ABSTRACT
In April 1872, Dupuis interviewed the Minister for the Navy, Vice-Admiral Pothiau, who was the member of the government directly concerned, and asked to be conveyed by a French vessel from Saigon to Hue. His visit to the Vietnamese capital would be in order to elicit from the Court a formal recognition of his status as a Chinese, not a French, envoy, but the application would, he considered, carry more weight if backed by Paris. Hong Kong was to be the starting-point of the venture, but first Dupuis paid another visit to Saigon. It was now September 1872 and the letter from Paris sanctioning the use of a French naval vessel to take Dupuis to Hue had been duly delivered and taken cognizance of. The government of Cochinchina was now in the hands of Admiral Dupre, who was chafing at the inaction to which he seemed condemned by the pusillanimity of Paris.
