L’Écho annamite
- GOOD OMEN
- Some Memorable Words
- The New Taxes in China
On the eve of Cochinchina's 10 October Colonial Council elections, this page of L'Écho Annamite was given over largely to its "Electoral Tribune". L. K. Van's column recounted conversations from a trip that predicted a sweep for the Bui-quang-Chiêu list in the native electoral college. It also celebrated the fact that two French republican dailies, Saigon Républicain and l'Opinion, had printed the list's manifesto and defended its loyalty to France. P. Marchet ridiculed Dr. Laid-quang-Trinh, who had told a Mytho meeting that he opposed Franco-Annamite rapprochement out of a personal grudge against Mᵉ Gallet. Marchet also recalled that the Colonial Council had rejected, by 11 votes to 8, a motion of sympathy to Governor Varenne. A short Hongkong dispatch reported that Canton's Nationalist Government would levy temporary taxes of 2 1/2% and 5% from 11 October.
Translation
GOOD OMEN
Electoral Tribune
GOOD OMEN
Decidedly, luck is smiling on the Bui-quang-Chiêu list. That list is, on more than one count, dear to us. To tell you why would take a long time. May our readers excuse us from doing so, for that is not the question here. Hence nothing that touches this list leaves us indifferent.
Though a lover of the hearth, we have in recent days left our household gods for good to go and see the country. And we did well to do so, let us hasten to say. "It is good to travel sometimes," Taine said somewhere; "it broadens the mind and humbles self-love." We have had occasion to verify the truth of this saying, at least in its first part. Not having, in fact, a grain of conceit, we came back as modest as ever. Of an obtuse and limited intelligence — we confess it to our shame — we have, on the other hand, brought back from our wanderings a few things for our own edification. Here they are, moreover, if you do not disdain to know them.
So then, along the way, we were told, among a thousand and one subjects, about the new Chamber of People's Representatives in Annam. People stressed the good understanding among its members and above all the dignified attitude of its president, M. Hoang-thuc-Khan, whose name is at present on everyone's lips. The electors of Annam, as was only right, were not forgotten; they were complimented, praised — what are we saying? — and greatly admired.
By association of ideas, people came, as was to be expected, to talk of the colonial elections, which will be upon us with great strides before long.
"Given the good reputation of most of the candidates who make it up," someone ventured, "I already foresee a brilliant success for the majority of the Bui-quang Chiêu list."
"I am more optimistic still," another speaker went one better. "These gentlemen will all get through in the first round of voting, and with good reason. Our compatriots, whatever people say, are far from dull-witted. They realized long ago that they made a mistake — errare humanum est — by voting enthusiastically in 1922 for certain candidates who have since turned into out-and-out monopolist councillors. From now on, more circumspect, they will use their ballots only advisedly; they will give them only to those who make themselves worthy of them by their intellectual and moral qualities, I mean to men of proven heart. Now, no one is any longer unaware of what the Bui quang-Chiêus and the Nguyên-phan-Longs have done for the country. There is therefore no longer any doubt that the native electoral college will give them, on 10 October next, them and their friends, a pleasant surprise by voting as a bloc for their names."
Thus, on the Annamite side, people know how to tell their true friends and to love them with conviction. That's one.
On returning home, we found, not without pleasure, in a Cartel daily, Saigon Républicain, the declarations of principle of the Bùi quang-Chiêu list printed in a very good position, since it was on the front page. Our joy doubled on seeing them inserted in place of the leading article in another republican daily, l'Opinion, with these notes, given full prominence, which need no comment:
"In certain quarters, and for ends all too easy to perceive, attempts are being made to disfigure the thinking and intentions of the Annamites. The label of anti-French is slapped on anyone who lends an attentive ear to the desiderata of our protégés and expresses the sincere wish for a Franco-Annamite collaboration, the only thing capable of ensuring this country a fruitful peace.
"We submit to our readers, asking them to read it attentively, the candidacy declaration of the Annamite candidates. It will be seen that none of the Annamites conceives of action and life as possible outside a loyal and deferential collaboration with France.
"Any other assertion is a lie and rests on no real fact."
