740.0011 P.W./3–1245
The French Ambassador ( Bonnet ) to the Secretary of State
The French Ambassador to the United States presents his compliments to His Excellency the Secretary of State and has the honor to invite the latter’s most earnest attention to the following question.
During the night of March 9, the Domei Agency broadcast a communiqué of the Japanese High Command according to which the Japanese occupation forces in Indo-China evicted the French administration [Page 298] and disarmed a part of the French troops stationed in that country.
Although the French Government has received no confirmation of these news, it had long foreseen that the Japanese would take such measures with a view to attempting to neutralize, at least in part, the activity of the resistance movement organized by the Frenchmen of Indo-China and to dispel the danger with which the existence of this movement threatened the security of their troops.
The American Government and the American High Command are aware that large groups of Frenchmen both from civilian circles, especially from the administration, and among Army officers organized themselves in Indo-China with a view to undertaking at an appropriate moment and with the cooperation of numerous native partisans, effective assistance to Allied military action in the Far Eastern theater.
The Provisional Government of the French Republic had given orders in advance to the French Resistance of Indo-China looking forward to the situation which has just taken place: in execution of these orders the Resistance was to oppose, by force and with all the means at its disposal and the possibilities which circumstances might offer, the attempt to disarm it which the Japanese radio has now announced. The plan of action drawn up in agreement with the French Government by the local head of the resistance movement (who was to give the agreed signal when conditions appeared to warrant putting it into effect) comprised a first phase in the course of which the troops were to fight in the Tonkinese Delta and in the regions near the frontier.
If, however, it appeared that this resistance of an organized military character was impossible, the troops were to withdraw toward so-called “maquis” areas with a view to undertaking guerilla action; during the retreat they were to effect systematic destruction of communications.
The head of this military and civilian resistance movement for all the Indo-Chinese Union is a high officer who has been duly accredited in this capacity and has been named Commander in Chief of the French Forces and Delegate General and Plenipotentiary of the French Government in Indo-China. In this capacity he is authorized to enter into relations with the Allied Commanders in the Far East and treat with them or with their qualified representatives on all questions concerning the conduct of operations and the relations of the Allied authorities with the French administrative authorities.
The Government of the United States will understand the deep concern of the French Government to have all possible support both in the material and purely military fields given immediately to its [Page 299] troops and partisans which are engaged in an unequal struggle in the midst of exceptionally difficult circumstances.
The French Government has instructed me to request the American Government to intervene, through the intermediary of its High Command, with the Combined Chiefs of Staff in order that the latter may urgently take the necessary decisions to have the Allied Forces in the Far East give to the forces of the French Resistance in Indo-China immediate tactical and material assistance in every possible field: direct support of operations, and the parachuting of arms, medical supplies, quinine, and food.
It would appear that the American Air Forces based in China are best placed, at least at the beginning, to intervene efficaciously in their favor—and possibly, as well, the troops which are now concentrated in Yunnan Province near the Sino-Indochinese frontier.
Admiral Fenard10 and, in his absence, General de St. Didier, have authority to hand all questions of coordination between the American Command and French Resistance in Indo-China.
The French Ambassador feels that he cannot emphasize too much the importance and the urgency which the French Government attaches to this matter.
Mr. Henri Bonnet is happy [etc.]
- Adm. Raymond Fenard, Chief of French Naval Mission in the United States, temporarily in Newfoundland.↩