Show THE FRANCO WAR the difficulty between the french of anam and the elamese government is ii simply the eruption of a volcano whose fires have been shouldering ing for meyeral years ever since the former occupied and wrested from the chinese government the control of lower cochin chins although the scene of the present trouble la 18 about miles mile distant from the nearest point of anam the interchanges and commingling com mingling have been coustant constant and there are a great many french business establish ments in bangkok the capital of slam siam this Is reached reathel rea ohel from my point in the outer world through the gulf of siam from the northern shore of which a few miles and at the end of a wide river emptying into the gulf is the capital it seems that the french had demanded that their gunboats gun boats be permitted to PRO pass up the river to that city for the alleged purpose of giving protection to french persons persona and property there and add the siamese refused to admit war last at 6 o in the evening five bre nob war ships arrived at the mouth of the river leading to bangkok three of these theae vessels undertook to run the gauntlet of seven siamese war ships and live five forts forte and the latter being unprepared for fir this exploded their mines too late so that the warships ware hipe passed through safely firing then begun began and was waa kept up for forty ini minutes fifteen siamese were killed and thirty wounded the french being three killed two wounded and one dispatch boat sunk the dispatches show that while no great engagement has yet taken plade place desultory fighting is going on at various points and ana some of this thie has haa been quite severe the burden borden seeming t to rail fall principally upon the fi lamese who are evidently no match fur the french in the game of war this thin seems the more evident from the fact act that the government of slam is ia making overtures looking to a peaceful settlement it is ie to be hoped chest will be promptly acceded to and the legalized murders piracies pi and rob berless inaugurated brought to a close |