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regulations, are to be settled by the Consul (French) with the assistance of an Annamite Judge, does not appear to the Board of Trade to afford security for an impartial treat. ment of disputes arising in the course of commercial transactions between foreigners, other than French, and the natives or traders of Annam; and it is suggested that this will be more evident when it is borne in mind that the Customs laws and regulations of Annam are to be originated and directed chiefly by French officials.
In another provision in Article XV the Board of Trade observe, with reference to the confiscation of European and American vessels, which may be declared to have intro- duced a sufficient quantity of munitions of war to constitute a public danger, the French Government has also taken upon itself, conjointly with that of Annam, the responsibility of pronouncing judgment in such cases.
The Board of Trade conclude their observations on this subject by the remark that they are aware that the stipulations of the Treaty above alluded to are only the necessary consequences of a scheme which has for its object the control of the trade of Annam, and that, therefore, they must be regarded more from a political than a commercial point of view.
The Secretary of State for India has expressed his entire concurrence not only in the general observations of the two Departments whose remarks we embodied above, but also in the specific objections pointed out by the Board of Trade, and Lord Salisbury adverts especially to the objectionable character of Articles IV and XII of the Treaty as already pointed out.
A Memorandum drawn up by a member of the Council of India on this subject, communicated by the India Office, is inclosed for your Lordship's information.
I have now to request that your Lordship will take the earliest opportunity of calling the attention of the Due Decazes to this subject, and that you will place in his hands a Memorandum embodying the views of the various Departments above referred to as those of Her Majesty's Government after a careful consideration of the subject, and your Lordship will express the hope of your Government that upon a more mature examination of the Articles of the Treaty, and their general bearing upon the com- mercial interests of Great Britain and other countries, the French Government will be disposed to modify or amend the objectionable clauses in the Treaty so as to make it more in harmony with the general spirit which has hitherto guided the Great Powers their Treaty negotiations with Chinese or Japanese States, and which has manifested itself in the principle of abstention from all measures calculated to obtain undue or exclusive privileges in any such negotiations.
Your Lordship is fully alive to the fact that this is a matter in which no time should be lost, since the Chambers are convoked for the 30th instant, and the question of the ratification of the Treaty may come before them at any moment.
I am,
&e.
(No. 1105.) My Lord,
No. 2.
(Signed)
Lord Lytton to Earl Derby.-(Received November 18.)
DERBY.
Paris, November 17, 1874, I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a copy of a note in which I have submitted to the French Government, in the form of a Memorandum, the objections entertained by Her Majesty's Government to the Commercial Treaty in contemplation between France and Annam, as set forth in your Lordship's despatch No. 638 of the 11th instant.
M. le Ministre,
Inclosure 1 in No. 2.
Lord Lytton to the Duc Decases.
I have, &c. (Signed) LYTTON.
Paris, November 15, 1874. ON the 22nd of June last your Excellency was so good as to furnish Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador, for the information of Her Majesty's Government, with copies of the Political and Commercial Treaties recently negotiated between France and Annan.
The text of those Treaties was perused by Her Majesty's Government with some
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surprise and anxiety, and Lord Lyons was consequently instructed to address to your Excellency a general protest, on their behalf, against the exclusive character of the said Treaties, and the complete dependence upon France to which, for all political and commercial purposes, the King of Annam would be reduced by their simultaneous exccution.
This instruction was carried out by Her Majesty's Ambassador in his note to your Excellency of the 29th of July last.
In the meanwhile, however, the Political Treaty had been presented to the National Assembly for ratification. But, owing to the circumstances mentioned to Lord Lyons by your Excellency last July, the presentation of the Commercial Treaty was postponed.
Her Majesty's Government have therefore been encouraged to hope that, since this Treaty is still unratified, the terms of it may yet be reconsidered by the Government of France, in connection with the observations contained in the accompanying Memorandum to which I am instructed to solicit your Excellency's earliest attention.
The subject of this Memorandum has been anxiously considered by Her Majesty's Government and the Government of India, after careful reference to those Departments of the State which are more particularly charged with the protection of the interests affected by the terms of the proposed Commercial Treaty between France and Annam. In placing it in the hands of your Excellency, I cannot too earnestly express the hope entertained by my Government that, upon a more mature examination of the Articles of the above-mentioned Commercial Treaty, and of their general bearing upon the com- mercial interests of Great Britain and other countries, the French Government will be disposed to modify or amend those clauses in the Treaty to which objection is hereby offered, so that the Treaty may, before it receives ratification, be brought into greater harmony with the general spirit which has hitherto guided the great Powers in their Treaty negotiations with Chinese or Japanese States, and which has manifested itself in the principle of abstention from all measures calculated to obtain undue or exclusive privileges in any such negotiations.
Inclosure 2 in No. 2.
Memorandum.
I have, &c. (Signed)
LYTTON.
THE terms of the Commercial Treaty recently concluded, but not yet ratified, between France and Annam having, by the courtesy of the Duc Decazes, been made known to the English Government, a careful examination of them in reference to their bearing upon the commercial interests of England and other countries has suggested the following observations, to which the early attention of the French Government is hereby invited.
So far as the Government of Her Britannic Majesty is yet aware, this Treaty (more especially when regarded in connection with the political Treaty which it is apparently designed to accompany) is the first wherein one of the great European Powers has departed from the wholesome rule heretofore observed. In accordance with that rule, every nation represented in Chinese or Japanese waters has hitherto been content, as regards its inte- rests in these waters, to act in concert with other nations, seeking no exclusive privileges for itself, but co operating with the common interests to obtain equal rights for all.
Illustration of this principle will be found in the English Treaties concluded with Malay Chiefs since 1818, nor have Her Britannic Majesty's Government ever sought, in their negotiations with countries such as Annam, either exclusive trade or extended privileges of the kind provided for by the terms of the Treaty under present considera-
tion.
In the month of July last the Duc Decazes appeared to be under an impression that a different conclusion might be drawn from the terms of the engagement entered into on the 20th January, 1874, between the Government of the Straits Settlements and the Chiefs of Perak.
Her Majesty's Government, however, are satisfied that such an impression must be dispelled by more careful reference to the terms as well as the circumstances of that engagement, which is merely an undertaking on the part of the Chiefs who are parties to it to adjust their mutual differences, which had previously been a cause of continual
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