195
of the Colonial Authorities
the
Spot, with regard
to Annam
Up to
the
present time, the whole affair
had, he said, proved to be a complete failure. It had turned out that the famous river which the French had opened to navigation, led to no important region, and was not available for Commerce. Officers to carry out the Customs stipulation had been established at the Frontier at considerable expense, but no trade had sprung up and there was no prospect of any which would be equivalent to the expense of these officials. In fact Annam could not import European Goods, because she had nothing to export in return. As for benefiting Saigon, the new arrangements with Annam, if they had had any effect at all, would have diverted trade from the Colony not attracted it thither.
Asked whether this would have been the case notwithstanding the double duties which France had bound Annam to levy through Saigon on all merchandise not passing through Saigon, the Duke said that these duties would really have sufficed to turn a thriving trade into a circuitous channel, and that at all events...
70S PUJ
the
NEP