L’Écho annamite
- Gentlemen and Dear Compatriots
- To the Electors of the Constituency
- The Washington Accords on the Debts
This front page of L'Écho Annamite was given over largely to the campaign for Cochinchina's Colonial Council. Ten Vietnamese candidates headed by Bui Quang Chieu, among them the paper's own Nguyen Phan Long, signed a joint manifesto pledging to press the legitimate aspirations of the People of Annam through a deferential but firm Franco-Annamite collaboration that rejected any hostility to French sovereignty, and they named as their program the Cahiers des Vœux handed to Governor General Varenne. Bui Quang Chieu's own appeal to the Travinh-Bentre-Vinhlong-Gocong constituency recalled his 29 years in the administration, his early retirement and his oath at Phan Chau Trinh's bier, charged that fraud had kept Nguyen Van Huot from his 1922 seat, and listed allied candidates district by district. A report from France said Poincaré would seek ratification of the Washington war-debt accords unchanged, adding a preamble of reservations on the missing transfer and safeguard clause.
Translation
Gentlemen and Dear Compatriots
L'ECHO SUBSCRIPTIONS INDOCHINA One year .............. $20.00 Six months .............. 11.00 FRANCE AND POSTAL UNION One year .............. $22.00 Six months .............. 12.00 TELEPHONE No. 563 For subscriptions and the en
Gentlemen and dear compatriots,
United by a common thought, which is to hasten the evolution of our country [?], we come together to ask for your votes. Doctors, engineers, industrialists, merchants, farmers, publicists, former civil servants: we present ourselves before the electoral college conscious that we pursue no personal aim, since each of us holds in society a material and moral position capable of assuring him an independent and decent existence.
The hour has [?] come to express to the French Government the legitimate aspirations of the People of Annam. Each of us, within the measure of his means, has devoted himself to this for many years. Invested with the official mandate to represent the Annamites, we shall do so with greater force and authority.
Our program? It is the one we set out in the Cahiers des Vœux presented to Governor General Varenne last November; it is the one developed and upheld by La Tribune Indigène, L'Echo Annamite and La Tribune Indochinoise; it is also the one that Mr. Bui-quang-Chiêu, with the help of compatriots studying in the Metropole, students and manual workers, defended in France with the authority and the resonance that you know. The People of Cochinchina ratified this program last March 24 in grandiose demonstrations. We shall pursue its realization still more firmly if the electoral college, by voting for us, signifies that such is its will.
We make no vain electoral promises. Our deeds answer for the sincerity of our words. We shall bring to the fulfillment of our mandate the experience we have acquired of the men and the affairs of the country.
Toward the French Administration, we are resolved to adopt a deferential and firm attitude, which could not exclude the fervent desire for a trusting and loyal collaboration, free of reticence and perfectly disinterested.
With regard to the French elected members, we shall know how to keep the friendly relations that, in private life, we have never ceased to maintain with the Europeans who have been kind enough to honor us with their friendship.
In a word, we shall pursue the policy of Franco-Annamite collaboration, sincere and dignified, so as to obtain, through mutual confidence and esteem, the reforms necessary to our normal evolution, an evolution that could not entail any thought hostile to the very principle of French sovereignty over this country.
If such is, as we believe, your conception of the mandate you intend to entrust to your representatives, vote for us. We have given proof of our devotion to the public good; we have devoted ourselves to the defense of your interests. We have done our duty toward our country, toward our fellow citizens; do yours toward yourselves and toward your children by granting your confidence only to tested and experienced men, who will not make of the mandate of Colonial Councillor a use harmful to the higher interest of the country.
BUI QUANG CHIEU, HUYNH NGOC BINH, LE QUANG LIEM known as BAY, NGUYEN PHAN LONG, NGUYEN TAN DUOC, NGUYEN VAN HUOT, NGO VAN HUAN, Doctor NGUYEN VAN THINH, Doctor TRAN VAN DON, TRUONG VAN BEN
To the Electors of the Constituency
AMITE EN gon LEGAL DEPOSIT INDOCHINA No. 917 POST OFFICE BOX No. 240 guyên-hảo-Vinh, Administrator ADVERTISING Legal notices: $0.20 per line of six points on a 9-cicero measure, whatever the page. Commercial notices: by contract. The price of notices is payable in advance.
To the Electors of the Constituency Travinh-Bêntre-Vinhlong-Gocong
In coming to ask for your votes, I harbor 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, the better to serve the interests of our country, free of any administrative tie.
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 desiderata to try to interest the Metropole in the fate of the People of Annam. The enthusiastic reception the country gave me last March 24 has amply rewarded me; it encourages me to persevere.
What will my conduct be in the Colonial Council, if you do me the honor of sending me there? With the same ardor, the same conviction, I shall continue the work I have begun.
