CO129-352 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 63

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vont être prises afin que de nouvelles démonstrations armées ne se reproduisent pas; que ferait notre Gouvernement pour arrêter une invasion de rebelles sur notre territoire, car, enfin, trente et un y sont passés, sans qu'aucune protestation ait été soulevée; que serait-ce si le contingent avait été de plusieurs milliers ?"

On the 10th May the following note appeared in the same paper. communiqués were published in the other local papers:-

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"On nous prie à la Résidence Supérieure de dire que des révolutionnaires n'ont point traversé Laokay avec armes pour se rendre à Hokéou. Des réguliers, nous affirme-t-on officiellement, se sont réfugiés en territoire Français, où ils ont trouvé bon accueil, après avoir été désarmés, ainsi que le veut le droit international."

On the 16th May, however, the "Courrier d'Haiphong," in the course of an article from its Laokay correspondent, published the following statement :--

"Il peut être exact que quelques réformistes aient traversé le pont du Namti en armes pour se rendre en Chine. Le mensonge ne sert à rien, et à mon avis le meilleur diplomate est encore celui qui prend le taureau par les cornes et aborde résolument l'obstacle. Eh bien! il est vrai qu'une trentaine de réformistes, pas plus, sont partis de Laokay, l'arme sur l'épaule, ont marché carrément sur la sentinelle indigène' de faction à l'entrée du pont et lui ont passé devant le nez, à sa grande stupéfaction et malgré ses timides observations. Voilà le fait dans sa brutalité exacte. Il est vrai tel que je le raconte et pas autrement. En quoi engage-t-il la responsabilité du Gouverno- ment Français et pourquoi donner le démenti à un fait dont a été témoin toute la population de Laokay, et le Commissaire de Police par-dessus le marché? réveillé en sursaut par la nouvelle du passage de réformistes sur le pont du Namti, Ce dernier, s'est levé en toute hâte et, à peine vêtu, s'est élancé vers l'endroit où passaient les révolutionnaires. Il est arrivé juste assez tôt pour voir disparaître à Hokéou les queues des Chinois.

fhomoi, the place referred to in the first of the extracts from the "Avenir du Tonkin" given above, is on the railway line in the French territory, about 3 kilom. before reaching Laokay. In confirmation of the newspaper report that armed revolutionaries had passed through there towards the frontier, I may mention that M. von Dewall, the German official of the China Customs referred to in my despatch No. 5 of the 15th instant, was told by a compatriot, a M. Bauer, who is an architect there, that he seen about forty rebels armed with rifles walking along the road past the restaurant at Phomoi in the direction of Laokay at 6 o'clock in the morning. The date, however, was given as the 30th April, not 1st May as stated in the journal. There is an important station at Phomoi containing work-shops, sheds, &c., for which there is not room at Laokay.

Finally, I have been told by a Mr. Borg, a British subject, who is a trader and transport agent at Hokou, that he himself on the morning of the 30th saw about thirty rebels with rifles and cartridge-belts pass across the bridge from Laokay to Hokou in the manner described by the correspondent of the "Courrier d'Haiphong," the solitary native sentry on duty at the French end, questioning them, but being apparently intimidated from attempting to dispute their passage.

It is probable that the first party who commenced the firing on the night of the 29th did enter Hokou surreptitiously in the manner suggested by M. Bonhoure. It is not likely that they opened the campaign with nothing but revolvers; it is more probable that rifles were in hiding for them at Hokou; rumour says that there have been a good many arms smuggled across the frontier. After this party had, with the help of the traitors among the garrison, captured the forts and removed all fear of surveillance of the Chinese end of the bridge, it seems tolerably certain from the evidence given above that they were joined in a more or less open manner by at least one party of armed revolutionaries who had been waiting the moment in French territory.

In this connection, I may mention that M. Réau, French Consul at Mongtze, happened to be in Hanoi at the moment of the outbreak. He left to rejoin his post as soon as possible after the news was known, that is, on the morning of the 1st May, and I went to the station to see him off. He said that while at Mongtze he had received complaints from the Chinese authorities that many persons known to be revolutionaries had come to Laokay, and were living in villages on French territory along the frontier. He had forwarded these complaints to M. Aymeric, the Resident

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at Laokay, who had replied that he had been able to find no foundation for them. M. Réau added to me that in the light of what had just occurred it appeared as if the Chinese authorities were right.

