Word: cochineal
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Last March, France recognized the Indo-Chinese "free state" of Viet Nam (the provinces of Tonkin and Annam) within the French Union. But this was not enough. The Vietnamese wanted to incorporate the southern province of Cochin China, because, they said, its people were mainly Annamese. The French agreed to hold an election to ascertain the wishes of the Cochin Chinese. Meanwhile, separatist agitation in Cochin China must stop. The Vietnamese tartly replied that if the separatist case was not properly presented, the election would be unfair. Ho & Vo. Viet Nam is headed by Ho Chih-minh (He Who Enlightens...
...weeks, the monsoon rain drummed on the roof of the two-story European-style house which stood (significantly) between Saigon's French and native quarters. Within, tiny (4 ft. 11 in.) Dr. Nguyen Van Thinh, President of Cochin China's Provisional Government, pondered his troubles in the sticky gloom...
...such a one, life was not easy. Leaders of Cochin China's neighbor, obstreperous, independent Viet Nam (new state formed of Annam and Tonkin), urged Thinh's countrymen to throw off Western control, called Thinh a quisling and threatened him with torture. Gentle Dr. Thinh was revolted by stories of extremists disemboweling pregnant women and burying Europeans alive...
Even before the monsoon had started, Thinh got a shock when his French friends seemed to turn their backs on him. They had dealt directly with Viet Nam without Cochin China representation, causing Dr. Thinh's Government to lose face...
Before he would join France's projected Indo-Chinese Federation, Ho demanded: 1) Viet Nam's right to manage its own foreign affairs without interference by the Federation; 2) annexation of Cochin-China, an adjoining province (almost one-third the size of Viet Nam), which wants to be a separate member of the Federation. The French, who had agreed to all other Viet Nam demands, said no. Ho walked out of the conference, and while his guerrillas continued to kill French soldiers almost daily, holed up in his flower-littered suite at Paris' swank Royal Monceau Hotel...