793B.00/3–2751: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Gifford) to the Secretary of State
5089. FonOff has received tel dated March 26 from Peiping quoting Panikkar as stating he had been informed by Chou En-lai that Tibetan question settled along lines recommended by GOI about as follows:
Dalai Lama authorized retain both temporal and spiritual supremacy. CPG recognized Tibetan autonomy subject Chinese suzerainty and Chi responsibility defense frontier. Panchen Lama1 given permission return Tibet. 80 per cent Tibetan monks have assented to CPG formula and are convinced neither their religion nor their property endangered. However certain older and more reactionary monks capable of being obstructive. Tibetan mission en route Peiping; some members have already arrived Chengtu. CPG agreeable GOI retain trade mission Tibet but no relations with other foreign powers.
Sent Department 5089 repeated information Delhi 151.
- Lama of the Tashilhunpo monastery at Shigatse. The tenth (or seventh) Panchen Lama, who had been formally recognized by the Chinese Nationalist Government in 1949 but had not been so recognized in Tibet, was in the People’s Republic of China.↩