L’Écho annamite
- The Lessons of an Election
- Mr. Lê-van-Gông's Lecture at the Association of Annamite Merchants and Industrialists
- For the Benefit of the Tonkin Flood Victims
This issue of L'Écho annamite, the Saigon French-language daily, devoted much of its page to economic self-defence. In a signed editorial, E. Dejean de la Batie drew lessons from a recent vote, welcomed Nguyên-phan-Long's lead and urged Annamites to boycott moneyed adversaries whose power, he argued, rested on Annamite customers themselves. A report of Lê-van-Gông's lecture to the Annamite merchants' and industrialists' association proposed a gradual abstention from foreign goods that would widen as local industry grew, and insisted this was not a boycott but an act of national solidarity. A short provincial item described a committee in Phan Rang organizing amateur cải lương performances by native officials and merchants, with the proceeds going to the Treasury for the victims of the Tonkin floods.
Translation
The Lessons of an Election
I had intended to take up this question in the present series of articles. I am pleased to note that Mr. Nguyên-phan-Long has got there before me. This is not at all surprising, given the present state of Franco-Annamite relations. The Annamites find themselves facing adversaries who are formidable because of the financial means at their disposal. This money power draws its strength from the Annamites themselves, who make up the great majority of this country's customers. To defeat the adversary, then, we must strike at the chink in his armour. Let us bring down this money power that is so harmful to the Annamite community; let us stop strengthening these sinews of war that are meant to be used against us; let us boycott the enemies of our race!
Mr. Lê-van-Gông's Lecture at the Association of Annamite Merchants and Industrialists
Let us practise abstention, abstention from consuming foreign products. At present it can only be partial, since our manufacturing industry does not yet produce all the necessary goods; but as that industry develops, it will extend gradually until it finally covers all foreign products. This step is not the boycott, whose cause is always an economic or political conflict. It is a necessary gesture of solidarity by a people conscious of being economically swallowed up and firmly resolved to escape from it.
For the Benefit of the Tonkin Flood Victims
With a view to relieving the sufferings of the disaster victims of Tonkin, at the instigation of Mr. Nguyen huu Duong, President of the U. S. of Phangrang, and with the permission of the head of the province, a committee has been appointed, with the assistance of Mr. Pham-van-Vi, President of the Phanrang section of the Amecia, to form a troupe of amateur actors made up exclusively of native officials and merchants, who will give performances of cai-luong, the proceeds of which will be paid into the Treasury for the benefit of the Tonkin flood victims.
Context
Who stood behind the boycott editorial
The editorial is signed E. Dejean de la Batie, and it opens by crediting Nguyên-phan-Long with raising the boycott question first. The two men had long worked together: Nguyễn Phan Long founded L'Écho annamite in 1920 and worked there with the Eurasian nationalist Eugène Dejean de la Bâtie, who was back at the paper by 1924 under Long's management. Long was also deputy leader of the Constitutionalist Party founded in 1923 and led by Bùi Quang Chiêu, and he won a seat as a colonial councillor, so electoral politics were a natural subject for the paper's writers. A history of the Saigon press describes L'Écho annamite as a paper that opposed various government policies but kept a conciliatory rather than confrontational stance. A signed call to 'boycott the enemies of our race' is therefore an unusually sharp statement for this paper. The excerpt does not say which election it means or name the adversaries; it identifies them only by their financial power and by their dependence on Annamite customers.
The spring 1926 arrests and the radicalization of Saigon's press
Dejean wrote this editorial seven months after a political crisis in which he was personally involved. In March 1926 leaflets bearing the names of the radical journalists Dejean de la Batie and Nguyễn An Ninh circulated in Saigon, and on 24 March the colonial authorities arrested three journalists. A study of that spring concludes that radical activism replaced quieter attempts at reform and that Vietnamese journalism became more dramatic and confrontational. Dejean's own career followed that trend: he launched the newspaper L'Annam with Phan Văn Trường, and its tone was even more offensive to the colonial administration. When L'Écho annamite, a paper known for moderation, printed 'let us bring down this money power', it showed how far that heightened climate had reached by October 1926.
Consumer abstention and the 1919 boycott of Chinese merchants
Lê-van-Gông's call to abstain from foreign goods had a recent precedent in Cochinchina. In 1919 a boycott movement against the Chinese 'Khách trú' merchants broke out there and then spread across the country. Its initiators also called on Vietnamese to invest in production and trade in order to compete with Chinese merchants and take over their role. Gông's lecture takes up this second, constructive side: abstention is to expand step by step with Vietnamese manufacturing until it covers all foreign products. He deliberately separates it from a boycott, which he ties to an economic or political conflict, and presents it instead as a people's solidarity against being economically swallowed up. On the same page, therefore, the paper carried both Dejean's open boycott call and a lecture that rejected the label.
The Red River floods and the Phan Rang relief performances
The victims the Phan Rang committee wanted to help lived in the delta of the Red River, whose floods were a major concern for Tonkin's engineers. The river rises in China's Yunnan province, runs 1,200 km and drains a basin of about 127,000 km². Tonkin's chief engineer wrote a memoir on the Red River's floods and on defending the Tonkin delta against inundation. The newspaper item gives no figures for the disaster and speaks only of victims and their sufferings. What it does show is how relief was organized in a provincial town: a committee formed with the province chief's permission, the president of the local Amecia section assisted, and native officials and merchants were to stage amateur cải lương performances whose proceeds would go to the Treasury for the flood victims.
Original
Les enseignements d'un scrutin
J'avais l'intention d'aborder cette question dans la présente série d'articles. Je suis heureux de constater que M. Nguyên-phan-Long m'a devancé à ce sujet. La chose n'a rien d'étonnant, étant donné la situation actuelle des rapports franco-annamites. Les Annamites se trouvent en présence d'adversaires redoutables par les moyens financiers dont ils disposent. Cette puissance d'argent tire sa force des Annamites eux-mêmes, qui forment la grosse majorité de la clientèle de ce pays. Pour vaincre l'adversaire, il faut donc l'attaquer au défaut de la cuirasse. Abattons cette puissance d'argent néfaste à la collectivité annamite; cessons de fortifier ce nerf de la guerre destiné à nous combattre; boycottons les ennemis de notre race!
La conférence de M. Lê-van-Gông à l'Association des Commerçants et Industriels annamites
Pratiquons l'abstention, l'abstention de consommation des produits étrangers. Elle ne peut être que partielle à l'heure actuelle où notre industrie manufacturière ne produit pas encore tous les objets nécessaires, mais au fur et à mesure du développement de cette industrie. elle s'étendra progressivement, pour, enfin, porter sur tous les produits étrangers. Ce pas n'est pas le boycott ge, dont la cause est toujours un conflit économique ou politique. C'est un geste nécessaire de solidarité d'un peuple conscient de son engloutissement économique et fermement résolu d'en sortir.
Au profit des inondés du Tonkin
En vue d'atténuer les souffrances des sinistrés du Tonkin. sur l'instigation de M. Nguyen huu Duong, Président de l'U. S. de Phangrang, et avec la permission du chef de la province, un comité a été nommé, avec le concours de M. Pham-van-Vi, Président de la section de l'Amecia de Phanrang, en vue de former une troupe d'auteurs amateurs, composée exclusivement de fonctionnaires indigènes et de commerçants. qui donneront des représentations de cai-luong, dont les recettes seront versées au Trésor au profit des inondés du Tonkin.