THE MCMAHON LINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79R00890A001100090008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2002
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 9, 1959
• Content Type: BRIEF

Approved For Releat '00,2/08/i2 : C1A-RDP79R00890A001100090008-8
' It,
1959 25X1
on Line, which delineates the 850-mile Indo-Tibetan
border between Bhutan and Burma, was drawn in 1914 in connection
with a tripartite British-Tibetan-Chinese conference held at Simla,
India, to discuss Tibetan affairs. This conference opened in Octo-
ber 1913 and lasted for about six months. The Convention agreed
to at the conference divided Tibet into Inner and Outer Zones,
recognized Chinese suzerainty over Tibet, contained engagements
that China would not convert Tibet into a Chinese province and
that Britain would not annex any portion of Tibet, recognized the
autonomy of Outer Tibet, and made arrangements for trade agencies
and military escorts established at Lhasa and Gyantze. The descrip-
tion of the McMahon line constituted a part of this Convention. The
Convention was duly signed and ratified by the governments of British
India and Tibet but not by the Chinese government in Peiping. The
McMahon Line, which follows the crestline of the Himalayan watershed,
has never been demarcated by ground markers.
nary McMahon
1895 with the wand Mission, which drew the boundary between what
is now Pakistan and Afghanistan.
agent on the Northwest Frontier. He went to Kabul, Afghanistan
whom the McMahon Line is named,
andhurst in 1882 and began his career in India, join-
ing the lst Sikh regiment of the Punjab Frontier Force An 1885. He
joined the Indian Political Department in 1890 and acted as political
graduated
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 Approved For Release 2002/08/12 : CIA-RDP79R0089OA001100090008-8
McMahon himself demarcated the boundary between Baluchistan and
Afghanistan between k894 and 1896. Be was knighted in 1906 and
remained in the Northwest Frontier area until 1911. In that year
McMahon became Foreign Secretary to the government of India.
In 1913-14 he was British Plenipotentiary for the Treaty regarding
Tibet between Britain, Tibet, and China. In 1914, he became First
High Commissioner in Sgypt and in 1919 was British Commissioner on
the Middle East International Commission (Peace Conference).
Cahon's diplomatic career ended at about this time; he died in
1949.
Approved For Release 2002/08/12 : CIA-RDP79R0089OA001100090008-8