IIIFカラー高解像度
国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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| IIIFカラー高解像度 |
| India and Tibet : vol.1 | |
| インドとチベット : vol.1 |
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引用情報
302 THE TREATY CONCLUDED
And for the effect upon the Tibetans and upon men in
general, upon our own soldiers, British and Indian, and
upon the Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Sikkimese, and far
away up into Kashmir and Turkestan, it was necessary to
do something to strike their imagination, and to give some
unmistakable sign that the Tibetans had not been able
through all these years to flout us without suffering the
penalty.
Here again to the common-sense man it would have
seemed ridiculous and foolish to run more additional risk
when the Treaty could have been signed comfortably and
without any fuss in either my room or the Resident's.
But those who have lived among A siatics know that the
fact of signing the Treaty in the Potala was of as much
value as the Treaty itself. Few would know what was in
the Treaty, but the fact that the British had concluded a
Treaty in the Potala would be an unmistakable sign that
the Tibetans had been compelled to come to terms. At
the commencement of the Mission our prestige all along
our frontier with Tibet had been at zero-point. Every-
where it was thought that the Tibetans could defy us with
impunity. Our prestige had no value, and prestige in
Asiatic countries is a high practical asset. Through
prestige a few Englishmen, without a single British soldier,
are able to control a district or State in India containing
as many inhabitants as Tibet. Because they had allowed
their prestige to wane, the Chinese, even with soldiers,
were unable to control Tibet. It was to give an unmis-
takable sign, which all other countries could understand,
that our prestige was re-established in Tibet that I insisted
on having the Treaty signed in the Potala itself.
To the troops the news that the Treaty was concluded
was a completely unexpected announcement. For weeks
past they had heard of nothing but Tibetan obstruction.
They knew that we should soon be leaving Lhasa, and
they had made up their minds that we should have to
leave without a Treaty. They were overjoyed, then, when
they heard that the Treaty had been concluded and was
to be signed next day. On most of the frontier expeditions
upon which they had been engaged there was little to
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