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
298 THE TREATY CONCLUDED
guarantee had from the first been placed as one of the
chief objects of my Mission.
Our main object was to put our relations with the
Tibetans on a permanently satisfactory basis. By saying
yes " to the Regent's proposal I should be concluding
a settlement which would admirably meet all our local
requirements ; which would, as they themselves had made
it, best suit the Tibetans ; which would not, as far as I
could judge, run counter to any international obligations ;
and which would involve Government in no further re-
sponsibility.
I therefore turned to the Tibetans and said that, in
view of the representations which had been made to me as
to the difficulty of raising the money in cash, I would
agree to the payment being distributed over seventy-five
years. They must, however, clearly understand that
under the terms of the Treaty we should retain the right
to continue to occupy the Chumbi Valley till the full
amount of the indemnity was paid. They said that they
understood this.
I then remarked that the amount due to us was,
to-day, 76 lakhs, not 75 lakhs, as two more days
had elapsed since I gave them the ultimatum, and for
each of those days Rs. 50,000 was chargeable. The
Tongsa Penlop, however, asked that this extra lakh
might be remitted, and to this I assented. The Tibetans
then asked that the amount might be paid in kind—in
ponies, for instance. I replied that as the amount was so
small it would be better to pay it in cash, for if it were
paid in ponies or other articles there would be constant
disputes between us as to the value of the articles prof-
fered, and our good relations might be jeopardized.
Finally they asked that it might be paid in tangas, the
local Tibetan coin. I replied that I had entered rupees in
the draft Treaty, and with that they must be content.
The Ti Rimpoche then affixed his private seal to the
draft Treaty.
The thing was done, but what I did in saying those
half a dozen words agreeing to the Tibetan proposals was
considered afterwards to be a grave error of judgment, and
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