L’Écho annamite
- Profession of Faith
- To the Electors of the Constituency
- A New Incident in the Rhineland
This front page of L'Écho annamite was given over largely to the Cochinchina Colonial Council campaign. In the 2nd constituency (Saigon, Cholon, Tanan, Mytho), the outgoing councillors Truong Van Ben and Nguyen Phan Long reported on their four-year mandate, insisting they had kept an unprofitable and sometimes risky independence from the Administration rather than trade conscience for official favours. Bui Quang Chieu presented himself as a man who had quit 29 years of government service early to defend the Annamites, cited twenty years of campaigning in Indochina and France, and pointed to the enthusiastic reception of 24 March as his reward. A short wire item reported that a French non-commissioned officer had been stabbed in a café at Neustadt in the occupied Rhineland, with the German authorities cooperating and the reporting officer of the Landau court-martial asked to hear witnesses. This reading covers only the opening portions of the three items and leaves out the later paragraphs in small type.
This reading covers only the opening portions of three items: the 2nd-constituency profession of faith, Bui Quang Chieu's appeal, and the Neustadt report. Both manifestos break off mid-sentence where the small type becomes illegible, and their programmes are not included. The Rhineland item opens with the tail of a preceding article. Other items on the page, including 'Sept, le chiffre fatidique' and 'La justice immanente', were not legible enough to translate. The reading does not establish the election date, the full candidate lists or the Travinh–Bentre–Vinhlong–Gocong contest.
Translation
Profession of Faith
2nd Constituency: Saigon, Cholon, Tanan, Mytho
PROFESSION OF FAITH
Dear compatriots and electors,
We have now reached the end of the mandate you entrusted to us four years ago. We have fulfilled it as best we could; we have drawn from it nothing but a moral satisfaction, which is for us, it is true, a reward far more enviable than the administrative favours with which compromises and abdications of conscience are paid for. Toward the Administration we have maintained an independence which, while bringing no profit, was at times not without risk. In so doing we have merely done our duty, for in seeking your votes we undertook, in our own conscience, …
TRUONG-VAN-BEN, NGUYEN PHAN-LONG
To the Electors of the Constituency
In coming to seek your votes, I harbour no personal ambition. After 29 years of service in the Administration, I could have continued my career in the most enviable material and moral conditions. I voluntarily retired before the legal term, so as to serve the interests of our country better, free of any administrative ties. What I have done for the Annamites, you all know. For twenty years I have been in the breach, resolutely defending their interests against abuses of authority, racial prejudice and bureaucratic routine. In Indochina and in France, I have set out our wishes in an effort to interest the Mother Country in the fate of the People of Annam. The enthusiastic reception the country gave me on 24 March last has amply rewarded me; it encourages me to persevere. What will my conduct be on the Colonial Council, if you do me the honour of sending me there? With the same ardour, the same conviction, I shall continue the work I have begun. My programme? You know it. Everything that can contribute to …
BUI-QUANG-CHIEU
A New Incident in the Rhineland
… and of quân-lanh... Ecce homo!
A New Incident in the Rhineland
A non-commissioned officer stabbed in a café
A new incident has occurred at Neustadt, where a non-commissioned officer named Audigou was stabbed right inside a café by a German. The German authorities have placed themselves at the disposal of the French authorities to search for the assassin, who is said to be one Erhardt, a former reserve officer. General Guillaumat, in agreement with the French High Commissioner, has asked the reporting officer of the Landau Court-Martial to hear, as witnesses, the police official directing the Germersheim inquiry and the witnesses he designates.
Context
The 24 March 1926 welcome that Bui Quang Chieu invokes
Bui Quang Chieu's appeal names "the enthusiastic reception the country gave me on 24 March last" as the reward for his work, and independent accounts show that the day was also a political protest. The memoirist Ngo Van writes that three days after a mass meeting on 21 March, an assembly at the Saigon port organised to greet Chieu, leader of the moderate-nationalist Constitutionalist Party, on his return from France turned into a demonstration of anger at the arrest of the journalist Nguyen An Ninh. A crowd then accompanied Chieu to his party offices chanting "Free Nguyen An Ninh!" Wikipedia's article on Ninh likewise ties Ninh's arrest to Chieu's return, though it dates the arrest to 21 March itself, whereas Ngo Van places Ninh's imprisonment three days after the rally. In the manifesto Chieu presents the reception as a personal endorsement. In these accounts, however, much of the crowd's energy came from support for Ninh, a more radical figure, which helps explain why Chieu stressed his independence from the Administration as the campaign opened.