I need do no more than refer to various rumours which are current, for they are only rumours without evidence to support them. It is said that at the present moment the actual head-quarters of the revolutionaries are at Laokay; that they have there a store of rice for provisioning their men (the Namti Valley produces very little); and that their treasure-chest is there also. Various French inhabitants of Laokay are named as being interested in the passing through of arms.

These rumours will doubtless be brought to the notice of the Chinose Government. The staff of the Chinese Customs at Hokou took refuge at Laokay on the outbreak of the disturbances, and are still there. It happens also by a curious coincidence that, although the French Government has hitherto always opposed the appointment of a Chinese Consul here, the Chinese have at the present time an official Agent in Hanoi who has been forwarding reports to Peking, and will doubtless keep the Supreme Government informed of events. This is Che-Tseng (I give his name as spelt on his French visiting-card), formerly Secretary of Legation in the Chinese Diplomatic Service, and now holding the position of Judicial Commissioner for Yünnan, or, as he is described here, "Grand Juge Provincial du Yunnan." He arrived in Tonquin to proceed to Yunnan-fu and take up his new post on the 29th April. The news of the revolutionary outbreak arrived the next day, and naturally he preferred not to proceed. He is a Manchu, and would therefore have been a special prize for the revolutionaries. He was accompanied by a large retinue, including his family and three or four secretaries. He has now taken a house in Hanoi, and seems to have made up his mind to await events here.

Che-Tseng speaks French very well, having served some years in Paris. The French were pleased at his appointment to Yünnan, as he is supposed to be "a friend of France." I imagine that M. Réau was waiting here to accompany him up to Mongtze when the outbreak of the revolt made it necessary for the Consul to rejoin his post.

It does not seem probable that even the Chinese Government will accuse the French of actively and wilfully abetting the revolutionaries. A. section of the local press-notably the "Indo-Chinois" and the "Courrier d'Haiphong "-has thought it necessary to proclaim its Republican sympathies with revolutions in general, and has consistently made the most of all the rumours of Imperialist defeats. There is also among a large proportion of the French population an undoubted tendency to look upon the movement with friendly eyes, probably caused more or less by a sort of "sporting" instinet; but to the Government the movement must be very annoying. The railway construction work in the Namti Valley has been entirely suspended for the present, and just at a critical time when the want of attention to embankments and drains may cause serious damage. It is possible of course that the Chinese Government may subsequently be called upon to pay an indemnity on this account. The transit trade to Yunnan through Laokay, which in the beginning of the year had been showing signs of advancing prosperity, is also of course entirely suspended. Advices from Laokay prophesy that even in the event of a speedy defeat of the robels this trade cannot retake its normal course until the end of the year, on account of the utter disorganization which has befallen the town of Hokou, where it is focussed. But, above all, the domestic political situation at present demands considerable attention. The rising in Annam, which I had the honour to report in my despatch No. 2 of the 1st May, though no longer menacing the European centres, is by no The Moïs, a semi-independent hill tribe inhabiting the mountains in the interior of Annam, have also risen. They are not a real danger, being mostly armed with bows and arrows, but they will require watching. In Cambodia armed bands have been raiding in the territories recently acquired from Siam. I do not know the extent of this trouble, as news of it has been carefully kept out of the papers here, with the exception of two or three very brief official communiqués. In Tonquin there is no rising, but there is a very great deal of disorder in the provinces. Bands of pirates or dacoits have been raiding and burning villages, particularly in the neighbourhood of Vinh-Yen and Vietri, on the Red River, and have in some cases got the better of detachments of the "Garde Indigène" who have encountered them. Hardly a day passes without cases of dacoity being reported in the papers. The attitude of the Dê-Tham, at the time of the conquest of Tonquin one of the most successful fighters against the French, and now living in practical independence on his territories in the Yen-Thé district, near Phu-lang Thuong, has also given rise to some

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