best of our power by doubling the existing barriers
along the common frontier. But it must be patent to
the shallowest that the simple laying of this road will
in future put us in a position to insist, should our
friendliness be insufficient to win the loyalty and good
faith of the hierarchy of Lhasa. It is but bare justice
to credit Captain O’Connor with the original suggestion
of its construction in any practicable form.
Inseparable from this cart road is the question of
trade. Elsewhere I have referred to the staple products
of the country. On our side it seems clear that tea is
beyond all competition the chief export from India
which the Tibetans would buy profusely and with
gratitude should the opportunity be fairly presented
to them. But a curious and unfortunately not an extraordinary
thing is the unwillingness of the Darjeeling tea.
planters to recognise the real necessities of the case.
They are ready to supply their ordinary tea in its ordinary
form to any extent, but they seem quite unwilling
to manufacture the tea in that shape in which alone the
Tibetans recognise the article. I believe that after some
pressure the institute of planters in the Darjeeling district
have sent two men to the Chinese tea fields to learn the
method of making bricks of tea, such as the Tibetans
require, but it seems strange that it should have required
an expedition to teach them such an obvious act of commercial
prudence.
This, then, is in brief the truth about our future
relations with Tibet, and in whatever terms the treaty
now signed may eventually be ratified the fact remains
unalterable, that by the simple construction of a road
the northern frontier of India can now be safeguarded at
an expense which is ridiculously small in comparison with
the millions lavished on the north-west, and one which
by sheer encouragement of trade will be recouped within
ten years. Roads are the great pioneers of peace, and
those who know their north-west frontier best will be
the first to admit the almost instant result of their construction
even in the most hostile districts. But the
matter may safely be left in the hands of Lord Curzon.