ABSTRACT
Probably few colonial enterprises have aroused as much bitter controversy in the United States—with fewer hard facts to rely-on—than the fifty-year-long French rule in Indochina. This was due chiefly to the circumstances that, as a French-speaking area, it was less accessible to Americans than the various British colonies. Where the French remained perfectly orthodox in colonial economics was in persisting almost to the end in considering Viet-Nam as little else but a source of raw materials. In Paris, French governments fell with incredible speed, and colonial governors in Indochina followed the political fortunes of their backers at home, when they were not removed at the behest of influential Frenchmen in Indochina. In Tong-king, whatever difference existed between the "protectorate" and direct colonial administration was strictly a matter of terminology. Legislation on work conditions is another field in which the French colonial administration did pioneering work. The Popular Front government brought with it a change in colonial governors.
