ion into an Inner and Outer
Tibet the boundaries of which would involve the evacuation of those
districts actually in Chinese effective occupation and under its
administration, though otherwise in accord with the general principles
of the draft Convention, declared that the initialled draft was in no
way binding upon her and took up the matter with the British Government
in London and with its representative in Peking. Protracted negotiations
took place thereafter, but, in spite of repeated concessions from the
Chinese side in regard to the boundary question, the British Government
would not negotiate on any basis other than the initialled convention.
On July 3 an Agreement based on the terms of the draft Convention but
providing special safe-guards for the interests of Great Britain and
Tibet in the event of China continuing to withhold her adherence, was
signed between Great Britain and Tibet, not, however, before Mr. Ivan
Chen had declared that the Chinese Government would recognize any treaty
or similar document that might then or thereafter be signed between
Great Britain and Tibet.

CHINA'S STANDPOINT

With the same spirit of compromise and a readiness to meet the wishes of
the British Government and even to the extent of making considerable
sacrifices in so far as they were compatible with her dignity, China has
more than once offered to renew negotiations with the British Government
but the latter has up to the present declined to do so. China wants
nothing more than the re-establishment of Chinese suzerainty over Tibet,
with recognition of the autonomy of the territory immediately under the
control of the Lhassa Government; she is agreeable to the British idea
of forming an effective buffer territory in so far as it is consistent
with equity and justice; she is anxious that her trade interest should
be looked after by her trade agents as do the British, a point which is
agreeable even to the Tibetans, though apparently not to the British; in
other words, she expects that Great Britain would at least make with her
an arrangement regarding Tibet which should not be any less
disadvantageous to her than that made with Russia respecting Outer
Mongolia.

Considering that China has claimed and exercised sovereign rights over
Tibet, commanded the Tibetan army, supervised Tibetan internal
administration, and confirmed the appointments of Tibetan officials,
high and low, secular and even ecclesiastical, such expectati