India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 25 (Color Image)

0025	India and Tibet : vol.1

INDIA AND TIBET

INTRODUCTION

Tins book is an account of our relations with Tibet, but

many still wonder why we need have any such relations at

all. The country lies on the far side of the Himalayas, the

greatest range of snowy mountains in the world. Why,

then, should we trouble ourselves about what goes on there ?

Why do we want to interfere with the Tibetans ? Why not

leave them alone ? These are very reasonable and pertinent

questions, and such as naturally spring to the mind of even

the least intelligent of Englishmen. Obviously, therefore,

they must have sprung to the minds of responsible British

statesmen before they ever sanctioned intervention. The

sedate gentlemen who compose the Government of India

are not renowned for being carried away by bursts of

excitement or enthusiasm, nor are they remarkable for

impulsive, thoughtless action. They have spent their lives

in the dull routine of official grind, and by the time they

attain a seat in the Viceregal Council they are, if anything,

too free from emotional impulses. Certainly, the initiation

of anything forward and interfering was as little to be

expected from them as from the most rigorous anti-

Imperialist. The head of the Government of India at the

time of the Tibet Mission was, it is true, a man of less

mature official experience, but he happened to be a man

who had studied Asiatic policy in nearly every part of Asia,

besides having been Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs ;

and even supposing he had been the most impulsive and

irresponsible of Viceroys, he could take no action without

gaining the assent of the majority of his colleagues in India,

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