'Volume II. MEMORANDA REGARDING OTHER EXTERNAL AFFAIRS. 1905.' [‎88v] (181/228)

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for a passport for Mr. Wilton, on the gronnd
that the Tibet Convention makes no provision
for the grant of such a concession.
2. The British Trade Agent reported
the arrival of a Trench officer by name the
Comte de Lesdain with his wife at Gyantse
on the 4th October. The Count requested
permission to go on to Darjeeling. The Gov
ernment of India decided that, as, in the case
of a traveller terminating Ids journey through
Tibet on the Indian frontier, it would seldom,
if ever, be possible to refuse him permission
to make his exit by British territory, the
Count should be allowed to travel through to
Darjeeling. The Political Officer, Sikkim, was
instructed to convey the necessary permission.
The Count belongs to the Trench Legation
at Peking. On leaving Peking the party
went to Minghsi. Thence they went north,
discovering two buried cities, and returned to
Lanchow. They next went to Liang Chow,
whence they made a tour into the Gobi desert,
and discovered a new lake. Returning to
Liang Chow, they made a circuit to the north
of Koko Nor, eventually arriving in the salt
swamps of Tsaidam. Trom there they travelled
to the source of the Yangtse (approximately
in Latitude SS'SS 0 and Longitude 91*10°),
meeting no human being for 50 days, and
nearly losing their lives in an upland plateau
of mud nearly 19,800 feet high. Only six
animals escaped, and of these two died soon
after. They then came south by a string of lakes
to the Tingri Nor, which they passed on the
east, and came down the Sang Chu to a point
opposite Shigatse. This town they avoided,
going via Penam Jong to Gyantse.
The Count has traversed a very large
tract of country hitherto unexplored." On a
former official trip, he went through Mongolia
to Urga, for the purpose of collecting an
indemnity from the Mongols for the murder of
missionaries.
The Count says he was well received
throughout, and ascribes the success of his
journey to the results of the British Mission to
Lhasa in 1904.
3. In July 1905 the Political Officer,
Sikkim, suggested that it would be desirable
that the Tasbi Lama of Tibet, the Deb Raja King
and Tongsa Penlop of Bhutan and the Maha
raja King and Maharaj JCumar of Sikkim should be
invited to India as guests of Government
during the stay in Calcutta of Their Royal
Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The Government of India approved of the
proposal, and authorised the issue of the invi
tations.
The Deb Raja King expressed himself unable
to accept the invitation owing to his religious
obligations, but the Tongsa Penlop of Bhutan