The official diary of the Gould mission to Lhasa sent by the British government. Read more about the mission diary.
We rode to the Trabchi (Arsenal) in the morning and were shown round by the Director, Lungchungna Shape and Tsarong Dzasa. Ringang, who is in charge of the Electric Power Station acted as interpreter.
We saw silver and copper coins being minted, and paper notes being printed mostly by up to date electrically worked machines from England. There were two or three very ancient home made hand power stamping machines still in use with wobbly brass fly wheels. We saw a new machine entirely made of brass, as they can't work steel, in process of construction. In the forge, with marvellous skin bellows, they were melting bars of silver, mixing with alloy and recasting in strips.
We were each presented with a set of newly minted coins.
Richardson returned the call on Ta Lama Nagachen Rimpoche, the Tashi Lama's Agent, yesterday. The latter was a little more definite and self-committal in his conversation and admitted that he thought the Tashi Lama, urged on by his entourage, would bring the Chinese escort into Tibet. He said the Tashi Lama was not replying to the Tibetan Governments offer of a Tibetan escort.
So it looks at present as if they will hardly come to peaceful terms.
Author: Philip Neame [see handwritten annotations in Diary by Hugh Richardson in MS. Or. Richardson 2, Bodleian Libary, Department of Oriental Collections, University of Oxford]
Page Reference: Pt VI p.1