public
fountain. So he returned to Tibet with no love for the English, and
after certain courteous overtures from the agents of 'another Power,'
became a confirmed, though more or less accidental, Russophile. Though
deposed,[4] he has at the present moment a large following among the
monks of the Gaden monastery.

[4] The Shata Shape and his three colleagues were deposed by the
Dalai Lama in October, 1903.

In the regulations of 1893 it was stipulated that a trade mart should be
established at Yatung, a small hamlet six miles beyond our frontier. The
place is obviously unsuitable, situated as it is in a narrow pine-clad
ravine, where one can throw a stone from cliff to cliff across the
valley. No traders have ever resorted there, and the Tibetans have
studiously boycotted the place. To show their contempt for the treaty,
and their determination to ignore it, they built a wall a quarter of a
mile beyond the Customs House, through which no Tibetan or British
subject was allowed to pass, and, to nullify the object of the mart, a
tax of 10 per cent. on Indian goods was levied at Phari. Every attempt
was made by Sheng Tai, the late Amban, to induce the Tibetans to
substitute Phari for Yatung as a trade mart. But, as an official report
admits, 'it was found impossible to overcome their reluctance. Yatung
was eventually accepted both by the Chinese and British Governments as
the only alternative to breaking off the negociations altogether.' This
confession of weakness appears to me abject enough to quote as typical
of our attitude throughout. In deference to Tibetan wishes, we allowed
nearly every clause of the treaty to be separately stultified.

The Tibetans, as might be expected, met our forbearance by further
rebuffs. Not content with evading their treaty obligations in respect to
trade, they proceeded to overthrow our boundary pillars, violate grazing
rights, and erect guard-houses at Giagong, in Sikkim territory. When
called to question they repudiated the treaty, and said that it had
never been shown them by the Amban. It had not been sealed or confirmed
by any Tibetan representative, and they had no intention of observing
it.

Once more the 'solemn farce' was enacted of an appeal to China to use
her influence with the Lhasa authorities. And it was only after repeated
representations had been made by the Indian Government to the Secretary
of State that the Home Government realized the seriousness of the
sit