The Tibetan Mission still hangs fire, the Lamas apparently refusing
to treat, and Colonel Younghusband quietly awaiting their return to a better state of mind. That return is, how- ever, doubtful, for though they have allowed the new Chinese Resident or Amban to reach Lhasa, and have sent agents to interview the British Envoy, they have, it is reported by the Daily Mail correspondent on the spot, solemnly cursed us, the commination service occupying three whole days. More- over, they have brought up a tribe from a valley at the head of the Brahmaputra which has a good reputation for fighting, and may be intended to attack the Mission. If it is, Colonel Younghusband will have no option except to disperse the attacking force, and then advance nearer to Lhasa. But it is quite as likely that no attack will be made, and that the fighting tribe has only been summoned to make an impression on the British mind. It is always difficult for the British mind to comprehend the action of a people for whom time does not exist. The Lamas would wait a century or two quite comfortably, and with a full persuasion that they were doing the best thing to be done. Perhaps the best hope of peace is that exaggerated reports of Russian defeats will float up to Lhasa, and will induce the governing Council to promise that in future they will keep the treaties. They need not, they will reflect, break them till the British have gone away.
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