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Tonkin Affair

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The Tonkin Affair , ( French : L'Affaire du Tonkin ) named after the French protectorate of Tonkin , of March 1885 was a major French political crisis that erupted in the closing weeks of the Sino-French War . It effectively destroyed the political career of the French prime minister, Jules Ferry , and abruptly ended the string of Republican governments inaugurated several years earlier by Léon Gambetta . The suspicion by the French public and political classes that French troops were being sent to their deaths far from home for little measurable gain, both in Tonkin and elsewhere, also discredited French colonial expansion for nearly a decade.

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66-576: The "Affair" (as most French political scandals are still termed), was triggered on 28 March 1885 by the controversial Retreat from Lạng Sơn . The retreat, which threw away the gains of the February Lạng Sơn Campaign , was ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, the acting commander of the 2nd Brigade, less than a week after General François de Négrier 's defeat at the Battle of Bang Bo (24 March 1885). General Louis Brière de l'Isle ,

132-459: A certain degree of sympathy. Herbinger at first seemed to realise that he had made an appalling blunder, and spoke about retrieving his honour by falling in battle. Back at Chu, shortly after the end of the retreat, he was heard to say, 'Whoever could have imagined it? Why haven't the Chinese attacked us? Well, I know what I have to do now! In the next battle, I'll have to get myself killed!'. But

198-584: A half francs on the day that war was declared in 1870. All the newspapers were full of accusations against the Cabinet, of false accounts of the 'bitter combats' that the 2nd Brigade, enveloped by the Chinese, must have fought to disengage, of fears for the entire expeditionary corps, whose situation was depicted as tragic. In the House, the deputies who were systematically opposed to our establishment in Tonkin were jubilant, and

264-535: A half-century after these events, the name of this small and unremarkable town evokes in French ears the memory of a great battle lost.' Paul de Cassagnac Paul Adolphe Marie Prosper Granier de Cassagnac (2 January 1843, Paris  – 4 November 1904, Saint-Viâtre ) was the son of Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac and Rosa de Beaupin de Beauvalon, and while still young associated with his father in both politics and journalism. In 1866 he became editor of

330-521: A major defeat at the hands of the French navy on 31 March (a development that received little attention in metropolitan France), and was also wary of a possible war with Japan over their competing interests in Korea. The Qing government was thus unusually eager to come to terms. Qing negotiators immediately agreed to implement the Tientsin Accord (implicitly recognising the French protectorate over Tonkin), and

396-556: A respectable battlefield reputation during the Franco-Prussian War, but was quite out of his depth as a field commander in Tonkin. Several French officers had already commented scathingly on his performance during the Lạng Sơn campaign and at Bang Bo, where he had badly bungled an attack on the Chinese positions. He was also suffering from malaria, and his physical debility may well have impaired his judgement. Upon assuming command of

462-449: A second battle for Lạng Sơn (a claim later shown to be untrue) and announcing his decision to retreat. He then had the telegraph cable cut, denying Brière de l'Isle the opportunity to intervene. During the night of 28 March, after winning the most complete victory of the Tonkin campaign , the bewildered soldiers of the 2nd Brigade marched out of Lạng Sơn. The retreat to Thanh Moy and Dong Song

528-410: A stream of orders for the retreat to his staff. 'No more hesitations, we're leaving at once!' he cried. During the night of 30 March Herbinger's column left Thanh Moy and marched across Deo Quao to Dong Song, to link up with Schoeffer's men. A half-hearted attack on Schoeffer's positions was made just after midnight by a small force of Chinese skirmishers, and was easily repelled. Shortly before dawn

594-459: A western offensive, he ordered de Négrier to hold his positions at Lạng Sơn. On 23 and 24 March the 2nd Brigade, 1,500 men strong, battled Guangxi Army troops entrenched near Zhennanguan on the Chinese border. The Battle of Bang Bo (named by the French from the Vietnamese pronunciation of Hengpo, a village in the centre of the Chinese position where the fighting was fiercest), is normally known as

660-537: The French Colonial Union , a political pressure group funded by such interests, marked the end of the post-Tonkin climate in Paris, which was, as such, short-lived. Retreat from L%E1%BA%A1ng S%C6%A1n [REDACTED]   France Vietnam Taiwan The Retreat from Lạng Sơn ( French : retraite de Lang-Son ) was a controversial French strategic withdrawal in Tonkin at the end of March 1885 during

