Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. November 20, 1874.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
13369
The Earl of Derby to Lord Lytton.
(No. 638.) My Lord,
Foreign Office, November 11, 1874. WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch No. 1051, and to previous correspon- dence respecting the Commercial Treaty recently concluded between France and Annam, a copy of which is inclosed in Lord Lyon's despatch No. 605 of the 23rd of June last, I have to state to your Lordship that I have now received from the Board of Trade, the Colonial and India Offices, the observations of the heads of those Departments in reply to a reference to them of the Treaty in question, so far as the Articles comprised in it might be considered justly open to objection on the part of Her Majesty's Government.
Your Embassy is already in possession of a copy of a letter on this subject from the Colonial Office of the 27th of July last, containing some general observations by the Earl of Carnarvon in regard to the Political and Commercial Treaties between France and Annam, the former of which has already been ratified.
Those views the Colonial Office now state are in no way altered by a further consideration of the Treaty now under discussion. Lord Carnarvon's objections, however, taking the two Treaties together, are necessarily general rather than particular, and refer to their entire scope and to the spirit in which they have been conceived, and his Lord- ship observes that this is the first instance, so far as he is aware, in which one of the great European Powers has departed from the wholesome rule which has heretofore been observed, that no nation seeks in Chinese or in Japanese waters any exclusive privileges, but has been content to act with others în concert, and to obtain equal rights for all; and, in illustration of this principle, Lord Carnarvon observes that in the two Treaties concluded with Malay Chiefs since 1818, Her Majesty's Government have never sought exclusive trade or extended powers such as those provided for under the French Treaty now under consideration.
The Board of Trade, entering more into detail in regard to the questionable Articles of the Treaty, make the following observations :-
That it will be noticed in Article IV that it is proposed to levy differential duties in Annam in favour of goods imported from Saigon into ports in Annam and of those imported from Annam to Saigon, as well as upon goods in transit from or to Saigon and the Province of Yunnan. That the object of this provision is doubtless to cause the foreign trade of Annam to pass through the hands of the French at Saigon. That it will also be noticed that as the Commercial Treaty is to have the same duration as the Political Treaty; the above privilege appears to have been secured for ever by the restriction imposed by Article III of the Political Treaty, which stipulates that the King of Annam shall not make any Treaties of Commerce with other countries at variance with that concluded with France. Another provision which in principle appears to the Board of Trade to be objectionable is that in Article XV, which requires the captain of a foreign vessel, upon arrival at any of the open ports in Annam, to report his arrival and place his ship's papers in the hands of the French Consul at the port instead of reporting, as is usual, at the Custom-house.
The same remarks, the Board of Trade observes, apply to the terms of Article XVII, by which foreign merchants, who may require to load or unload goods, must do so through the Agents of the French Consuls at the respective ports.
The provision in Article XII that all disputes which may arise between foreigners and Custom-house officials in Annam, as regards the interpretation of Customs laws and
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