the Tibetan camp to Tuna almost daily asking us to retire, and
negociations again came to a deadlock. After a month the tone of the
Tibetans became minatory. They threatened to invest our camp, and an
attack was expected on March 1, the Tibetan New Year. The Lamas,
however, thought better of it. They held a Commination Service instead,
and cursed us solemnly for five days, hoping, no doubt, that the British
force would dwindle away by the act of God. Nobody was 'one penny the
worse.'

Though we made no progress with the Tibetans during this time, Colonel
Younghusband utilized the halt at Tuna in cementing a friendship with
Bhutan. The neutrality of the Bhutanese in the case of a war with Tibet
was a matter of the utmost importance. Were these people unfriendly or
disposed to throw in their lot with their co-religionists, the Tibetans,
our line of communications would be exposed to a flank attack along the
whole of the Tuna Plain, which is conterminous with the Bhutan frontier,
as well as a rear attack anywhere in the Chumbi Valley as far south as
Rinchengong. The Bhutanese are men of splendid physique, brave, warlike,
and given to pillage. Their hostility would have involved the despatch
of a second force, as large as that sent to Tibet, and might have
landed us, if unprepared, in a serious reverse. The complete success of
Colonel Younghusband's diplomacy was a great relief to the Indian
Government, who were waiting with some anxiety to see what attitude the
Bhutanese would adopt. Having secured from them assurances of their good
will, Colonel Younghusband put their friendship to immediate test by
broaching the subject of the Ammo Chu route to Chumbi through Bhutanese
territory. Very little time was lost before the concession was obtained
from the Tongsa Penlop, ruler of Bhutan, who himself accompanied the
mission as far as Lhasa in the character of mediator between the Dalai
Lama and the British Government. The importance of the Ammo Chu route in
our future relations with Tibet I have emphasized elsewhere.

I doubt if ever an advance was more welcome to waiting troops than that
which led to the engagement at the Hot Springs.

For months, let it be remembered, we had been marking time. When a move
had to be made to escort a convoy, it was along narrow mountain-paths,
where the troops had to march in single file. There was no possibility
of an attack this side of Phari. The ground covered was familiar and
monotonous.