British Intelligence On China in Tibet
British Intelligence On China in Tibet
British Intelligence On China in Tibet
Contents
Introduction 2
Index 25
1
2002
British Intelligence on China in Tibet, 1903-1950
INTRODUCTION
The files and associated confidential print which accumulated at the India Office in London during the
first half of the twentieth century provide a unique primary source for the historical background to the
nature of China’s present position in Tibet.
Obviously the stance which emerges is Anglo-centric – indeed at times it becomes India Office-centric –
but much of the value of this collection lies in the way it shows how the three players on the British side,
the Government of India, the India Office and the Foreign Office, grappled with different imperatives. The
view from the British Embassy in Peking and later from wartime Chungking was frequently at odds with
that from Delhi or the India Office. Over decades the British side juggled with the self-imposed
conundrum that recognition of Chinese ‘suzerainty’ should be conditional upon China’s recognition of
Tibetan ‘autonomy’, while avoiding precise definitions of either concept. Meanwhile Tibet went its own
way in a semi-independent limbo, subject to varying degrees of British intervention and support channelled
through Government of India officials at Gyantse and Gartok, in Sikkim, or latterly in its Lhasa Mission.
The collection begins with Lord Curzon’s ‘forward policy’ of 1903-04, designed to create a Tibetan
buffer state against Russian influence – significantly, all this material was printed-up by the Foreign Office.
Then follow negotiations to keep Russia at a distance, and the return of the 13th Dalai Lama from China to
Tibet.
There is extensive coverage of Tibet’s break with China after the 1911 Revolution, the subsequent Simla
Conference of 1912, and the delimitation of Tibet’s borders.
A fascinating group of files offers minute detail on an attempt to turn four young Tibetans into a vanguard
of ‘modernisers’ through the medium of an English public school education, and a further large group
records the way in which access to Tibet was closely controlled by the British.
Tibet’s internal affairs and British encouragement of de facto semi-independence through the 1920s and
1930s lead to a renewed concern for Chinese Nationalist claims during World War II. Particularly
interesting from this period are the files on the discovery of the 14th (the present) Dalai Lama in 1937-39.
The collection ends with the complete reversal following the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947
and the Communist victory in China.
2
Provenance & historical background
All the files and related confidential print reproduced form part of the papers of the Political & Secret
Department in the India Office Records (with the exception of three items from the Military Department
and its World War II offshoot, the War Staff – Fiche 29-35 and 299).
The Political & Secret Department originated in provisions of William Pitt’s India Act of 1784 which
established a statutory Secret Committee of the East India Company’s Court of Directors. The Act also set
up a Secret & Political Department at the newly created Board of Control, which exercised on behalf of the
Crown in Parliament powers to ‘superintend, direct and control’ the East India Company’s rapidly
expanding government in South Asia. In 1804 the Company’s Secret Committee was supplemented by a
Political Department within the office of the Examiner of Indian Correspondence at East India House.
Upon the abolition of the Company in 1858 and the creation of the India Office as a British Government
department, the Board of Control and Company elements coalesced to form the India Office Political &
Secret Department. During the nineteenth century ‘Political’ came to deal largely with matters involving
the Indian Princely States, while ‘Secret’ handled India’s external and frontier affairs. In 1931 the title was
changed to Political Department, sub-divided into two branches, Internal (Indian States, and questions
relating to honours) and External (foreign and frontier affairs). All the India Office departments were
subsumed within the Commonwealth Relations Office (subsequently the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
after Independence in 1947.
The files comprise a wide variety of papers received from the Government of India Foreign Department
and other sources in India, and from the Foreign Office in London, together with India Office-generated
minuting, comment and replies. Incoming papers passed through the departmental registry, where they
were placed on a file numbered in an annual sequence before being passed to the department’s officers. As
a result of a regular programme of ‘weeding’ and merger the files in the present collection were eventually
archived in one of three groups:
The department also maintained a separate series of memoranda prepared by India Office, Foreign Office
or Government of India officials (L/P&S/18), and had its own reference library of secret/confidential print
and official publications (L/P&S/20).
In 1982 the Foreign & Commonwealth Office transferred the administration of the India Office Library &
Records to the British Library, where it now forms one part of the Library’s Oriental & India Office
Collections.
3
Organisation of the files
For the present publication the OIOC files and related confidential print have been re-listed and arranged
in eight subject groups, in roughly chronological order:
Within these groups the following information is provided for each file:
fiche number,
subject description (or bibliographical details for print items),
covering dates,
OIOC reference number,
original India Office registry reference,
number of folios/pages.
