Press Exaggerates

This article was drafted several weeks before the Tibetan disturbances. Pending fuller and more detailed information as to the character of the Tibetan uprising, the writer sees no reason to alter substantially what he has written above. He would draw attention to the fact that existing reports in the daily press contain a substantial element of exaggeration; for example, the figure of six million which is quoted as the population of Tibet is grossly exaggerated, the 1953 census showing a total of 2.775 million Tibetans in the whole of China, of whom 1.274 million lived in the Tibetan region.

Similarly, the figure quoted for the number of Chinese troops operating in the Lhasa region—750,000—is difficult to understand in view of the obstables to rapid troop movement presented by the nature of the Tibetan terrain; apart from air communications, there are only two major routes into Tibet, the Szechwan-Tibet highway running in from the east, and the Chinghai-Tibet road from the north; the possibilities of such massive troop movements along these pioneer highways seem remote.