ny different people in many
different lands. The troops, my staff, and all about me were filled
with delight at the success of our enterprise. Even the Tibetans
themselves seemed pleased at the settlement; at any rate, they asked
to be taken under our protection. On the morning we left Lhasa the
Lama Regent, who in the absence of the Dalai Lama had conducted
negotiations with us, paid us a farewell visit and gave us the
impression of genuine goodwill towards us. We and the Tibetans
had contended strongly against one another. But it seemed that a
way had been found by which good relations between us could be
maintained. We had discovered that fundamentally we were
perfectly well-disposed towards each other, and means had been
found for composing our differences. Throughout the Mission we
had kept before us the supreme importance of securing this goodwill
eventually. The Tibetan frontier runs with the Indian frontier for a
thousand miles, and it would have been the height of folly to have
stirred up in the Tibetans a lasting animosity. Far more important,
then, than securing the actual treaty we regarded securing the
permanent goodwill; and when I felt that through the exertion of my
Staff and the good behaviour of the troops as well as through my
own efforts the goodwill of the Tibetans really had been secured, my
satisfaction was profound.

It was after enduring all these hardships, after running all these risks,
and after battling in all these controversies, that this deep
satisfaction came upon me. For though at times I felt, as every
leader feels in like circumstances, that success must have been due
to everyone else besides myself--to the backing and firm direction I
had received from Government, to the sound advice and help of my
Staff, to the bravery and endurance of the troops, without all or any
one of which aids success would have been unattainable--yet I could
not help also feeling that I had often on my own responsibility to
make decisions and run risks, and to give advice to Government;
and that if I had erred in my decisions or in the advice I gave or in
taking the risks, success most assuredly would not have been
achieved, however much support I received from elsewhere. I had,
therefore, that satisfaction a man naturally feels when his special
qualifications and training and the experience he has gained during
the best part of his life have proved of acknowledged good to his
country. And this was the fra