India and Tibet : vol.1 / Page 409 (Color Image)

0409	India and Tibet : vol.1

CHAPTER XXI

THE RESULTS OF THE MISSION

EVEN in the present year I was asked by a Cabinet

Minister what good we did in going to Lhasa. Since that

question was asked one striking result of our Mission has

come to light, in the fact of the Dalai Lama, who before

we went to Lhasa would not even receive a communica-

tion from the Viceroy, now in person, at Calcutta itself,

appealing to the Viceroy to preserve his right of direct

communication with us. The suspicious and hostile atti-

tude of the Tibetans has so far changed that they have

now asked us to form an alliance, and to send a British

officer to their sacred city. To attribute this change

entirely to the effects of the Mission may not be

justifiable. Much is due to the tactlessness of the Chinese

treatment of the Tibetans. But the change in direction

of Tibetan feeling was visible before we left Lhasa, and

there is good cause for assuming that if Lord Curzon had

never despatched the Mission to break through the

Tibetan reserve, they would have still been as inimical to

us and as inclined towards Russia as they were six years

ago. The conversion of our north-eastern neighbours

from potential enemies into applicant allies may be taken

as one result of the Mission.

When the Mission was despatched into Tibet, we had

for thirty years been trying to regulate our intercourse

with our Tibetan neighbours, but had obtained no success

whatever. The Treaty which their suzerain had made

with us was repudiated. Boundary pillars were thrown

down, trade was boycotted, our communications were

returned. And the Dalai Lama showed a decided leaning

towards the Russians. As a result of Lord Curzon's policy

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