Ostoker: $1, 1908.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE BEFORT. recommended for the consideration of the SECRETARY OF STATE reforms which are calculated to gradually prepare the way for the introduction of general self-government. If such a measure should be announced to the people of India on Monday next, as, in all probability it will be, there can be no thought of its application.
immediate
•
the
Chinese Government that Turkey has no
LAMA, nominally the head of the Tibetan Treaty with her: and also that exterri-
Administration, hád a fortnight previously toriality prevails in Turkey as in China,
taken his departure from his capital, and and it is therefore, scarcely to be expected
had left the government of the country in that China will grant what would amount
the hands of a regency, and, strange to say, to exterritorial rights to Turkish subjects.
every one, so far from feeling anything the This latter objection, it is true, may pos- sibly be removed if the reforms now being
worse, in reality felt much more at ease. inaugurated in Turkey are carried out with
The story of the occupation needs not Such a Bill would have to to be retold. For the first time within & reasonable success--though, from what has come before the Imperial Parliament for century a DALAI LAMA had grown to full occurred up to the present, this is still a legislative sanction, and we have had no age, and had entered on the actual admini- matter of considerable doubt. But if this news, as yet, of its introduction. Possibly stration of the country; ecclesiastical ad- should prove so, there would then he no the seditious agitation in India has upset ministration had not proved more successful longer any reason why Turkey should not the plans of the Government somewhat, and in Lhassa than it had in any other country have her own Dipl matic and Con ular the gift to India which might have been where it has been essayed; and one of the Authorities in China, like any other nation. timed for the Jubilee of the Proclamation first impulses of the ecclesiastical 'ruler of Altogether the proposal seems to be one will have to be deferred until a more Lbassa was to seek to wriggle out of his about which there must be considerable settled state of affairs prevails, besitation before it can take any practical appears to be now known in India that the EMPEROR OF CHINA.
It engagements to his acknowledged suzerain, shape. The fact that the Chinese Govern- Lord MORLEY has adopted the recommen.
It was quite ment is clearly opposed to it is of import-dations which Lord MINTO and his advisers good for Tibet, but even from a Tibetan true that China's suzerainty had done no ance, as any such arrangement must made to him, and that the elaboration process point of view, the direct rule of the Dalai manifestly be looked upon as a concession which these recommendations have under- LAMA had proved only a variation as that on the part of the Chinese and cannot by gone in the mind of the SECRETARY OF from KING STORK to KING LOG. For long any plausibility be demanded as a right. It STATE is in the direction of popularising and Tibet had been a closed country to the rest may be questioned, therefore, whether Ger- not restricting the concessions. "There has of the world, and under Chinese influence many will care to press the question much been no going back from the spirit of the exclusion had become absolute, and for further than showing a willingness to act promise made by Lord MINTO in bis Budget some century and a quarter, not a single as a friendly go-between, between Turkey speech of March 1907. The object is to give European had contrived and China, should occasion demand it, which in fact as well as in name what shall not only mystery of the capital. Such a rule is at
to break is practically what France has been doing. prepare the way gradually for the ultimate best in a state of as unstable equilibrium If the matter be carried any further, it can introduction of general self-government, but as an egg temporarily balanced on its small scarcely be doubted that it will be found to to provide, without delay, a system whereby end, where the slightest side strain requires be one surrounded by too many knotty the responsible administrative officers shall an entire rea 'justment of the whole; aud questions to make it worth while to press it be called upon to defend their actions in such Tibet found it. upon the Chinese Government, unless for debate, and prospective measures shall be some unforeseen reason, they are themselves discussed viva voce in public meeting instead desirous of bringing about such an arrange of, as is now often the case, only upon paper ment as that which has been proposed, in secret before they are fiually shaped." possible, and the DALAI LAMA seiz d not legitimately, in Ruy manner and at present this seems to be very It is noteworthy that in the explanations the first opportunity that presented itself unlikely.
