i believe that the regent is asking for too high a reward for his part in finding the dalai lama. too much money, too much land.
our treasuries are empty. our army is depleted. he would have us pull the hair from our noses.
we cannot allow it. right now, we have a only a small chinese mission in lhasa, the first since the thirteenth dalai lama threw them out in 1912. the road would increase the size of that mission. the chinese would try to control our trade, as they did once before, control our contact with the outside world.
the communist have control of china.
now, as his great army, stands idle on our borders, chairman mao has presented tibet with three demands:
two, tibet's defenses must be handled by china. three, all political and trade matters concerning foreign countries must be conducted through china.
and do you believe that the tibetan government will be allowed to continue to function as it is? do you believe that our religion will be protected?
these are not the chinese we know. these are communists.