28 



ANNAM. 



assumed command of the army in Tonquin 



"vfilUUtiw for Pe*ff. After the failure of 

 the Knjrli>h intermediation in November, 1884, 

 M. I'atonotre, the French envoy, left Peking, 

 and no further official communications were 

 held U-tween the French and Chinese Govern- 

 ment*. The German Minister at Peking en- 

 deavored to mediate, hut his good offices were 

 not acceptable to either party. The irregular 

 hostilities on the Chinese coast entered into 

 the i-hase of regular warfare, in the judgment 

 of the British authorities, at the beginning of 

 the year. The declaration of British neutral- 

 ity, and the proclamation of the foreign enlist- 

 ment act. rendered operations more difficult 

 for both France and China. The French squad- 

 ron declared rice contraband of war, and 

 stopped, as far as possible, the food -supply ot 

 the metropolis. A blockade of the Gulf of 

 Pechili was threatened. Though the impe- 

 rial frranaries at Peking were said to be full, the 

 treasury was depleted. The special reserve 

 against dynastic emergencies, which amounted 

 in September, 1884, to 20,000,000 taels or dol- 

 lars, was nearly exhausted. The conflict had cost 

 the Chinese Government 60,000,000 taels, be- 

 sides the loss of the Min fleet and arsenal and 

 the ships destroyed since. The hoards of oflS- 

 cials were drawn upon heavily. The Marquis 

 Tseng, prompted by animosity against M. Ferry 

 and jealousy of Li- Hang-Chang, had used up 

 the accumulations of his family and replen- 

 ished them by large borrowings. Tso-Tsung- 

 Tantr, who was charged with the defense of 

 Fooohow, contracted a loan of $5,000,000 with 

 the Rothschilds, Peng-Yu-Ling, the energetic 

 defender of Canton, borrowed the same sum 

 from the Hong-Kong Bank, after using up the 

 hoards of his subordinates. Prince Chun, who 

 supplanted his brother, Prince Kung, when the 

 latter was dismissed for his peaceful tenden- 

 cies, was now desirous of peace himself, though 

 be was timid in the assertion of his new views. 

 The Marquis Tseng telegraphed that no more 

 loans were negotiable in Europe, and the Vice- 

 roy of Canton reported that the buried hoards 

 of the high functionaries were exhausted. 



In reply to a question in the Chamber in 

 February, M. Ferry declared, for the first time, 

 that the only object the Government had in 

 Ton^uin and China was to secure the execu- 

 tion in its entirety of the Tientsin Treaty. Mr. 

 Campbell, the Parisian agent of the Chinese 

 eastern -honse, called upon the Premier and 

 informed him that Sir Robert Hart, director 

 of the Chinese customs, was informed, through 

 a Chinese subordinate who had personal rela- 

 tions with important personages, that the aban- 

 donment of the claim of indemnity that seemed 

 to be implied in M. Ferry's remark would have 

 a favorable effect upon the Chinese court in 

 the direction of peace. M. Ferry replied that 

 it was for China to make an offer, but that no 

 proposal based upon the idea of a neutral zone 

 or any form of Chinese suzerainty over Ton- 



quin would be considered. A few days later 

 Mr. Campbell informed M. Ferry that the Em- 

 press had signed a secret decree empowering 

 the Prince President of the Tsung-h-Yamen 

 to discuss preliminaries of peace. M. Ferry 

 thought of drawing back when he found that 

 the medium of negotiations was a minor offi- 

 cial in the custom-house who insisted on the 

 utmost secrecy. He was encouraged to proceed 

 after learning from a person acquainted with 

 China that important negotiations were some- 

 times conducted in this fashion, and still more 

 by overtures coming from the Chinese Ambas- 

 sador at Berlin, by hints conveyed to him from 

 the Marquis Tseng, who wished to become the 

 intermediary of peace, and by overtures made 

 simultaneously by Li-Hung-Chang to M. Hu- 

 ber, the French consul at Tientsin, who had 

 left his post at the time of the complete rupt- 

 ure in February. In the transactions with the 

 secret negotiator an armistice was spoken of, 

 during which a treaty of peace was to be drawn 

 up on bases not yet discussed, when the tidings 

 of the Langson disaster arrived. That event 

 strengthened M. Ferry's suspicions that he was 

 the victim of a trick. Asking Mr. Campbell 

 whether he had received a definite reply, and 

 whether the preliminaries would be ratified by 

 the Chinese Government, and receiving the an- 

 swer that definite instructions had not arrived, 

 M. Ferry went to the Chamber and asked for 

 the credit of 200,000,000 francs. M. Ferry's 

 formal proposal had been in the hands of the 

 Chinese Government since February 25. After 

 the resignation of M. Ferry, and before the 

 appointment of his successor, the preliminary 

 bases of a treaty were telegraphed from China, 

 and the speedy arrival in Paris of Col. Tcheng- 

 Ki-Tong, military attache of the Chinese le- 

 gation at Berlin, was announced. 



The preliminaries, embodying the Chinese 

 proposals and the French counter-proposals, 

 were contained in a protocol of three articles 

 and an explanatory note. In the first article 

 China consents to ratify the convention of 

 Tientsin of May 11, 1884, and France declares 

 that she has no other object than the complete 

 execution of the treaty. In the second article, 

 both powers consent to discontinue hostilities, 

 and France agrees to raise the blockade of 

 Formosa. In the third, France consents to send 

 a minister in order to arrange the detailed treaty. 

 The explanatory notes stipulated : (1) that all 

 military operations by land and sea should be 

 discontinued upon the promulgation of an im- 

 perial decree ordering the execution of the con- 

 vention of Tientsin and the evacuation of Ton- 

 quin by Chinese troops; (2) that as soon as 

 this order should be issued the blockade of For- 

 mosa and Pakhoi would be raised and negotia- 

 tions entered into for a final treaty of peace, 

 friendship, and commerce, in which the date 

 for the French evacuation of Formosa would 

 be fixed ; (3) that the evacuation of Tonquin 

 should be completed by the Quangsi troops be- 

 fore April 30, and by those from Yunnan be- 



