THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESTIGE. 323 



peoples, and be kept free from the control of a strong 

 and possibly — probably — hostile Power. 



There are two more general points to be borne in 

 mind — firstly, that in dealing with oriental races 

 prestige is a factor the influence of which can hardly 

 be overestimated ; and secondly, that whereas there 

 is much that is common to both the Near Eastern and 

 Far Eastern questions, there is this great diff'erence, 

 that while the one is in the main a political and 

 strategic question, the other is equally in the main a 

 commercial one. 



Instances of the effect of a falling or rising prestige 

 can be quoted without end. In the low ebb of British 

 influence in the councils of the Shah in the 'Eighties, 

 Lord Curzon saw the shadow of the calamitous policy 

 pursued by the British Government of 1880-85 in 

 various parts of the Empire. " The retreat from South 

 Africa, the evacuation of Kandahar, the everlasting 

 disgrace of Khartum, the ' bolt ' from the Murghab, — 

 all these incidents rang like a trumpet-blast through 

 the whispering-galleries of the East, and were inter- 

 preted as presages of an impending ruin," ^ A weak 

 or magnanimous policy, which in the eyes of the 

 Oriental are synonymous terms, is fatal, and calculated 

 to invite disaster. In spite of the length of our 

 experience in dealing with oriental races, we have yet 

 fully to appreciate this fact, and to realise the difficulties 

 which we sedulously lay up for ourselves by an obstinate 

 refusal to observe it. The recent operations in Tibet 

 add yet another example to the long list bequeathed 

 to us by the past. Impressions of British impotence 

 drawn from our almost inconceivable forbearance have 

 sunk deep into the Tibetan mind, and are likely to be 

 the cause of much trouble and loss of life, which, had 



1 Persia, vol. ii. p. 606. 