726-573: The Lạng Sơn Campaign , the French had captured Lạng Sơn and driven China's Guangxi Army out of Tonkin. In the second half of February General Louis Brière de l'Isle , the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps , returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Giovaninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the Siege of Tuyên Quang , leaving General François de Négrier at Lạng Sơn with

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792-535: The Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). It represented the last major event of the conflict and was deemed a considerable embarrassment in France , further cementing negative public opinion about the colonial conflict which led to the collapse of French Prime Minister Jules Ferry 's government. By the middle of March 1885 the military situation in Tonkin had reached a temporary stalemate. In February 1885, in

858-596: The Tientsin Accord of 11 May 1884, implicitly recognising the French protectorate over Tonkin, and the French government dropped its longstanding demand for an indemnity for the Bắc Lệ ambush . A peace protocol ending hostilities was signed on 4 April 1885, and a substantive peace agreement, the Treaty of Tientsin , was signed on 9 June by Li Hongzhang and the French minister Jules Patenôtre des Noyers . The longer-term effect of

924-421: The conquest of Madagascar , were deferred for several years. While the retreat from Lạng Sơn was in progress, there were wild rumours in France that the 2nd Brigade had been routed and had suffered appalling casualties. These rumours stubbornly refused to go away, and in time a legend was born, of 'the Lạng Sơn disaster', which would persist for decades. As late as 1937, one French historian wrote: 'Even today,

990-482: The 'Lạng Sơn telegram', as it was immediately dubbed, ignited a political crisis in Paris: There was enormous feeling throughout France. This retreat of 2,500 men, who had returned to their starting positions without even being pursued by the enemy, took on from a distance the proportions of an irretrievable disaster. On the stock exchange on 30 March the 3% fell by three and a half francs; it had only fallen by two and

1056-404: The 2nd Brigade's corps of Vietnamese porters had scattered during the retreat, temporarily immobilising the brigade. Brière de l'Isle was still considering how to get at the Chinese when news of the conclusion of preliminaries of peace reached him on 14 April. In Paris, the political impact of Brière de l'Isle's pessimistic 'Lạng Sơn telegram' of 28 March was momentous. Ferry's immediate reaction

1122-510: The 2nd Brigade. Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade faced Tang Jingsong's Yunnan Army around Hưng Hóa and Tuyên Quang, while de Négrier's 2nd Brigade at Lạng Sơn faced Pan Dingxin's Guangxi Army. Neither Chinese army had any realistic prospect of launching an offensive for several weeks, while the two French brigades that had jointly captured Lạng Sơn in February were not strong enough to inflict a decisive defeat on either Chinese army separately. Meanwhile,

1188-514: The Battle of Zhennan Pass in China. The French took a number of outworks on 23 March, but failed to take the main Chinese positions on 24 March and were fiercely counterattacked in their turn. Although the French made a fighting withdrawal and prevented the Chinese from piercing their line, casualties in the 2nd Brigade were relatively heavy (70 dead and 188 wounded) and there were ominous scenes of disorder as

1254-480: The Chinese launched a frontal attack on the French positions, advancing in dense, ponderous columns. De Négrier ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Gustave Herbinger to counterattack the Chinese left wing with Diguet and Farret's battalions. The attack, supported by artillery, was completely successful, and by 4:00 pm Herbinger had driven the Guangxi Army 's left wing from the hills to the northeast of Ky Lua. By 5:00 pm

1320-610: The Conservative paper Le Pays , and figured in a long series of political duels. On the declaration of war in 1870 he volunteered for service and was taken prisoner at Sedan . On his return from captivity in a fortress in Silesia he continued to defend the Bonapartist cause in Le Pays , against both Republicans and Royalists. Elected deputy for the department of Gers in 1876, he adopted in

1386-527: The French government dropped its demand for an indemnity for the Bắc Lệ ambush . A peace protocol ending hostilities was signed on 4 April, and a substantive peace treaty was signed on 9 June by Li Hongzhang and the French minister Jules Patenôtre . Brière de l'Isle was understandably furious at Herbinger's conduct, and a commission of enquiry was held in Hanoi during the autumn of 1885 to determine whether his decision to abandon Lạng Sơn had been justified. Most of

