792.9411/3: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Grant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 13—11:53 a.m.]
206. Text of the pact between Thailand and Japan, which was ratified in Tokyo yesterday according to information received at the Foreign Office, was shown to me today by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs who said his Government would ratify as soon as the instruments have been received in Bangkok. The Japanese Government, he said, objected to the designation of the pact as a pact of non-aggression and therefore the pact is designated as “a treaty between Siam and Japan concerning the continuation of friendly relations and the mutual respect of each other’s territorial integrity.” The principal provisions are as follows:
Article 1. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and reaffirmation of the constant peace and the perpetual friendship existing between the two countries;
Article 2. Mutual maintenance of friendly contact in order to exchange information and to consult one another on any question of common interest that may arise;
Article 3. In event of one of the parties suffering an attack from any third power or powers the other party undertakes not to give aid or assistance to said power or powers against the party attacked.
Article 5. In case either of the parties shall have given notice to other 6 months before the expiration of 5 years of its intention to terminate the treaty it shall continue operative until the expiration of 1 year from the date on which either party shall have given such notice.
The preamble contains the following: “being convinced that the peace and stability of East Asia is the common concern of the two states” and further “being equally animated by earnest desire of reaffirming and further strengthening the traditional bonds of friendship between Siam and Japan.”72
- The treaty went into force on December 23.↩