Mr. Wilton, of the China Consular Service, joined us on August 7. He had been acting as Consul at Chengtu, in Szechuan, and I had not spoken to him for more than five minutes before I realized what a help he would be to us. He at once said that neither the Chinese nor the Tibetan delegates were of at all sufficient rank or authority to conduct negotiations with us, and no one else than one of the Ambans and one of the Tibetan Councillors would be of any use. The new Chinese Resident, who had been deputed in the previous December specially for the purpose of conducting these negotiations he had himself seen at Chengtu, and it is significant of the dilatoriness of the Chinese that, while Mr. Wilton reached me early in August, the Resident did not reach Lhasa till the next February, thirteen months after he had set out from Peking.
Having received Mr. Wilton’s advice regarding the status of the delegates, the Viceroy, on August 25, wrote to the Chinese Resident, suggesting that either he himself or his Associate Resident should meet me, and that, as the present Tibetan delegates had shown themselves entirely unsuited for diplomatic intercourse, and would not even accept the copy of the speech explanatory of the relations between India and Tibet which I had made, he proposed that the Tibetan Government should be invited to depute a Councillor of the Dalai Lama, accompanied by a high member of the National Assembly.
As regards the objection which the Resident had made to the selection of Khamba Jong as the meeting-place, Lord Curzon said that it was the nearest point in Tibet to the disputed boundary; and it was necessary that the present negotiations should be conducted in Tibet, as the former Convention which the Tibetans had repudiated was concluded in India, and His Majesty’s Government were not prepared to allow a similar repudiation of any new agreement. But, as winter was approaching, if the negotiations were not completed, I might have to select some other place in Tibet for passing the winter. In conclusion, the Viceroy emphasized the importance of my position and duties, and stated that I was entitled to expect that he should reply to my communications, and look to him for co-operation.