The Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4791, 7 September 1883, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.

Thb possibility oi* a was between Franoe and Ohina, arising out of the Anam affair, has now beoome a subjeot whioh, as we learn by cablegram, is exoiting great uneasiness at Home. It may well' cause still greater uneasiness in these Colonies, which are muoh more in danger from any temporary triumph of the Ohinese than any part of Europe can be. It has always boen considered by those who have taken the trouble to think about the matter, that the danger of a Mongolian invasion of Australia and New Zealand is amongst those possibilities of whioh we ought to take heed, and which we ought to guard against. That the teeming millions of China who now derive a bare subsistence by the hardest labour should wish to better their oondition by emigration, is natural enough. We who are here are mostly emigrants ourselves j we hare poured into and oooupied

these Colonies in the hopes of bettering one oondition, and we have left the land of onr birth to make a muoh longer and mora diffiot.lt voyage than the Chinaman has to make from the southern ports of hi* Empire in order to reaoh Australasia The Chinese have been here, and they are now prevented from ooming by prohibition duties. If, however, the Chinese were to defeat the French troops, and conquer one kind of " foreign devils," as they politely designate us, it may be doubted whether they would long submit to the oheoks wo hare ohosen to plaoe on their immigration into these Colonies. Buch being tbe state of things, it may be h well to enquire a little mere closely thin we hare hitherto done, into the war whioh has arisen between Franoe and Anam, and into the forces whioh China may be able tobring into the field to oppose; the Frenoh troops. We hare obtained our information from an artiole in the Revue des deux Monde*, a Frenoh review of the very highest olass, and containing only arlioles written by the leading literary men of Franoe. Its foreign articles are alwajs marked by singular abUitjr, and are written by men who have special qualifications for the task. In the number for May 1 of thie year there appears an artiole entitled "China and Tonkin," whioh fnlly explains the relations between these two nations from tho Frenoh point of view. It appears that there are several Btatee whioh acknowledge a kind of vassalage to Ohina. Amonget these are Nepaul, Core*, Burmah, the Kingdom of Biam, Anam, or Annam, and the Islands of Loo Ohoo. Of these the Eing of Oorea has been the most remarkable for his regularity in ptylng tribute, and tending Ambassadors overland. As far baok as 1691 a King of Oorea, who wished to hava his wifo crowned, sent an embassy to China to ask permission to do so. Nepaul sends an embassy and tribute every five years. Burmah is abjeotly submissive. Siam, however, refused in 1870 to send tho usual embassy, and has insisted since that time on being treated as an independent Power. Loo Choo has been annexed by Japan, and the Frenoh writer makes a great point ot the faot that the Chinese submitted to the loss of this tributary state, rather than go to war with Japan. Ihe suzerainty of Ohina over Anam commenced about a thousand years ago, -when Tonkin was conquered by the Ohinese, and was annexed to the Chinese ProvuoeNganNan or Tun-Nan. Tho present dyc*ity of Anam (that of Xu-Duo) is,jonly about eighty years old, and it sucoeeded in driving out by foroe a dyoaßty whioh had, it is said, oonquered tbe Chinese army of occupation in the 15 th oentury. The Frenoh writer becomes somewhat confused here, and whilo admitting that the Chinese have claimed a tribute of 6,260,000 kilogrammes of rioe, professes himself unable to u-derstand how the Anamese oould havo been tributaries to China. But the how or tbe why does not muoh matter, if as a faot they wero. And as a faot it does seem certain that they had regularly * to pay a tribute to the Emperor of China. Then, in 1874 Franoe made a treaty with the King of Anam (fu-Duc), and it is the alleged breaoh of this treaty whioh is the cause of the present war. By the second artiole of this treaty the President of the Frenoh Bepublio " reoognises the sovereignty of the King of Anam, and his entire independence of att foreign Powers, whoever they may be j promises him aid and assistance • and engages to give, on his demand and gratuitously, tho support neoessary to maintain order and tranquility in his states • to defend bim against every attack, and to destroy the piracy whioh desolates a part of his kingdom." This is co wonderfully kind of the Frenoh, that one naturally suspects its disinterestedness. The treaty was notified to China after its ratification, but Ohina took no notioe of it. The Revue attributes the aotion of the Chinese •gainst Franoe ac mainly due to two causes. First aad foremost, it puts the machinations of a very oltver Chinaman who was educated in Paris, and reoeived the diploma in law* and also ono whioh the Sohool of Politioal BoiencM gives to its best pupils. His name is Ma Kiev Tokong. He is a Christian convert, snd is the adviser of the Prinoe Li Hung, who is now the greatest man in China, and Viceroy. It is said that it was owing to thefoleverness of this man, Ma Kiev, that the Frenoh Ambassador, M. Bouree, was induoed to sign the treaty whioh reoognised the suzerainty of Ohina over Japan, for whioh he was recalled by the Frenoh Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Eevue seems to think very little of the forces whioh Ohina oan put in the field. It says that the strength of the Ohinese army on paper was in 1830, 600,000 men, but of this it ia disposed to oonsider that only half •re aotually under arms. Of 'these it ie stated that only comparatively _ew are armed with breechloaders, and that the large majority have only matohlooks and bows and arrows. Although some regiments have been drilled and disciplined by European officers, it is alleged that the greater part of the army is in its old state, and quite useless against European troops. It has no oamp equipage, no staff, no oommissariat, and no artillery. It seems, aooording to this writer, ti.at even the Imperial Gnard of 17,000 men, whioh is divided into six battalions, is only partially armed with breeohloaders— tVo of the six being matohlook men. An extraot is given, translated from tbe Pekin Gazette, charging the officers of the army generally with drawing the pay for double tho number of men who are aotually present, and with a variety of swindles whioh would open even the eyes of a Oolonial. The mode adopted for preventing the soldiers from complaining of being robbed of their pay is simple, but very effeotual— their heads are cut off. Tbe memorial whioh alleges these faots was published in the Pekin Gazette tot tho sake of bringing these abuses under the notioe of the Emperor. It has been translated into Frenoh speoially for the Revue. The writer from whom we have epitomized the abovo acoount tries to make light of the naval foroes that oan be brought against a European power. He says that Franoe could send off a fleet whioh in four months would return after having annihilated the Ohinese navy. We are not quite so sure of this. Tho foroes, military and naval, whioh Ohinn could employ, cannot be estimated by European standards. If Ohina chooses to let loose hor hordes upon an invading army, even if they are only armed with matohlooks and bows and arrows, they might by their more numbers destroy any foroe that France could send against them. France sent very fow men to the Anglo-Frenoh Expedition whioh marched to Pekin, and at that timo the Chinese Empire was entirely unarmed, and distraotsd by the Taeping rebellion. She has now beon at peace for years, the Taeping s woire broken up by a small body of well drilled and disciplined troops, and Ohina has learnt a lesson from this. We think the writer in Revue des Deux Mondes very seriously under- estimates the task France has undertaken, the danger she runs, or the losses I she will certainly inour if she goes to war with Ohina.