The French Cemetery in Keelung
Only one trace remains today of the French occupation. At the request of Admiral Lespès, Liu Ming-ch'uan undertook to respect the cemetery in which the French war dead had been buried. This promise was kept, and the French cemetery in Keelung can still be seen today. The French dead, between 600 and 700 soldiers and sailors (most of them victims of cholera and typhoid rather than battle casualties), were originally buried in a cemetery further to the north, close to the Erh-sha-wan battery, and their remains were transferred to the present cemetery in 1909. The French cemetery contains only two named graves, those of sous-commissaire Marie-Joseph-Louis Dert and Lieutenant Louis Jehenne. Ironically, these two marine infantry officers died not in Keelung but in Makung in the Pescadores Islands, in June 1885, and their remains were exhumed and transferred to the Keelung cemetery in 1954.
Read more about this topic: Keelung Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or cemetery:
“Such is the nature and make-up of the French that they are only good at the start. Then they are worse than devils, but, given time, they’re less than women.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.”
—John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla)