[Illustration: MISSION CAMP, KHAMBA JONG (MOUNT EVEREST IN FAR DISTANCE).]
As we rode on into Tibet and got out into the open, and well away from the Himalayan range, we obtained a glorious view of that stupendous range from Chumalhari, 24,000 feet, on the extreme east, to Kinchinjunga, 28,275 feet, in the centre, and Everest itself, 29,002 feet, and ninety miles distant in the far west.
On July 20 I made a formal call upon Mr. Ho and the Tibetan delegates. Mr. Ho was not a very polished official, and did not favourably impress me. The Tibetan Chief Secretary, however, did, and I reported at the time that he had an “exceedingly genial, kind, accomplished style of face.” But appearance belied him, and right up to the conclusion of the treaty, nearly fourteen months later, he was the most inimical to us of all the Tibetans.
As this was a first interview, I did not proceed with any business discussion, but I told the delegates that, though I must await the orders of the Viceroy on the letter which the Resident had addressed him, and could not, therefore, yet commence formal negotiations, yet I would at our next meeting state plainly in detail the view which the Viceroy took of the situation, so that they might know our views, and be ready when the formal negotiations commenced to make proposals for their settlement.
Two days later they all came to return my visit, and after the usual polite conversation I said I would now redeem my promise, and I told the interpreter to commence reading a speech which I had prepared beforehand, and which Captain O’Connor had carefully translated into Tibetan. But before he could commence the Tibetans raised objections to holding negotiations at Khamba Jong at all. The proper place, they said, was Giagong. I told them that the place of meeting was a matter to be decided upon, not by the negotiators, but by the Viceroy and Amban. The Viceroy had selected Khamba Jong because of its proximity to the portion of frontier in dispute, and he had chosen a place on the Tibetan rather than the Indian side of the frontier because the last negotiations were conducted in India; and when, after much trouble a treaty had been concluded between the Chinese and British Governments, the Tibetans had repudiated it, saying they knew nothing about it. On the present occasion, therefore, the Viceroy decided that negotiations should take place in Tibet, and had asked that a Tibetan official of the highest rank should take part in them, in order that, when the new settlement was completed, the Tibetans should not be able to say they knew nothing of it.