The unrest of spring 1926 behind the candidates' language of independence
The manifestos were written after months of unusual agitation in Saigon. According to Wikipedia's article on Nguyen An Ninh, the funeral of the exiled reformer Phan Chau Trinh on 4 April 1926 became an unprecedented demonstration against the government, with seventy thousand people said to have joined the cortege, a crowd estimate that should be read as approximate. When Ninh received an 18-month sentence on 24 April, students and schoolchildren across the region deserted their classes. Against this background, the outgoing councillors Truong Van Ben and Nguyen Phan Long told voters that their independence from the Administration had brought no profit and some risk, and Bui Quang Chieu stressed that he had left 29 years of government service early to be free of administrative ties. These are the candidates' own descriptions of their records as printed by the paper. The surrounding events show why candidates who worked within the colonial institutions had to show distance from the government to an electorate stirred by the Ninh affair.
Why a stabbing in a Neustadt café went before a French court-martial
The Neustadt report reflects the legal order of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland, which lasted from 1918 to 1930. Under the Rhineland Agreement, Germany kept civil and criminal jurisdiction in the occupied zone except for offences against occupation troops, which fell to Allied military courts. That is why the paper describes the Landau court-martial taking up the attack on Audigou, with a German police official and his witnesses heard only as witnesses. Civilian oversight lay with the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, led by the French high commissioner Paul Tirard, the "Haut Commissaire" with whom, according to the article, General Guillaumat coordinated. Relations between troops and residents were often strained, more so in the French and Belgian zones than in the American and British ones. By autumn 1926 the political climate had also shifted: after the Locarno Treaties of late 1925 the northern zone around Cologne was evacuated in January 1926, so each incident in the remaining occupied zones now bore on Franco-German détente. The article's phrase "a new incident" and its reference to the Germersheim inquiry suggest that readers were following a series of such clashes, though the paper gives no details of the earlier ones.
Original
PROFESSION DE FOI
2ème Circonscription: Saigon, Cholon, Tanan, Mytho PROFESSION DE FOI Chers compatriotes et électeurs, Nous voici au terme du mandat que vous nous avez confié il y a quatre ans. Nous l'avons rempli de notre mieux; nous n'en avons retiré qu'une satisfaction morale qui est, pour nous, il est vrai, une récompense autrement enviable que les faveurs administratives par quoi se payent les compromissions et les abdications de conscience. Nous avons observé vis-à-vis de l'Administration une indépendance qui, pour être sans profit, n'allait pas parfois sans risques. Ce faisant, nous avons accompli seulement notre devoir, car en briguant vos suffrages nous avons pris, par devers
Aux électeurs de la circonscription
En venant solliciter vos suffrages, je ne nourris aucune ambition personnelle. Après 29 années de service dans l'Administration, j'aurais pu continuer ma carrière dans des conditions matérielles et morales des plus enviables. J'ai pris volontairement ma retraite avant le terme légal, afin de mieux servir les intérêts de notre pays, libre de toute attache administrative. Ce que j'ai fait pour les Annamites, vous le savez tous. Depuis vingt ans, je suis sur la brèche, défendant résolument leurs intérêts contre les abus d'autorité, les préjugés de race et la routine bureaucratique. En Indochine et en France, j'ai exposé nos désiderata pour tâcher d'intéresser la Métropole au sort du Peuple d'Annam. La réception enthousiaste que le pays m'a réservée le 24 Mars dernier m'a largement récompensé; elle m'encourage à persévérer. Quelle sera ma conduite au Conseil Colonial, si vous me faites l'honneur de m'y envoyer? Avec la même ardeur, la même conviction je continuerai le travail commencé. Mon programme? Vous le connaissez. Tout ce qui pourra contribuer à
Un nouvel incident en Rhénanie
et de quân-lanh... Ecce homo! Un nouvel incident en Rhénanie Un sous-officier poignardé dans un café Un nouvel incident s'est produit à Neustadt, où un sous-officier, du nom d'Audigou, a été poignardé en plein café par un Allemand. Les autorités allemandes se sont mises à la disposition des autorités françaises pour rechercher l'assassin qui serait un nommé Erhardt, ancien officier de réserve. Le Général Guillaumat, d'accord avec le Haut Commissaire Français, a invité le rapporteur du Conseil de Guerre de Landau à entendre, à titre de témoins, le fonctionnaire de la police qui dirige l'enquête de Germersheim et les témoins désignés par celui-ci.