We now received certain information that the Dalai Lama had finally fled. He had written to the National Assembly, saying that the English were very crafty people, and warning them to be careful in making an agreement with them, and to bind them tight. He added that he himself would go away and look after the interests of the faith. His departure was not regretted by Tibetans.
The Ti Rimpoche and others came to me on the 21st with silks to the value of Rs. 5,000, which I had imposed as a fine for the assault which a monk with a sword had made just outside our camp on Captains Cooke-Young and Kelly, dealing the former a very severe blow over the head. After this the Ti Rimpoche, the Tongsa Penlop, and the Nepalese representative proceeded to talk over the general situation. The Ti Rimpoche said that he himself had no objection to our terms except in regard to the indemnity, which he thought was too heavy, as Tibet was a poor country. He pointed out the difficulty which the Tibetans had found in paying up the small fine I had imposed on them, and asked how they could be expected to pay the sum of Rs. 50,000 a day which I was demanding. He said, of course, we thought ourselves in the right in this quarrel, but it was difficult for him to make the Assembly acquiesce in this view, and it might be well if I would impress our views upon them.
I said that if only they had behaved more sensibly in the beginning all this trouble would have been saved: there would have been no war, and no indemnity would have been asked. We had not wished for war, and I had gone with Captain O’Connor, without any escort, into their camp at Guru in January to reason quietly with the leaders there, and ask them to report my views to Lhasa. If we had wanted war I should never have so acted. That I did was proof that we wished for peace. But they refused to report my words to Lhasa, and hence this trouble. The Ti Rimpoche here interpolated that they were afraid to report anything to the Dalai Lama. I went on to say that it was not fair to expect India to pay all the cost of a war brought on by the foolishness of the Tibetan rulers, so we had to ask that the Tibetans should pay part of the sum. Yet even now we were not asking for more than half of the whole cost. I was demanding Rs. 50,000 a day from the date of the attack on the Mission till a month after the date on which the Convention was signed. The Ti Rimpoche would note that I was not asking payment from the date of the Guru fight, because that fight might have been due to mere foolishness on the part of the leaders, but from the date when the Tibetans deliberately attacked the Mission at Gyantse, after I had repeatedly notified that I had come to negotiate. From that date, therefore, we expected them to contribute to the cost of military operations.