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1452-418: The French government was pressuring Brière de l'Isle to send the 2nd Brigade across the border into Guangxi province, in the hope that a threat to Chinese territory would force China to sue for peace. Brière de l'Isle and de Négrier examined the possibility of a campaign to capture the major Chinese military depot at Longzhou, 60 kilometres (37 mi) beyond the border, but on 17 March Brière de l'Isle advised

1518-468: The French outposts, who thought they had seen movement around their positions. It turned out to be a false alarm, and an officer woke Herbinger up to report what had happened. Herbinger's reply was illuminating: 'I'm sick, and the column is just as sick as me! Leave me alone!' An hour later, salvation arrived. At 10:00 pm on the evening of 30 March, having receiving a stream of anguished cables from Herbinger and with no means of independently controlling

1584-497: The French retreat, and it was these units which had made contact with the French on 30 March at Dong Song and on 31 March at Pho Cam. The main body of the Guangxi Army was in no condition to pursue the French to Chu, and Pan contented himself with a limited advance to Dong Song and Bắc Lệ. This advance brought the Chinese back to the positions they were occupying before the Lạng Sơn campaign. Herbinger's decision to retreat threw away

1650-534: The French threw up field defences at Thanh Moy and Dong Song and prepared to meet the advancing Chinese, while Herbinger sent out cavalry patrols to determine the exact positions of the Guangxi Army. The patrols observed small Chinese scouting parties near Cut on the Mandarin Road and at Pho Bu, just to the south of Lạng Sơn, and duly reported their presence. Herbinger wildly exaggerated the significance of these reports, and warned Brière de l'Isle that, in his opinion,

1716-408: The Guangxi Army was in full retreat, leaving only a rearguard to discourage pursuit. French casualties at Ky Lua were 7 men killed and 38 wounded. Towards the end of the battle de Négrier was seriously wounded in the chest while scouting the Chinese positions. He was forced to hand over command to Herbinger, his senior regimental commander. Herbinger was a noted military theoretician who had won

1782-574: The Tonkin Affair was to discredit the supporters within France of colonial expansion. In December 1885, in the so-called 'Tonkin Debate', Henri Brisson 's administration was only able to secure fresh credits for the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps by the very narrowest of margins. Jules Ferry would never again serve as premier, and became a figure of popular scorn. The collapse of Ferry's ministry

1848-409: The Tonkin expeditionary corps. There was little substance in any of this, but it rang warning bells back in Paris. The army ministry, alarmed at the prospect of seeing so much dirty linen washed in public, brought the enquiry to an early end. Herbinger escaped without a formal censure, but the commission of enquiry recommended that he should not be given any further field commands. He died in 1886, at

1914-520: The Tonkinese!' No French premier had ever before faced such an outpouring of hatred. The immediate consequence of the Tonkin Affair was to bring about a rapid end to the Sino-French War . The sudden and ignominious end of Jules Ferry's second administration removed the remaining obstacles to a peace settlement between France and China. Ferry's successor, Charles de Freycinet , promptly concluded peace with China. The Chinese government agreed to implement

1980-431: The acting brigade commander's assessment of the situation, Brière de l'Isle reluctantly gave Herbinger permission to fall back to Chu 'if the situation demanded'. Herbinger clutched at this straw and issued orders for an immediate retreat by both halves of the column to Chu. 'I will take advantage of the night and the moon to retire, in conformity with your instructions,' he replied. His lassitude vanished, and he fired off

2046-547: The age of 46. The longer-term domestic political repercussions of the retreat from Lạng Sơn were considerable. The ignominious end to the Sino-French War temporarily checked French domestic fervor for colonial expansion and culminated in the 'Tonkin Debate' of December 1885, in which the Chamber of Deputies voted to sustain the French commitment in Tonkin by the very narrowest of margins. Other French colonial projects, including

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2112-426: The army and navy ministries. He went on. 'I cannot go into the details of this expenditure in this forum. We will discuss them further with the scrutiny commission.' Clemenceau shouted scornfully, 'Who will ever believe you?' Ferry implored the deputies not to consider the vote on the credits as a vote of confidence. If they wished, they could overturn his cabinet afterwards and choose a new administration. But for

2178-466: The army ministry in Paris that such an operation was beyond his strength. Substantial French reinforcements reached Tonkin in the middle of March, giving Brière de l'Isle a brief opportunity to break the stalemate. He moved the bulk of the reinforcements to Hưng Hóa to reinforce the 1st Brigade, intending to attack the Yunnan Army and drive it back beyond Yen Bay. While he and Giovanninelli drew up plans for

