THE ANNAMITE MASSACRES.

Kumara Times, Issue 2878, 19 January 1886, Page 2

THE ANNAMITE MASSACRES.

The Vicar-Apostolic of Saigon, says liie St. JaiW Gazette, haß published an appeal for sunset iptions on behalf of t.he Annamite Christian-) who - have survived ilie I'fCiMir massicres. There can be no longer any doubt, he says,

that 24,000 Christians have been horribly massacred in Southern Annain. The survivors from the three provinces in which the massacres raged have taken refuge near the French Consulate at Quinhon, where they are living on the sandy beach without any covering. One thousand of them were moved to Saigon by steamer, as there is no hope that they will be allowed to return to their villages. In Western CochinChina, says the Vicar-Apostolic, the mission is absolutely mined. Not one of its numerous establishments remain ; 200 churches, with presbyteries, schools, and orphanages have been reduced to ashes. Not a single house belonging to Christians has been left standing, and in their hurried flight the survivors were unable to carry away with them any of their pvoperty. The bishop ascribes the persecution to the hatred of the literati towards France, and on this ground he appeals to the French for assistance. But a French journal published in Saigon, L'Um'te IndoChinoise, attributes the massacre not to religion, but to the refusal of the Christiana to join in an insurrection against the French, whom they had warned of the threatened outbreak.