Press Release Issued by the Department of State on August 2, 194130
The Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Sumner Welles, issued the following statement on August 2 in reply to inquiries from the press [Page 321] concerning the agreement entered into between the French and Japanese Governments regarding French Indochina:
“The French Government at Vichy has given repeated assurances to the Government of the United States that it would not cooperate with the Axis powers beyond the obligations imposed on it by the armistice, and that it would defend the territory under its control against any aggressive action on the part of third powers.
“This Government has now received information of the terms of the agreement between the French and Japanese Governments covering the so-called ‘common defense’ of French Indochina. In effect, this agreement virtually turns over to Japan an important part of the French Empire.
“Effort has been made to justify this agreement on the ground that Japanese ‘assistance’ is needed because of some menace to the territorial integrity of French Indochina by other powers. The Government of the United States is unable to accept this explanation. As I stated on July 24, there is no question of any threat to French Indochina, unless it lies in the expansionist aims of the Japanese Government.
“The turning over of bases for military operations and of territorial rights under pretext of ‘common defense’ to a power whose territorial aspirations are apparent, here presents a situation which has a direct bearing upon the vital problem of American security. For reasons which are beyond the scope of any known agreement, France has now decided to permit foreign troops to enter an integral part of its Empire, to occupy bases therein, and to prepare operations within French territory which may be directed against other peoples friendly to the people of France.
“The French Government at Vichy has repeatedly declared its determination to resist all encroachments upon the sovereignty of its territories. However, when German and Italian forces availed themselves of certain facilities in Syria to carry on operations directed against the British, the French Government, although this was a plain encroachment on territory under French control, did not resist. But when the British undertook defense operations in the territory of Syria, the French Government did resist.
“Under these circumstances, this Government is impelled to question whether the French Government at Vichy in fact proposes to maintain its declared policy to preserve for the French people the territories both at home and abroad which have long been under French sovereignty.
“This Government, mindful of its traditional friendship for France, has deeply sympathized with the desire of the French people to maintain their territories and to preserve them intact. In its relations with the French Government at Vichy and with the local French authorities in French territories, the United States will be governed by the manifest effectiveness with which those authorities endeavor to protect these territories from domination and control by those powers which are seeking to extend their rule by force and conquest, or by the threat thereof.”
- Reprinted from Department of State, Bulletin, August 2, 1941 (vol. v, No. 110), p. 87.↩