Everything was then carefully and deliberately arranged, and there seemed good prospect of a settlement of the frontier; but when, in the following May, Mr. White approached the frontier to meet the Chinese deputy, in accordance with an arrangement they had made between them, he was met by a letter, written by direction of the deputy, and stating that the Lamas were obstinate in their refusal to supply transport, and that he was much disturbed at his failure to keep his appointment, but had laid his difficulties before the Amban. On May 19 Mr. White and the Chinese Major met—a different one from the deputy originally appointed, for the latter had since died. He asked for more delay, but Mr. White refused, as he had already been kept waiting with his escort at inclement altitudes, and Mr. White and he fixed the site of the pillar on the Jelap-la (pass), which is a spot where the site of the watershed forming the boundary, according to treaty, is quite unmistakable, as it runs along a very sharply-defined ridge. Mr. White erected a pillar here, and arranged with the Chinese deputy to meet him at another pass, the Dokala, on June 1, while Mr. White should in the interval erect a pillar at the Donchukla, to be afterwards inspected by the Chinese.
At this time Mr. White also received a letter from the Amban, saying that a day for the beginning of the work having been decided upon, it was, of course, proper that a commencement should be made on that day, and he had already received the consent of the Tibetan State Council to that end. But the Lamas of the three great monasteries, the Amban proceeded to explain, were still full of suspicion, and were pressing certain matters upon him, which made it necessary for him to enlighten them further.
He therefore requested Mr. White kindly to postpone commencing work for a time, in order to avoid trouble on this point. But Mr. White replied that his letter had arrived too late, as the work of demarcation had already commenced before its receipt, and he urged Government to grant no further delay, for the Chinese had had five years since the treaty was signed within which to settle with the Tibetans.
The Government of India, however, thought that no serious inconvenience had apparently arisen through the frontier being undemarcated, and that if the Chinese delegate failed to meet him at the Dokala on or about June 1, he should write to the Chinese Resident, explaining that he had proceeded so far under arrangements with the Chinese deputies at the Jelap-la; but as they had not joined him, he would return to Gantok. He was further to ask the Resident whether work could be jointly proceeded with that season, and giving latest dates for recommencement.