1. First of all, the relationship between these two important people originated from the friendship between Nguyen Sinh Sac/Huy (Nguyen Ai Quoc's father) and Phan Chu Trinh. The friendship between Phan and Nguyen was one of comradeship and shared aspirations (both passed the Phó bảng exam in the year of Tân Sửu (1901) and both were tired of the slave school scene).
Recently, some historical sources confirmed that in March 1911, a meeting took place between Phan Chu Trinh and Nguyen Tat Thanh in My Tho through Mr. Nguyen Sinh Huy. During this meeting, Phan Chu Trinh instructed Nguyen Tat Thanh on how to go to France as well as the next steps when Thanh arrived in France. This meeting laid the foundation for the later activities between Phan Chu Trinh and Nguyen Tat Thanh in France.
Thus, between these two characters there was a rather close relationship from within the country. It was this relationship that helped Nguyen Tat Thanh a lot on his journey to the South to prepare to go abroad to save the country and even later on in France.
After this meeting, Mr. Phan left Saigon on April 1, 1911 and arrived in France on April 27 of the same year, residing in Paris. Two months later, on June 5, 1911, Nguyen Tat Thanh also left Saigon on the ship Amiral Latouche Tréville, beginning his journey abroad to find a way to save the country. On July 15, 1911, Tat Thanh (Van Ba) first set foot on the port of Le Havre, France, then continued his journey across the continents.
2. During his time in the US and UK, Nguyen Tat Thanh wrote many letters to Mr. Phan Chu Trinh who was in France. Nguyen Tat Thanh called Mr. Phan "uncle", called himself "nephew" and received a lot of help from Mr. Phan. Thanks to that, Nguyen Tat Thanh had the opportunity to meet Lawyer Phan Van Truong and many other important people who were in Paris.
After many years of traveling across continents, at the end of 1917, Nguyen Tat Thanh decided to leave England for France to realize his ambition. As soon as he returned to France, Nguyen Tat Thanh was helped by Phan Chu Trinh and Phan Van Truong with many procedures and residence papers, and was allowed to stay at house number 6, Villa des Gobelins in the 13th district of Paris.
When Nguyen went to France, Phan Chu Trinh was one of the people who financially supported this young revolutionary. The secret report dated February 11, 1920 by spy Jean wrote: “Quoc, thanks to Mr. Truong’s allowance, paid for his house, while Phan Chu Trinh and Khanh Ky (Nguyen Dinh Khanh) gave him money to buy food. All in all, it was no more than 500 quan per month. Phan Chu Trinh is currently working as a photo retoucher in Pons. He earns about 30-40 quan per day”... In June 1919, Nguyen Tat Thanh, Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Van Truong and another Vietnamese patriot in Paris decided to draft the “Demand of the People of Annam” to send to the Conference of the victorious countries in World War I held in Versailles and agreed to let Nguyen represent him in the “Demand” with the name Nguyen Ai Quoc. On June 18, 1919, through the newspapers L'Humanité and Journal du peuple, the name Nguyen Ai Quoc appeared in Paris politics as a representative of the group of Vietnamese patriots in France.
From 1922 to 1925, patriot Phan Chu Trinh and revolutionary Nguyen Ai Quoc exchanged many letters with each other. In a letter written on February 28, 1922, from Marseille to Nguyen Ai Quoc in Paris to discuss the method of saving the country, Mr. Phan wrote: “Until now, you still do not like my method of enlightening the people, strengthening the people's spirit, and improving the people's lives. As for me, I do not like your method of "lying abroad to recruit talented people, waiting for the opportunity to return home to work". Honestly, from before until now, I have never looked down on you; on the contrary, I even admire you"...
Although there were still differences in the views on saving the country between Mr. Phan and Nguyen Ai Quoc, Mr. Phan's experiences helped Nguyen Ai Quoc a lot during his time working in France. This was mentioned by the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong when talking about the relationship between Uncle Ho and Mr. Phan: "I heard Uncle Ho talk a lot about Mr. Phan. He said that before leaving, he was guided by Mr. Phan. Taking a job that was considered lowly at that time to make it easier to fool the secret police when leaving the country was at Mr. Phan's suggestion. When he arrived in France, he immediately contacted Mr. Phan. The relationship between Uncle Ho and Mr. Phan was very close, as close as blood relatives."
Specifically, after 3 months in France, in September 1911, Nguyen Tat Thanh submitted an application in French to the French President to apply for boarding school at the Colonial School. Writing an application in French was not easy for Nguyen Tat Thanh at that time, because it took him several years to become fluent in French. Meanwhile, Phan Chu Trinh was living near the Colonial School at that time, and often visited Phan Van Truong, Nguyen Dinh Khanh (aka Khanh Ky), Bui Ky... Certainly, these intellectuals who were good at French helped Nguyen Tat Thanh draft the application, through their relationship with Mr. Phan. At the same time, Mr. Phan also guided Nguyen Tat Thanh in many other things during his first days in a foreign land.
In June 1925, Phan Chu Trinh returned to Vietnam. During his convalescence in Saigon, before his death (1926), Phan met with Vice-Chancellor Nguyen Sinh Huy and Phan left a will to his friends: "The future independence of our nation depends on Nguyen Ai Quoc." This shows that Phan understood Nguyen Ai Quoc's will and path to save the country and had high hopes for him!
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