Of course, Sikkim's ultimate fate would still depend on its own choice. East Africa was merely offering an opportunity. If they could not even seize that opportunity, then their eventual destruction would not deserve sympathy.
For now, Sikkim remained a British protectorate—in other words, a colony. There was no saying that they, or rather Namgyal, would not report East Africa to the British.
Therefore, Charsson's arrival in Sikkim this time carried enormous risks. One careless move could make East Africa's entire arrangement in South Asia vanish like smoke and clouds.
At this moment, Namgyal was locked in a fierce battle between heaven and man. As the ruler of Sikkim, he had already believed that Charsson was East Africa's envoy.
But asking Sikkim to cooperate with East Africa and stir up trouble under the British nose was an extremely difficult choice.
Forget cooperating with East Africa—if the British discovered that they had merely known and failed to report it, would Sikkim have any good days left?
King Namgyal gritted his teeth and asked, "Ambassador Charsson, the risks involved in this matter are immense. If they find out..."
To dispel his concerns, Charsson said, "As I mentioned earlier, we do not actually need you to do very much. You only need to cooperate with East Africa's operations."
"East Africa is not acting recklessly either. We know how to avoid the British watchful eyes. Take our embassy, for instance: our cover in Sikkim is an Australian Tea Company called Bechani, and we have British identification documents as well."
"At present, only you know of our presence. We merely hope that Your Majesty King Namgyal can cooperate with our forthcoming operations and provide us some convenience in such matters as land acquisition, worker recruitment, and material procurement."
All of this was preparation for building