740.0011 Pacific War/673: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:40 p.m.]
550. The Minister for Foreign Affairs this morning again asked me to convey to the Department the hope of the Thai Government that the American and British Governments will issue public statements to the effect that Japan by invading Thailand would incur the enmity and armed resistance of those two countries in addition to Thailand’s. He recalled American and British statements of last August which I referred to in paragraph 2 of the Legation’s 504, November 6, 5 p.m. and said the Thai Government believed a new and even stronger statement would accomplish two results—it would deter the Japanese from the invasion on which they are now determined and would strengthen the will to resist of a Thai faction that is wavering because of disbelief that our two nations will actually come to the aid of Thailand when it is called on to resist aggression. He said this faction has considerable political influence and that it is impressed by the Japanese argument that all the small nations whom Great Britain encouraged to resist were abandoned and were conquered by Germany. He insisted that the Thai Government will resist invasion even without exterior aid but that it needs and earnestly hopes for the assistance it would derive from the suggested American and British statements.