These two organs of the great local French press, supposed to represent the opinion of the majority of the French of Cochinchina, have come out, without reservation or evasion, in favour of the Bui-quang-Chiêu list. Had they wished to sponsor it, they would have acted no differently. Their judgment sufficiently enlightened, our French elders, for the most part, not only no longer misunderstand the intentions of our leaders, but…
Some Memorable Words
…make it up," someone ventured, "I already foresee a brilliant success for the majority of the Bui-quang Chiêu list."
"I am more optimistic still," another speaker went one better. "These gentlemen will all get through in the first round of voting, and with good reason. Our compatriots, whatever people say, are far from dull-witted. They realized long ago that they made a mistake — errare humanum est — by voting enthusiastically in 1922 for certain candidates who have since turned into out-and-out monopolist councillors. From now on, more circumspect, they will use their ballots only advisedly; they will give them only to those who make themselves worthy of them by their intellectual … the opinion of the majority of the French of Cochinchina, have come out, without reservation or evasion, in favour of the Bui-quang-Chiêu list. Had they wished to sponsor it, they would have acted no differently. Their judgment sufficiently enlightened, our French elders, for the most part, not only no longer misunderstand the intentions of our leaders, but also seem to make it a point of honour to assure them of their moral support. That's two.
Who would dare, after that, to maintain that we were wrong to predict a triumph for the Bui-quang-Chiêu list?
L. K. VAN.
Electoral Tribune
Some memorable words
At the public, open-debate meeting organized on the 6th of this month at Mytho town by the province's electoral college, Doctor Laid-quang-Trinh spoke these memorable words before some thousand electors:
1° "I do not want Franco-Annamite rapprochement, because I have a personal grudge against Mᵉ Gallet. So I admit that I am the adversary of Phap-Viêt dê-huê."
A personal grudge, do you hear? Indeed, during the opening sitting of the Colonial Council session at which the archives scandal broke, Mᵉ Gallet tabled a motion addressed to Governor Varenne expressing sympathy for his work of Franco-Annamite rapprochement. This motion was rejected by 11 votes to 8. Naturally, M. Laid-quang-Trinh voted against it, out of a personal grudge, by his own admission. And to think that he claims to fulfil his mandate faithfully, to respect his dignity, to work for the general interest, etc... etc...!
And again:
2° "I voted against the motion of M. Truong van Bên to the effect that the … of shoes. I drew caricatures to ridicule M. Bên; but tell me, have the Annamites not portrayed me, in caricatures, as 'doggies' (sic), as ban-nuoc (sellers of the fatherland)?"
So M. Laid quang Trinh is against the Annamite tirailleurs, among whom is the educated class, obliged by fate to serve France!
Poor doctor! Your friend Chavigny wrote yesterday, in his newspaper, that "the extremist (sic) list of Bui quang Chiêu will get in as a bloc"; what are you waiting for to kill yourself?
P. MARCHET.
For the French electoral college
A public, open-debate meeting at the Saigon municipal theatre
A public, open-debate meeting will take place this evening at 21:00 at the Saigon municipal theatre, organized by the candidates of the Gallet list in the colonial elections. Invited, M. de Lachevrotière and his running mates replied, through l'Impartial, that they will not go…
The New Taxes in China
…for which the Populists are ready to negotiate; the Assembly approved the speaker.
The new taxes in China
Hongkong. — The Minister of Foreign Affairs at Canton has sent an identical note to each foreign consul, communicating to them the translation of an order issued by the Nationalist Government, dated 4 October, instructing the Minister of Finance to levy a temporary internal tax of 2 1/2% on ordinary goods and 5% on luxury articles, from 11 October.
The Minister of Finance has asked the Commissioner of Customs to lend him 1 or 2 offices in the customs building so that the new taxes can be collected.
Any person caught trading in articles on which the tax has not been collected would be liable to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or to a fine equal to 10 times the value of the goods, which would also be confiscated.
