From the London Times, May 24, 1903. Mr. James Bryce at Aberdeen, May 23, 1903.
The Tibetans asked nothing better than to be let alone. They were not fierce raiders like the Afghans. They valued their splendid isolation. They wished, like Mr. Chamberlain, to exclude foreign goods, and, like the Government, to exclude alien immigrants except the Chinese. We had some petty frontier disputes with them. They had been tiresome and discourteous, refusing to send or receive envoys. Their conduct had given material out of which those who wished to have a quarrel could make a quarrel. But their very weakness and ignorance rendered it possible for a great Power to be indifferent.
The Tibetans were said to have had some communication with the Russian Government, but the Government had declared that they accepted Russia's denial. They called it a peaceful mission and professed to believe it could have a peaceful reception. The mission had become a war, etc.
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