ADVANCE of 10,000,000 yen, equal to, say, 6,500,000 dollars, which it is proposed to devote to Administrative Expenditure for the months of July, August, and September. Allocation as follows :---
Statement.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.} 177
THIBET AND MONGOLIA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[234952]
DEPARTMENT.
[December 12
SECTION 1.
No. 1.
India Office to Foreign Office.—(Received December 12.)
India Office, December 11, 1917, IN continuation of Sir A. Hirtzel's letter of the 12th September, 1917, and connected correspondence, regarding the situation in Thibet, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India to invite reference to the Viceroy's telegram on the subject, dated the 1st December, 1917, copy of which was communicated to your Department on the 3rd instant.
As regards the immediate needs of the situation, the Secretary of State is prepared to authorise the free gift of 500,000 rounds of rifle ammunition to the Thibetan Government, as recommended by the Government of India, provided the latter are satisfied that assistance of this kind is really required. He would propose with the concurrence of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to instruct the Government of India accordingly. He trusts that His Majesty's Minister at Peking will be instructed at the same time to protest vigorously to the Chinese Government against the renewal of Chinese aggression on the Thibetan border.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs--
Expenses for the Legatio is abroad
The Ministry of Home Affairs →
Expenses for the Ministry proper Expenses for police
Expenses for the yamén of Infantry-General
Dollars.
Dollars. 579,819
103,335-20 314.039-66 188,000
Sir,
605,$72-86
The Ministry of Finance-
Expense for the Ministry proper
52,737
Expenses for the huraux, factories, departments,
and offices b longing to the Ministry
50,000
Expenses for the President's yUMỄN
168,000
Expenses for the bureaux belonging to the Cabinet
102,000
Expenses for the Imperial pensiona
666,666
Expenses for bur au for compitation of history of
Msachu dynisty
27.948
Expenses for the Cens rate (Ping Cheng Yuan).
27,214
Expenses for the bur- au of sulit
84,138
Pay for the eight corps of baunermen
830,000
2,008,723
The Ministry of Army-
Expenses for the Ministry proper
140,000
Salaries and allowances to the verions bureaux of
the various disisione under the Ministry
2,000,000
2,140,000
The Ministry of Navy-
Expenses for the Ministry proper
68,800
Expenses for the various commander-in-chief, men- of-war, and scho's belonging to the Ministry..
$00.000
868,800
The Ministry of Justice-
Expenses for the Ministry proper
54,000
Expenses for courts and gaols..
150,000
204,000
The Ministry of Education--
Expenses for the Ministry proper
80,000
Bense for schools, bureaux, and offices belong-
ing to the Ministry
800,000
$80,000
The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce-
Expenses for the Ministry proper
100,000
Exp ases for grounds belonging to the Ministry..
60,0.0
160,000
Grand Total
--
++
Equal to, say, 10,000,000 yen.
6,440,714-86
There remains the important question of the revision of the Tripartite Convention of 1914. For convenience of reference, copies are enclosed of a printed statement showing in parallel columns (1) the text of the 1914 convention, and (2) the heads of the new agreement suggested in the memorandum prepared by the Peking Legation, which accompanied Mr. Alaton's despatch No. 153 of the 19th May last.
The Secretary of State fully recognises the desirability of securing an early settlement of the Thibetan question on satisfactory lines, and thus affording the Thibetan Government relief from a situation which imposes a severe strain upon their limited resources. These conditions appear to him, in all the circumstances of the case, to outweigh the disadvantage of receding from the attitude hitherto consistently maintained by His Majesty's Government in regard to the convention of 1914; and there is the less objection to taking fresh ground if, as the political officer in Sikkim anticipates, the Thibetan Government, whose territorial claims the change will primarily affect, are likely to acquiesce in the new policy without serious opposition. So far as British interests are concerned, the legation proposals appear to be quite satisfactory in the main. In one respect, indeed, they are more advantageous to His Majesty's Government than the Tripartite Convention, in that they provide (article 3) for the permanent residence of a British representative at the Thibetan capital.
It would be premature to scrutinise the details of the new proposals very closely at the present stage. There are, however, certain points on which the Secretary of State desires to offer some preliminary remarks -
1. Article 4. There seerns no special objection to the appointment of a Chinese trade agent at Chiamdo or such other trade mart as it may be decided to establish in East Thibet in the immediate neighbourhood of the Chinese frontier; but the Secretary of State is altogether opposed, in the light of past experience, to the reappearance of Chinese agents at any mart in the vicinity of the Indian border or on the main Indo- Thibetan trade routes. This is a point to which he attaches very great importance, and on which he would be most unwilling to make any concession.
2. Article 5. The provision that no British civil or military official, other than the trade agents, &c., shall enter Thibet without the concurrence of the three contract- ing Governments seems likely to cause inconvenience in practice; and it would seem preferable to retain article 3 of the 1914 convention.
3. Article 11.-"Szechuan" is presumably to be taken as including the area defined by the 1914 convention as "Inner Thibet," in which the Dalai Lama's spiritual rights are known to be extensive. This point should be made quite clear.
With regard to the proposals generally it should be brue in mind that, when the time comes for negotiation with the Chinese Government, we shall not be in the position
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