851.85/494: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Leahy)
245. Your 512, April 7, 8 p.m. Department cannot accept reasons stated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an attempted justification [Page 685] of its proposed action in making French ships available to the Japanese Government.
The statement that the vessels would be used for purely commercial purposes, even if true, wholly ignores the fact that they will be of tremendous assistance in the Japanese war effort, and would serve to release other vessels for more direct use against the United States. The modalities of the proposed arrangement, stressed by the Ministry, cannot deprive it of the character of direct military assistance.
The position of the Ministry is premised on the proposition that the alternative to a charter agreement might be a seizure of the French merchant fleet, which it is stated would have a serious effect on the sovereignty and political prestige of France in Indo-China and establish a precedent which the French Government is anxious to avoid. To avoid such a precedent the Ministry proposes to create another that would be equally bad and asks us to acquiesce. This we cannot do. The sovereignty and prestige of the French Government can, in the opinion of the United States, best be maintained by the taking of a firm stand on the basis of its sovereign rights and international law.
The United States is even more surprised that the Ministry should suggest that if the vessels should be seized by the Japanese Government the United States should make available to France an equivalent amount of tonnage—in other words, that the United States should compensate France for the illegal acts of Japan in her war effort against this country. The mere statement of the proposition demonstrates its absurdity. It would be more in keeping with the logic of the situation if France should offer to the United States tonnage equivalent to that which she proposes to make available to Japan or which the latter might seize. This Government hopes that it will not be forced to take this position.
Rights of the United States as a belligerent are directly involved and it must insist upon those rights.
In brief, what the United States expects, and is entitled to insist upon, is that France shall maintain by every means at her command a neutral attitude and shall not endeavor to find means of assisting our enemies who have demonstrated no greater respect for France than for ourselves.
You will please deliver a formal communication to the Foreign Office in the sense of the foregoing.