The Chinese and French are both excited by the capture
of Bacninh. In Pekin, the statesmen are looking round for allies, while the war party grows stronger ; and in Paris, the journals say that France must demand an indemnity from China, or seize a material guarantee for its payment., probably the island of Hainan. Nevertheless, it is probable that a compromise may be arrived at. The Chinese, it is clear, do not want formal war ; while the French, who have 16,000 men in the province, think they must have still more if they must move northwards. The idea, therefore, is to make an irregular kind of peace, on the basis of the French possession of the fortresses and the delta of Tonquin, and of the recognition of native Tonqninese authority, the "Black Flag" chief, as ruler of northern Tonquin up to the Yunnan frontier. The Songkoi, moreover, is to be open to traffic up to Man-Ha. This arrangement gives the French all they want, stretching their territory from Saigon eastwr.rd to Bacninh, a very large province, and enabling them to use the Songkoi ; while it pacifies the Chinese, by leaving a narrowed but defensible Tonquin between the French and themselves. The compromise, which is telegraphed from Hanoi, and is too clever to be an invention, may therefore be accepted, if the French are not too elated.
Previous page
