ABSTRACT
In October 1879, the French Naval Minister Admiral JaurEguiberry, a veteran of the Vietnamese war of 1858–62, addressed to his colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a memorandum of great historical significance. He drew attention to the fact that the Treaty of 1874 was for all practical purposes a nullity, as had been convincingly demonstrated by the Vietnamese Court’s appeal to China, and not to France, to restore order in Tongking. ‘The French Government readily understands the interest which the Court of Peking, like ourselves, has in the maintenance of order in a country on the frontier of the Celestial Empire, and it will direct all its efforts to see that no difficulty or misunderstanding is caused on this point between France and the Imperial Chinese Government’.
