GRIM SECRET OF LHASA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 96, 24 April 1926, Page 23

GRIM SECRET OF LHASA.

PABTT WITH BBITISH MAcHTNEBT

MTTBDERED.

News' reached EbicTon recently at the massacre of a party; aH of wnbni are believed to Save Been Tibetans, ii the heart of the Himalayas; and tie destruction of Britisti-ma.de electrical "naciiiery destined for Lhasa; the sacred city of Tibet ( The murdered party was escorting to Lhasa tietweoi 300 and 400 tons of electrical plant for power lighting manufactured by Messfk Cromptoi aid Co., Et<L; of. Cnelmsf oid, Essex: it was the first machinery at the kind fimit for the Forbidden City, as Lhasa is called; and was being transported there on camels and miles. -

One of ffie conditions of the contract was that the plant should Be taion to Lhasa and assembled by a Tibetan, the intention Being to prevent airy EhigUsimai from penetrating to tie city; To comply wltS this Sondltfdn Messrs. Crdnrpton aid Ci. en tilted tie services of Mr. B." D. Bingnig, '£ young Tibetan, who came ~tq England 13 years ago aid was educated at Kugby School aid afterwards- studied

engineering. He was a relative of the Dalai Lama (the Buddhist pontiff) and a peer of Tibet

Mr. Bin gang left England eight months ago with the machinery. Keports reached England that the first part of the. 400"-miles journey from tie railhead a£ KaUntpdna. Bengal, had been safely accomplished; but when no Word.Was received of the arrival of the party at Lhasa, Messrs. Cronrptorr sent out agents from Calcutta and Bombay.

Information now received shows that Mr. Ringaig aid a large number of the muleteers were met - when iipprbaenrng Lhasa by, it is alleged, representatives of the hew Tibetan Government; and were' murdered on a mountain paM 12'OOC 1 feet high:

Tfiie whole of the machinery was thrown over a precipice after being completely destroyed:

A segue! to this news is the" abandonment" of tie British Mount Everest expeaitibn- projected for next autumn: