THE ORIGIN OF THE FRANCO ANAMESE WAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1462, 21 August 1883, Page 2

THE ORIGIN OF THE FRANCO ANAMESE WAR.

.In 1857 Jean Dupuis, a traveller, i left France for Egypt, where the con- ' struction of the Suez Canal was just : commencing. After remaining there ; ibv two yeovs ho went to China and ■': accompanied Admiral Hope up" the Yang-tsze, where that, commander, in accordance with the Treaty of - was to select three new ports to be open to foreign trade. Dupuis settled at Hankow, the highest of the-three; but after a. time, he proceeded to'thesouthern provinces of I he empire, which being out of the usual track of commerce, were biitlittle known. ' It is true that the English had attempted to reach them-from the frontiers .of India, and the French had sent ane'xpedition for the same purpose: under Gree. It attempted to penetrate China through Cambodia and the Meikong, but it received' o : l a/'deoided' check, and no more was heard of it, Dupuis in September, 1870. He to Yunman, then ravaged by the Mnhommedan rebellion. Joining the Chinese commander, Ma, he offered: to supply, his starving troops with provisions from the basin of the Red River. Ma told him that the task was all but impossible. Nevertheless Dupuis persisted. Leaving the Chinese cainp with an escort which accompanied him as far as the frontiers of Tonking, he commenced his search for the Songkoi, aided only by one Chinese servant/ He travelled through regions inhabited, by crowds of extromely bad characters' and at last he reached a deep gorge through which flowsd a rivor. ./This/ he was told was the Songkoi. Descending it ina : boaUearriv,ed.at ; Kouen-si,; the first Anamite post oil the river, 1 where he was turned back. Convinced of the navigability of the river, he returned to Yunan,' ascertaining as he went that the country on either side was rich in., coal, iron, tin, copper, and silver,. •'■;• together-:. with timber, game, and animals ! ojt. all kinds. The Chinese, when they-heard of this, at once saw the importance o'f the country to their south-western provinces, and they were anxious to with 10,000 men to get provisions for Ma's famishing Boldiers,;, M. Dupuis accepted the commercial mission, but declined the army, on the ground that it would imperil France's future interests in Tonking. The King of Anam is a vassal v of China; but, instead of going to look for the muchiilrJedecl provisions, Dupuis returned in 1872 to France. A few months 1 later hie appeared in : tlie Gulf of Tonking, at the delta of the Tong-koi, with a small fleet of sailing 1 and steam' vessels equipped at his own expense, The Anamite mandarins were convulsed. The new-comers convulsed them still further, 1 driving them-out of the business part of the town into the citadel, and after leaving a force Dupuis joined his old friend Main Yunnan.' His next step ; waß to seek the assistance of the' French Governor of Saigon, telling 1 him that the Tonkingese.were-eager'tb throw off the Anamite .yoke, Lieutenant Gamier was sent with a handful of men to. the scene of action, and by sheer impudence he stormed the cicidel.of Hanoi—a victory which waßwas followed by a general, declaration of the populace for the French, He was killed soon afterwards in a sortie, and, oddly.; "enough, his successor exactly, reyersed.'bis He %adherred to the Anamites as against the '. Tonkingese, and calmly- gave ; : up ; the ,'citidelof'Hanoii "Finally,he seized! Dupuia's fleet and expelled him from, the peninsula, after which be concluded a treaty with Anam, the breach of which is the cause of the present, war,