The Tibetans have once more been driven back from Sikkim.
A telegram (Renter's) was received in London on Tuesday announcing that Colonel Graham, in command of some 2,500 Europeans and Goorkhas, had attacked the positions held by the Tibetans in the Jelapla Pass, had carried them, and was following the retreating enemy across the frontier. The British had only one wounded officer, Colonel Bromhead, who lost his arm, and nine wounded Goorkhas, while the Tibetans had four hundred killed. The enemy carried off their guns, but abandoned their baggage animals and tent equipage. A subsequent telegram, dated the 26th inst., informs us that Colonel Graham, after pursuing the enemy to the Chumbi Valley, and taking many guns, retired to his camp at Gnatong. The victory, though most picturesque, the whole affair occurring in the clouds, nearly at the height of Mont Blanc, has been easy; but the difficulty of making it fruitful remains. We do not want to go to Lhassa. We do not want to fortify passes at that altitude, or even to keep a heavy garrison between them and Darjeeling; yet if we do none of these things, we may be exposed to renewed attack. The Lamas care nothing about their loss of men, they have sixty thousand militia to draw upon, and they are too vain to believe that they can never win. They are convinced, moreover, that we threaten their monopoly of the supply of tea, which is the source of their revenue, and will make persistent efforts to close the passes. The only hope of a speedy settlement is that defeat may release the elements of discontent always existing in an Asiatic State, and so compel the priests to con- ciliate the external foe. If that happens. they should have easy terms, and be allowed to tax Assam tea in transit. We do not want the custom of a few shepherds, thinly scattered over enormous plateaux, and importing nothing but tea.
