793.94/15675: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
36. Your 6, January 6, 7 p.m. The Department is informed that in a recent communication to the French Government the Japanese Government requested that the French Government close the Indo-chinese frontier to all transit and stated that if this request should be refused the Japanese would continue to bomb the railway and would reject all responsibility for damages caused thereby. It is understood that the French Government has replied to the Japanese Ambassador at Paris inter alia that the Japanese Government has carefully refrained from declaring war on China; that Japan is, therefore, not qualified to claim belligerent rights; that the French Government is not bound by any legal obligation to Japan in regard to the transit of war materials through French Indochina; and that, if the frontier should be closed, the French Government would be compelled to stop exportation toward Japan of certain products. The Department is further informed that the French Ambassador to Tokyo was instructed to make a similar reply to the Japanese Foreign Office. Please mail cipher text to Peiping and Chungking.