Show CHINAS GREAT IMPERIAL SEAL How Anain Under French Protection Destroyed De-stroyed Her Badge of Servitude Among tho many unique curiosities In M Jules Patenotres collection at the French legation at Washington is an Imprint of the great Chinese imperial seal Tho loss of the original die which the imprint represents was one of the greatest disappointments in the career of this clever diplomat He wanted it for his collection but the orientals were a little too many for him that time and this is how it happened The French had been carrying on the war in Tonquin during the early part of 1884 and finally succeeded in forcing China to surrender her claim of suzerainty suze-rainty over the empire of Anam in favor fa-vor of a French protectorate All tho state documents of the Anamite up to this period had not only borne the national na-tional seal but likewise the imperial seal of China as a mark of vassalage When on June 6 1884 however Pate notre obtained the signature to the treaty giving Anam over to tho protection protec-tion of France the great Chinese seal was brought before the convention of Anamite statesmen and French pfficera and diplomats M Patenotre in his report re-port to the home office described the scene as follows We took out seats about a large ta bio in the parlor of tho French residence resi-dence There were naval officers from Admiral Courbets fleet and several officers offi-cers from the French garrison at Hue The great seal was laid upon the table It was 5 inches square and made of solid sol-id silver weighing about 18 pounds Tho handle represented a camel kneeling kneel-ing jiigThe Anamite prime minister made a number of impressions from tho seal and while this was done servants were preparing a small charcoal furnace atone at-one end of the room The Anamites were preparing to destroy the seal I leaned over to the prime minister and told him that it was not yet too lato to save this interesting relic and I begged him not to consign it to the crucible Ho hesitated a moment ann then nem a brief consultation with NguyenVan Tuong the regent The latter shook his head and said that the lasttoken of An ams servitude must be destroyed Five minutes later tho great seal was nothing but a mass of molten silver And that is why there is only an imprint im-print of the seal in tho Frepch embas i sadors collection instead of tho heavy silver camel handled dieNew York Sun |