While serving in that corps I had learned that there were good and brave men outside my own country, and that courage, obedience, self-abnegation and national pride are not the monopoly of any one race.
By living side by side with them, fighting, and ofttimes suffering, in the same cause, I had been taught to like and respect the foreigners. The French, Italian, German, Austrian, or any other European soldier is very much like our own. He has his virtues and his vices; and the stronger his race and national character, the more likely is he to possess a superabundance of the latter.
British interests in Siam and Southern China render the development of the French colonies in the Far East a matter of importance to us. The majority of the foreign products imported into Yunan, via the West River route, or through Tonquin, are of British origin. Our treaty arrangements with France and the good feeling at present existing between the two nations should make it no difficult matter for Frenchmen and Englishmen to agree in the settlement of questions arising out of their trade relations with Kwang-si, Kwang-tung and Yunan.
The recent concessions made by Siam to France have increased the responsibilities of the latter, and it remains for France and Great Britain to develop the commercial resources of Siam and South China.
CARTE
DES
POSTES DU TONKIN
d'après une Carte du Service topographique
de l'état major des troupes de l'Indo-Chine
ECHELLE
By the aid of the railway system, agriculture and manufacturing industries are being fostered in the French colonies of the East, and a great future undoubtedly exists for them; but before real success can be obtained Indo-China must be provided with functionaries who are not only able administrators, but who have a knowledge of the language and customs of the country. They must be workers with a single aim for the success of the colonies under their administration, and not merely politicians whose personal ambitions colour their perceptions. Then the colonies, wherein I spent the years of which I have written, will have a future of constantly-increasing prosperity before them.
THE END
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