A.J. Farrington
Former Deputy Director
Oriental & India Office Collections, The British Library
4
Fiche 1-21
5
Fiche 21-48
6
Fiche 49-56 (1-8)
7
Fiche 56-74 (8-26)
Fiche 56 (8)
North-East Frontier: British survey party in the
Lohit valley; friendly overtures by Tibetan
officials, Feb-May 1913
L/P&S/11/54-5 File P.2066B/1913 4p
8
Fiche 75-94 (1-20)
9
Fiche 94-149 (20-75)
10
Fiche 150-160 (1-11)
11
Fiche 160-195 (11-46)
12
Fiche 195-268 (46-119)
includes
- ‘Lhasa Mission, November 1920 to October - ‘Note on Tehri-Tibet boundary dispute’
1921. Final report’ F Williamson, 31 Oct 1932
C A Bell Delhi: Foreign & Political Dept, Nov 1932
Govt of India Foreign & Pol Dept, Dec 1921 7p Confidential
5p Confidential
- ‘Report on visit to Lhasa, 1924’ Fiche 228-229 (79-80)
F M Bailey Tibet: extradition arrangements with India,
Govt of India Foreign & Pol Dept, Nov 1924 Jun 1925-Oct 1931
15p Confidential L/P&S/12/4168 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 5 108ff
- ‘Report on Tibet tour and visit to Lhasa in
1930’ Fiche 229-232 (80-83)
J L R Weir Tibet: Soviet Mission and intrigues in Lhasa,
Govt of India Foreign & Pol Dept, Nov 1930 May 1927-Apr 1933
15p Confidential L/P&S/11/277 File P.2305/1927 167ff
13
Fiche 268-292 (119-143)
14
Fiche 292-299 (143-150)
15
Fiche 300-331 (1-32)
16
Fiche 331-355 (32-56)
17
Fiche 355-373 (56-74)
18
Fiche 373-378 (74-79)
19
Fiche 379-402 (1-24)
Fiche 379-383 (1-5) Yatung & Gyantse monthly diary Mar & Apr
Tibet: trade; infringements of treaties; illegal 1912
customs dues, Dec 1904-Apr 1913 Yatung monthly diary May 1912
L/P&S/10/150 File P.2750/1908 Pt 5 195ff Yatung annual reports 1911/2-1915/6 &
1917/8-1924/5
Fiche 383 (5) Yatung news reports 1-3/1917, 1-2/1918,
Note on the negotiations for the revision of the 1-2/1919 & 1/1920
Tibet Trade Regulations of 1893 Gyantse annual reports 1911/2-1915/6 &
Simla: Foreign Dept, 26 May 1908 1917/8-1924/5
50p Gyantse news reports 2-3/1916, 1-3/1917,
L/P&S/18/B167 1/1918 & 1/1920
20
Fiche 402-430 (24-52)
21
Fiche 431-472 (1-42)
22
Fiche 472-487 (42-57)
23
Fiche 488-535 (1-48)
includes
TIBET, CIT – 8 14th - ‘The discovery of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’
DALAI LAMA, WORLD WAR II B J Gould
The Geographical Magazine 19/6 (London, Oct
and 1946), 246-58
COMMUNIST CHINA, 1933-1950 - ‘Report by Mr B.J.Gould, CMG, CIE, Political
Officer in Sikkim, on the discovery, recognition
and installation of the fourteenth Dalai Lama’
New Delhi: External Affairs Dept, Mar 1941
Fiche 488-492 (1-5) [i],25p
Sino-Tibetan affairs: Chinese mission to Lhasa
on death of the 13th Dalai Lama, Fiche 518-522 (31-35)
Dec 1933-Oct 1940 Tibet: relations with the British government; Sir
L/P&S/12/4177 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 14 384ff Basil Gould’s visit to Lhasa, Apr 1940 &
includes Mar 1944-Mar 1945
Tibet under the Dalai Lama L/P&S/12/4217 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 45 274p
[China Chronicle No.5]
Peiping: The Peiping Chronicle, Dec 1933 Fiche 522 (35)
20p frontis map Tibet: Sir Basil Gould’s film of the installation
of the 14th Dalai Lama, Apr 1944-May 1945
Fiche 492-497 (5-10) L/P&S/12/4180 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 15 Pt 2
Tibet: death of the 13th Dalai Lama and question 22p
of a successor, Dec 1933-Jun 1940
