851.248/438
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called on me this afternoon at his request.
The Ambassador brought up the subject of obtaining munitions for French Indochina.91
I told the Ambassador quite bluntly that after full consideration by the appropriate authorities of this Government it had been found impossible to permit the exportation to Indochina of the various categories of munitions listed in the memorandum which he had left with me some ten days ago.
The Ambassador took this without any argument. He then read to me a telegram he had received from the Governor General of Indochina urging that the United States be requested to sell to Indochina the ten airplanes which had been destined for Thailand but which had been held up in the Philippines.
I told the Ambassador that there could be no question of selling these airplanes to Indochina since they were going to be utilized by the United States Army, and that if it were found that any old planes now in the Philippines could be spared, they would be sold to China. I took occasion to state that it seemed to me amazing that the French Government would continue to permit the 100 new military planes purchased in the United States to go to pieces in Martinique when these planes would be of enormous value to Indochina in resisting aggression either on the part of Japan or on the part of Thailand. I said I had been very much interested in Mr. Laval’s comments on this possibility in his conversation with Mr. Murphy,92 referred to in Mr. Murphy’s telegram of December 9.93 I read the pertinent portions to the Ambassador.
The Ambassador thereupon burst into a state bordering upon frenzy. He shouted that he had sent ten telegrams to his Government on that subject insisting that the terms of the armistice made possible the shipment to Indochina of the planes in Martinique and that each time he had been turned down flatly with the statement that the terms of the armistice would not permit. Now, he was informed that Mr. Laval was taking a contrary view. He said he would immediately telegraph his Government and insist that steps be taken at once to ship these planes to Indochina.