The sun., 1885-02-22
The French Adventure i'm the East.

The French Adventure in the East.
The French military and naval forces in
Tonquin and Formosl have made good use
of the last month, during which attention
has been diverted from their operations by
tho critical position Of tho British troops
In the Soudan. The Pekin Government
should now be pretty we'll convinced
OF its inability to cope with France,
either by land or sea, and rs the
hope OF English interposition has quite van
ished. it must doubt even the cxpediency OF
prolonged defensive war, whose strain
would prove moro ruinous to China than to
her opponent. The report Is, therefore, not
improbable that negotiations TOR the ar
rangcment Of compromise through the
mediation OF some neutral power have been
renewed. China beaten will be willing to
yield more, and France successful can, with
out loss Of dignity, exact II little less.
When the troops available for dscharging
the double duty of controlling the Red River
and expelling the Chinese from their strong
holds in the northeast of Tonquin had been
raised by reenforcements from France to
about $4,000 men. aggressive movements
were resumed with vigor and efficiency by
DE Isle. The situation which confronted
him was serious, and compelled the demon
stratlon that Engishmen are not the only
Europeans capable Of surmounting obsta-
cles and evincing reckless bravery. Since
the il-timed attempt to occupy Langson,
which provoked the Court of Pekin to reject
the Tien-tsin treaty energetic efforts had
been made by the Viceroys OF the Chinese
frontier provinces to strongly fortify and
garrison this place. from which flood of
invaders could at any hour be poured into
the heart of Tonquin. On the other hand,
approach to Langson from the south would,
under the most favorable circumstances, be
difficult for the artillery and supply train of
modern army. for the sole means OF access
is very narrow causeway, winding
through marshy country, for the
most part submerged But when the
French troops were ready to begin their
march, this causeway had been rendered al
most impossible by huge breaches. by mas
sive ramparts OF stone and cherdur-de- frise,
while every point OF rising ground was occu-
pied by Chinese sharpshootcrs. The lowest
estimate OF the force massed along this
strong line OF defence puts it at 10000 men,
and the courage displayed by the Black Flags
during tho previous campaigns in Tonquin
and by their fellow insurgents in the Taeping
rebellion has taught us not to underrate the
Chinese capacity for desperate fighting
Against this force, possessing every strate-
gical advantage, Gen. DE L'IsLE could not
employ over half OF the French soldiers un-
der his command in Tonquin. or at the ut
most 5000 men. Nevertheless, the column OF
attack. though weak in numbers was so
skilfully handled and behaved with so much
gallantry that tho hard task OF driving The
enemy from one outwork after another, and
OF wrenching Langson itself from their
grasp. was thoroughly performed. Not, in
deed, without fortnight's inccssant fight
ing and the storming OF at least
two forts, in defending which the
Chinese must have displayed steadincss and
valor, for the losses suffered by the French
seem to have been considerable. But the
work undertaken by Gen. DE Isle was
done. With tho evacuation OF Langson, and
the recoil OF the Chinese behind their own
frontier. the subjugation of Tonquin is
virtually accomplished, for with all the keys
to the Song-koi delta in French hands, the
inhabitants will cease to look for help to
China, and will speedily resign themselves to
the French protectorate. .
In Formosa Admiral CoURBEr has man
aged to keep, and even to improve, his foot
ing, although his resources have been much
more inadequate to the work required of him
than were those of Gen. DE Isle In his
attempts to dislodge the Chinese troops oc-
cupying the heights near Kelung he met with
some reverses, but these have since been OIL
set by decided advantages. Nevertheless.
should the war be prolonged, he will
probably need a somewhat stronger force
to hold and work the coal mines. which are
the capital object OF tho French demonstra-
tion in Formosa. In his engagement with
the Chinese squadron, from which great
things seem to have been expected at Pekn
and Shanghai, he was brilliantly successful.
We do not, indeed, know rs yet how many OF
the Chinese vessels that entered the Ning-po
River were ronclads or whether they were
commanded by European officers, but It Is
undisputed that OF the five men-of-war three
fled before the French could engage them in
close action, while the remaining two were
sunk by torpedo boats. Their complete fail
ure in this experiment will probably disabuse
tho Chinese Of the notion that, because they
have become proficient in navigating mer-
chant steamers, they are therefore able to
contend with Europeans in naval warfare.
On the whole, the prospect Is just now de-
cidedly propitious for the fulfilment OF the
French dreams OF colonial empire in the East,
md Ina ktak IL