A report on the aftermath of the Yên Bái mutiny by Vietnamese soldiers in France’s colonial army with support from the Vietnamese Nationalist Party that began on February 10, 1930.

‘Rebellion in Indo-China’ by N.T. from The Daily Worker. Vol. 7 No. 164. July 9, 1930.

ON the night of February 9, 1930, a rebellion broke out among the native soldiers in the Yen-Bay Military Post stationed 150 kilometres from Hanoi, in the province of Tonking. The rebels were joined by the local peasant population. According to a Havas communication the Yen-Bay Post was attacked by 200 native soldiers and 60 local revolutionaries. Five French officers were killed. The rebels captured two barracks, where the Red Flag was promptly hoisted.

The French authorities immediately took steps to introduce “law and order” in the post. It was surrounded by a strong contingent of French troops; the authorities apparently did not altogether trust the native forces. Airplanes were used to suppress the revolt.

With the rising in Yen-Bay, the natives attacked the military post in Hung-Hoa. They were repulsed, several of their number being killed and wounded. Nguyen Khac-Nhu, a revolutionary who had been sentenced in his absence to 20 years’ penal servitude, died of his wounds.

During the rising in Yen-Bay and the attack on the military post in Hung-Hoa, revolutionaries threw bombs in various parts of the town of Hanoi. This was done to divert the attention of the authorities from the event developing in Yen-Bay and to hold up the dispatch of a punitive expedition to rescue the government forces besieged in Yen-Bay.

This is the first armed rebellion in Indo-China. The French colonizers were seriously alarmed over the fact that movements of the rebels should have been so well coordinated.

“Depeche Coloniale” writes: “The mutiny in Yen-Bay was a rising of the regular troops against their French officers. It would be wrong to under-estimate the gravity of the situation.” The article ends by urging that the European garrison be strengthened in Indo-China. Of course, the French press claimed that the mutiny was due to foreign influence, that “the hand of Moscow” was clearly to be seen. The French newspapers now demand that the number of officers knowing the native vernacular be increased.

Reason for Rebellion.

Why did the rebellion occur? The position in Indo-China is certainly instructive. On the one hand the natives are brutally exploited and are eking out a miserable existence. There is a shortage of rice, the staple food in Indo-China, although it is exported in large quantities, being one of the major items in the export trade of Indo-China. The indentured workers have to work like slaves on the plantations. Official figures admit that the death rate among the workers is as high as 40 to 50 per cent. Peasants who have lost their land—which is filched from them under all kinds of pretexts—are compelled to sign contracts with the labor recruiters, signing themselves into virtual slavery on the plantations. Labor conditions on the plantations and in the mines are appalling. Coolies are compelled to work 13 and 14 hours a day for 30 to 40 sous (7 1/2 to 10 cents). There is no medical service. The land rents are extremely high; the whole population of Indo-China groaning under the intolerable burden of existing taxation which is constantly being increased.

On the other hand, we have the colonizers, enriching themselves by squeezing super-profits from Indo-China—this “richest colony of the French Empire”—as the French themselves call it. When the Colonial Budget was being discussed in the French Chamber, Doriot, the Communist deputee, cited figures showing how French capital investments had increased in Indo-China. Altogether French investments comprise three milliard francs, and are valued today on the exchange at 15 milliard francs. The investment of 18 million francs in the cement industry of Indo-China is valued at 500 million francs on the exchange, the shares of the seven millions invested in the coal mining industry now being worth 960 million francs, etc.

Rebels Have Successes.

In spite of the determined measures taken by the authorities, rebellion is spreading. From Yen-Bay the rebellion has spread throughout the Pleuve Rouge Valley for more than 200 kilometres. Rebels captured the village of Fuduk and attempted to attack Fort Nigian. In Winhbao the rebels killed an Anamese official who had tried to leave in an automobile for Nigian to get reinforcements. Subsequently, news came through that similar “disturbances” had occurred in Bakninh, Kienan and in the lower Delta region. It is certainly characteristic that when the Yen-Bay barracks were captured the native population should have fraternized with the soldiers. The peasants began to support the rebels. Several stores of arms and explosives were discovered in Hanoi.

All of the forces of the government, including the air force, were moved against the rebels. Several native settlements were bombed, the village of Koam being razed to the ground. Severe repressions are being used against the rebels. Many individuals have been arrested in Phutho, Hung-Hoa, Lam-Thoa, Hai-Duong and elsewhere, on the charge of being “connected with the Communist organizations.” This shows conclusively that “disturbances” had also occurred in these localities. Numerous arrests are still being made in Tonking.

By February 24,211 rebels had already been “rounded up.” Among them were 66 soldiers. Thirteen rebels have been sentenced to death; two to penal servitude. Many are of the opinion that more death sentences will follow, since the authorities are sparing no efforts to suppress the present rising. But one thing is certain: the rebellion itself and the bitter repressions instituted by the government will bring home to thousands upon thousands of Indo-Chinese workers the true role of French imperialism in Indo-China which, claiming to be a “civilizing factor,” has only brought poverty, exploitation and terror for the people. Despite all their repressions and persecution, the French imperialists will not be able to root out the unrest and ferment that has already started among the broad masses.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n164-NY-jul-09-1930-DW-LOC.pdf