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0309 India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1
India and Tibet : vol.1 / 309 ページ(白黒高解像度画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000295
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NECESSITY FOR AGENT AT LHASA 253

His Majesty's Government had already recognized the

necessity of asserting the predominance of British influence

in Tibet, and Lord Lansdowne had clearly apprised

Count Benckendorff of our attitude in this matter. To

establish such an influence it was evident that we must

now acquire something more practical than the nominal

concessions acquired by the treaty of 1890 as the fruits of

our operations in 1888. Our experience then gained

showed that we could not trust to our recent military

successes leaving any lasting impression. It was difficult to

avoid the conclusion that the best guarantee for the due

observance of the new Convention, and for the adequate

protection of our rights as the only European Power

limitrophe with 'Tibet, must be that, in addition to the

appointment of officers to watch over our commercial

interests at the marts to be established in 'Tibet, we should

demand the acceptance of an accredited British agent in

Tibet.

The place at which this agent should reside was a ques-

tion on which opinions might easily differ. and it might,

the Indian Government thought, be left open until they

were in possession of the fuller information that would be

acquired after the Mission had reached Lhasa. The

arguments in favour of placing him at Lhasa were the

following : Lhasa was the pivot of the religious and

political life of Tibet ; it was the seat of the Dalai Lama

and his Council, with whom we had to establish official

relations ; and it was the focus of the priestly influence,

which we had to conciliate or overcome. It might be

argued that it was undesirable to arouse the resentment of

the Tibetans by requiring them to receive a representative

of a strange race and a strange religion in the home of

their most sacred associations. But after the manner in

which for the past fifteen years the 'Tibetans had re-

pudiated their obligations and had derided the patience

with which we had submitted to their insults, Government

believed that, even should such a feeling exist, it might be

better to face it than to allow of the misconstruction

which would be placed upon the location of an agent at

any place outside Lhasa.