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 |
FAREWELL TO PIONEERS 327
become blurred in the actualities of daily intercourse and
practical existence. Yet it is these few fleeting moments
which are reality. In these only we see real life. The
rest is the ephemeral, the unsubstantial. And that single
hour on leaving Lhasa was worth all the rest of a lifetime.
We of the actual Mission were now to leave the
military escort and ride rapidly back to India to arrange
final details with the Government of India. So on the
following morning we started early, and as we rode away
the whole of the 32nd Pioneers turned out to say good-bye.
Some native officers had come to me the previous evening
to say the men wanted us to leave camp through their
lines. As we rode by, the men all came swarming out of
It their tents. The native officers clustered round our ponies
shaking our hands, and the whole regiment waved and
I cheered as we passed out of camp. They had been with
the Mission from the very start ; indeed, they had been
working at the road in that steamy Sikkim Valley
before the Mission was formed. They had been through
all the fighting and through the dreary investment at
t Gyantse ; and it did one good to feel that something
substantial had been obtained in return for their labours,
and that they would be able to go back to their villages
rewarded and happy. Indian troops of the best type have
a wonderful capacity for invoking attachment, and for
both the 32nd and 23rd Pioneers I shall always have a
warm affection.
The behaviour of these Indian troops had also con-
tributed greatly to the change of feeling in the Tibetans.
Their discipline was excellent. They had fought hard
when fighting was necessary. When the fighting was
over they readily made friends with the Tibetans. And
the latter more than once told me that the people suffered
more from their own troops than they did from ours.
This discipline and good behaviour of Indian troops we
take for granted. It is none the less very remarkable.
We had with us Gurkhas, trans-frontier Pathans, Sikhs,
and Punjabi Mohammedans. All of these in their natural
state, under their own leaders, and uncontrolled by British
officers, would have played havoc in Lhasa. Their good
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