India and Tibet : vol.1 / 242 ページ（カラー画像）

0242	India and Tibet : vol.1
インドとチベット : vol.1

0242

India and Tibet : vol.1

インドとチベット : vol.1

198 GYANTSE

had been eleven months trying even to begin negotiations.

I should be quite unable to complete them in two or three

months, especially if the Chinese and 'Tibetans knew

we intended to leave before the winter.

The substance of this telegram I still think was per-

fectly sound, but its tone I do not now in cold blood

seek to defend. I must confess that during all this

Gyantse period I was not so steady and imperturbable as

an agent should be. Perhaps the prolonged stay at very

high altitudes was beginning to tell, for even Gyantse was

over 13,000 feet. Perhaps it was the greater realization

that nothing ever would be effected short of Lhasa, and

that this playing about at Khamba Jong, at Tuna, and at

Gyantse was merely for the benefit of the distant British

elector. Or it may have been the difficulty of reconciling

military with political considerations. Or possibly it was

reading in the newspapers now arriving from England

the accusations of cruelty, injustice, and oppression which

were being publicly brought against the Mission, and the

prophecies of disaster, such as befell Cavagnari, which

were to come on us also. Whatever it was, I certainly

became very restive. and now earned a rebuff from the

Government of India, which only made me worse, and

determined me to give up the whole business. It seemed

so easy to carry through if we only went straight at it, so

utterly impossible when in England they were only half-

hearted. I see now that I ought to have gone stolidly

and cheerily on, for Governments, too, have innumerable

difficulties of their own. Still, this was not easy at the

time.

It was tolerably certain a fortnight after my arrival at

Gyantse that the Tibetans did not seriously mean to

negotiate, and if we had to go to Lhasa, it was urgently

necessary to make early preparations for an advance,

so that another whole summer might not pass away

without result. Yet I was undoubtedly premature in

breathing the word Lhasa so early as the end of April.

It was clear to me that if we wished to make a well-

thought-out, complete, and lasting settlement with the

Tibetans and the Chinese combined, and if we wished-

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