The French Chamber on Tuesday began and finished another debate
on Tonquin, M. Granet, on behalf of the Radicals, pleading that military occupation would not make a valuable colony ; and that China, even if she did not intervene openly,. might wage a harassing war through bands of pirates under the Black Flag. M. Challemel-Lacour, in reply, repudiated the idea of war with China, from which he expected concessions,. though, he said, the Marquis Tseng resorted to undiplomatic methods of communicating with the _outer world. He declared the Bouree Treaty inadmissible, as it would establish a double- Protectorate of Anam, and " a double Protectorate always. embroiled the Protecting Powers,"—a sentence which Lord Granville will probably remember and quote as applic- able to Egyptian affairs. He allowed, however, that France must now be considered at war with the King of Anam, but stated that she would " only " occupy the valley of the Songkoi, a cool remark, as that delta separates Anam from China, and gives the entrance to Yunnan, which the Chinese. dread. It is, moreover, not true,. every French officer on the spot declaring, what every English official in Asia knows to be correct, that no arrangement can be made with Anam until Hue,. the fortress capital, has been occupied, and the King reduced to vassalage. Besides, though the vitality of these Indo• Chinese- kingdoms is not high, no kingdom, even Anam, can part with a. province like Tonquin, which connects it with its natural allies,. until it has been conquered.
Previous page
