The French Also Endeavored To Derive All
Possible Advantage From There Being No Formal Declaration Of War, And To
Make Use Of Hongkong As A Base For Their Fleet Against China.
But this
unfairness could not be tolerated, and the British minister at Pekin,
where Sir Harry Parkes had in
The autumn of 1883 succeeded Sir Thomas
Wade, issued a proclamation that the hostilities between France and China
were tantamount to a state of war, and that the laws of neutrality must be
strictly observed. The French resented this step, and showed some
inclination to retaliate by instituting a right to search for rice, but
fortunately this pretension was not pushed to extremities, and the war was
closed before it could produce any serious consequences. The French
devoted much of their attention to an attack on the Chinese possessions in
Formosa, and the occupation of Kelung; a fort in the northern part of that
island was captured, but the subsequent success of the French was small.
The Chinese displayed great energy and resource in forming defenses
against any advance inland from Kelung or Tamsui, and the French
government was brought to face the fact that there was nothing to be
gained by carrying on these desultory operations, and that unless they
were prepared to send a large expedition, it was computed of not less than
50,000 men, to attack Pekin, there was no alternative to coming to terms
with China. How strong this conviction had become may be gathered from the
fact that the compulsory retreat, in March, 1885, of the French from
before Langson, where some of the Chinese regular troops were drawn up
with a large force of Black and Yellow Flags - the latter of whom were in
Chinese pay - did not imperil the negotiations which were then far advanced
toward completion. On June 9 of the same year a treaty of peace was signed
by M. Patenotre and Li Hung Chang which gave France nothing more than the
Fournier Convention.
The military lessons of this war must be pronounced inconclusive, for the
new forces which China had organized since the Pekin campaign were never
fully engaged, and the struggle ended before the regular regiments sent to
Langson had any opportunity of showing their quality. But the impression
conveyed by the fighting in Formosa and the northern districts of Tonquin
was that China had made considerable progress in the military art, and
that she possessed the nucleus of an army that might become formidable.
But while the soldiers had made no inconsiderable improvement, as much
could not be said of the officers, and among the commanders there seemed
no grasp of the situation, and a complete inability to conduct a campaign.
Probably these deficiencies will long remain the really weak spot in the
Chinese war organization, and although they have men who will fight well,
the only capacity their commanders showed in Tonquin and Formosa was in
selecting strong positions and in fortifying them with consummate art.
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