CO129-169 - Others - 1874 — Page 548

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Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. December 19, 1874.

CONFIDENTIAL.

No. 1.

543

Lord Lytton to the Earl of Derby.—(Received November 25.)

(No. 1,124.)

Paris, November 23, 1874. My Lord,

WITH reference to my despatch No. 1,105 of the 17th instant, on the subject of the French Commercial Treaty with the King of Annam, the Due Decazes informs me that he has referred to the Minister of Marine the Memorandum, of which copy was inclosed in that despatch.

He says that he experiences the greatest difficulty in exercising any control over the action of the French Ministry of Marine and Colonies in matters of this kind. In fact, the Naval and Colonial Department pertinaciously pursues a traditional policy of its own without He assures me, however, that the Treaty the slightest reference to his wishes or advice.

in question cannot in any case be submitted to the National Assembly for a considerable mat length of time; and that, quite independently of the protest of Her Majesty's Government, it is extremely improbable that it will ever be ratified in its present form; as there has been a flaw in the formalities which vitiates its signature and necessitates further negotiations with Annam.

No. 2.

I have, &c. (Signed)

LYTTON.

(No. 725.) My Lord,

The Earl of Derby to Lord Lyons.

Foreign Office, December 14, 1874. I HAVE received Lord Lytton's despatch No. 1,124 of the 23rd ultimo, reporting a conversation which had passed between his Lordship and the Duc Decazes on the subject of the French Commercial Treaty with Annam, and I have to request that your Excellency will express to the Duc the hope of Her Majesty's Government that the necessity for further negotiations, which his Excellency informed Lord Lytton existed before this Treaty can be ratified, will afford an additional opportunity for a revision of those Articles to which Her Majesty's Government have taken exception.

I am, &c. (Signed)

DERBY.

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