751G.92/6: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Thailand (Grant)
46. Reference Department’s 44, September 5, 7 p.m., with special reference to paragraph numbered 4. The Thai Minister69 called today in response to the Department’s request, and an officer of the Department made an oral statement to him along lines as follows:
“The Government of the United States is much concerned over reports that the Thai Government is contemplating the sending of its military forces into French Indochina for the purpose of reclaiming by military action territory which now forms a part of French Indochina. The Government of the United States earnestly hopes that these reports have no foundation in fact. If it should become known that the Thai Government intended to take advantage of the present weakness of the French Government by sending a military force into French Indochina, such information would tend to encourage or to precipitate other aggressive action against French Indochina and thus inevitably result in a further spread of hostilities which this Government feels would ultimately be disastrous to Thailand and [Page 108] would certainly impair the friendly relations which this Government has happily so long enjoyed with the Thai Government and people.
This Government has already made known to the Thai Government its deep interest in preventing the spread of hostilities in the Pacific area and its belief that the adjustment of problems in international relations should be reached by peaceful negotiation and un-coerced agreement. This Government again expresses its earnest hope that the Thai Government will, as in the past, adhere to the universal principles of fair dealing and good neighborliness to which this Government stands committed.”
The Department suggests that in your further approaches to high officials of the Thai Government in regard to the subject under reference you may appropriately make comment substantially similar to the foregoing.
- Mom Rajawongse Seni Pramoj.↩