Hello, young chap

Thanks for the info. I still believe that when quoting someone - and still more when quoting a legal text - one should keep the text exactly as it is (except for evident typos). Neither Vietnamese nor modern English (nor modern French - but we write Hanoi and Saigon) use hyphens for Vietnamese names, but an original text is an original text. Will you translate de Négrier's quotes into "jeune de banlieue" slang to please the Wikipedia thought police? Will you replace Tourane, Cap Padaran, Poulo-Cécir de mer, etc. by modern names? Will you talk about the Ho Chi Minh City Treaties of 1862 and 1874? Use modern English in the text, not in the quotes! Hope you hear my great-grandfather making bubbles behind me - he is furious that you dare change a text he spent so much time drafting and re-drafting to get the Nguyễn Văn Tường scoundrel swallow it pour la plus grande gloire de la France et de sa mission civilisatrice.

 By the way, I modified the "Vietnam" part of Jules Patenotre des Noyers (no ô because of the primitive anglo-saxon keyboards). I will develop the "China" part later.

 By another way, I wonder what is this book you often quote: Thomazi, Auguste  « Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française »  Hanoi, 1931. I know (but I do not have - it is too expensive) Aubert (général) et Pasquier, P. (1930), « Histoire militaire de l'Indochine française, des débuts à nos jours (juillet 1930) établie par des officiers de l'Etat-major du général de division Aubert, commandant supérieur des troupes du Groupe de l'Indochine», Hanoi et Haiphong, juillet 1930, 2 vol, 232 + 306 pp. As far as I know, Thomazi has nothing to do with it.

By a third way, I noticed that your real name appears at the top of your dicussion page.

By a fourth way, Liu Yongfu is coming slowly (I have put the draft on my French page, but it disappeared).