Claude Maxwell MacDonald
Claude Maxwell MacDonald GCMG GCVO KCB PC ( * 1852, † 1915) was a British diplomat. His fame was due primarily to his service in China and Japan.
Life
MacDonald was educated at Uppingham School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was a soldier and diplomat and joined in 1872 the 74th ( Highland ) Regiment of Foot at. He saw himself as a " soldier -outsider " in relation to the activities of the Foreign Office.
His career began in Africa. He served in the 1882 Anglo -Egyptian War. From 1887 to 1889 he was Consul General of Zanzibar, after which he served in West Africa.
China and Korea
1896 MacDonald was appointed British ambassador to China, from 1896 to 1898 he was also a British envoy in Korea.
The Macartney -Macdonald line
In 1899, he was the author of a comment that should form a new border between China and British India in the Karakoram and Kashmir, thus known as the Macartney -Macdonald line that still forms the basis of the border between China and Pakistan and for the origins of the Chinese- Indian border conflicts is responsible.
As a military man MacDonald led the defense of the foreign legations in 1900, which were besieged during the Boxer Rebellion, he also worked with the Anglophile Japanese Colonel Shiba Goro.
Japan
MacDonald had chaired the embassy in Tokyo during the years 1900-12. During this time he had a lively correspondence with Sir Ernest Satow contact, who replaced him as minister in Beijing. On 30 January 1902, the first Anglo - Japanese alliance of the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Henry Petty - FitzMaurice and the Japanese Minister Hayashi Tadasu was signed in London. MacDonald was still in Tokyo, when the alliance was renewed in 1905 and 1911. He was Britain's first ambassador to Japan after the embassy had been lifted in 1905 to the status of a message.
MacDonald was 1906 in the Privy Council.
Cinema
The fictional character of Sir Arthur Robinson in the film 55 Days at Peking (played by David Niven ) is based on Claude Maxwell MacDonald.