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Context
Bùi Quang Chiêu, Nguyễn Phan Long and the Constitutionalist line
The men L. K. Van holds up as having done so much for the country, Bùi Quang Chiêu and Nguyễn Phan Long, led the Indochinese Constitutionalist Party, which Chiêu had founded in 1919 together with Dương Văn Giáo and Nguyễn Phan Long. After his earlier paper closed in 1925, Chiêu launched La Tribune Indochinoise the following year as the party's official organ, and it supported Franco-Vietnamese reconciliation. That programme is exactly what the l'Opinion note quoted in Van's column insists on: no Annamite candidate, it says, conceives of political life outside loyal collaboration with France. The same moderate line is why Marchet treats Chavigny's label of "extremist" as absurd. Chiêu's popularity in 1926 was real. His return from France on 21 March 1926 coincided with the arrest of the radical journalist Nguyễn An Ninh, and the crowds escorting Chiêu through Saigon chanted for Ninh's release. Van's confident forecast that the native college would vote for the list as a bloc on 10 October is the paper's own prediction, printed the day before the vote.
Governor Varenne's reforms and the 11-to-8 vote
The motion Marchet describes, Mᵉ Gallet's expression of sympathy for Governor Varenne's work of Franco-Annamite rapprochement, touched the most divisive policy in the colony. Alexandre Varenne was Governor-General of French Indochina from 1925 to 1928. He relaxed press censorship and promised reforms in education, civil rights and local administration. Those announcements were deeply unpopular among French residents, and he was forced to back down on a number of his pledges. In September 1926, at a meeting of the Saigon branch of the Human Rights League, Bùi Quang Chiêu and Nguyễn Phan Long presented Varenne with a "List of Vietnamese Wishes". Against that background, the council's rejection of the motion, as Marchet reports it, shows a majority unwilling to endorse the governor's course. Marchet's anger is aimed at Dr. Laid-quang-Trinh, whom he presents as a native councillor voting with that majority. The 11-to-8 count and the doctor's words at Mytho come from the paper's account. Varenne's early tolerance did not last: it ended in early 1927 with an unprecedented series of repressive measures.
Canton's surtax and the Maritime Customs
American diplomatic correspondence records the same Canton order that the Hongkong dispatch summarizes, and shows why it alarmed foreign interests. In his note of 6 October to the American consul general, Eugene Chen, Canton's acting foreign minister, stressed that the levy was in principle an internal tax, distinct from duties collected under the Chinese Maritime Customs system. The Ministry of Finance nonetheless wanted to borrow rooms in the Customs Building for a small collecting staff, which matches the paper's report of a request for one or two offices. The penalty clause in the mandate also matches the paper: imprisonment of up to three years and/or a fine of ten times the value of the goods. The Commissioner of Customs, Colonel Hayley Bell, feared that if the tax went unchallenged other provinces would soon follow, and that the very existence of the customs service would be endangered. He hoped the Powers would prevent the Cantonese from levying it or insist that it be run through the customs. On 11 October, the day collection was due to begin, Chen asked the American consul general to direct all American merchants to comply.
