811.20 Defense(M)/1237a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)
132. An officer of the French Embassy left with the Department on February 6 an aide-mémoire of even date in which it is urged that this Government enter into immediate negotiations with Indochina with a view to safeguarding our economic interests there. It is stated that the Japanese Government has demanded of the Government General of Indochina that the whole of the Indochinese production of rubber and of minerals be reserved for Japan, and it is suggested, with a view to expediting an agreement with this Government, that you be charged with conducting commercial conversations looking toward such an agreement.
The Department is today replying to the French aide-mémoire substantially as follows:
[Here follows report based on aide-mémoire of February 8, printed supra.]
The Department desires that upon an early occasion you discuss the foregoing informally with appropriate officials of the French Government, that you emphasize this Government’s desire to purchase, on such terms as may be reasonable and similar to those embodied in previous contracts, the Indochinese commodities in question, and that you receive and transmit to the Department any proposals for commercial arrangements with respect to the sale of Indochinese rubber and minerals which the French Government may offer.