In amplification and explanation of these telegraphic instructions the Secretary of State, on August 5, addressed to the Government of India a despatch,[35] setting forth the deliberate policy of His Majesty’s Government. They had to consider the question, not as a local one concerning India and Tibet alone, but from the wider point of view of the relations of Great Britain to other Powers, both European and Asiatic, and as involving the status of a dependency of the Chinese Empire. Formerly European nations and their interests were, in the main, far removed from the scope of Indian policy, and the relations of India with the States on her borders rarely involved any European complications; but the effect of Indian policy in relation to Afghanistan, Siam, Tibet, or any other dependency of the Chinese Empire was now liable to be felt throughout Europe. This immediate responsibility towards Europe, which Indian policy nowadays imposed on this country, necessarily involved its correlative, and the course of affairs on the Indian frontiers could not be decided without reference to Imperial exigencies elsewhere.
His Majesty’s Government had also been consistently averse to any policy in Tibet which would tend to throw on the British Empire an additional burden. The great increase to our responsibilities, however necessary, which recent additions to the Empire had involved, made it obvious that it would be imprudent further to enlarge them except upon the strongest ground. In military and naval matters the resources of Great Britain and India must be considered together. India had from time to time given effective and ready help in the defence of British interests and British Colonies. On the other hand, it had to be remembered that the British army largely existed in order to defend India, and every new obligation undertaken by India was as much a charge upon the common stock of our heavily burdened resources as if it were placed upon the people of this country.
The satisfactory nature of the assurances given by Russia in regard to Tibet rendered it unnecessary and undesirable that any demand for the recognition of a Political Agent, either at Gyantse or at Lhasa, should be made to the Tibetans. His Majesty’s Government held that such a political outpost might entail difficulties and responsibilities incommensurate with any benefits which, in the situation created by the Russian assurances, could be gained by it.