TIBETAN TREATY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 251, 20 October 1904, Page 5

TIBETAN TREATY.

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT. CHUMBI VALLEY TO BE HELD. CHINA'S CHANGED ATTITUDE. (By Cable—Press Associatioa—Copy rljiht. i LONDON, October 19. It is semi-ofncially stated in London that, owing to the Tibetans having stated their inability to pay an indemnity of 75 lakhs- (100,000) of rupees, within throe years, a proposal is now before the Government for' the Tibetans to pay one lakh a year, and for Great Britain to hold the" Chunibi Valley until the debtis discharged.. This proposal is being supported from influential sources, and the arrangement meets with the approval of the Tibetans, With regard to the ratification of the treaty it is stated that the Chinese Amban, -who throughout the negotiations had placed no obstacle in Colonel Younghusband's way. at the eleventh hour declared that he objected to the whole of the proceedings. He added that China's suzerainty was not sufficiently recognised in the. treaty. The reversal of his attitude is interpreted as meaning that he had received from Peki'n instruction? that had been inspired by an adverse foreign influence exerted on the. Imperial Council. A further semi-official statement on the Tibetan treaty was later published. It states that although told that suzerainty implied responsibility and also that Great Britain had not expended £1,000,000 for nothing, the Chinese Aniban did not sign the treaty. The appointment of Tangshaoyi as Chinese representative in Lhasa was a' surprise, for if China awaits a conference between the authorities of India and of Lhasa before adhering to the treaty, the delay will be serious, and will unsettle the Tibetan mind and pave the way for the return of the Dalai Lama and the Russian emissary, M. Dorijieff. One of the contentions in the Russian objection—that the treaty seriously affects the Mongolian lamas and the Buddhist Burists of a bogey, inasmuch as the Burists urge that Baikal has its own lamas, who in many respects are rivals of the Dalai.