Captain O’Connor had a two-hours conversation with the Lhasa delegates on the 12th. He elicited that the Chief Secretary had been to Peking and back by Calcutta and Shanghai. The position they took up was that the place appointed by their Government for the discussion of affairs was the Giagong frontier, and on arrival there they would produce their credentials. As regards official correspondence, they said that by the terms of some treaty between the Chinese and the Tibetans all official correspondence between the Tibetans and foreigners had to be conducted through the Ambans, and, under these circumstances, they could neither receive nor reply to our letters. But they affirmed, nevertheless, that they were fully empowered to treat with our Commissioners at the proper place—the Giagong frontier.
Their dislike of the Chinese they plainly expressed. They said the Chinese despised the Tibetans, and were often instrumental in letting foreigners into the country—the poor Chinese who are accused by us of keeping foreigners _out_! The relations of Tibetans and Chinese were indeed extraordinarily anomalous. Whilst the Tibetans deferred to Mr. Ho in almost every matter, going so far as to forward to him official letters received from our camp for fear that they might get into trouble if they retained them, Mr. Ho himself admitted that in many matters he was powerless. The Tibetan officials appeared to be childishly impotent and terrified of their own Government, whilst at the same time they were deliberately obstructive in every matter, great or small, in which the British were concerned, and were quite ready to use the Chinese as a very convenient scapegoat whenever it suited them.
Mr. White made a formal visit to them on July 13, and at the close of the interview gave them presents, including two packets of tea each. They tried to raise some objections to receiving the tea, but no attention was paid, and the presents were accepted.
While all these proceedings were taking place, I confess that I at Tangu was in some anxiety. To march across the frontier in face of all protest, as Mr. White did, appears, when set down like this, as a very high-handed action. But it was also very risky. I had purposely, though not very wisely, but at any rate to avoid a direct collision at the very start, decided not to attack, and remove the Tibetans from Giagong, as they had been removed on the previous year. Mr. White was simply to march through to the place appointed by our Government in communication with the Chinese Government for the place of negotiation. But in so doing we left Tibetan troops in a good position on our line of communications, and as the Tibetans were evidently in an irritable state, this was no mean risk to take, and Colonel Brander and I at Tangu used to look out with considerable anxiety for the arrival of the daily dak from Mr. White.