Original
BON AUGURE
Tribune électorale BON AUGURE Décidément la chance sourit à la liste Bui-quang-Chiêu. Celle-ci nous est, à plus d'un titre, sympathique. De vous dire pourquoi, ce serait long. Veuillent nos lecteurs nous dispenser de le faire, car ce n'est pas là la question. Aussi rien de ce qui touche à cette liste ne nous laisse indifférent. Bien qu'amant du foyer, nous avons ces jours-ci quitté pour de bon nos pénates pour aller voir du pays. Et bien nous en a pris, empressons nous de le dire. «Il est bon de voyager quelquefois, a dit Taine quelque part, cela étend l'esprit et rabat l'amour-propre». Nous avons eu lieu de vérifier l'exactitude de cette parole, du moins en sa première partie. N'ayant pas, en effet, un grain de suffisance, nous sommes revenu aussi modeste que jamais. D'une intelligence obtuse et bornée, - nous l'avouons à notre honte - nous avons par contre, de nos pérégrinations, rapporté un peu de choses pour notre propre édification. Les voici, du reste, si vous ne dédaignez pas de les connaître. Or donc, en cours de route, on nous a entretenu, entre mille et un sujets, de la nouvelle Chambre des Représentants du Peuple en Annam. On a souligné la bonne entente de ses membres et surtout l'attitude digne de son président, M. Hoang-thuc-Khan dont le nom est à l'heure actuelle, sur toutes les lèvres. Les électeurs d'Annam, comme de juste, n'ont pas été oubliés; ils ont été complimentés, louangés, que disons nous? et fort admirés. Par association d'idées, on en est venu, ainsi qu'il fallait s'y attendre, à parler des Elections coloniales qui arriveront à grandes enjambées dans peu. - Vu la bonne renommée de la plupart des candidats qui la composent, hasarde quelqu'un, je prévois d'ores et déjà un brillant succès à la majorité de la liste Bui-quang Chiêu. - Je suis plus optimiste encore, renchérit un interlocuteur, ces messieurs passeront tous au premier tour du scrutin et pour cause. Nos compatriotes, quoi qu'on dise, sont loin d'être des gens bouchés. Ils se sont aperçus, il y a belle lurette, qu'ils ont fait erreurErrare humanum est - en votant avec enthousiasme en 1922 pour certains candidats convertis depuis lors en Conseillers monopolards à tous crins. Désormais, plus circonspects, ils ne feront plus usage de leurs bulletins qu'à bon escient; ils ne les accorderont plus qu'à ceux qui s'en rendent dignes par leurs qualités intellectuelles et morales, je veux dire aux gens de cœur éprouvés. Or personne n'ignore plus ce qu'ont fait pour le pays, les Bui quang-Chiêu, les Nguyênphan-Long. Il n'y a donc plus de doute que le collège électoral indigène ne leur réserve, le 10 Octobre prochain, à eux et à leurs amis, une agréable surprise en faisant bloc sur leurs noms. Ainsi du côté annamite, on sait distinguer ses véritables amis, et les aimer avec conviction. Et d'un. A notre retour au logis, nous avons trouvé non sans plaisir, dans un quotidien cartelliste, Saigon Républicain, les professions de foi de la liste Bùi quang-Chiêu imprimées en très bonne place puisqu'en première page. Notre joie a doublé de les voir insérées à la place d'un premier-Saigon dans un autre quotidien républicain, l'Opinion, avec, montées en épingle, ces notes qui se passent de tout commentaire: «On essaie d'un certain côté et pour des fins trop faciles à apercevoir de défigurer la pensée et les intentions des Annamites. On inflige l'étiquette d'anti-français à qui prête une oreille attentive aux desiderata de nos protégés et formule le désir sincère d'une collaboration francoannamite seule capable d'assurer à ce pays une paix féconde. «Nous soumettons à nos lecteurs, en les priant d'en faire une lecture attentive, la déclaration de candidature des candidats annamites. On pourra voir qu'aucun des Annamites ne conçoit d'action et de vie possibles en dehors d'une collaboration loyale et déférente avec la France. «Toute autre affirmation est mensongère et n'est étayée sur aucun fait véritable.» Ces deux organes de la grande presse française locale, sensés représenter l'opinion de la majorité des Français de Cochinchine, se sont, sans réticence ni détour, prononcés en faveur de la liste Bui-quang-Chiêu. Ils voudraient la patronner qu'ils n'agiraient pas autrement. Leur religion suffisamment éclairée, nos aînés Français, pour la plupart, non seulement ne se méprennent plus sur les intentions de nos leaders, mais
