851G.00/6–145: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Hurley)
843. Reurtel 890.31 The Secretary conversed with Bonnet and Bidault at San Francisco on May 8. On the subject of Indochina Bonnet observed that although the French Government interpreted Mr. Welles’ statement of 1942 concerning the restoration of French sovereignty over the French Empire as including Indochina, the American press continued to imply that a special status will be reserved for this colonial area. The Secretary made it clear to Bidault that the record was entirely innocent of any official statement of this government questioning, even by implication, French sovereignty over Indochina but that certain elements of American public opinion condemned French policies and practices in Indochina.
[The question of the division of some areas of operational responsibility in Southeast Asia was raised in a communication sent to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Supreme Commander, China Theater, by President Truman on August 1, 1945. The President conveyed his conclusion that the portion of Indochina lying south of 16 degrees north latitude should be the responsibility of the Southeast Asia Command, the area north of that line to be left in the China Theater. The Generalissimo agreed to this apportionment, subject to the stipulation that the 16–degree line also be considered the southern boundary of the China Theater within Thailand. The texts of these exchanges will be published in Foreign Relations, 1945, volume vii , section entitled: General wartime relations between the United States and China.
Under the terms of General Order No. 1, issued on September 2, 1945, Japanese forces in all of Thailand were called upon to surrender to the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia. For text of the General Order, see Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Report of Government Section, Political Reorientation of Japan, September 1945 to September 1948, page 442.]
- Dated June 1, not printed.↩