Office of the Historian

751G.94/68: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State

Tokyo, September 5, 1940—6 p.m.
[Received September 5—9:13 a.m.]

801. Department’s 335, September 4, 5 p.m.,65 French Indochina. I have informed the French Ambassador of my approach to the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs.66

In view of the fact that the relations between the British and French Embassies in Tokyo are such that an exchange of information between them is virtually out of the question, I have also informed the French Ambassador of the fact that the British Ambassador had made similar representations, and have so informed the British Ambassador.

With reference to the last quoted sentence in our 798, September 5, noon,65 my French colleague has informed me in strictest confidence and “as for Mr. Grew, not as for the American Ambassador” that an agreement had in fact been reached on August 30 in Tokyo to the effect that the Japanese were to be granted such facilities for the landing and passage of the requisite number of troops through Indochina territory, and for the use of land and air bases, as were considered necessary by the Japanese for the prosecution of the hostilities against China. He stated that the Japanese had not at any stage asked for, nor the French offered, a naval base or bases to the Japanese in Indochina. He further stated that he had just been informed orally by the Foreign Office here that complete agreement regarding the technical details had just been reached between the Japanese and the Indochina authorities at Saigon; he was, however, as yet without confirmation in this regard either from Saigon or Vichy.

Grew
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. See telegram No. 789, September 4, 9 p.m., Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. ii, p. 292.↩
  3. Not printed.↩