8
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so much so that the other European Towers will find treating with them increasingly difficult.
M. Trizon left Hong Kong on the 14th instant in a French P.&O. for Tonquin. We told me that he proceeds thither simply to ascertain the exact state of affairs, so as to be able to lay a full report before the French Government on his early return to France. He will not come back to China; nor will he (as he assured me), be replaced forthwith by a new Minister; it seems that, for the present, there will be only a Chargé d'affaires, the Secretary of the French Legation at Peking.
6.
We now hear of sharp fighting at Langson, as the French have already some ten thousand (10,000) regular troops in Tonquin. As we have already seen, there may be many sharp collisions between the French and Chinese Forces in Tonquin without any formal declaration of war.
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