851G.00/8–646: Telegram
The Consul at Saigon (Reed) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 7—12:55 a.m.]
320. Present Dalat Conference was established by High Commissioner’s decree as “preparatory conference to study the status of the [Page 51] Indo-China Federation within the framework of the French Union” to which the Royal Governments of Cambodia and Laos, the government of the autonomous republic of Cochin China and the native peoples of South Annam and high plateau of southern Indo-China are invited to send representatives. No details of Conference save agenda are as yet known but bearing out my previous prediction it is learned that South Annam representatives will petition for union of the three southern provinces of Annam with Cochin China. Agenda deals almost exclusively with federal setup (whereas previous Dalat Conference dealt with French–Viet Nam relations) which gives impression that participating states are at least tacitly recognized as free states and that the French and these free states are now determining status of federation without reference to Viet Nam. Unless this impression is done away with, overall situation may worsen, and Saigon press is doing nothing to alleviate situation as virulent attacks against Viet Nam continue.