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Introduction
On 23 April 1879, a royal mission from Vietnam bearing gifts and a royal letter from Tự Dức to Chulalongkorn of Siam1arrived in Bangkok on board a steamboat named Li Tat Ki, a 33.5m by 6m warship equipped with guns and cannons.2The embassy, which consisted of 131 members in total including seven envoys, one interpreter, five students, over 50 able-bodied seamen, and other attendants, was apparently the first Vietnamese royal mission to Siam since friendly relations between the two countries had discontinued fifty years before. 3
Chulalongkorn welcomed the embassy by granting the envoys a royal audience, and received the letter and gifts from the Vietnamese court. While issuing two royal letters addressed to Tự Dức in return, one in appreciation of resuming the friendly relationship with the Vietnamese court and the other in celebration of the upcoming 70 thbirthday of the Empress Dowager, Chulalongkorn also ordered his official to contact the French consul in Bangkok in order to inquire whether sending a return mission to the Vietnamese court would not be against the conditions of the Treaty of 1874 (commonly known as the Philastre Treaty), which obliged Vietnam not to change existing relations with foreign powers. After consulting with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, the French authorities in Cochinchina advised the Siamese court not to send a return mission. However, after two years of negotiations, Chulalongkorn decided to send a royal letter and gifts to the Vietnamese court by entrusting French officials with their delivery.
How could such exchanges of royal letters and gifts occur? What was the purpose and political significance of these exchanges - were they a mere continuation of obsolete tradition or a matter of formality? What issues were involved in the process of negotiations between Siam, Vietnam, and France? Based on historical records at the National Archives of Thailand which have not been used before, and thus, admittedly, are primarily from the Siamese perspective, this article will reconstruct and examine the process of negotiations between Siam, Vietnam, and France concerning the exchanges of royal letters and missions between 1879 and 1882. Although the French authorities emphasised...