People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1893 — FRANCE WANTS WAR. [ARTICLE]

FRANCE WANTS WAR.

*ha Metifiaa th. Power* of Her Intention to Blockade the Porta of Slam—Her Minister Leaves Bangkok—The Feeling in England. * Bangkok, July 25.—M. Pavie, French minister resident, has lowered the flag ! over his office and has notified the Siamese government that he will leave ' the city to go aboard the French warship Inconstante on Wednesday. He has requested the government to provide pilots to conduct the Lutin and Comete down the river. French subjects in Bangkok will be placed under the protection of the Dutch consul Paris, July 25.—The government has notified the powers that it intended to establish a blockade of the Siamese coast, without prejudice to the other measures that may be taken with the object of securing to France the guarantees to which she is entitled. The Liberte newspaper says that France will watch and hold Battambang and Angkora as guarantees that her demands will be satisfied. The Temps says that the beginning of the blockade will be deferred until Thursday or Friday to. enable France to take steps prescribed by international law.

Besides the blockade military operations will be opened shortly. The details of these operations are still undetermined. They will be settled at a cabinet council within’ a day or two. j Steps will be taken in Indoi China toward serious action imj mediately after the arrival of the battalion of the foreign legion. The second portion of this battalion has sailed from Marseilles. The native i militia will be reorganized, and together with the imported companies of the foreign legion will cooperate with , i the force already in active service in the’ Khong district. Paris, July 25. —The Liberte says I that the French gunboats probably . ' will go down the river, shell and de- ; I stroy the Paknam forts and then ; return to their positions before Bang- j I kok and bombard the palace. Some painful measure is necessary, adds this ' ’journal, for the preservation of j France’s prestige. The Debats says that Siam, as a rice producing country, probably does not fear greatly the blockade. As for the ; operations on land the Debats thinks 1 the Siamese will be provided surrep- j titiously by England with all the arms they need.

The majority of the Paris newspapers devote as much space to denunciation of England as to the matter at issue between France and Siam. England is reproached by them with supporting the Siamese in their opposition to France’s just demands, and with planning to give the Siamese secret aid when hostilities begin. The Siamese minister in this city has not yet received his passport from the French government. Immediately after M. Pavie’s departure from Bangkok, however, he will go to Lisbon or Madrid, as he is accredited to Spain and Portugal as well as to France. The minister still hopes for peaceable settlement of the trouble. The Siamese secretary of the legation said that no further news had been received at the legation from Bangkok. Upon seeing M. Pavie embark, he added, the Siamese government might decide to accept the terms of the ultl- I matum. This supposition, however, j was merely personal and did not rest on any definite information. London, July 25.—The Bangkok correspondent to the Times says: “The territory that Siam offers to sacrifice covers the extreme pointof recently attempted French aggression. The cession involves the evacuation of the Siamese ports of Poowadone Altopen and Sumpang. On the river itself the French have been unable in four months to place a single station except Khnong, and that was obtained by a surprise.” London, July 25. The FrancoSiamese complications have been the one absorbing topic in the lobbies of the house of commons. The situation is regarded with apprehension by all parties, and the last news from Bang' kok and Paris is read with as much anxiety as eagerness. On all sides regret is expressed that the British warships in Siamese waters were not reenforced a month ago, as the British interests in Siam outnumbered the French a hundred to one. . London, July 25.—The Times publishes an editorial which, it is thought, expresses the general English opinion of the merits of the Franco-Siamese dispute. In commenting upon Siam’s answer to the French ultimatum, the Times says: “Siam’s refusal to go beyond just and reasonable limits or to concede territory to which France never put in an effective claim until the other day, is no excuse for a measure of hostility, ostensibly directed against, the Siamese, but really striking at the commerce of England and other countries having com mercial relation with Siam. ”