751G.92/166: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 14—2 a.m.]
45. Embassy’s telegram 1197, December 30, 5 p.m.,27 and previous: Flandin’s28 memorandum on the Far East sums up in part for my benefit the background of developments with respect to Indochina since last June which seems to be covered in the Embassy’s previous telegrams. It speaks with respect to China of the massing of 200,000 men on the Indochinese border and the Chinese delay in replies to French claims concerning border incidents, “which have multiplied in the course of the last weeks.” With respect to Thailand, it declares that the frontier incidents increased so in December that “a state of sporadic hostility has been reached which reigns today along [Page 18] the entire length of the frontier.” As to Japan, “In spite of our agreements our relations with Japan remain uncertain. In the course of the last weeks the Governor General of Indochina has called attention to the constant difficulties which the Japanese authorities stir up in Tonkin. Furthermore, precise and confirmed information reveals important deliveries of arms and war material by Japan to Thailand along with Japanese activity which tends to deter the Bangkok Government from a friendly settlement of the Franco-Thailand difficulties.” The memorandum continues that during the present crisis “the British position does not seem at all clear. The Singapore press supports the claims of the Thais. The British Minister at Bangkok acts, it would seem, along the same lines. British propaganda circulates rumors relative to an extension of Japanese ascendency in Indochina thus inciting Thailand to take its own measures of guarantee.[”]
The memorandum then summarizes the French requests to us of last October for: (1) assistance in obtaining from the British authorization for the transfer of four battalions of Senegalese troops from Djibouti; (2) the purchase of war materials especially airplanes, antiaircraft and anti-tank guns—“these purchases authorized by Wiesbaden29 can under present circumstances be effected only in the United States”; (3) the unblocking of necessary foreign exchange assets in the United States “in the absence of which indicate, compelled to trade only with Japan, would be exposed to the danger of falling under her economic domination.”
It then reviews the question previously reported by the Embassy with respect to the airplanes on the Bearn30 and states that “the conclusion of the examination of the airplanes having been favorable, Monsieur Henry-Haye has today been instructed to ask the State Department to obtain the agreement of London for their transfer” to Indochina. (Embassy’s telegram 1197, December 30, 5 p.m.)
The concluding paragraphs of the memorandum seem sufficiently important to quote in full:
“However, the latest news from Hanoi and Bangkok leads us to fear that the incidents are becoming more serious and that events are happening with great rapidity on the Thailand frontier.
Indochina is in danger of being called upon to face an armed aggression under difficult conditions owing to its isolation and its lack of armaments.
At a moment when things may pass at any time beyond the stage of negotiation, the French Government, counting on the understanding of the American Government and the parallel nature of the interests of the two countries in that part of the world, hopes to be able to obtain from the Government at Washington, (a) immediate material assistance through the delivery of war material, especially [Page 19] aviation material, and by the unblocking of French assets in the United States, and, (b) an action at London which (1) will make this assistance possible through the authorization of the transportation of this material especially the airplanes from Martinique and the transfer of the battalions from Djibouti and (2) will lead the British Government to renounce both in Thailand and in China intrigues contrary to the maintenance of the territorial status quo and contrary to the general policy of the Government of the United States in the Far East.”
- Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. iv, p. 249.↩
- Pierre Etienne Flandin, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Seat of Franco-German Armistice Commission.↩
- French airplane carrier in Martinique.↩