INTERVIEW WITH THE FRENCH CONSUL AT MANDALAY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2107, 9 January 1886, Page 4

INTERVIEW WITH THE FRENCH CONSUL AT MANDALAY.

A coKRE.sroNDE.NT writes, to the Globe as follows :—": — " Busiuess having obliged me to take a run up the Irrawaddy as far as Mandalay, it so chanced that Mr Haas, the French Consul, was also on his way up, and during our trip we struck up a friendsi.ip, the more as, although my Freuch it. extiemely lnd, we both spoke German fluently, Mr Haas' English being on a par w ith my French. A month later, which brings us to the present June, I again had occasion to visit Mandalciy, and amoug the first of the persons 1 visited was my ftiend Mr Haas now established in a recentlydeposed Uinmesf- Minister s house, upon which h.ul been erected a flagstaff, from which floats a tricolour large enough for a line of battle ship. Mr Haas seemed \ery pleased to see me, and made me right welcome ; and after a slight refreshment and an inspection of the house, we sit down for a chat under the punka. Up to date the Consul had not been granted an audience with the King, 'ihe manner and customs of Thee-b-iw'j. court not only require that a person shall take off his boots, but must also grovel on the mat on his face at His Majety's feet. As the Consul remarked, "I didn't in the least mind complying with an ancient Oriental custom by taking off my boots, as these people slept on and eat of the mats on which we walk, but en grand tentt, which sword buckled on, and my breast carrying the decoratious of my country, I feel it utterly unbecoming the dignity of a fcjuropuan to prostrate myself, as required, therefore I have not seen the King yet, and unless some arrangements cau be arrived at, I don't think I shall." This is precisely how this savage treated our own representative, when we had one. Mr Haas had, howe\er, seen the Chief Minister, and the treaty of commerce had been ratified ; and he likewise assured me that one with Germany had also been concluded, and that a German Consul would shortly be appointed Meanwhile we, who hold the key of Upper Burinah, in possessing Lower Burinah and the Valley of Irrawaddy, have no one, and so our influence and trade are allowed to pass to foreign hand". Mr Haas was most I obitive in his assurances that the treaty was purely commercial, and that he had the fullest infractions from his Government to withhold from it any political significance. The presents he has for Theebaw from his Government he showed mo, and are characteristic of his race. Whereas the English would have sent bales of cotton or silk goods, or cutlery lery, or some condemned Sniders, he has a beautiful SiWres vase, somo 3ft. Gin. high, fit for a duchess, and also a masterpiece in bionze, representing an incident of the Franco-Prussian war, almost priceless in its artistic beauty, which, as Mr Haas somewhat sorrowfully observed, ' theso savages would never be able to appreciate in tho very least.' After pirtaking of some excellent curacoa, I took my departure, as the sun was already high, and my time was limited and my business urgent. In paiting, the Consul told me he did not himself expect to remain more than a year, and that he should have no regrets in leaving Mand.ilay."