for returning • substantially to the Younghusband provision. It is declared that
" the British occupation of the Chumbi Valley shall cease after the payment of three annual installments of said indemnity, as fixed by the said article. Provided, however, that the trade-marts, as stipulated in Article 2 of the said Convention, shall have been electively open for three years, as provided in Article 6 of the Convention, and that in the meantime the Tibetans shall have faithfully complied with the terms of the said convention in all other respects." (Italics are mine.—O. T. C.)
In dealing with Tibet (if standing alone) the British Government will be the sole judge of its own complaints. On the very face of the Viceroy's edict, just quoted, it is apparent that the gracious reduction in the period of occupation may at any time be withdrawn. Real or alleged grievances of Hindoo traders; real or alleged exploits of Dordjieff's spectre ; real or alleged resistance to the proper setting of boundary stones—almost any of a thousand pitifully small acts of a disturbed people, treading a new path, may serve to end the farce of grace.
The Blue Book discloses, too, all the wrangling between authorities which led to the making of the magnanimous edict. It shows him who officially uttered the gracious words strongly contending for the retention of the terms exacted by Younghusband. It shows the Secretary for India, who demands the changes, urging British international interest, not justice or clemency for the Tibetans, as the effective reason for modification. And it
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