国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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India and Tibet : vol.1 | |
インドとチベット : vol.1 |
270 THE NEGOTIATIONS
troubles, but who was reported to have very sagaciously
advised the Dalai Lama to retire for a bit, as the English
would soon calm down and disappear again like the
bubbles in boiling water which subside when the water has
cooled.
The Tibetans' so-called reply to our terms was the
next day communicated by the Resident's secretary to
Mr. Wilton. The Tibetans refused each single point, and
said that an indemnity was due from us to them rather
than from them to us. The only trade-mart they would
concede was Rinchengong, which was scarcely two miles
beyond Yatung. I had the document returned to the
Resident with a message that I could not officially re-
ceive so preposterous a reply.
The Resident called upon me the next day and said he
had received a reply to our terms, but it was so im-
pertinent he could not even mention it to me officially. He
had sent it back to the Tibetans censuring them for their
stupidity, and ordering them to send a more fit reply. He
had pointed out to them their folly in not settling with us, ►i
and how impossible it was for them to contend against us.
He then made a singularly interesting remark. The
ordinary people, he said, were not at all ill-disposed
towards us. They liked us, and were anxious to trade
with us. Reports of our treatment of the wounded, and
of the liberal payment we made for supplies, had spread
about the country, and the people in general would be
glad enough to make a settlement and be on good terms.
Where the opposition came from was from the Lamas, j
more especially those of the three great monasteries. They
and they alone were the obstructionists, and if they were ;I
out of the way there would be no more trouble, and the
people would speedily be friends with us. j
I told the Amban that this was extremely interesting j
and gratifying to hear, and that what he had said entirely
bore out my own conclusions. It made me all the more
sorry that so many of these poor peasants with whom we had
no quarrel, and who only wished to be friendly with us,
should have been killed, and this was one consideration
which was restraining us from fighting now. I had on
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