Enclosure
RECP
C. O.
36
8932
REGE 19 MAY 35
The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, APRIL 9TH, 1885.
Ir it be true that peace between France and China is practically concluded, and that the stain of the recent defeat is to remain uq. erased from the French flag, the wrath of the Saigon community will know no bounds. The Saigonnais of the 2nd instanteuumerates the measures which in its opinion the recent occurrences have rendered necessary. First among these it places the despatch of a full army corps to Tonquin; next, the abandon. ment of Kelung and the reinforcement of General BRIERE DE L'ISLE'S troops by the men at present stationed there; and, third, the granting of full powers to Admiral Counner, without which he cannot accomplish his "work of devastation in the China Sea." Other measures connected with the political arrangements of Annam and Cambodia are also recommended. Our contemporary urges that all personal and party differences should be sunk in face of the grave emergency that has arisen, and even, with its customary ex- aggeration, goes so far as to suggest that the whole of Europe should be called upon to declare war against China. "This colossal empire," says the Saiqonnais, “ with its in- exhaustible resources, is an immense danger to Europe. The Chinese army, disciplined and instructed, constitutes a powerful and threatening enemy to which, in twenty years, resistance will be no longer possible. There will be a brutal invasion by four hundred million men rushing to the conquest of the West- war of race and religion, a war of extermination, without relaxation or mercy. The moment has arrived when this gigantic body must be broken up and its fragments dispersed. Let the European nations, sink- ing for the time their differences, unite in one decisive effort to remove once for all the peril of which recent events have shown the existence." Writing like this can only be regarded as utter nonsense, but it serves to show how great an impression the cha- racter of the Chinese forces in Tonquin has made on the French mind. The Saigonnais is not alone in the high estimate it forms of Chinese prowess. The Avenir du Tonkin, writ- i
ing
ing before the recent reverses occurred, and in view only of the difficulty which had been experienced in overcoming the resistance of the Chinese, not of victories they bad achieved, saya the Chinese soldiers of to-day bear no resemblance to the unorganised bordes of Tartars that were encountered in ! the campaign of 1860, their ordnance no longer consists only of prehistoric cannon; progress the Chinese army has made during the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the last war is in fact enormous. Elsewhere the same paper says that in the present war the Chinese army has presented itself under an entirely new aspect, and one calculated to cause some apprehension as to the future of Europe, "for what would the European armies be in presence of a nation of four hundred million souls sending its immense armies against the West after having become inured to war and familiarised with the principles of military science ?"
The idea of a Celestial army threaten- ing Europe may be dismissed 88 11- worthy of consideration, but China is certainly acquiring such a position as will enable her to offer a most formidable resistance to any demands made on her from outside. Her southern troops have had a valuable schooling in the recent operations in Tonquin, the effect of which is likely to continue and spread to some extent to the armies of the adjoining provinces, while in the meantime the organisation and drill of the northern forces are being perfected under the tuition of foreign instructors. The military power of China can no longer be ignored, and should other European nations unfortunately ever have to refer to the arbitrament of arms to settle their differences with this great Asiatic power they will do well to profit by the painful experience of France in Tonquin and not underrate the strength of the enemy with whom they have to deal, but send out in the first instance a large expedition strong enough to accomplish the work assigned to it, instead of sending out a small one to be atrengthened by driblets of reinforcements after disasters have occurred. To refer back, however, to the utterances of our Saigon con- temporaries, if they had spoken of the Chinese armies constituting a menace and threat, not to Europe, but to the French possessions in
Indo-China