My program? You know it. Everything that can help strengthen Franco-Annamite collaboration, frank and loyal on both sides, with the constant concern to respect the rights of the two peoples in the collective life of the land of Annam.
Without violence, but also without weakness, as in the past, I shall pursue the realization of all our legitimate aspirations; I would like more education for our children, more dignity for the people, in short a regime more in keeping with right and justice.
Before the body of our eminent and lamented compatriot Phan-châu-Trinh, I swore a solemn oath to devote the rest of my days to the Annamite cause; I shall keep my word. As I have been, so I am, so I shall remain.
Mr. Nguyen-van-Huot, whom you elected in 1922 and whom electoral fraud alone prevented from sitting on the Colonial Council, will be at my side, in perfect communion of ideas and feelings with my other friends who are standing in the other constituencies, namely:
For Giadinh, Bienhoa, Thudaumot, Tayninh: Dr. Nguyen van Thinh, Dr. Tran van Dôn.
Saigon, Cholon, Tanan, Mytho: Messrs. Truong-van-Bên, Nguyen phan-Long.
Cantho, Soctrang, Baclieu: Messrs. Huynh-ngoc-Binh, Ngô van-Huân.
Chaudoc, Longxuyen, Rachgia, Hatien, Sadec: Messrs. Lê-quang-Liêm, Nguyen-tân-Duoc.
If you consider that my past is a sure guarantee of my future attitude, if you think that I shall know how to defend your interests worthily at the
The Washington Accords on the Debts
compatriots, to this act of faith. We hope that [?] that its reach may attain the full breadth desi— TRUONG-VAN-BEN, NGUYEN PHAN-LONG.
The Washington Accords on the Debts
Mr. Poincaré asks for their ratification without modifying the convention
According to members of the Commission of [?] of the Chamber [?], Mr. Poincaré would ask the [?] to ratify the Washington accords on the debts without modifying the convention; but he would propose reservations, in the form of a preamble, so as to allow Parliament to express its wishes concerning the transfer and safeguard clause, which is not included in the agreement and which could become the subject of an undertaking by exchange of letters between the two Governments.
Uncle Sam would accept
The United States would, it seems, be willing to accept this procedure.
What the newspapers think of it
Commenting on the debt question, Le Figaro writes that the Government's decision to ratify with reservations is in keeping with political necessity.
According to L'Ere Nouvelle, it is a wise decision that reconciles ratification with the unanimous wishes of French opinion.
According to L'Œuvre, a very clear opposition emerged within the Finance Commission against voting the full text of the Mellon-Béranger agreement.
Mr. Poincaré reports on his conversation with the Chairman of the Finance Commission
Mr. Poincaré reported to the Government, meeting in Cabinet Council, on the conversation he had yesterday with the Chairman of the Commis-
Context
The newspaper's own candidates: Nguyen Phan Long and the Constitutionalists
The joint manifesto was signed by the founder of the newspaper that printed it. Nguyen Phan Long worked for La Tribune Indigène from 1917 and founded the liberal L'Écho Annamite in 1920; in the 1920s and 1930s he was deputy leader of the Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, a party founded in 1923 and led by Bui Quang Chieu. That background explains why the manifesto presents La Tribune Indigène, L'Écho Annamite and La Tribune Indochinoise together as the champions of one program: the candidates were campaigning through their own press. On this page Long stands with Truong Van Ben for Saigon, Cholon, Tanan and Mytho, and the two men also sign the item whose closing lines run into the debt report. His biography records that he was elected a colonial councillor but gives no year, so the page and that record together do not settle how the 1926 list fared.
Governor General Varenne and the Cahiers des Vœux
Both statements on the page tie the candidates' program to the Cahiers des Vœux, which the manifesto says were presented to Governor General Varenne the previous November, that is, in November 1925. Alexandre Varenne, a French politician and journalist best remembered as the founder of the newspaper La Montagne, was Governor-General of French Indochina from 1925 to 1928, so the petition reached a newly installed head of the colony. The page does not reprint the Cahiers; it offers the candidates' own summaries instead: reforms necessary to the country's normal evolution in the joint manifesto, and in Bui Quang Chieu's address more education for children, more dignity for the people and a regime more in keeping with right and justice. The manifesto's claim that the people of Cochinchina ratified this program in grandiose demonstrations on 24 March 1926, the day Bui Quang Chieu describes as his own enthusiastic welcome, is the paper's account of that event.
