851G.00/12–2446: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the United Kingdom (Gallman)

secret

8317. Urtels 10216, Dec 21 and 10245, Dec 24.88 No Chinese proposal received here for intervention Indochina. Event such approach, [Page 80] Dept reaction will be negative with reply based same considerations emphasized by Brit FonOff in reply such suggestion by Chinese, namely (1) possibility results from Moutet trip, (2) likely clarification French line Indochina as French internal politics emerge from confusion, and (3) certainty offer of mediation would be resentfully rejected by French.89

Sent to London as 8317. Repeated to Paris as 6608; Saigon as 319; and Nanking as 1244.

Acheson
  1. See footnote 84, p. 75.
  2. Telegram 10279, December 30, 1946, 1 p.m., from London, reported that the British Foreign Office was gratified at the Department’s similar position and stated that the Chinese Embassy was being informed of British rejection of the proposed intervention in Indochina (851G.00/12–3046).