The Sacrifice of Younghusband 257
terference be laid ? What check exists now against the dreadful Dordjieff which did not exist before the raid? ` ` The treaty exists," replies the Indian Office, "and now, if we hear further rumours of intrigue, we shall have, out of our treaty, a casus belli."
But you have just made a war without a treaty—you made it at your will, alleging only absurd rumours as your excuse—and such rumours will again be created for you or by you in the future as in the past. Indeed, they are much more to be expected now than ever before. Now, as never before, the Tibetans may be led to give ear to him who might beguile them with promise of protection from your blood-stained hands. And, without supervision at Lhasa, without nearby force ever threatening punishment, the nervousness, the distrust, the furtive hope of the Tibetans, co-operating with your own suspicions and enforced ignorance, must create troublesome situations which were impossible before the raid.
Occasions for misunderstanding will further arise from the presence of unwelcome traders at the marts which the Tibetans are required to establish, and especially from the attempted disorganisation of the tea-trade, now the source of a considerable part of the revenue of the governing class. The indemnity has been reduced from seventy-five annual payments, aggregating Rs. 7,500,000, to twenty-five annual payments aggregating Rs. 2,500,000. The occupation of Chumbi Valley has been reduced from a definite period of seventy-five years, to a minimum of three years. But the door is cunningly left open
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