India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 72 (Color Image)

0072	India and Tibet : vol.1

46 THE BENGAL GOVERNMENT'S EFFORTS

Government of Bengal, with the countenance and support

of the Imperial Government, had long ago dealt directly

with the Lhasa authorities, Chinese and Tibetan matters

might have been arranged more expeditiously and satis-

factorily. At any rate, it cannot be safely assumed that

the Central Government method is necessarily the best.

In this case, for instance, all that resulted was that

the Chinese Government, in the Chefu Convention con-

cluded three years later, undertook to protect any mission

which should be sent to Tibet—an undertaking which was

literally valueless, for when a mission was actually sent to

Tibet they were unable to afford it the slightest protec-

tion, and the Chinese representative in Lhasa confessed to

me in writing that he could not even get the Tibetans

to give him transport to enable him to meet me.

The Government of Bengal had therefore to content

themselves with improving the road inside our frontier,

and with doing what they could on our side to entice and

further trade.

But in 1885 a renewed effort was made to come to an

understanding with the Tibetans. The brilliant Secretary

of the Bengal Government, Colman Macaulay, visited the

frontier to see if any useful relationship could be established

with the Shigatse people by the route up the head of the

Sikkim Valley. The Tashi Lama, who resides at Shigatse,

had always been more friendly than the Lhasa people, and

this seemed more promising. Macaulay saw a local Tibetan

official from the other side, entered into friendly inter-

course, and found, as Bogle and Turner had found, that

apart from Chinese obstruction there was no objection on

the part of the Tibetan people themselves to enter into

friendly relationship. Macaulay was filled with en-

thusiasm. He threw his whole soul and energy into the

matter. He secured the support of the Government of

India. And, more important still, he fired the Secretary of

State for India with ardour. Never before had such enthu-

siasm for improving our relations with Tibet been shown.

And as it happened that this Secretary of State was the best

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