The 1916 repression and reform through the Colonial Council
The manifesto's promises of a deferential and firm attitude toward the French administration, and of an evolution free of any thought hostile to French sovereignty, belong to a politics of legal, elected representation with a long colonial pedigree and a recent violent backdrop. Hue-Tam Ho Tai traces the idea of a Vietnamese voice in Cochinchina's institutions to 1879, when Admiral Jaureguiberry's instructions to the first civilian governor noted the desirability of giving the Vietnamese a role in running the colony's affairs. R. B. Smith, whose study of Bui Quang Chieu and the Constitutionalist Party starts in 1917, opens by recalling that an abortive attack on Saigon's central prison in February 1916 was followed by a great many arrests and, for the time being, the virtual destruction of the secret-society network that had spread through many of the colony's provinces. Against that background, the candidates' emphasis on their professions, their independent means and their loyalty presents them as men seeking change inside colonial institutions. Bui Quang Chieu's assertion that electoral fraud alone kept Nguyen Van Huot from the seat he won in 1922 remains the paper's own partisan charge.
What the transfer and safeguard clause was about
The debt report concerns the Mellon-Bérenger agreement of 29 April 1926, which fixed the amount and rate at which France would repay its debt to the United States. In the negotiations France had wanted a clause linking its payments to the United States to the reparations it received, and the United States would not accept that linkage. The transfer and safeguard clause that the article describes as not included in the agreement appears to echo that refused link. Poincaré's reported plan was to ratify the text unchanged while letting Parliament state its wishes in a preamble, leaving any undertaking on the clause to an exchange of letters between the two governments. The article gives American acceptance of this procedure only as hearsay, and its account of Poincaré's intentions comes secondhand from members of a Chamber commission.
Ratification delayed until July 1929
French parliamentary ratification of the agreement was delayed until July 1929, almost three years after this report of Poincaré's plan to ratify with reservations. Hostility in France was visible in the streets as well as in committee: 20,000 war veterans demonstrated in Paris against the agreement. When the vote finally came, the Chamber of Deputies ratified the 1926 agreement on 21 July 1929 after an all-night session, by 300 votes to 292. The very clear opposition inside the Finance Commission that the article attributes to L'Œuvre was therefore an early sign of a fight that continued for almost three more years.
Original
Messieurs et chers compatriotes
L'ECHO ABONNEMENTS INDOCHINE Un an.............. 20 $ 00 Six mois.............. 11. 00 FRANCE ET UNION POSTALE Un an.............. 22 $ 00 Six mois.............. 12. 00 TÉLÉPHONE N ° 563 Pour les abonnements et les en Messieurs et chers compatriotes Unis dans une pensée commune, qui est de hâter l'évolution de notre pays [?] nous venons ensemble solliciter vos suffrages. Docteurs, Ingénieurs, Industriels, Commerçants, Agriculteurs, Publicis-tes, anciens fonctionnaires, nous nous présentons devant le collège électoral avec la conscience de ne poursuivre aucune visée personnelle, chacun de nous occupant dans la Société une situation matérielle et morale susceptible de nous assurer une existence indépendante et décente. L'heure nous [?] venue d'exprimer au Gouvernement français les as-pirations légitimes du Peuple d'Annam. Dans la mesure de ses moyens, chacun de nous s'y est consacré, depuis de longues années. Investis du mandat officiel de représenter les Annamites, nous le ferons avec plus de force et d'autorité. Notre programme? C'est celui que nous avons exposé dans les Cahiers des Vœux présentés à M. le Gouverneur Général Varenne en Novembre dernier, c'est celui qui est développé et soutenu par La Tribune Indigène, L'Echo Annamite et La Tribune Indochinoise, c'est aussi celui que M. Bui-quang-Chiêu, avec le concours des compatriotes étudiants dans la Métropo-le, étudiants et travailleurs manuels, a défendu en France avec l'autorité et le retentissement que vous connaissez. Le Peuple de Cochinchine a ratifié ce programme le 24 Mars dernier en des manifestations grandioses. Nous en poursuivrons la réalisation plus fermement encore si le collège électoral, en votant pour nous, signifie que telle est sa volonté. Nous ne faisons pas de vaines promesses électorales. Nos gestes répon-dent de la sincérité de nos paroles. Nous apporterons à l'accomplissement de notre mandat l'expérience que nous avons acquise des hommes et des choses du pays. Vis-à-vis de l'Administration française, nous sommes résolus à adopter une attitude dé-férente et ferme, qui ne saurait exclure le fervent désir d'une collaboration confiante et loyale, exempte