There was still no sign, though, of any definite delegates being appointed to negotiate with me, and on August 8 I had to report to Government that the Tibetan Government was in utter confusion. My old friend the Ta Lama had been disgraced, as, poor man, he always told me he would be if we advanced to Lhasa. My other friend the Yutok Sha-pé, who had met me at Nagartse, had very sensibly, or perhaps naturally, gone sick. Of the two remaining Councillors, one was useless and the other inimical. The National Assembly sat continuously, but only criticized what anyone did, and was afraid to do anything itself without reference to the Dalai Lama. And the Dalai Lama, who had fled on our approach to Lhasa and was three days distant, would not in his turn act without sanction of the Assembly. Everyone was in fear, not now of us, but of his next-door neighbour: and each was working against the other. No attempt at commencing negotiations had been made, though I had given the Resident an outline of our terms. The Tongsa Penlop and the Nepalese representative constantly visited me, but expressed despair at the silliness of the Tibetans, and said their heads ached with arguing with them. The general attitude of the Tibetans, though exasperating, was, I thought, probably more futile and inept than intentionally hostile, But yet it was not easy to see then how in my limited time I was to get a definite treaty signed, sealed, and delivered out of such an intangible, illusive, un-get-at-able set of human beings as I now found in front of me.
The very next day, though, a ray of light appeared which was in the end to show the way to a solution of our difficulties. The Nepalese representative came to inform me that on the previous night he went to see the Ti Rimpoche, the Regent to whom the Dalai Lama had handed over his seal, and had explained to him that matters were getting serious. The Regent replied that he and the Dalai Lama’s brother were anxious to make a settlement, and were of opinion that the Government terms might well be accepted with two or three modifications. The Regent thought that the amount of indemnity I had named—Rs. 50,000 a day—was excessive. And he would ask that if they released the two Lachung men we should release the yaks and men whom we had seized last year in retaliation. With those modifications he thought the National Assembly might reasonably accept our terms.