De quelques paroles mémorables
sent, hasarde quelqu'un, je prévois d'ores et déjà un brillant succès à la majorité de la liste Bui-quang Chiêu. - Je suis plus optimiste encore, renchérit un interlocuteur, ces messieurs passeront tous au premier tour du scrutin et pour cause. Nos compatriotes, quoi qu'on dise, sont loin d'être des gens bouchés. Ils se sont aperçus, il y a belle lurette, qu'ils ont fait erreurErrare humanum est - en votant avec enthousiasme en 1922 pour certains candidats convertis depuis lors en Conseillers monopolards à tous crins. Désormais, plus circonspects, ils ne feront plus usage de leurs bulletins qu'à bon escient; ils ne les accorderont plus qu'à ceux qui s'en rendent dignes par leurs qualités intellectuell'opinion de la majorité des Français de Cochinchine, se sont, sans réticence ni détour, prononcés en faveur de la liste Bui-quang-Chiêu. Ils voudraient la patronner qu'ils n'agiraient pas autrement. Leur religion suffisamment éclairée, nos aînés Français, pour la plupart, non seulement ne se méprennent plus sur les intentions de nos leaders, mais encore, semblent tenir à honneur d'assurer ces derniers de leur appui moral. Et de deux. Qui oserait, après cela, soutenir que nous avions tort d'augurer un triomphe pour la liste Bui-quang-Chiêu? L. K. VAN. Tribune électorale De quelques paroles mémorables Lors de la réunion publique et contradictoire, organisée le 6 courant, à Mytho-ville, par le collège électoral de la province, le docteur Laid-quangTrinh, a prononcé ces paroles mémorables, devant quelque millier d'électeurs: 1 ° Je ne veux pas de rapprochement franco-annamite, parce que j'ai de rancune personnelle contre Mᵉ Gallet. Donc, j'avoue que je suis l'adversaire du Phap-Viêt dê-huê. Rancune personnelle, vous entendez bien? En effet, Mᵉ Gallet a déposé, au cours de la séance d'ouverture de la session du Conseil Colonial où éclata le scandale des archives, une motion à l'adresse du Gouverneur Varenne lui exprimant sa sympathie pour l'œuvre de rapprochement franco-annamite. Cette motion fut rejetée par 11 voix contre 8. Naturellement, M. le Laid-quangTrinh a voté contre, pour une rancune personnelle, de son aveu. Dire qu'il prétend remplir fidèlement son mandat, respecter sa dignité, travailler à l'intérêt général, etc... etc...! Et encore: 2 ° J'ai voté contre la motion de M. Truong van Bên tendant à ce que les de souliers. J'ai fait des caricatures pour tourner en dérision M. Bên; mais dites-moi si les Annamites me m'ont pas présenté, en des caricatures, comme des «toutous» (sic), des ban-nuoc (vendeur de patrie)? Donc, M. Laid quang Trinh est contre les tirailleurs annamites, parmi lesquels se trouve la classe instruite, obligée par le sort de servir la France! Pauvre docteur! Votre ami Chavigny écrivait hier, dans son journal, que «la liste extrémiste (sic) de Bui quang Chiêu passera en bloc», qu'attendez-vous pour vous suicider? P. MARCHET. Pour le collège électoral français Une réunion publique et contradictoire au théâtre municipal de Saigon Une réunion publique et contradictoire aura lieu, ce soir, à 21 heures, au théâtre municipal de Saigon, organisée par les candidats de la liste Gallet aux élections coloniales. Invités, M. de Lachevrotière et ses co-listiers ont répondu, par l'organe de l'Impartial, qu'ils ne s'y rendront
Les taxes nouvelles en Chine
tion pour laquelle les populistes sont prêts à négocier; l'Assemblée a approuvé l'orateur. Les taxes nouvelles en Chine Hongkong. - Le Ministre des Affaires étrangères de Canton a adressé une note identique à chaque Consul Etranger, leur communiquant la traduction d'un ordre émanant du Gouvernement Nationaliste, daté du 4 Octobre, et donnant des instructions au Ministre des Finances en vue de prélever une taxe temporaire intérieure de 2 1 / 2% sur les marchandises ordinaires et de 5% sur les articles de luxe, à partir du 11 Octobre. Le Ministre des Finances a demandé au Commissaire des Douanes de lui prêter 1 ou 2 bureaux, dans le bâtiment des douanes, pour permettre de percevoir les nouvelles taxes. Toute personne qui sera prise à faire du commerce avec des articles sur lesquels la taxe n'aurait pas été perçue, serait passible d'un emprisonnement qui n'excéderait pas 3 ans ou d'une amende égale à 10 fois la valeur de la marchandise, celle-ci serait également confisquée. Notre souscription en faveur des inondés du Tonkin