751G.92/15: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Grant) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 12—10:15 a.m.]
74. With further reference to the Legation’s telegram No. 72, September 8, 10 p.m.,73 the French Minister has just advised me that he was informed in a conference this morning with the Thailand Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs that the Thailand Government has not yet sent the telegram which was prepared for transmission last week to the Vichy Government requesting the immediate cession of two sections of territory in Indochina and the reservation of a part of Cambodia in the event of the invasion of Indochina by either Japan or Germany. The Deputy Minister said his Government would defer sending the telegram pending the receipt of the information from its military mission which is now en route to Tokyo.
The French Minister stated that he had communicated the substance of the Thailand Government’s desires to the Vichy Government which had replied to him (the French Minister) indicating its opposition to the Thailand proposal and its determination to deal only with the Japanese Government. In the strictest confidence the [Page 112] French Minister told me he is confident that, in accordance with a general agreement reached in Tokyo on August 30 between Japan and the Vichy Government, Japanese troops will begin soon to march into Indochina and from then on there will be a gradual and, it is hoped by both parties, a peaceful penetration of the country. He indicated that it is his belief that the totalitarian powers have a definite agreement with Japan to this end and that Vichy is going along.
- Not printed.↩