2244-411: The brigade faced catastrophic encirclement. While waiting for Brière's response, he ordered his men to prepare for a last-ditch defence with the bayonet. As the evening wore on Herbinger became increasingly hysterical. He went to bed at 8:00 pm, convinced that he and his men would be surrounded and massacred on the following morning. At around 9:00 pm there was an outburst of firing from the sentries in

2310-406: The brigade, Herbinger panicked. He convinced himself that the Chinese were preparing to encircle Lạng Sơn and cut his supply line. Disregarding the appalled protests of some of his officers, he ordered the 2nd Brigade to abandon Lạng Sơn on the evening of 28 March and retreat to Chu. The retreat was initially conducted in two columns. Herbinger led the line battalions to Thanh Moy, while Schoeffer led

2376-421: The brigade. I have arrived with fresh troops and ammunition. I have been told by the general-in-chief that there is to be no further retreat. We are to remain here at all costs. And that is precisely what we shall do.) On 5 April Brière de l'Isle arrived at Chu. He immediately ordered Borgnis-Desbordes to reoccupy the mountains of Deo Van and Deo Quan. He also considered attacking the Chinese at Dong Song, but

2442-596: The chamber a policy of obstruction "to discredit the republican régime". In 1877 he openly encouraged MacMahon to attempt a Bonapartist coup d'état , but the marshal's refusal and the death of the Prince Imperial foiled his hopes. Afterwards he played but a secondary rôle in the chamber, and occupied himself mostly with the direction of the journal L'Autorité , which he had founded. He was not re-elected in 1902, and died in November 1904. His sons took over L'Autorité and

2508-468: The check at Lạng Sơn,' he said. 'We must do this not only to secure our hold on Tonkin, but also to safeguard our honour around the world.' Georges Périn , one of Clemenceau's supporters, interjected excitedly. 'Our honour, yes! But who was it that compromised it in the first place?' The Chamber broke into a clamour. Eventually, when he could again make himself heard, Ferry demanded an extraordinary credit of 200 million francs, to be split equally between

2574-481: The column. Shortly after dawn on 31 March Chinese skirmishers caught up with the French column near the small village of Pho Cam. Herbinger had by now been reinforced by Brière de l'Isle with a squadron of Spahi cavalry, and the French infantry waited eagerly for him to order the Spahis to charge and scatter the Chinese skirmishers. Instead, Herbinger ordered the retreat to continue, by echelons of infantry battalions. It

2640-485: The commander-in-chief of French forces in Tonkin, was in Hanoi at the time, and was planning to shift his headquarters to Hưng Hóa, to supervise a planned offensive against the Yunnan Army around Tuyên Quang. Brière de l'Isle concluded that the Red River Delta was in jeopardy and fired off a telegram on the evening of 28 March to the French government, warning that the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps faced disaster unless it

2706-400: The defeated French regrouped after the battle. As the brigade's morale was precarious and ammunition was running short, de Négrier decided to fall back to Lạng Sơn. Following their victory at the Battle of Bang Bo (24 March 1885), the Chinese advanced slowly in pursuit of the retreating French, and on 28 March de Négrier fought a battle at Ky Lua in defence of Lạng Sơn. Shortly before noon

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2772-454: The disapproving silence of his supporters and a storm of imprecations and insults from his opponents, led by Georges Clemenceau . He had not slept the night before and walked towards the rostrum slowly and gravely, his face pale and anxious, like a condemned man to the scaffold. From the rostrum he gave the Chamber of Deputies the latest news on the military situation in Tonkin and explained the measures he had taken in response. 'We must avenge

2838-413: The following day he had recovered his usual sang froid . He spent most of the day establishing what had happened, and on the evening of 29 March sent a furious cable to Herbinger at Thanh Moy, ordering the 2nd Brigade to hold its positions at Thanh Moy and Dong Song. Herbinger was aghast at this order, believing that it played straight into the enemy's hands, but had no choice but to obey it. On 30 March

2904-587: The forces which drove French colonial expansion were little slowed by loss of political popularity. French Indochina was consolidated under a single administration just two years later, while in Africa, military commanders like Joseph Gallieni and Louis Archinard continually pressured local states, regardless of the political climate in Paris. Large trading houses, such as Maurel and Prom company , continued to expand their overseas operations, and demand military support for this expansion. The formal creation in 1894 of