de réticence et parfaitement désintéressée. A l'égard des élus français nous saurons conserver les relations sympathi-ques que, dans la vie privée, nous n'avons cessé d'entretenir avec les Eu-ropéens qui ont bien voulu nous honorer de leur amitié. En un mot, nous poursuivrons la politique de collaboration franco-an-namite, sincère et digne, de manière à obtenir, par la confiance et l'estime réciproques, les réformes nécessaires à notre évolution normale, évolution qui ne saurait comporter aucune pensée hostile au principe même de la sou-veraineté française de ce pays. Si telle est, comme nous le croyons, votre conception du mandat que vous entendez confier à vos représentants, votez pour nous. Nous avons don-né la preuve de notre dévouement à la chose publique, nous nous sommes consacrés à la défense de vos intérêts. Nous avons fait notre devoir envers notre pays, envers nos concitoyens; faites le vôtre envers vous-même et envers vos enfants en n'accordant votre confiance qu'à des hommes éprou-vés et expérimentés, qui ne feront pas du mandat de Conseiller Colonial un usage néfaste à l'intérêt supérieur du pays. BUI QUANG CHIEU HUYNH NGOC BINH LE QUANG LIEM dit BAY NGUYEN PHAN LONG NGUYEN TAN DUOC NGUYEN VAN HUOT NGO VAN HUAN Docteur NGUYEN VAN THINH Docteur TRAN VAN DON TRUONG VAN BEN
Aux électeurs de la circonscription
AMITE EN gon DÉPOT LÉGAL INDOCHINE N ° 917 BOITE POSTALE N ° 240 guyên-hảo-Vinh, Administrateur PUBLICITÉ Annonces légales: 0 $ 20 la ligne de six points sur justification de 9 cicéros, quelle soit la page. Annonces Commerciales: A forfait. Le prix des annonces est payable d'avance. Aux électeurs de la circonscription Travinh-Bêntre-Vinhlong-Gocong En venant solliciter vos suffrages, je ne nourris aucune ambition person-nelle. Après 29 années de service dans l'Administration, j'aurais pu con-tinuer ma carrière dans des conditions matérielles et morales des plus en-viables. 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 desiderata 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 fortifier la collaboration franco-annamite, franche et loyale de part et d'au-tre, avec le constant souci de respecter les droits des deux peuples dans la vie collective au pays d'Annam. Sans violence, mais aussi sans faiblesse, comme par le passé, je poursuivrai la réalisation de toutes nos aspirations légitimes, je voudrais plus d'instruction pour nos enfants, plus de dignité pour le peuple, bref un re-gime plus conforme au droit et à la justice. Devant le corps de notre éminent et regretté compatriote Phan-châu-Trinh, j'ai fait le serment solennel de consacrer le reste de mes jours à la cause annamite, je tiendrai ma parole. Tel j'ai été, tel je suis, tel je resterai. M. Nguyen-van-Huot, que vous avez élu en 1922 et que des fraudes élec-torales seules ont empêché de siéger au Conseil Colonial, sera à mes côtés, en parfaite communion d'idées et de sentiments avec mes autres amis qui se présentent dans les autres circonscriptions électorales et qui sont: Pour: Giadinh, Bienhoa, Thudaumot, Tayninh MM. Docteur Nguyen van Thinh, Docteur Tran van Dôn. Saigon, Cholon, Tanan, Mytho MM. Truong-van-Bên, Nguyen phan-Long. Cantho, Soctrang, Baclieu MM. Huynh-ngoc-Binh, Ngô van-Huân. Chaudoc, Longxuyen, Rachgia, Hatien, Sadec MM. Lê-quang-Liêm, Nguyen-tân-Duoc. Si vous estimez que mon passé est un sûr garant pour mon attitude à venir, si vous pensez que je saurai défendre dignement vos intérêts au
Les accords de Washington sur les dettes
compatriotes, à cet acte de foi. Nous espérons que [?] que la portée en atteigne toute l'ampleur désiTRUONG-VAN-BEN, NGUYEN PHAN-LONG. Les accords de Washington sur les dettes M. Poincaré demande leur ratifi-cation sans modifier la convention Suivant les membres de la Com-mission des [?] de la Chambre [?] M. Poincaré demanderait au [?] la ratification des accords de Washington sur les dettes, sans modi-fier la convention; mais il propose-rait des réserves, sous la forme d'un préambule, afin de permettre au Par-lement d'exprimer des vœux en ce qui concerne la clause de transfert et de sauvegarde non incluse dans l'accord et qui pourrait faire l'objet d'un en-gagement par échange de lettres en-tre les deux Gouvernements. L'Oncle Sam accepterait Les Etats-Unis seraient, paraît-il, disposés à accepter cette procédure. Ce qu'en pensent les journaux Commentant la question des dettes le Figaro écrit que la décision du Gouvernement, de ratifier sous réserve, est conforme à la nécessité de la po-litique. D'après l'Ere Nouvelle, c'est une sage décision qui concilie la ratifica-tion et les vœux unanimes de l'opi-nion française. Selon l'Œuvre, une très nette oppo-sition s'est manifestée au sein de la Commission des Finances contre le vote du texte intégral de l'accord Mellon-Béranger. M. Poincaré rend compte de sa conversation avec le Président de la Commission des Finances M. Poincaré a rendu compte, au Gouvernement réuni en Conseil de Cabinet, de la conversation qu'il a eue hier avec le Président de la Commis -