892.24/83½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Smyth)54
The Thai Minister called on his own initiative, accompanied by his Military Attaché, Colonel Kunjara, on Mr. Adams and Mr. Smyth December 1, 1941. The Minister said that he had brought Colonel Kunjara along in order to explain the general military situation.
Colonel Kunjara said that according to his latest information the Japanese have approximately 150,000 troops in Indochina, about equally divided between northern and southern Indochina. He expressed the conviction that the real objective of any Japanese attack from Indochina would be the Burma Road, and he felt that it would be far easier for the Japanese to reach the Burma Road by going through Thailand than by attacking from northern Indochina through the difficult mountain country of Yunnan. He said that the Japanese could attack from southern Indochina into Thailand, using mechanized equipment, and then proceed north along the railroad from Bangkok; just south of Chiengmai a paved motor road branches off from the railroad and the Japanese could go north along this road to the Thai-Burma border and/or the Thai-Indochina border. He believed that the Japanese would then probably cut through a corner of Burma toward the Burma Road. He pointed out that the pass through the mountains of northern Thailand would be far less difficult to cross from a military viewpoint than would be the passes which would have to be crossed by an Army attacking from northern Indochina. For this reason he was extremely apprehensive that the Japanese intended shortly to launch an attack against Thailand from southern Indochina.
Colonel Kunjara gave the following information in regard to the Thai military and naval forces: the total strength of the Thai army [Page 363] is about 200,000 but only 40,000 are well-equipped and trained. The Thai air force possesses about 200 combat planes, of which 108 are pursuit planes (slower than current Japanese pursuit), 30 bombing planes and the balance observation and general service planes. There are about three pilots for every plane. The Thai artillery includes 15 regiments of field artillery (12 guns to a regiment) and one regiment of medium artillery. The mechanized equipment includes 80 tanks (all eight tons or under), several hundred trucks, and one platoon of armored cars. The Thai navy is composed of the following vessels: two heavy gunboats (2400 tons), two light gunboats (1200 tons), two sloops, nine first-class torpedo boats, five submarines, five smaller torpedo boats, twelve mosquito boats, and 36 naval planes. The naval personnel amounts to about 6,000 men.
Colonel Kunjara expressed the belief that a Japanese attack against Thailand would be carried out by a land attack through Cambodia and by a simultaneous naval attack; he believed that one Japanese naval force would attack along the coast in the region of Bangkok, while a second force would attempt to land men along the Kra peninsula in order to cut railroad communications with Malaya.
Colonal Kunjara said that the military equipment now most urgently needed by Thailand was heavy artillery, bombing planes and pursuit planes. The Minister expressed the hope that means could be found to make this equipment available immediately in order that Thailand might be better able to resist aggression by Japan.
Mr. Adams informed the Minister that the information given by Colonel Kunjara and the request of the Minister would promptly be brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities of this Government.
- Initialed by the Chief of the Division (Hamilton).↩