The Chinese Plenipotentiary Initials the Draft Convention, 27 April 1914

Republic of China

Monday, April 27th, 1914

        The formal meeting of the Tibetan Conference which was supposed, by a diplomatic friction, to be the continuation of the one which was held at 11 o'clock at the Foreign Office.

        Sir Henry McMahon opened the meeting by reading a prepared address in which he outlined the situation of the Conference and said he could not entertain the request contained in the note which his Chinese Colleague communicated to him yesterday, and afterwards he asked Mr. Chen whether he could initial the Draft Convention. To this Mr. Chen replied he could not do so, because he had received no authority from his Government.

        After a little while Sir Henry McMahon then asked Mr. Rose to have some talk with Mr. Chen in a separate room where Mr. Rose said that after all these difficult and long negotiations it was becoming very grave and said if Mr. Chen left the Foreign Office without initialing the Draft Convention, Mr. Chen would have nothing more to do with this office. Mr. Rose then asked Mr. Chen to initial unless his Government had given him distinct orders to do otherwise.

        Mr. Chen expressed his regret of his inability of initialing anything and said all he could do was to communicate any reply to his Government. He was not authorized to do otherwise and until he was authorized by his Government he could not initial the Draft Convention.

        Mr. Rose said there was no such custom as to get an order to sign a Convention. To this Mr. Chen replied by giving an example of the Labour Convention of 1904, the authorities to sign which convention was duly obtained by the former Chinese Minister in London.

        Just then a paper was brought in with a sketch Map for Mr. Rose. Mr. Rose then said that came from Sir Henry McMahon and it stated that he had arranged with L nchen Shatra to delimit a tract of territory in the vicinities of Chinghai to China and to insert the word "Outer" before the sentence "Tibet shall not be represented in Parliament or other similar body." Mr. Rose then went on to say that the Convention had already been initialed by Sir Henry McMahon and L nchen Shatra and showed their initials, and again urged that if Mr. Chen did not initial the Draft Convention to-day, the article II and IV were to be deleted and the Convention was to be concluded to-day without China. Mr. Rose further asked whether the Chinese Government had given authority not to initial the Convention. Mr. Chen replied he had received no authority either express or implied to initial or not to initial it.

        Mr. Rose then said to initial only still required confirmation and ratification by his Government otherwise the situation would be a very serious one.

        Mr. Chen then replied that he would initial the Draft Convention in order to save the grave situation on the clear understanding that to initial and to sign were two separate actions, and to sign the Draft Convention he must wire to his Government for definite instructions.

        To this Mr. Rose fully agreed and said everything required confirmation by the respective Governments, before the signature could be given to the Convention.

        Under the circumstances Mr. Chen initialed the Draft Convention and Sketch Map in the Conference Room.

        During all the time that Mr. Rose was discussing the situation with Mr. Chen, Messrs. T. H. Shah and T. C. Wang were present.

        April 27th, 1914

From: The Boundary Question Between China and Tibet: A Valuable Record of the Tripartite Conference between China, Britain, and Tibet Held in India, 1913-1914. Peking: 1940, 140-142.