na with regard to trade
communications between India and Tibet drawn up in Darjeeling in 1893,
subsequently to the Sikkim Convention. It was then stipulated that there
should be a trade mart at Yatung to which British subjects should have
free access, and that there should be special trade facilities between
Sikkim and Tibet. It is reported that the Chinese Amban took good care
that Great Britain should not benefit by these new regulations, for
after signing the agreement which was to give the Indian tea-merchants a
market in Tibet, he introduced new regulations the other side of the
frontier, which prohibited the purchase of Indian tea. Whether the story
is true or not, it is certainly characteristic of the evasion and
duplicity which have brought about the present armed mission into Tibet.

To-day, as one rides through the cobbled street of Yatung, the only
visible effects of the Convention are the Chinese Customs House with its
single European officer, and the residence of a lady missionary, or
trader, as the exigencies of international diplomacy oblige her to term
herself. The Customs House, which was opened on May 1, 1894, was first
established with the object of estimating the trade between India and
Tibet--traffic is not permitted by any other route than the Jelap--and
with a view to taxation when the trade should make it worth while. It
was stipulated that no duties should be levied for the period of five
years. Up to the present no tariff has been imposed, and the only
apparent use the Customs House serves is to collect statistics, and
perhaps to remind Tibet of the shadowy suzerainty of China. The natives
have boycotted the place, and refuse to trade there, and no European or
native of India has thought it worth while to open a market. Phari is
the real trade mart on the frontier, and Kalimpong, in British Bhutan,
is the foreign trade mart. But the whole trade between India and Tibet
is on such a small scale that it might be in the hands of a single
merchant.

The Customs House, the missionary house, and the houses of the clerks
and servants of the Customs and of the headman, form a little block.
Beyond it there is a quarter of a mile of barren stony ground, and then
the wall with military pretensions. I rode through the gate
unchallenged.

At Rinchengong, a mile beyond the barrier, the Yatung stream flows into
the Ammo Chu. The road follows the eastern bank of the river, passing
through Cheuma and Old Chum