L/P&S/12/4178 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 15 Pt 1 Fiche 522-526 (35-39)
418ff Tibet: relations with the British government:
visit to Lhasa in 1936-37 by the Political Officer
Fiche 497-503 (10-16) in Sikkim; continuance of the Lhasa Mission,
Panchen Lama: return to Tibet after death of the May 1936-Mar 1948
Dalai Lama, Jan 1934-Mar 1946 L/P&S/12/4197 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 27 354ff
L/P&S/12/4181 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 16 505ff
Fiche 526-529 (39-42)
Fiche 503-514 (16-27) Publicity regarding visits to Lhasa by the
Panchen Lama: Chinese escort on his return to Political Officer in Sikkim; Lhasa Mission
Tibet, Oct 1935-Nov 1937 diaries, Jul 1936-Jun 1940
L/P&S/12/4186B Pol Ext Coll 36 File 22 576ff L/P&S/12/4193 Pol Ext Coll 36 File 25 196ff
24
Fiche 535-550 (48-63)
includes includes
- ‘Note by Foreign Secretary. The Mongolian - ‘Report on the medical work done in Lhasa in
Fringe. Sikkim, Assam Tribal Areas. Tibet’ 1943’ Lt-Col J H Hislop, IMS
Olaf K Caroe, 18 Jan 1940 typescript, [13]p
Delhi: External Affairs Dept, Jul 1942 10p - ‘Report on Civil Hospital, Lhasa, for the year
- typescript note ‘Tibet: factors in policy’ 1945-46’ Maj Guthrie, IMS
B.J.Gould, Lhasa 18 Apr 1940 [11]p typsecript, [14]p
25
Fiche 550-575 (63-88)
26
Fiche 575-576 (88-89)
======
25
INDEX
25
150-52,188,537
Feng Yu-hsiang, Marshal 349-50 internal affairs & news reports 215-23,242-44
Filchner, Dr Wilhelm 317-28 Italian travellers 351-53,354-55,361-63
filming in Tibet 343-44,350-51,364,372-73,522
Fletcher, Maj Frederick 331-36 James, P.L.S. 286-89
Foreign Office, London Japan
Confidential Print on Tibet 1-24 activities in & policy towards Tibet 72-74,
memoranda on Tibet 25,28-29,56-57,76 119-25,154,161-62,267-68,348-49
French travellers 372-73,377-78 Japanese travellers 309-15,339-41
frontiers
with China 77,181-88,195-203,232-42, Kailash, Mt 366
244-67,272-76 Kalon Lama 188,547
with India 146-49,223-28,276-96,297-99, Kansu affairs 180-81
426-27 Kaulback, Ronald 356-59,367-70,376
with Kashmir 292-93 Kawaguchi Ekai 309-15
with Sikkim 276 Kelly, P.J. 348
Furer-Haimendorf, Christopher von 282-86 Kennedy, Lt-Col Robert Siggins 139-44
King, Louis 75-76,201-03
Gangotri expedition 361-63 Kingdon-Ward, Capt Francis 309-15,356-59,
Gartok Trade Agency 427 376
reports 401-02,404-06,406-18,418-19 Knight, George 331-36
Gebauer, Anton K. 309-15 Koelz, Dr Walter 373
George V, King Kotzch, H. 377
presents to 159-60 Kozlov, Col Petr Kuzmich 303-05,39-41
George VI, King Krzesinski, Prof Andrzej 375
presents to 562-64 Kurz, Marcel 355-56
presents from 573 Kyipup, W.N. 431-56,461-63,47-72,476-78
German travellers 364-66,375,377
Godfrey, Reginald William 286-92 Labrang uprising 180-81
Gongkar, S.G. 431-56,456-58,467-68,476-78 Laden La 399-401,449-52
Gould, Sir Basil John 514-29,529-35 Lamai country 282-86
Guibaut, André 372-73 Lamb, Gene 356
Guthrie, Maj 540-41 Lhasa
Gyantse, English school at 483-86 Chinese Army mutiny at 49
Gyantse Trade Agency 399-401,429 proposed Chinese expedition to 52-56
reports 305-07,395-97,419-23,537-40 repatriation of Chinese garrison 57-59
situation in 52,56,153,163
Hackett, Joan 353-54 English school at 483-86
Haddick, Lt-Col V.A. 350-51 hospital at 540-41
Hanbury-Tracy, John 367-70,376 Lhasa Mission 139-44,190-95,514-17,522-29,
