India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 92 (Color Image)

0092	India and Tibet : vol.1

CHAPTER VI

SECURING THE TREATY RIGHTS

Now that five years had elapsed since the Trade Regula-

tions were concluded, and they were, according to their

provisions, subject to revision, the Government of India

began to consider any practical measures for securing

fuller facilities for trade. The Convention of. 1890 and

the Trade Regulations of 1893 were intended to provide

these facilities, but so far none had been obtained ; and

the Indian Government thought that, as the Tibetans

attached great importance to retaining the Giagong piece

of territory in Northern Sikkim, and as we had no real

desire to hold it, there might be advantage in conceding

that point if the Tibetans would, on their side, make some

equivalent concession. They might, it was thought, con-

cede to us the point for which we had contended when

negotiating the Trade Regulations, and recognize Phari as

the trade-mart in place of the quite useless Yatung. Lord

Salisbury* agreed that some action was necessary, but it

seemed to him that, as during recent years Chinese

advisory authority in Tibet had been little more than

nominal, and the correspondence of the Government of

India even seemed to show that it was practically non-

existent, it would be preferable to open direct communica-

tion between the Government of India and the Tibetan

authorities.

Lord Curzon therefore commenced, in the autumn of

1899, a series of attempts to open up direct communica-

tion with them. Ugyen Kâzi, the Bhutanese Agent in

Darjiling, who was accustomed to visit Tibet for trade

* Blue-book, p. 101.

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