740.0011 PW 1939/1–1945
The Acting Secretary of State (Grew) to the President
Memorandum for the President
indochina
The Department has received the following estimate of the present British point of view about Indochina, sent from Kandy on January 4, 1945. As the source of this estimate was Mr. Dening, the Foreign Office official who is Chief Political Adviser under SEAC, I feel that it is of sufficient importance to transmit to you for your information.
In this estimate it is stated that: [Page 888]
“As a result of his verbal agreement with the Generalissimo at Cairo the Supreme Commander still considers that the status of Indochina is as it was in the days of the ABCD [ABDA?] Agreement, namely that Indochina and Thailand are free-for-all areas open to whichever allied military force gets there first. The reason for this is that when it was proposed to the Generalissimo that French Indochina be included in the SEAC theater he objected because of the loss of face involved and the alternative suggested by SAC, and agreed to by the Generalissimo, was that the decision of the Combined Chiefs that Thailand was in SEAC theater should not be released to the public and that both countries would be considered on a free-for-all basis.”
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