Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 1213

INDO-CHINA

The French possession of Indo-China lies between 8 deg. 30 min. and 23 deg. 23 min. N. lat. and 97 deg. 40 min. and 107 deg. E. long. (Paris), and comprises the colonies of Cochin-China, and Laos (except the Kingdom of Luang Prabang), the protectorates of Cambodia, Annam, and Tonkin, and the territory of Kwang Chéoù Wan leased from China. The total area of Indo-China is 10,000 square miles and is under the direction of a Governor-General who is assisted by a Council, the "Conseil de Government de l'Indochine," a body which includes cvery chief of leading services of the administration, every chairmen of chambers of commerce and those of agriculture; five native members are added to and their business is to take care of the interest of each colony or protectorate they respectively represent. They are appointed each year by the Governor General on presentation of the respective chief of Colony or Protectorate. The Council of Government is a movable body, meeting in any of the chief towns according to the summons of the Governor-General who keeps two official residences-Hanoi and Saigon; the former remains, however, the seat of the administration. It holds full meeting once a year and provisions are made for Permanent commission to transact such business as may arise between the annual sessions.

The deltas of Cochin-China and Tonkin are fertile; Annam, connecting them, is a long mountainous tract, with a narrow littoral on one side, and a wild sparsely populated hill tract stretching to the Mekong river on the other. Rice, cotton, sugar, seeds, tobacco, and spice are the principal products of the alluvial districts. The principal mineral production is coal, which is mined almost exclusively in Tonkin (in districts such as Ke Bao, Hongay, Dong-Trieu, Campha, Thai-Nguyen, Ninh Binh, Tuyen-Quang, etc.) and some other small mine works which are to be found in Nong-Son, near Tourane (Annam). The output averages 2,000,000 tons a year, 600,000 of which are used in the country and the remainder is exported. Other minerals, including gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and antimony, exist in the Protectorate and are more or less mined. Zinc mines are worked on a large scale and the annual output amounts to nearly 50,000 tons.

The principal harbours are Haiphong and Campha in Tonkin, Tourane, Vinh-Ben- Thuy, Cam-Ranh and Quinhon in Annam, Saigon in Cochin-China, and Flinom-Penh and Ream in Cambodia. The weather is warn and humid year long in the South, and in the North (that is in Tonkin) although summer days are very like those of Cochin-China-dry and wet-one can enjoy, froin October to April, a true fresh season a winter, during which a very thin rain sometimes falls. As to the centre- Annam, the weather can be called an intermediary one, which varies insensibly between those of Tonkin and Cochin-China.

There are 2,400 kilometers of railway completed and opened to traffic in Indo- China. The population is estimated at 20,000,000, most of whom are Annamites. The Chinese number 350,000, and the Europeans amount to 38,500. The Tonkinese are larger and more robust than the Cochin-Chinese, and more intelligent and industrious. The Chinese have inimigrated in large number to the South of Cochin-China, where they had obtained almost the exclusive possession of industries and commerce. But, since after the world war, the Annamites, especially those who come from the North (that are the Tonkinese), have begun to make use of their ability in trade and industries, and the Chinese find a hard time owing to concurrence they find from the natives and owing principally to the actual world economic crisis. The Cambodians arc naturally apathetic, and have given way to the Chinese and Annamites. The Laotians and Mois, authochtones of the for sts and mountainous grounds oppressed by their neighbours, are lazy and timid. The Muongs, who occupy all the basins of the Black River (Rivière Noire) and Song-Ma River are handsomer and stronger than the Annamites. The Nungs look like the Chinese and the Thos belong to the Kmer race.

The total force of the French Army in Indo-China in normal time is composed as follows: 14 batallions of Europeans, 19 batallions of natives, 18 batteries of artillery, five squadrons of airplanes, and sundry unity-altogether about 11,000 Europeans and 15,000 natives.

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