793.94/15606: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:40 p.m.]
78. Chauvel26 gave me to read today a telegram from Arsene-Henry, the French Ambassador in Tokyo, dated January 12, recounting a conversation that he had had the same day with Admiral Nomura, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
[Page 263]“The Ambassador had called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to protest against Japanese bombings of the French railroad from Indochina to Yunnan. The railroad has been bombarded 6 times at a point about 80 kilometers inside Chinese territory and bridge has been so severely damaged that traffic will be impossible over the railroad for some weeks.”
In reply to the protest of the French Ambassador the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the Japanese Government intended to continue bombarding the French railroad from Indochina until the French should stop sending supplies to Chiang Kai Shek.
The French Ambassador then stated that the action of the Japanese Government was totally illegal and improper and once more assured the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs of the fact that no military supplies whatsoever were going forward over the railroad.
The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs then stated that it was not simply a question of arms and ammunitions and strictly military supplies but also of all other material and supplies which might be of use to Chiang Kai Shek in carrying on war against Japan. The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs especially referred to the intention of the Japanese Government to continue bombing the French railroad so long as trucks and gasoline should be forwarded over the railroad to Chiang Kai Shek.
In brief, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs made it clear that it was the intention of Japan to stop all traffic over this railroad.
The French Ambassador protested most earnestly against this statement of the Japanese Foreign Minister and pointed out that the French railroad from Indochina was the single means of access by which countries which had an absolute right to trade with China could reach the interior of China and that the Japanese Government was threatening to cut off a vital artery of international trade by totally illegal action. The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, however, was unmoved by the protest of the French Ambassador.
The French Ambassador concluded the conversation by stating that he was certain that the French Government would react in a most vigorous manner against the policy which had been enunciated by the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Chauvel then anxiously stated to me that in his opinion the proper answer to this Japanese action would be to send a few French pursuit planes to shoot down any bombers that the Japanese Government might send against the French railroad.
He intended to discuss this matter with Léger27 this evening and obtain act [action?] of the most vigorous sort. He expected to communicate [Page 264] to Saint-Quentin28 the substance of the telegram that he had given me to read with a statement as to the course of action which the French Government had decided to pursue, for communication to the Government of the United States.
At this point I mentioned the fact that I had taken lunch with Mandel;29 that Mandel had referred to the statements of the Japanese Foreign Minister and had pointed out that the cessation of trade over the railroad would interfere most seriously with American trade with China and had asked if in the course of further conversations on the subject of the trade treaty between the United States and Japan30 it might not be possible for our Ambassador in Tokyo to mention our displeasure at a policy of the Japanese Government which seemed to be an attempt to cut off our trade with China by illegal action.
Chauvel said that he did not wish to make any such suggestion officially or crudely to the American Government but obviously the French Government would be very grateful for anything that the Government of the United States might do to preserve the right of all nations to trade by way of the railroad through Indochina.
While I was with Chauvel, Legér telephoned to say that Mandel had suggested to him that the Japanese should be permitted to send an observer to make certain that no military supplies were going forward over the French railroad at the present time. Chauvel expressed his entire hostility to any such action and expressed the opinion that it was based on a misapprehension on Mandel’s part of the true situation. Mandel had not seen the telegram which he had shown to me and was not aware that the Japanese had announced their intention to cut off not only trade in arms and ammunition but also all trade over the French railroad to Yunnan.
He pointed out very clearly that at no time had Japanese troops been at a point within 200 miles of the French railroad. They had merely sent bombing planes to destroy it. A Japanese inspector could not be placed on the Chinese side of the line since the Chinese would kill him at once and the French Government could not with dignity permit the establishment of a Japanese inspector on the French side of the frontier.
Chauvel finally stated that he would recommend to Léger and Daladier31 that one or the other of them should send for the new Japanese Ambassador in Paris, Sawada, and say to him that the French Government had hoped that his arrival in Paris would be the [Page 265] beginning of a new and happy era in French-Japanese relations. The French Government regretted to have to say to him that so long as the Japanese Government should maintain the position enunciated by Admiral Nomura in his conversation on January 12th with the French Ambassador in Tokyo, with regard to the intention of the Japanese Government to continue bombardments of the French railroad through Indochina, the French Government would be unable to have any conversations of any importance with him in Paris on any subject.
- Jean Chauvel, head of the Far Eastern Section, French Foreign Office.↩
- Alexis Léger, Secretary General of the French Foreign Office.↩
- French Ambassador in the United States.↩
- G. Mandel, French Minister for the Colonies.↩
- See pp. 625 ff.↩
- Édouard Daladier, President of the French Council of Ministers (Premier), Minister of National Defense, and Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