893.24/1160: Telegram
The Consul at Hanoi (Reed) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 28—8:22 a.m.]
146. There has been a recrudescence of the seizures of transit cargo by the Japanese military authorities in Tongking. It is confirmed that they have seized among other things 136 GMC truck chassis which were purchased under the Universal Trading Corporation loan and which were stored by the United States Far Eastern Trading Corporation at Phuly about 60 miles south of Hanoi. This morning the Secretary General stated that the Japanese military authorities appear to be making a final clean sweep of all such cargoes—doing so before the arrival of a supposedly responsible Japanese mission which may then disavow the actions of the Japanese military forces in Indochina.
Sent to Cavite for repetition to the Department, Chungking, Peiping, Hong Kong, Shanghai. Shanghai please repeat to Tokyo.