2970-417: The hard-won French gains of the February campaign. When the 2nd Brigade eventually rallied at Chu, on 1 April, its soldiers were exhausted and demoralised. Brière de l'Isle, who had responded to Herbinger's cable of 28 March by transferring the bulk of Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade from Hưng Hóa to Chu, appointed Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes to the command of the 2nd Brigade. Borgnis-Desbordes soon effaced

3036-422: The law will soon give you what you deserve!' Ferry's opponents demanded immediate discussion of Clemenceau's interpellation. Ferry countered by moving that the vote on the credits should be taken first. Amid scenes of angry turbulence, the deputies voted on Ferry's priority motion. It was defeated by a handsome margin of 306 votes to 149. This defeat spelled the end for his administration. His opponents greeted

3102-548: The memory of Herbinger's dismal leadership and imposed his own strong personality upon the brigade, issuing the following order of the day on 2 April: Appelé, en raison de la grave blessure du général de Négrier, à prendre le commandement provisoire de la brigade, J'arrive ici avec des troupes nouvelles et des munitions. J'ai reçu du général l'ordre d'arrêter avec vous, et coûte que coûte, tout mouvement rétrograde. C'est ce que nous ferons. (In view of General de Négrier's serious wound, I have been asked to take provisional command of

3168-447: The morning of 30 March, a deputation from the Union républicaine and Gauche républicaine , the two groups which accounted for the bulk of Ferry's support during the undeclared war with China, pleaded with the premier to resign before the debate. Ferry was under little doubt that his administration would fall, but he refused to go without a fight. In the afternoon he entered the chamber amid

3234-461: The nation's affairs with you again!' The Chamber erupted in applause, and Clemenceau went on. 'We no longer recognise you! We don't want to recognise you!' There was a new burst of applause. 'You're no longer ministers! You all stand accused' — there was a roar of applause from the deputies of both the left and the right, and Clemenceau paused dramatically — 'of high treason! And if the principles of accountability and justice still exist in France,

3300-450: The officers of the Tonkin expeditionary corps believed that Herbinger had made a ghastly mistake, and would have been happy to see him broken and dismissed from the service. But Brière de l'Isle and Borgnis-Desbordes, who drew up much of the evidence against Herbinger, overplayed their hand, insinuating that Herbinger had been drunk when he took the decision to retreat from Lạng Sơn. This shabby charge dismayed many officers, and won Herbinger

3366-542: The passes around Chu and Kép. The enemy continues to grow stronger on the Red River, and it appears that we are facing an entire Chinese army, trained in the European style and ready to pursue a concerted plan. I hope in any event to be able to hold the entire Delta against this invasion, but I consider that the government must send me reinforcements (men, ammunition, and pack animals) as quickly as possible. The news contained in

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3432-421: The proponents of a colonial policy did not dare defend their views of the previous day. Brière de l'Isle's cable of 28 March gave the impression that a catastrophe had befallen the Tonkin expeditionary corps, and none of his later reassurances was able to entirely efface this initial impression. Although it knew by the evening of 29 March that Herbinger had halted his retreat at Dong Song and that Brière de l'Isle

3498-541: The result of the vote with howls of delight. As Ferry sought to leave the Palais Bourbon to return to the Elysée Palace, he had to run the gauntlet of a furious crowd of demonstrators gathered together by Paul de Cassagnac . The demonstrators yelled abuse at the fallen premier, jabbing their fingers towards him violently. 'Down with Ferry! Death to Ferry!' Ferry's friends hustled him past this baying pack. But there

3564-413: The reunited 2nd Brigade marched out of Dong Song and headed south for Chu. Determined to jettison anything that might slow down the next stage of the retreat, Herbinger decided to sacrifice another artillery battery, and gave orders for the guns of Roussel's battery to be spiked and abandoned. On this occasion he was disobeyed by his officers, and Roussel's battery arrived safely at Chu without slowing down

3630-489: The sake of the French troops in Tonkin, they must first vote to send out more ships and more men. He concluded by formally moving that the credits be voted. His opponents erupted in anger. Périn yelled 'Don't keep on exploiting the honour of our flag! You've wrapped yourself in our flag for far too long! Enough is enough!' Clemenceau attacked the premier in savage terms. 'We're completely finished with you! We're never going to listen to you again! We're not going to debate

