Legation of
the United States,
Pekin, May 9, 1882.
(Received June 29.)
No. 101.]
[Inclosure in No. 101.—Extract from the
North China Daily News.]
the french in tonquin.
After many and prolonged delays, the French Government have at length
dispatched an expedition to Tonquin. What that force is intended to
accomplish, or what the ultimate aim of the French authorities may be,
has not been officially disclosed. What is actually known is that there
are now about a thousand French troops in Haiphong and Hanoi, and that
they await further orders. The Saigon paper L’Indo-Chine Francaise does
not hesitate to say that the annexation of Tonquin is the ultimate
object of the French Government. This is what we have always believed
and what we have consistently advocated. Tonquin is now subject to
Annamese misrule and oppression, and the people would gladly change
masters; the revolution could be accomplished by merely driving out the
Annamese officials, who have no considerable force to back up their
pretensions and are utterly incapable of opposing any effective
resistance to French usurpation. So far, though the French have landed
several hundred troops in the capital of Tonquin, not a blow has been
struck. The Annamese apparently hardly know what to expect. They must be
aware, however, that the French have come to insist upon the provisions
of the treaty of 1874 being faithfully carried out, and that their
visitors are prepared to back up their demand with force if necessary.
The French have obviously decided that the trade route to Yunnan by the
Song-Hoi, or Red River, shall be opened up. This is an important
stipulation of the treaty of 1874 which has been coolly and uniformly
ignored by the Annamese mandarins, who doubtless see in it a blow to the
exercise of their nefarious [Page 142]
system of squeezing the poor natives on whom they fatten and thrive. The
obstacles to the free navigation of the Song-Hoi will first be removed,
and, meanwhile, the French troops will probably occupy the chief towns
of Tonquin, quietly displacing the Annamese garrisons and substituting
French authority and rule for that of the Annamese mandarins. It is not
unlikely that this will be accomplished without any effusion of blood,
for the Annamese are not a fighting race and have already had experience
of French prowess. Should they, however, offer resistance, the task of
the French may be somewhat protracted but cannot be defeated, while the
conflict might eventuate in the tricolor being hoisted at Hué and the
Emperor Tu Duc losing his throne. Our Saigon contemporary makes no
secret of its aspiration for the extension of French supremacy over the
whole of Cochin China and Cambodia, and though it is very doubtful
whether the present French Government have such ambitious designs, they
might, if involved in a troublesome struggle with Annam, be tempted to
give it a final issue by subjugating the entire country. We are,
however, of opinion that no such scheme is now entertained, and that the
French Government are chiefly concerned to give due effect to the
stipulations of the treaty of 1874; these once definitely secured, the
annexation of Tonquin may be deferred to a more convenient season, and
the fall of the Annamese monarchy be postponed indefinitely.—(China
Overland Trade Report.)
