India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 110 (Color Image)

0110	India and Tibet : vol.1

CHAPTER VIII

A MISSION SANCTIONED

WHILE the negotiations with Russia were proceeding the

Home Government would come to no final decision as to

the action to be taken. The question at issue, they in-

formed the Indian Government* in February, was no

longer one of details as to trade and boundaries—though

on these it was necessary that an agreement should be

arrived at—but the whole question of the future political

relations of India and 'Tibet. They agreed with the Indian

Government that, having regard to the geographical posi-

tion of 'Tibet on the frontiers of India, and its relations

with Nepal, it was indispensable that British influence

should be recognized at Lhasa in such a manner as to

render it impossible for any other Power to exercise a

pressure on the 'Tibetan Government inconsistent with

the interests of British India." They admitted, also, the

force of the contention that the interest shown by the

Russian Government in the action of the Government of

India on the Tibetan frontier demonstrated the urgency

of placing our relations with Tibet on a secure basis.

They recognized that Nepal might be rightly sensitive as

to any alteration in the political position of Tibet which

would be likely to disturb the relations at present existing

between the two countries, and that the establishment of

a powerful foreign influence in Tibet would disturb those

relations, and might even, by exposing Nepal to a pressure

which it would be difficult to resist, affect those which

then existed on so cordial a basis between India and

Nepal. They regretted the necessity for abandoning the

passive attitude that had hitherto sufficed in the regulation

* Blue-book, p. 184.

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