3696-428: The shelter of their entrenched camps at Bang Bo and Yen Cua Ai. Vietnamese sympathisers caught up with the Chinese near Cua Ai on the evening of 29 March, bringing the astonishing news that the French had abandoned Lạng Sơn and were in full retreat. The Chinese general Pan Dingxin promptly turned his battered army around and reoccupied Lạng Sơn on 30 March. Pan sent small forces of skirmishers on from Lạng Sơn to observe

3762-492: The two Legion battalions to Dong Song. Fearing that Martin's towed artillery battery would slow down the retreat, Herbinger ordered Martin to dump his guns and limbers in the Song Ki Cong river, where they were later recovered by the Chinese. The brigade's treasure chest was also thrown into the river. Before the retreat commenced Herbinger cabled Brière de l'Isle in Hanoi, claiming that he did not have enough ammunition to fight

3828-453: The war ended before Herbinger had the chance to risk his life in battle, and he soon had a change of heart. He decided to defend his conduct by attacking de Négrier's decision to attack the Chinese at Bang Bo, claiming that the 2nd Brigade's morale was shaky, and alleging that, as an officer of the metropolitan army, he had been the victim of a plot by the Legion and marine infantry officers who ran

3894-540: Was a major political embarrassment for the proponents of the policy of French colonial expansion first championed in the 1870s by Léon Gambetta . It was not until the early 1890s that French colonial party regained domestic political support. The consequences to colonial policy stretched beyond Tonkin, or even Paris. Writes one historian of French colonialism in Madagascar, "There was a general desire to have done with other colonial expeditions still in progress." That said,

3960-480: Was conducted without loss and without interference from the Chinese, but both Herbinger and Schoeffer set an unnecessarily punishing pace, and both halves of the brigade were exhausted by the time they reached their destinations. Brière de l'Isle was stunned at Herbinger's decision to abandon Lạng Sơn. His immediate reaction, on the evening of 28 March, was to despatch a pessimistic cable back to Paris which would have momentous political consequences two days later. By

4026-552: Was immediately reinforced: I am grieved to tell you that General de Négrier is seriously wounded and Lạng Sơn has been evacuated. The Chinese forces advanced in three large groups, and fiercely assaulted our positions in front of Ky Lua. Facing greatly superior numbers, short of ammunition, and exhausted from a series of earlier actions, Colonel Herbinger has informed me that the position was untenable and that he has been forced to fall back tonight on Dong Song and Thanh Moy. All my efforts are being applied to concentrate our forces at

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4092-466: Was stabilising the situation, the army ministry remained stunned by the news that Lạng Sơn had been abandoned, and decided to disclose the contents of both cables to the National Assembly on 30 March. Ferry attempted to use the occasion to demand an emergency credit to reinforce the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps. The debate that followed was one of the most vitriolic in France's political history. On

4158-517: Was tabled, and Ferry's government fell on 30 March amid almost unprecedented scenes of uproar. 'Throw Ferry in the Seine! Kill the Tonkinese!' the crowds shouted. Ferry never recovered from the Tonkin Affair. He never again became premier, and his political influence during the rest of his career was severely limited. His successor, Charles de Freycinet, moved quickly to negotiate a ceasefire and provisional peace agreement. China, for its part, had suffered

4224-464: Was the most shameful moment of the entire retreat. 'We retired in echelons like this for ten kilometres,' Captain Lecomte later wrote, '3,000 Frenchmen running away from 40 Chinese!' Had Herbinger but known it, his decision to abandon Lạng Sơn had been entirely unnecessary. On 29 March, while the French were retreating southwards, the demoralised Chinese were streaming back towards Zhennanguan, heading for

4290-424: Was to reinforce the army in Tonkin, and indeed Brière de l'Isle quickly revised his estimate of the situation and advised the government that the front could soon be stabilised. However, his second thoughts came too late. When his first telegram was made public in Paris, there was an uproar in the Chamber of Deputies. The government's opponents, led by Georges Clemenceau , went on the attack. A motion of no confidence

4356-402: Was worse to come. The news of the cabinet's fall had gone round Paris like wildfire, and in front of the palais Bourbon an excited mob, estimated by journalists at around 20,000 people, thronged the pont de la Concorde. This crowd had been whipped up to a frenzy by agitators from the far-right parties, and at the sight of Ferry it gave tongue. 'Down with Ferry! Throw him in the Seine! Death to

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