ovis ammon; while others went botanizing or geologizing; and when, later on, our scientific staff was complete, I could accompany Mr. Hayden to hunt for fossils, Captain Walton to collect birds, and Colonel Prain, now Director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, to collect plants, and thus hear from each of these specialists in turn all the interests of their sciences, so I did not care a pin how long these obstinate Tibetans kept us up there.
But while the Lhasa delegates would have no more to say to us, a deputation came to see me on behalf of the Tashi Lama, who is of equal spiritual importance with the Dalai Lama, though of less political authority. They said that they had been sent to represent to us that the Tashi Lama was put to great trouble with the Lhasa authorities by our presence at Khamba Jong; that the Lhasa authorities held him responsible for permitting us to cross the frontier, and he begged me to be so kind as to save him from the trouble by withdrawing across the frontier or to Yatung, which was the place fixed for meetings of this kind. I repeated to them all the arguments I had used with the Lhasa delegates. They were much more courteous, and talked over the matter in a perfectly friendly, and even cheery, way. They said, though, that they knew nothing about the treaty, as it was concluded by the Amban, and not by themselves, and they could not be responsible for observing it. I said that that was precisely the reason why we had now come to Tibet. We wished now to make a new treaty there, where Tibetans could take part in the negotiations, so that they would not in future be able to say they knew nothing about it. They laughed, and said this was a very reasonable argument, but that it was the Lhasa people, and not themselves, who had broken the treaty, and we ought to go to Yatung and make the new treaty there.
I told them that, in the first place, they also had broken the treaty by crossing the boundary fixed in it and occupying Giagong; and, in the second place, we must regard Tibetans as all one people, and hold all responsible for the actions of each.