The Evening Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1885.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 76, 8 April 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1885.

Wot the muse that lsoka anlstanM, For the wrong that needs lestetaMfc For the fatnre in the distonoe, And tie gwd that wo con do.

The French have concluded another, and, it may be hoped, permanent treaty with China. It is said to be in substance the same as the Treaty of Tientsin, under cover of which a section of the French army was beguiled into ambuscade. The new treaty makes no demand for war indemnity, but secures the fruits of French victories id Tonquin and Annam. The whole of that country passes under a French protectorate. There are also clauses guaranteeing to France exclusive trading advantages in China, but specially in the southern provinces of Yunnan, Kwang-si, and Kwang-tung, which border Tonquin. The commercial concessions will probably yield France very little immediate benefit, but they give her a pretext for future interference in the affairs of China. The recent experience will probably suffice, however, for many years to come.

The papers by] the San Francisco mail enable us to complete our summary of the events of the war up to the time when the pouring in of Chinese reinforcements compelled General De Lisle to retreat from Langson. On March Bth, General Briar De Lisle, the French Commander in Tonquin, telegraphed that he had relieved the beleaguered garrison at Thuyenquan. He says:—

We arrived on the 3rd inst. at Thuyenqnan. The Black Flags and Yunnan army had occupied the pass, since which the garrison had been inaccessible, and bad built forthwith three lines of trenches before the city. Fights of a severe nature occurred. Our troops behaved more admirably than ever. The enemy raised the eiego of Thuyenquan yesterday evening, the French garrison having fought for eighteen days. After the first breach in the body of the fortes the garrison sub tained severe assaults and caused immense loss to the enemy. This siege should be , counted among the most brilliant pages of

our history. Tho gunboat Mitraillouso 1 actively assisted in tho dofence of Thuyanquan. General Negrior's column has pushed rapidly northward sinco tho capture of Langson, Ho has now destroyod tho line of forts which guarded tho Chinese fronttor, and blown up tho fortiiications known as tho "Gato of Chino,"

The French loss during the two days' fighting to relieve the garrison at Thu-yen-Kivan was 66 killed and 133 wounded* The garrison itself lost 50 killed and 30 wounded. Thirty French officers were among the killed.

General Negrier attacked the Chinese at Thalke, and drove the defenders across the border into China. Operations iti Ton'4uih were thus carried right up to the Chinese boundary, and the conquest of the country was complete. Reinforcements of Chinese soldiers, however, poured in, and on March 13th, General De Lisle telegraphed to Paris protesting against the removal of the French fleet hundreds of miles away, while Chinese transports were landing arms and ammunition to be employed against the army in Tonquin. We have learned by cable since that the small force at his command was incapable of holding its position on the Chinose border, and had made a disastrous retreat towards the coast. Opinion had been growing in France before the mail left that nothingbutan expeditiontoPekin would be of any use in coercing China, and the Government had put out feelers to ascertain how a proposition for 50,000,000 francs and 25,000 men for this object would be received. They must have been perfectly satisfied, before the recent vote which ejected the Ministry, that the nation desired that an end should be put to the costly and futile campaign; hence the terms of peace which have been agreed to, condoning the Chinese resistance, and accepting the damages committed on either side as balancing the account. The treaty gives neither side any particular advantage, and if France has waived the claim for indemnity, it is because she had never achieved any military success in the country which entitled her to exact the privileges of a victor.