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Lordship that the Chinese Government has since 1884 been
in possession of a brochure by Captain Riviere advocating
a quarrel with China as a preliminary to the seizure of
the three Southern Provinces of Kuangtung, Kuangsi and
Yunnan: that it is also aware of the view expressed by
Monsieur Doumer, late Governor-General of French Indo-
China, in 1905, that "cette zone, de par les accords
*intervenus entre la France et le Gouvernement Chinois, et
*on peutaire aussi suivant un consentement unanime, est
"dans la sphère d'action des entreprises Francaises": that
it is profoundly suspicious of French designs in connection
with the railway now under construction between Lackay and
Yunnan-fu: and that it has strenuously combatted the
statement of Monsieur Doumer that France has the right to
connect Indo-China with the West River by railroad.
not
(a). While yielding to none in
my desire to promote merely cordial relations, but common
commercial interests with France, I desire to point out
to Your Lordship that association with the French in China
is in the existing state of Chinese feeling towards that
nation simply tantamount to a loss of our own hardly won
position. The French are, I believe, regarded with intense
suspicion and dislike throughout the Empire. The attitude
of