L’Écho annamite
- Duong-van-Loi’s reply
- A deplorable practice that is spreading
- A new framework for rural land concessions in Indochina
The selected reading places an argument for emerging national consciousness beside criticism of unequal access to medical care and an official-looking account of rural concessions. Duong-van-Loi refuses to treat an earlier newspaper failure as proof that national feeling is absent, while admitting he does not know why it failed. The hospital article alleges that public doctors favor paying private patients. The land notice describes differentiated concession sizes and predicts fiscal and investment benefits; these promises remain the notice’s claims.
Translation
Duong-van-Loi’s reply
I admit that I do not know the exact cause of the Tribune indigène’s collapse. Suppose it failed because the Annamites did not support it financially: its collapse, five or six years ago, cannot be taken as a sign that our people lack a national spirit, which has clearly manifested itself during the last two years.
A deplorable practice that is spreading
Information from our correspondents in the interior indicates that, in many provincial places, doctors employed by the state neglect the state’s patients—those being treated in hospitals entrusted to their direction—to treat their own private clients. While this increasingly widespread practice is very profitable for the disciples of Hippocrates, poorer people have no reason to welcome it: it harms their health by depriving them of care owed to them and paid for by taxpayers collectively.
A new framework for rural land concessions in Indochina
Governor-General Varenne signed an order dated September 19 establishing a new general system of rural concessions in Indochina. Drawn up in agreement with all interested groups, it lays down regulations and means to speed up and systematize the identification and allocation of land. It places Indigenous people and Europeans on the same footing. It will provide substantial resources for local budgets by abolishing free concessions, except for small settlers up to 300 hectares. It favors small and medium settlement through negotiated sales and payment spread over five or ten years below 1,000 hectares. It facilitates large-scale expansion through concessions of 6,000 contiguous hectares and the possibility of holding 15,000 hectares provisionally. It gives certain guarantees to the first registered and approved applicant, opens wider access to foreign capital from which the colony will greatly benefit, and specifies and strengthens local administrations’ powers over transfer and supervision of land development.
Context
National debate in a French-language newspaper
Vietnamese-owned French-language papers provided a forum for political arguments under colonial rule. L’Écho annamite was part of that press. Duong-van-Loi’s reply concerns the relationship between a newspaper’s finances and the existence of a national community: he refuses to let one failed publishing venture stand as a verdict on the people’s political consciousness.
A taxpayer’s claim to medical care
The hospital criticism rests on a clear idea of public obligation: patients are entitled to the care already paid for collectively through taxation. The accusation is that state doctors divert their attention to private, paying clients. The problem is therefore not a lack of medical knowledge, but a conflict between private earnings and duties owed to people who depend on public hospitals.
Different routes into land ownership
The concession notice offers different financial arrangements according to scale: limited free grants, installment purchases, and large provisional holdings. Formal equality between Indigenous and European applicants therefore coexists with rules suited to very different amounts of capital. The size thresholds are central to the scheme because they determine how readily a small settler or a large investor could gain and develop land.
Original
CELLE DE M. DUONG-VAN-LOI
J'avoue que j'ignore la cause exacte
de la chute de la Tribune indigène. Sup-
posons qu'elle soit tombée faute d'a-
voir été soutenue pécuniairement par
les Annamites ; sa chute, qui remonte
à 5 ou 6 ans, ne saurait être considé-
rée comme un indice de l'absence d'un
esprit national chez notre peuple,
esprit qui, s'est clairement manifesté
ces deux dernières années.
Une pratique détestable qui tend à se généraliser
Des renseignements reçus de nos
correspondants de l'intérieur, il ré-
sulte qu'un peu partout, dans les
provinces, les médtîcias-ft>iiclio«uaires
négligent la clientèle de l'Etat — nous
parlons des malades en traitement
dans les hôpitaux confiés à leur direc-
tion — pour soigner leur clientèle
personnelle.
Si cette pratique, qui tend à se gé-
néraliser de plus en plus, est très
profitable aux disciples d'Hippocrate,
les classes pauvres de la population
n'ont pas à s'en réjouir, car elle va
au détriment de leur santé en les
privant de soins qui leur sont dus
puisquë rétribués par l'ensemble des
contribuables.
Nouveau régime général des concessions rurales en Indochine
M. le Gouverneur Général Varenne
a signé, à la date du 19 Septembre,
un arrêté instituant un nouveau régime
général des concessions rurales en
Indochine.
Ce régime établi d accord avec tous
les groupements intéressés institue les
règlements et définit les moyens pro-
pres à accélérer et à rendre méthodi-
ques la reconnaissance et l'attribution
des terrains. Il place les Indigènes et
les Européens sur le même pied. Il
assurera de larges ressources aux
Budgets locaux par la suppression
des concessions gratuites, sauf pour
les petits colons dans la limite
de 300 hectares. Il donne une situa-
tion privilégiée à la petite et moyen-
ne colonisation par lïnstitution du
marché de gré à gré et le paiement
échelonné sur cinq ou dix ans au-des-
sous de l.ooo hectares. Il offre toutes
facilités d'extension massive à la gran-
de colonisation par l'octroi de conces-
sions de 6.000 hectares d'un seul tenant
et la possibilité de détenir 15.ooo hecta-
res en concession provisoire. Il assure
certaines garanties au premier deman-
deur inscrit et agréé, ouvre un accès
plus large aux capitaux étrangers
dont la Colonie tirera grand profit,
précise et renforce les pouvoirs des
Administrations locales dans la ces-
sion et le contrôle de la mise en va-
leur des terrains.