'Volume II. MEMORANDA REGARDING OTHER EXTERNAL AFFAIRS. 1905.' [‎64r] (132/228)

« a tuat the Lhasa Government have °. ra .
dually deprived Tashi Lumpo of nearly”all
cated m the P ir r ’ last y ear confl“
TheTasH ti g6 - dl "I ° f Kham ^ Jong,
iiie lasln Lama is now threatened armarentlv
with further loss of territory and prestke h^
has hitherto resisted the 7 deZds ^f’ h
return oMh^T* V but he fears that > on the
to resist the r,'" 13 ' Lama ’ 116 Wl| l be powerless
enn enLf PreSSUre PUt U P° n him > Ull l p SS he
i r '. upon some assistance from us.
He accordingly sent his Secretary to enquire
whether Captain O’Connor could promise
him that the Indian Government would be
prepared to give him moral or material
support m the event of open friction with
Lhasa.
+1 To this Captain O’Connor replied that
tne -British Government now regard them
selves as friends of the Tibetans as a whole,
and not as the allies of any particular section
or party, and that the recent Treaty applied
to the whole country. He referred to the fact
that, m order to put a stop to acts of oppression
on the part of the Lhasa Government directed
agsinst persons who were supposed to be
friendly to the British Government, Colonel
Younghusband had expressly stipulated before
leaving Lhasa that such acts should cease
henceforward, and a solemn promise was
made to this effect in open Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). by the
Ti-Rimpoche and all four Shapes. He
hoped, therefore, that nothing would be done by
the Lhasa Government to punish Tashi
Lumpo for their friendly feelings towards ns,
as any such action on the part of the Central
G-overnment or of the Dalai Lama would be in
direct violation of their promises to Colonel
Younghusband.
The messenger was evidently disappointed
at the vagueness of this answer, and went away
after hinting that the Tashi Lama would
probably write himself to the Viceroy on the
matter.
8. The British Trade Agent at Gyantse
reported on the 28th May that a Nepalese
merchant from Lhasa proposes to start a shop
at Gyantse with agents in Calcutta. He is
sending three of his men to Calcutta forth
with, and asked Captain O’Connor to let him
have Rs. 13,000 worth of currency notes in
exchange for rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. , in order to make pur
chases at that place. He is the principal
Nepalese merchant in Tibet, and it is grati
fying to see that he is prepared to take advan
tage of the new conditions now prevailing in
Tibet to extend his business in a manner
which would have been impossible for him
under the old regime. There seems to be
no doubt that other merchants—Nepalese,
Ladaki, and Tibetan—will follow his example,
and that Gyantse will naturally develop into
a trade centre of some importance.