China's foreign affairs have tendency to ignore convenient divisions of time and to develop a protracted existence which may leave little to be recorded in such a brie interval as that of a year. In many instances the subjects that exercised the mind of the Government in 1909 will be found still unsettled in 1910, for Chinese diplomacy knows well when procrastina~ tion can be advantageously employed. Thus the year under review witnessed a crisis in Tibetan affairs; bat although a certain stage has been reached in the resultant negotiations between Great Britain and China, the veil of silence has remained drawn over the incident for several months, and that before any definite stage in the proceedings was reached.
On Christmas Day, 1909, the Dalai Lama, after an absence from his capital extending over live years, returned to Lhasa, He had already satisfied himself, however, that the situation in his country was critical and that the Chinese attitude towards him and the Tibetans in general was not such as to inspire confidence. Accordingly on November 7 he had sent a messenger by Calcutta to Pe-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.