The week has been full of reports, some of them
serious, about the Tibetan Treaty. It is stated, for example, that the British Government has agreed to exchange the demand for an indemnity for a lease of the Chumbi Valley for seventy- five years, and an annuity for that period of £10,000. This, or some similar arrangement, is possible, as the great Lamas are excessively averse from parting with their accumulations, while the Chumbi Valley would give us a secure foothold in Tibet; but the story is emphatically denied by the Foreign Office. It is also stated, on the excellent authority of the Times correspondent at Pekin, that the German Emperor is inciting the Chinese Court to refuse a ratification of the Treaty, and even helping to get up a popular protest against it, as sure to be followed by demands from other European Powers. The Court is therefore delay- ing ratification, and may refuse it. If William II. is really opposing us at Pekin, his motive must be the further concilia- tion of Russia ; and we have shown cause in another column for doubting whether he will succeed. His Majesty has an unquestioned right to pursue the policy which he considers advantageous to his country ; but he should remember that Britain is not a negligible quantity, and that in thus fre- quently throwing himself across her path he is irritating, if not the Government, at least the people. Tibet and its future are nothing to him.
