XVI INTRODUCTION. 



employment to an enormous number of natives, mostly immigrants 

 from Nepal. On all sides the hills are dotted with Europeans' bunga- 

 lows; tea-gardens cover the slopes which face towards Sikhim ; and 

 the summer residence of the head of the Bengal Government is to 

 all appearance within a stone's-throw of the stream which forms the 

 boundary of British territory. The station of Darjeeling itself is no 

 doubt adequately protected by the European troops stationed at the 

 cantonment of Jellapahar ; but a large number of outlying tea-gardens 

 are absolutely at the mercy of possible raiders from Sikhim. Nor 

 is it only the planters and their native labourers that have to be 

 considered. Many of our subjects, Tibetans settled in Darjeeling, 

 Lepchas, and Nepalese, have large transactions and interests in Sikhim, 

 about which disputes constantly arise. For the last twenty-five years 

 our relations with the Sikhim Government have been so close, and 

 our hold over it so strong, that the Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling 

 has, as a rule, found little difficulty in settling such dis^Dutes when 

 referred to him. Processes, both civil and criminal, issued by the 

 Darjeeling courts, are virtually current in Sikhim, and the ]Jarjeeling 

 police have free access to the country. Sikhim, in fact, has been 

 treated substantially as part of British India, subjected for political 

 reasons to the nominal rule of a princelet of the Merovingian type. 

 An instance of recent date will serve to illustrate what is meant. 

 In July 1888 a murderous outbreak occurred in the Darjeeling jail; 

 a warder was killed, and eight convicts escaped. Some fled to Nepal, 

 others were believed to have taken refuge in Sikhim. In the case 

 of Nepal no hot jiursuit was possible ; the frontier was close, and 

 we could not follow our criminals over it. The utmost that could be 

 done was to demand extradition through the Resident at Katmandu, 

 sending a formal record of the evidence against the offenders, with 

 proof of the nationality of eacli. In the case of Sikhim no such for- 

 malities were necessary. The Deputy Commissioner sent off a party of 

 armed police with orders to arrest the runaways, wherever found, and 

 bring them back at once. Now, if Sikhim were allowed to become a 

 part of Tibet, cases of this kind would give rise to inconvenient nego- 

 tiations, and might even become a cause of friction between our 

 representative at Pekiu and the Chinese Government. It must further 

 be remembered that a Tibetan Sikhim would lack the stability, the 

 common sense, and the capacity for gradual advance towards civilisa- 

 tion, which characterise the Nepal Government. An extradition treaty 

 would hardly be workable, and every absconding criminal would 

 become the subject of an irritating diplomatic wrangle. 



Enough has perhaps been said to show that the obligation of 

 driving the Tibetans out of Sikhim was imposed on us by the essential 

 conditions of our policy towards the East Himalayan States ; that 



