It was difficult to understand why there was all this trouble about negotiating at Khamba Jong, for the Chinese Government had informed our Minister at Peking on July 19 that “the Imperial Resident had now arranged with the Dalai Lama to appoint two Tibetan officials of fairly high standing to proceed with the Prefect Ho to Khamba to meet Major Younghusband and Mr. White, and discuss with them what steps are to be taken.” The Chinese Government added that they trusted it would be possible to effect a speedy and friendly settlement of this long-standing dispute, and requested Mr. Townley to acquaint his Government by telegraph with the contents of this communication, so that Major Younghusband and Mr. White might be instructed to open negotiations in a friendly spirit with the Tibetan and other delegates appointed, and it was hoped that the pending questions would then be speedily and finally settled.
The Chinese Government did, indeed, ask the British Government to withdraw the troops we had with us at Khamba Jong, but this was on the strength of a report they had received that when I was to follow Mr. White to Khamba Jong, I was to bring with me the 300 men who formed the support left at Tangu.
That the Dalai Lama himself had agreed to Khamba Jong being the meeting-place seems evident from the copy of the telegram from the Chinese Resident at Lhasa, which the Chinese Government forwarded to Mr. Townley with the above-mentioned communication. The Resident’s words were: “The Dalai Lama’s answer is to the effect that, since the British Government has appointed Major Younghusband as Boundary Commissioner and Mr. White as his fellow-Commissioner, and fixed the 7th instant for the meeting of the delegates at the frontier station of Khamba, and as the Prefect Ho Kuang Hsieh is to proceed there in a few days from Chingshi, it is his duty, the matter being a very important one, also to appoint interpreter officials above the usual rank to proceed to Khamba, and, in company with the Prefect Shou [? Ho], to meet the British delegates and discuss the frontier question with them.”
Nothing would seem clearer than this. Both the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama accepted Khamba—that is, Khamba Jong—as the place of meeting, and directed their delegates to proceed to meet Mr. White and myself there. Yet, when we met at the appointed place, they refused to have anything to do with us!
I think a solution of this extraordinary proceeding may be found in the last paragraph of the telegram of the Resident to his Government. In this very same telegram in which he announces that the Dalai Lama is sending delegates with Mr. Ho to meet me at Khamba Jong, the Resident asks that we should “be careful not to cross the frontier, and thus again excite the suspicion and alarm of the Tibetans.”
My impression is that neither the Chinese Government, the Resident, nor the Dalai Lama knew that Khamba Jong was on the Tibetan side of the frontier. And this appalling ignorance of the frontier by men who, nevertheless, kept the control of frontier affairs absolutely in their hands was one of the main difficulties with which we had to deal, and was what made it an absolute necessity to negotiate with them face to face at Lhasa itself.
In any case, whether they really were ignorant or not of the position of Khamba Jong, they had all formally agreed to send delegates to meet Mr. White and myself there, and the continued refusal of these delegates even to receive communications was utterly indefensible.
On September 1 Mr. Ho came to me to say he had been recalled to Lhasa owing to ill-health. I took the opportunity to recount the difficulties the Chinese Government had placed us in by undertaking responsibilities in regard to the Tibetans, and then not being able to fulfil them. The British Government had time after time shown consideration to the Chinese Government, but the net result was that the Tibetans had broken the old treaty, and now placed every obstacle in the way of negotiating a new one. I trusted he would represent to the Resident the seriousness of the position, and impress upon him the importance of using his influence with the Tibetan Government to induce them to change their present intolerable attitude. The Tibetans did not seem to understand that for years they had been offending the British Government, and that it ill became them, therefore, to object to the mere place where negotiations were to be held. We had given them the opportunity for negotiating, and if the Lhasa Government still persisted in refusing to hold negotiations at Khamba Jong, and the Chinese still showed their incapacity to make them negotiate there, then the Resident must understand that the position would become very grave indeed, and the Chinese and Tibetans would only have themselves to thank if, under these circumstances, the British Government took matters into their own hands and adopted their own measures for effecting a settlement.
Mr. Ho said he would explain all this to the Amban, and he also then and there explained it to the Tibetans—the Shigatse Abbot and others, though not including the Lhasa delegates—who were present, and these seemed impressed, though they said we were acting in a very oppressive manner.
On September 2 the Government of India asked me to submit proposals for dealing with the situation if the Tibetans continued to be so impracticable. I replied on the 9th, that I thought that the Viceroy’s reply to the Resident might have some effect upon the Chinese at least. Both Chinese and Tibetans had so far been under the impression that the present mission was only one more of the futile little missions which had come and gone on the Sikkim frontier for years past. They thought that if they could be obstructive enough during the summer and autumn, we should no doubt return before the winter. On this point the Viceroy’s letter would leave them in no doubt. It was clear from that that we intended to stay for the winter. Besides this I had, I said, in conversation with Mr. Ho and the Shigatse people, tried to bring both the Chinese and the Tashi Lama round to putting pressure on the obstinate Lhasa monks. But there was little hope, I thought, that mere verbal persuasion would be sufficient. Direct action would be required. The despatch of a second Pioneer regiment to put the road to the Jelap-la (pass) in order, had, I understood, been ordered. I recommended, therefore, that about the same time my escort should be strengthened by 100 men from the support.