Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-05-08
THE FRENCH IN TONQUIN.
The Hostility of the Anamese TO the
Invaders of Their Country


Invaders of Their Country.
The correspondent of the London
Times gives an interesting account of
the doings OF the French soldiers in
Ionquin. can enforced stay of a
fortnight in Haiphong," he says, lis
very far from being a pleasant cx-
perlence, but it has afforded me sorae
opportunity of accounting for the
marked disapproval with which the
Tonquinese view the French. occupa-
ton of the country. We have been
so accustomed during tho last few
years to hear the population spoken of
as one pillaged, maltreated, ground
down by the Anamese mandarins,
turning beseeching eyes and suppIica-
ting hands to France as the deliverer
from oppression, that it is somewhat
perplexing to find the entire mass of
the people quite as hostile to the
French as if it had previously been in
the enjoyment of the best Of possible
governments. The heads of mandarins
are falling all over the country. An
Anamese has simply to denounce a
Chlnaman as a distinguished Black
Flag and the helpless Celestial is forth
with dispatched to the world Of dark
ness and pitched into ne river, so that
not the most pious descendants can send
him a handful of Dien-Sycee silver
postal l-notes-for the dead mans sup
port IN the neither world. Yet the
Ionqulnese is not satisfied. he is not
even grateful The
MANDARINs OF THE OLD DAYS.
could at least travel all over the coun-
try and make a halt anywhere they
pleased without taking any extraor-
dlnary fetinue with them. The French
dellverers cannot go anywhere away
from the citadels except in large
bands. Every boat must have its
armed escort, and every city gate is
closed at 8 o'clock at night, not to be
opened to any one till daylight next
morning. Once a week punitive ex-
Peditions start from Namdinh. or
Haid1uong, Hanoi, or Sontay, almost
invariably to return baffled as soon as
thelrprovlsions have run out. They
go out in quest of pirates, " but never
pirate is to be seen. Yet, if attacks
on small parties, firing on govern
ment juncks, and night descents on
outposts are acts of piracy, there must
be hundreds of pirates all over the
country. One is driven to the belief
that every Tonquinese is a "pirate, >
and that the French have got an ex-
ceedingly bad bargain in their new
subjects.
LET us see how they conciliate
them. A few minutes since [ was on
the banks of the Song Tambac, the
creek by which vessels pass up to
HanO;, and along the sides of which
nearly the whole of the town of Haip-
heng is built. Behind the house of
some officers Of an Algerian regiment
were four of their soldiers servants.
To beguile the time they were
PELTING EVERY BOAT
that passed with stones. One poor
woman-Tonquinese boats are almost
without exception padded and
steered by women and boys-was hit
on the head and fell into the water,
out of which she only escaped with
difficulty on to the Shiny mud bank,
under a regular battery from all four
men. The mems masters could not
help seeing them if they had looked
out OF the window, and if they did
not look they must have been sIngul-
arly callOus to the uproar that was go
ing, on. How long the thing went on
L do not know. My intervention
would onl y have called forth insolence
and increase zest in the amusement
Systematized aggression. Of this kind
IS, however, probably rare. It is in
their foraging expeditions that the
soldiers do most mischief among the
people. A couple Of days ago [ was
told by a French gentleman that he
had met a couple Of soldiers carrying
of two large baskets Of eggs and fol
lowed by some crying women. He
found that they had forcibIy taken $50
eggs and given sous for them.
Remonstrance was Of no avail, and the
men went off triumphantly with their
purchase. Incidents of this kind can
be seen at any time all over the town,
and nothing seems ever to be done to
put a stop to it.