given of the decision not to recognise the and opened a clandestine intrigue with his occasion of the Jubilee by any impo: tant fellow Incarcation at Urga. Unfortunately central function, nothing is said of any fear the Incarnation had a friend; and the of adding fuel to the fire of the sedition. friend, he told the DALAI, was just the one mongers, though, doubtless, among that class wanted and would help him to get rid of his it will be generally ascribed to that con two troublesome neighbours, England aud sideration. The Government, it is stated, China; as a foretaste of what he could do recognises that the close of a bad famine he passed on certain muskets and small and a time when most of the high officials are making the r aonnal tours of inspection were only a sample of what he intended to arms which he told the confiding Dalai, is not a suitable opportunity for an official do for him when the time came. Unluokily celebration which, if general, would necess-the little affair got into the newspapers, arily involve expense upon the participants. and the DALAI was asked what he meant; As we have said, the day of the Jubilee and, being unable to give any reasonable of the Proclamation is a singularly appro- explanation, the troops went up into Lhassa. priate occasion for the announcement of concessions in the direction of an extension of the principles of self-government, even for a time, and this would be a far more if the operation of the measure be delayed acceptable way of marking the event than holding durbars and troop reviews.
JUBILEE OF THE PROCLAMATION IN INDIA
(Daily Press, October 29th.) We mentioned recently a statement which had appeared in a London periodical that LORD MORLEY, the Secretary of State for India, was engaged in elaborating a Reform Bill for India" a Bill which would give practical effect to his Liberal principles." India has been in the public eye of late as a hot-bed of sedition, and the fact that the Government has been compelled within the past six months to have recourse to stern and repressive measures threw some doubt upon the accuracy of the report. It, never. theless, appears to have been well-founded and, in all probability, the people of India will be made acquainted with the broad purpose of the measure on Monday next, November 2nd. On that day the Jubilee of¦ the QUEEN's proclamation will be celebrated or, rather, recognised, for no big Viceregal durbar or other important central function is to be held on the occasion, though a local celebration is being arranged for in Madras. It was on November 1st, 1858, that by "an Act for the Better Government of India," which still regulates Indian affairs, all the territories formerly governed by the East India Company were transferred to the Crown, and all the powers exercised by the Company and the Board of Control were vested in the Secretary of State for India, assisted by a Council of fifteen members. The Jubilee of the Proclamation is therefore a singularly appropriate occasion for an announcement of the extension of the principle of self-government which is cou- templated by Lord MORLEY'S Indian Reform Bill. Those who take an interest in Indian affairs will remember that year ago it was made known that Lord MINTO and his advisers on the Council had
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TIBET.
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(Daily Press, 30th October.} While the British Foreign Office has been occupying itself upon the European com- plications likely to be brought about by the declaration of independence of King FERDINAND of BULGARIA, followed by the conversion of the districts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, hitherto held by the Dual Monarchy "in trust for Turkey, into substantive Austro-Hungarian territory, a minor series of negotiations, yet one not unlikely in the near future to raise com- plications for our position in India, and Eastern Asia generally, has been going on, practically unnoticed, in Peking. Early in August 1904 a British army took possession quietly of Lhassa; there was and no fuss, and the troops proceeded to no trouble their appointed stations as orderly, and with as little molestation as if they had merely been exchanging barracks. The DALAI
naturally seeks intercourse with bis kind, The prisoner undergoing confinement
if
signed a formal treaty, neither very exact- On the 7th September 1904 there was
ing nor very hard. A small indemnity was troops would occupy the Chumbi valley; to be paid, and till it was discharged British trading stations were to be established at two places, Gyantse and Gartok, and the road through the Chumbi valley was to be kept open as a trade route. Moreover, as a no- curity for the Indian frontier, no concessions were to be made to any foreign Power for railways, mines or telegraphs, unless with the knowledge and consent of the Indian Government. It will be seen that in this there was nothing to derogate from the dignity of Tibet as an independent nation, nor to hurt the susceptibilities of any foreign Power whatever. consultation with the Chinese Resident, who The indemnity, after
thought it entirely inadequate, was placed by Colonel YOUNGHUSBAND at £500,000 steri- ing, 75 lacs, and, at the suggestion of the Tibetans, seventy-five years were given for its payment, but it seems it was understood that it might be repaid at any time conven- ieat. The Cabinet selected by the late Sir HENRY CAMPBELL-Bafferma” was then telegraphic summary of the treaty stan it in power, and no sooner had it received a at once telegraphed back, ordering the indemnity to be reduced to 285,000 ster- Ling-and this without affording ; Col.
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