A PASSPORT APPLIED FOR. 347 



Amid a preliminary flourish of trumpets the British 

 envoy proceeded to Peking with the ostensible object of 

 applying for a passport, a proceeding which immediately 

 aroused the easily awakened suspicions of China. Why 

 this unnecessary journey to the capital was embarked 

 upon it is difficult to imagine. According to the Chifu 

 Convention of September 1876, the British envoy was 

 entitled to a passport, and no personal application was 

 in the remotest degree necessary.^ However that may 

 be, one thing is in no way open to doubt, that from 

 this moment the expectations of the mission were 

 doomed. The passport was of course granted, — it 

 could not very well be refused, — but the intricate 

 wheels of the Chinese diplomatic machine were 

 promptly set in motion to render abortive the per- 

 mission thereby ostensibly granted. The Inspector- 

 General of Customs — the hero of a hundred diplomatic 

 coups'^ — -was once more called in aid, and to such 

 purpose that the India Office were constrained to 



1 The article of the Chifu Convention of 1876 dealing with the question 

 of a contemplated British mission of exploration reads as follows : " If the 

 mission . . . should be proceeding across the Indian frontier to Tibet, the 

 Tsung-li Yamen, on receipt of a communication to the above effect from 

 the British Minister, will write to the Chinese Eesident in Tibet, and the 

 Eesident, with due regard to the circumstances, will send officers to take 

 due care of the mission ; and passports for the mission will be issued by 

 the Tsung-li Yamen, that its passage be not obstructed." 



2 It would be difficult to say how much the Chinese owe to Sir Robert 

 Hart for the facility he has shown in extricating them from the un- 

 fortunate complications into which they are always falling with Western 

 Powers. In the same year in which he was induced to rid them of the 

 inconvenient mission to Tibet he was engaged in patching up a peace 

 between China and France. The announcement of the successful conclu- 

 sion of these negotiations is characteristically described by Professor 

 Douglas. " Nine months ago," said Sir Robert Hart, addressing the mem- 

 bers of the Tsung-li Yamen, " you authorised me to open negotiations for 



peace, and now " " the baby is born," said the Ministers, before he could 



proceed further. " Yes," said Sir Robert Hart, " the preliminaries of peace 

 are arranged." 



