Treaties and Conventions Relating to Tibet
Convention Relating to Burmah and Thibet (1886) [381]
CONVENTION RELATING TO BURMAH AND THIBET
24 JULY 1886
Between the British Government and the Government of China (Extract)
Inasmuch as inquiry into the circumstances, by the Chinese Government, has shown the existence of many obstacles to the Mission to Thibet provided for in the separate article of the Chefoo Agreement, England consents to countermand the Mission forthwith. With regard to the desire of the British Goverment to consider arrangements for frontier trade between India and Thibet, it will be the duty of the Chinese Government, after careful inquiry into the circumstances, to adopt measures to exhort and encourage the people with a view to the promotion and development of trade. Should it be practicable, the Chinese Government shall then proceed carefully to consider trade regulations but if insuperable obstacles should be found to exist, the British Government will not press the matter unduly.
Notes
1. Source: H.E. Richardson, A Short History of Tibet (New York, 1962) p. 250. The remainder of the convention was concerned with the recognition of British supremacy in Burma and the above clause about Tibet appears to be in the nature of a concession to facilitate the principal object of the Convention.
Reproduced from M. C. van Walt van Praag's Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law. With permission of the author.