CHINESE REPLY TO FRANCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3860, 30 November 1883, Page 4

CHINESE REPLY TO FRANCE.

The Paris correspondent of Tho Times declares tho following to bo substantially tho reply of China to tho demands of France : — "We cannot agree to havo you as immediate neighbors. Our safety and tranquility would both bo threatened. Wo shall never agree to it, unless wo are forced. If you mako war on us you might possibly bond us to your will, but the question is •whether in case of war it would bo against us alone you would mako it. Therefore, if you wish it to bo you who, under tho cloak of Anam, occupy tho neutral zone, wo shall not agree to a neutral /one, and it is only after a war with us that you will keep Anam and Tonquin. Tho neutral zone as marked ont topographically is almost all Tonquin. It were hotter to divide Anam in two, Anam on tho one side and Tonquin on the other. They naturally form two provinces ; koop Anam, which admirably completes Cochin China. We do not ask you to leave Hanoi or Haiphong. You are there by virtue of the treaty or 1871, as you arc at Shanghai by virtuo of tho treaty of 185 S. If you wish it, you can establish yourself elsewhere on tho same conditions. You can ask us every concession in favor oE freedom of trade; we will grant them to you, not only in Tonquin, but oven beyond it—oven in China. You would extend your Cochin China colony, you would open up to the trade of tho world tho Red River, the Yunnan, and tho banks of tho river in China itself. Wo should disturb each other no further, and all without striking a blow. But wo shall nor without a light give up the doltaof the Roil Rivor, our short practical route to the sea, to a kingdom of Anam, which will bo another name for Franco. Ask Europo whother she advises us to do BO."