Harcourt, William 331-36 550-57,569
Hayden, Sir Henry Hubert 317 Lingens, Dr W. 364-66
Hedin, Dr Sven 300-03,337-41 Lohit valley 56,282-92
Herrlich, Dr Albert 364-66 Lubbock, Cecil Ernest 359-61
Heybrook, Werner 364-66 Ludlow, Frank 363-64,483-86
Hitzel, Frederic Arthur 76,150-52
Hislop, Lt-Col James Hall 540-51 Lu Hsing-chi 160-61
Hopkinson, Arthur John 297-99 Lungshar, Kusho 431-44
26
missionaries 315-16,317-28,377-78 Anglo-Russian Convention 1907 28-29,
monasteries 307-09
in Peking 162 Russian travellers 303-15,317-28,339-41,355
in Tibet 162-65
Mondo, K.K. 431-56,458-61,468-70,476-78 Samson, Dr Otto 375
Montagu, Mrs Edwin 364 Schary, Edwin S. 316-17
Montianov, Savelli 305-07 Schomberg, Col Reginald 377
Morley, John, Viscount 150-51 schools, at Gyantse & Lhasa 483-87
Muir, Rev John R. 305-07 Sherriff, Capt George 363-64
Shiga Shigetaka 309-15
Neel, Alexandra 309-15,337 Shipton, Eric 375-76
Nevin, Rev Claude 366-67 Shuckburgh, John Evelyn 29,76,77
Nimbouchov, Darja 355 Siang valley 286-89
Simla Conference 75-107
O’Connor, Sir Frederick 350 Simla Convention 76,77,90-94
proposed revision of 107-44
Pakistan publication of 146-49
relations with China 575 Simmonds, Ormsbee 377
Pallis, Marco 361-63 Smythe, Francis Sydney 361-63
Panchen Lama, VIth 153,497-517 Sobolevsky, George 309-15
relations with Dalai Lama 158-59,203-15 Soklov, Oleg 317-28
relations with China 49 Sorensen, A.B. 328-31
return to Tibet 503-14 Spear, Lt-Col Christopher Ronald 344-48
relations with British 45-48,51 status of Tibet negotiations 529-35,558-59,
presents to King George V 159-60 566-69
Panchen Lama, VIIth 545-46 Stelle, Page 356
Parliamentary Questions 150-52,575-76 Stern, Hubert 349
Peking Stocks, Cherry de Beauvoir 344-48
Tibetan monasteries in 162 Subansiri 282-86
Tibetan officials in 190 Swiss travellers 355-56,376,377
Pentecostal Missionary Union 315-16 Szechuan
Pereira, Gen George Edward 328-31 affairs in 51-52,52,56,56-57,60-74,150,152-53
Pomed campaign 49 journey in, by Teichman 49
Pu Ragpa 547-48
Purdie, James 344-48 Tehri-Tibet boundary dispute 223-28
Teichman, Eric 49,144-46
Rawling, Brig-Gen Cecil Godfrey 300-01, Tibet Improvement Party 547-48
309-15 Tibetan Army 29-31,189-90
Richardson, Hugh Edward 242-44,548-50,575 Tibetan Art exhibition 566
Rima 289-92 Tibetan Mission to Indian, China, UK & USA
Ringang, R.D. 431-56,463-67,472-75 559-66
Ripley, Robert 375 Timotieiev, Alexander 317-28
Robertson, Maj David Stephen 56-57 Tolstoy, Capt Ilia 373-74
Roemer, Dr Werner 364-66 Tosche, Richard 339-41
Roosevelt, President Franklin D. trade 379-430
emissaries to Dalai Lama 373-74 trade regulations 383-85
Roosevelt, Col Theodore 344-48 travellers to Tibet 300-78
Rose, Archibald 75-76 regulations for entry 317-28,359-61,378
Routes in Tibet 31-35 Tsetsigov, Richard 339-41
Routs, François 372-73 Tsien Shi Pao 52
Royal Geographical Society 367-70 Tucci, Prof Giuseppe 351-53
Rugby School
Tibetan students at 431-87 United States of America
Russia interests in Tibet 267-68,296-97,373-74,
relations with Dalai Lama 50 541-42,564-66
activities in Tibet 188-89,229-32 American travellers 316-17,343-44,344-48,
27
348,353-54,356,366-67,372,373,373-74, Wirz, Dr Paul 377
374-75,375,376-77,377 Wolfenden, Norris S.J. 353-54
Urga 188-89 wool trade 406-18,428-29
28