National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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India and Tibet : vol.1 |
404 THE ATTITUDE OF THE TIBETANS
of the Tibetan Government was contemplated in the
edict of March 9, 1908. The Trade Regulations of 1908
had been violated in the following respects : Adminis-
tration and policing of trade-marts had, inconsistently with
Article III., been taken over by Chinese, and direct
dealings between our Agents and Tibetans had been pre-
vented. The Tibetan Government was recognized by the
Convention of 1904, which was recognized by Article I. of
the Convention of 1906. A large slice of Tibetan territory
had been lopped off by the Chinese, who had forcibly
occupied and dispossessed the Tibetans of Chiamdo, of
Troya, and of Tsa Kalho—provinces of Eastern Tibet. It
seemed necessary in any case, therefore, that the Chinese
Government should be required to give definite assurances
on the following points : (1) 'The limitation of the Chinese
garrison in Tibet to a number adequate for maintenance
of order internally. (2) The maintenance of a real
Tibetan Government. (3) The policing of the trade-
marts by Tibetans under Chinese officers, if necessary.
(4) The appointment at Lhasa of an Amban less hostile to
British interests. (5) The issue of instructions to Chinese
local officers to co-operate with British Trade Agents and
not to hinder our officers and the Tibetans from dealing
direct with one another. It might be advisable that at this
stage the Chinese Government should be informed that the
British Government must reserve the right to retain and
increase the escorts at Yatung and Gyantse, if necessary, in
view of the change in the status quo, unfriendliness of local
Chinese officers, and disturbed state of Tibet. Individual
Chinese might get out of hand, though it was improbable
that our agencies would be attacked by the Chinese.
Lord Morley, in forwarding these views of the Indian
Government to the Foreign Office, observed that it
appeared that the Chinese Government was deliberately
making its suzerainty over Tibet effective, and that the
result of its proceedings would be the substitution of a
strong internal administration for the feeble rule of the
Dalai Lama. It was necessary, therefore, to consider
how this change would affect, in the first place, British-
Indian relations, commercial and political, with Tibet ;
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