IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
NECESSITY FOR AGENT AT LHASA 253
His Majesty's Government had already recognized the
necessity of asserting the predominance of British influence
in Tibet, and Lord Lansdowne had clearly apprised
Count Benckendorff of our attitude in this matter. To
establish such an influence it was evident that we must
now acquire something more practical than the nominal
concessions acquired by the treaty of 1890 as the fruits of
our operations in 1888. Our experience then gained
showed that we could not trust to our recent military
successes leaving any lasting impression. It was difficult to
avoid the conclusion that the best guarantee for the due
observance of the new Convention, and for the adequate
protection of our rights as the only European Power
limitrophe with 'Tibet, must be that, in addition to the
appointment of officers to watch over our commercial
interests at the marts to be established in 'Tibet, we should
demand the acceptance of an accredited British agent in
Tibet.
The place at which this agent should reside was a ques-
tion on which opinions might easily differ. and it might,
the Indian Government thought, be left open until they
were in possession of the fuller information that would be
acquired after the Mission had reached Lhasa. The
arguments in favour of placing him at Lhasa were the
following : Lhasa was the pivot of the religious and
political life of Tibet ; it was the seat of the Dalai Lama
and his Council, with whom we had to establish official
relations ; and it was the focus of the priestly influence,
which we had to conciliate or overcome. It might be
argued that it was undesirable to arouse the resentment of
the Tibetans by requiring them to receive a representative
of a strange race and a strange religion in the home of
their most sacred associations. But after the manner in
which for the past fifteen years the 'Tibetans had re-
pudiated their obligations and had derided the patience
with which we had submitted to their insults, Government
believed that, even should such a feeling exist, it might be
better to face it than to allow of the misconstruction
which would be placed upon the location of an agent at
any place outside Lhasa.
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