751G.94/197
Memorandum of Conservation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called to see me this morning. The Ambassador said that he believed that the local authorities in Indochina would resist any attempt at invasion by the Japanese, and while he was not authorized to say so officially, he expressed his personal opinion that they would in fact do so.
I asked the Ambassador if he could explain to me the policy which the German Government was pursuing in this regard. I asked him if he did not consider it improbable that under present conditions the Japanese Government would now be preparing to occupy French Indo China without at least the tacit approval of the German Government.
The Ambassador said that his own opinion was, resulting from the information he had received in France prior to his departure for the United States, that during the earlier period the German Government had hoped to take over France’s colonial possessions in the Far East and it objected strongly to any indication from Japan that Japan herself would like to take such action. However, the Ambassador said he had reached the conclusion that Germany desired the Japanese to immobilize the United States Navy in the Pacific and that in return for an agreement on the part of Japan to pursue a policy which would bring this about, had found herself obliged to give Japan in return the go-ahead signal for the occupation of French, Dutch, and British possessions in the Pacific.