INTRODUCTION. svii 



this policy is a just and reasonable one ; and tliat it involves the 

 assumption on our part of no more authority than is necessary if -we 

 are to keep the peace in this particular corner of the Indian emiiire. 

 To maintain this policy by the cheapest and most effective means 

 was the sole object of the military operations commenced in March 

 1888, and terminated by the engagement of the 2-l:th September of 

 that year. For the better understanding of the principles on which 

 this little war was conducted, a further glance at the conformation of 

 the country will be needed. Lingtu, we have already explained, is a 

 peak about twelve miles to the Sikhim side of the frontier, over the 

 top of which our road runs to the Jelap pass. The sides of this peak 

 are very precipitous, and the road could not have been taken alono- 

 them except at great expense. A force holding Lingtu can therefore 

 block the road, and can also command the steep downs below the Jelap, 

 where Tibetan herdsmen pasture their sheep and cattle during the 

 summer mouths. Both points jjrobably counted for somethino- with 

 the Tibetans, who have a considerable, if not an excessive, sense of 

 the value of position in warfare, and who seem also not to have 

 overlooked the possible support which the habits of the herdsmen 

 might give to the theory of a pastoral frontier extending to the 

 Garnei. As a matter of fact, no such theory is at all tenable. The 

 practice arises partly out of the necessities of the case — the pastures 

 lie on both sides of the frontier, and cattle are bound to stray — and 

 partly from the accident that a large part of the property owned in 

 Tibet by the Rajas of Sikkim and their wives has consisted of cattle 

 tended by Tibetan herdsmen, their servants. On the Singilela rano-e 

 where it forms the border between Darjeeling and NejDal, Nepalese 

 shepherds feed their flocks on either side of the frontier, paying grazino- 

 fees to our Forest officers — just as the Tibetans pay rent to the Raja 

 of Sikhim for the period spent by them on the Sikhim side. But no 

 Nepalese official would be so inconsequent as to make this a reason for 

 asserting that the whole of the grazing tract belonged to Nepal. 



At the beginning of hostilities, while our troops were beino- 

 moved up from the plains, public opinion in India had hardly made 

 up its mind to take the Lingtu garrison seriously. A turn for cheap 

 swagger is a prominent trait in the Tibetan character, and it seemed 

 not impossible that in invading Sikhim, the lamas were merely 

 " trying it on," and would withdraw their rabble directly the advance 

 of our troops showed that we were in earnest. In order to leave open 

 the door to an early reconciliation, and to make it clear that our only 

 object was to restore the status quo in Sikhim, and to secure that 

 country and Bhutan from future aggressive interference on the part 

 of Tibet, General Graham was directed not to pursue the enemy 

 across the frontier, unless it was absolutely necessary to do so for 



