Old Saigon Travelogue: About the founding day of Saigon city

In 1998, when many places across the country organized activities to celebrate the event "300 years of Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City", some books and newspapers identified Saigon city as being founded in 1877, according to a decree issued by the French president. However, this may be a misunderstanding.

Perhaps one of the works that paved the way for the information that "Saigon city was established in 1877" was the book Colonial Government in Vietnam before the August Revolution of 1945 by author Duong Kinh Quoc, in which it is written: " On January 8, 1877, the French President signed a decree officially establishing Saigon city. Saigon city was classified as a "Large City" (Grande Municipalité) or "Class I City" (Municipalité de première classe) and therefore had to be established by decree " (Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi, 1988, p.80) .

Decree of January 8, 1877 of French President Mac Mahon

Photo: LE NGUYEN DOCUMENTS

Since 1998, this information has been repeated from time to time, causing many readers to misunderstand one of the important events in the history of the formation of Saigon city. This requires the need to clearly define the issue with the most convincing arguments and evidence.

First, it is necessary to determine that the phrase "Saigon city" (ville de Saigon) was used by the French colonialists at least since 1861, in the "Official Report" (Rapport officiel) dated February 27, 1861 sent by Vice Admiral Charner to the French Minister of Navy and Colonies, detailing the capture of Chi Hoa fort (the report was recorded as "Ki hoa"). This document was first published in the Revue Maritime et Coloniale ( Navy and Coloniale ) magazine in May 1865, pages 546 - 553, and was republished in the work Documents pour servir à l'histoire de Saigon, 1859 - 1865 ( Documents for studying the history of Saigon in the years 1859 - 1865 ) by Jean Bouchot, published in Saigon in 1927, pages 29 - 36. From then on, the phrase "Saigon city" became popular in documents and papers issued by the colonial government.

On April 4, 1867, Vice Admiral De La Grandière issued Decree No. 53 "Organizing a Saigon City Committee" published in the Bulletin officiel de la Cochinchine française ( Official Gazette of French Cochinchina - BOCF ) in 1867, pages 359-367. This fundamental document was amended by Decree No. 131 dated July 8, 1869, renaming the City Committee (Commission municipale) to the City Council (Conseil municipal) and amending some details about the personnel composition of this council.

Saigon Center - Ho Chi Minh City today

PHOTO: QUYNH TRAN

Eight years later, on January 8, 1877, French President Mac Mahon issued the "Decree on the organization of Saigon City" (original text: "Décret concernant l'organisation municipale de la ville de Saigon"). This is the key document of the misunderstanding about the time of establishment of Saigon City, consisting of 77 provisions, arranged in 10 chapters. Article 1 of the decree opens with the sentence: "Saigon City was built into a commune" (La ville de Saigon est érigée en commune).

The following chapters deal with personnel issues, election procedures and nominations for City Council members, budget issues, justice, accounting, city transfers... However, in this decree, and the Circular of the Ministry of Navy and Colonies guiding the implementation of the decree, there is no provision mentioning the establishment of the city; nor is there any word related to the classification of Saigon city into the category of "Grand City" (Grande municipalité) or "Grade I City" (Municipalité de première classe) as author Duong Kinh Quoc stated in the above-mentioned work.

From the above data, we would like to make the following observations:

1) The fact that the phrase "Saigon City" (Ville de Saigon) was used by the French colonial government in official documents right after occupying Saigon (February 1861 and continuing after) proves that before that, they had implicitly considered Saigon a city. That is also the reason why for many years after, there was no official document establishing Saigon city.

2) Since 1867, Saigon city has been managed by a relatively complete structure, first the City Committee established by decree dated April 4, 1867, then the City Council, adjusted according to decree No. 132 dated July 8, 1869.

3) The first sentence in Article 1 of the decree dated January 8, 1877 "Saigon City was established as a commune" shows that Saigon City existed before the decree was signed and issued. This document, even at the highest level (issued by the French president), was only a continuation of the previous decrees of the Governor of Cochinchina on the organization and operation of the Saigon City Council.

4) If we understand " establishing a city " as an act to bring an administrative unit from a position that is not yet a city to a city, then it is clearly impossible to specifically determine the time of establishment of Saigon city. But if we understand it in a more liberal way, according to which, Saigon city is considered to have been formed since there was a management apparatus of a certain scale, operating according to strict and reasonable principles, then the time of formation of the city must be April 4, 1867 (the date of issuance of the decree establishing the first City Committee), and not 1877, according to a decree that implicitly considered Saigon a city.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/sai-gon-xua-du-ky-ve-ngay-thanh-lap-thanh-pho-sai-gon-185251118224654542.htm