751G.94/123: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 20—1:30 a.m.]
589. Chauvel has just told me that a Japanese general flew down from Tokyo to Hanoi and presented demands which went considerably beyond the previous Japanese demands and that without waiting for French reaction had announced that the Japanese are evacuating their colony from Indo-China tomorrow. (Chauvel had no information as to the size of the Japanese colony but thought it was just a “few hundred”.) The French negotiators in Indo-China immediately submitted counterproposals to the Japanese which the Japanese general has carried back to Tokyo by air.
Chauvel had no details as to the exact nature of the new Japanese position. He said, however, that it involved a semi-permanent stationing of Japanese troops in Indo-Chinese territory and not merely the right of passage. They also requested greater use of airdromes than previously. There was no demand, however, for any troop passage or occupation of territory south of the Red River. The French counterproposal he said represented some “recession from the previous position but was still within the extreme limits set in the instructions to the Indo-Chinese Government.”
Chauvel does not know what may happen now or whether the proposed withdrawal of the Japanese colony is bluff: the Japanese general in announcing the withdrawal stated that he hoped negotiations would continue but that in any event the colony would be withdrawn to “avoid possibility of incidents when our troops come in.”