751G.94/386
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The French Ambassador called to see me this afternoon at his request. The Ambassador said that he wished to take up with me a matter which had to do with Indochina. He read to me a cable from his Government which was sent in response to the report of his recent interview with the Secretary of State.84 The Ambassador’s report to his Government had made it clear that the Secretary of State and this Government believed that the French agreement with Japan which paved the way for the Japanese occupation of Indochina had been undertaken in part as a result of German pressure. The French Government declared categorically that there had been no German intervention with regard to the economic agreement reached between Indochina and Japan and that the German Armistice Commission did not even know of the terms of the economic agreement so reached before it was concluded. The French Government went on to declare that Germany could logically have no reason whatever in seeing Japan increase her economic hegemony in southern Asia.
When he had finished reading this portion of the telegram from his Government the Ambassador said he wished to emphasize the fact that this telegram related solely to the economic phase of the agreement between France and Japan and that the telegram did not deny that pressure had been brought by Germany insofar as the political aspects of the Japanese occupation of Indochina were concerned.
The Ambassador referred again to the hope of his Government that in any conversations which were in progress between Japan and the United States the occupation by Japan of Indochina should not be regarded by the United States as a fait accompli. He urged that the United States should insist on American participation in trade with Indochina and particularly on the right of the United States [Page 292] to continue exporting rubber from Indochina. He likewise urged that United States observers, in whatever category might be deemed most appropriate, be sent to Indochina.
I said that consideration would be given to the specific suggestions that the Ambassador had made but that with regard to the larger issues brought up by the Ambassador, I felt sure that these matters had already been fully covered by the Secretary of State in his conversations with the Ambassador. I stated that I was at a loss to understand the suspicions of the French Government in this regard inasmuch as the President had informed Marshal Petain that it was the desire of the United States that the integrity and independence of France and the French colonies be maintained. I further reminded the Ambassador that one of the cardinal principles of the foreign policy of this Government was the right of all nations to trade on a basis of equal opportunity and under equality of conditions and that the United States necessarily, therefore, maintained this principle with relation to the Pacific, as well as with regard to all regions of the world. I stated that this policy of the United States had been reiterated on repeated occasions by the Secretary of State and other officials of this Government. I said it seemed to me, therefore, unnecessary for me to make any further statements than those I had just made.
The Ambassador said that he had in fact been told this by Secretary Hull and other officials of the Government but that he was glad to have me repeat the same statements.
- See memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Dunn), September 16, vol. iv, p. 454.↩