751G.94/142: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4 p.m.]
607. My telegram No. 606, September 22, 8 p.m., and previous. Chauvel told me this morning that a military agreement was reached at Hanoi yesterday afternoon which specifically prohibited the entry of Japanese soldiers from the Kwangsi division into Indochinese territory. News of the agreement was immediately communicated by General Nishihara to the commander of that division but in spite of this, last night Japanese troops did enter Indochina in the region of Dong-dang. They were resisted by force. To add to this confusion, said Chauvel, and as an example of Foreign Office coordination between various Japanese governing authorities, the Foreign Office at Tokyo [Page 144] had immediately complained to the French Ambassador that “in spite of an agreement having been reached the French had created an incident[”].
He told me that the French had now approximately 100,000 troops in all Indochina of which some 50,000 are north of the Red River.
He is giving me this afternoon the text of the political agreement and a summary of the military accord which I shall cable immediately.94
He remarked significantly that he personally had never for a moment doubted that Japan’s ultimate objective was the occupation of and control of French Indochina.