892.014/6–346
The French Embassy to the Department of State
The Embassy of France in the United States presents its compliments to the Department of State and has the honor to address to it the following communication:
In the course of the last few days, the Siamese Government has addressed to the American and British Legations in Bangkok, to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, the USSR and China, and to the Secretariat-General of the United Nations, various communications complaining of the acts of the French forces of Indochina and attributing to the latter the initiative for incidents that have recently occurred on the border of Laos and Siam, particularly on two occasions during the month just ended. At the same time, before the representatives of various foreign press agencies in Bangkok, it accused the French and native troops under French command of acts of violence and depredation incompatible with military honor, ascribed to the French authorities the responsibility for the incidents which had just occurred, and gave world opinion to understand, by its declarations, that the French Government had deliberately undertaken military operations against Siam in order to hasten the return to Cambodia and Laos of the territories which Thailand took from those native kingdoms in 1941.
[Page 1011]After a thorough investigation, the results of which appeared only after a certain delay because of the difficulty of communications and also by reason of the care and meticulousness with which the inquiry was carried out, the French Government is in a position to reply pertinently and precisely to these various allegations.
On May 5 last, a band of 150 Annamites, who had revolted not only against French authority but also against the Viet Nam, and which had passed into the territory of Siam, crossed the Mekong, together with Japanese and Siamese elements, and attacked the Laotian village of Pak Hin Boun. That village was pillaged, partially burned, and the booty, as well as a certain number of hostages, carried off to Siamese territory.
On May 6, a new attack took place, under analogous conditions, against the neighboring village of Ban Hatte.
On the morning of May 7, the French Commander responsible for security and order in the sector which had just been the victim of these aggressions, having requested the local Siamese authorities to give assurances that they would oppose the repetition of such acts, and having received no reply at the end of the 20-hour time limit given them, had the administrative buildings of the Siamese town of La Khon fired on for a short period by two 20-millimeter machine guns, as a warning, and at a time when he knew that the premises were not occupied. On May 8, he presented to the Siamese Governor of the region a demand for the return of the hostages, the pirogues and all the articles that had been stolen, and insisted that the bands which had committed the various aggressions be disarmed. No reply was made to those various demands.
On May 24, a large armed band again crossed the Mekong to make a new raid on Laotian territory. A French force attacked it, compelled it to retreat, and then, exercising the right of pursuit which is sanctioned by law and custom in such cases, engaged it on the Siamese side, and there continued the engagement until the aggressors were dispersed. It returned to Laotian territory immediately afterwards. It had remained on Siamese territory for only three hours in all. In the course of the skirmish, a few of the assailants were killed; among them were found three Siamese nationals who were carrying French weapons.
Those are the facts which constitute, exclusively, the real substance of the incidents that have occasioned the recent protests of the Siamese Government and its propaganda campaign against France.
These incidents are only the most recent in a series of innumerable provocations (cattle thefts, pillage and burning of villages, capture of hostages) which Annamite and Laotian elements that have revolted against the native authorities of their country as well as against French authority have been committing for several months, frequently [Page 1012] accompanied by Japanese and even by Siamese, sometimes belonging to the regular Siamese Army. (Thus, after an engagement which occurred at the time when the French forces reoccupied the town of Thakhek, a Siamese colonel in uniform was found among the slain.)
These elements, which have taken the territory of Siam for their base of operations, hasten to return there in order to carry off their booty and seek refuge there after each of their incursions, and to prepare there for the following ones. The acts of these bands, which are well armed and organized, and certain of which have radio sets at their disposal, are possible only because of the complacency of the Siamese Government, which does not limit itself to giving them refuge, but has never made any attempt to disarm them, or to disperse them or to make them leave the border. What is more, it has permitted them to recruit new contingents on its territory, and to establish training camps in the vicinity of Indochinese territory, and numerous duly confirmed facts show that its benevolence with respect to them does not stop there.
As early as September 1945, the French High Commissioner in Indochina had representations made to the Government of Bangkok, through the intermediary of the British authorities, requesting it to put an end to this situation. It has had the said representations followed, as incidents occurred, by numerous protests with regard to the most flagrant acts. None of them has ever produced any result. The formal warnings which were given, quite recently, in this connection, to the Siamese Delegation which came to Saigon to discuss the conditions under which the return to Cambodia and Laos of the territories annexed by Thailand in 1941 is to be effected, manifestly had no effect either, since they were followed by the May incidents. These latter would not have been possible if the Siamese Government in conformity with the sentiments which it professes to entertain with respect to France, had taken the measures which the rules of international law impose on a responsible Government anxious to maintain—or, in the case of Siam and France, to return to—a state of peaceful and harmonious relations.
The French Government, for its part, is greatly desirous of renewing such relations with the Siamese Government, and that is why it has shown extreme patience and great moderation in its relations with the said Government. It has, therefore, experienced all the greater surprise and regret at seeing it distort and magnify immeasurably the incidents of last month, so as to present them as French aggression, and to arouse the sympathy of the United Nations for Siam, while the latter does not cease surreptitiously to assist the fomenters of disorder and to maintain, thus, a permanent state of unrest on the borders of Indochina.
It is only too evident that the Siamese Government is at present [Page 1013] attempting, by distorting acts for which, nevertheless, it bears the sole responsibility, to create a diversion, in the hope of thus being able to escape the obligation which is incumbent upon it, and which the American and British Governments have officially recognized, to restore to Cambodia and Laos the territories which Thailand robbed them of live years ago with the support of Japan.
The appeal by which it denounced “the aggression of France” and requested “the sympathy, assistance and cooperation” of the United Nations is the most recent and the most inadmissible phase of this maneuver.
Under these conditions, the French Government is bound to state that the forbearance which it has shown towards Siam, with which it is still, legally, in a state of war, has, so far, in the negotiations relative to the Cambodian and Laotian territories served only to encourage in Siam a spirit of resistance which has expressed itself by continual delays in the negotiations, by an increase of indulgence towards the agents provocateurs on the local plane, and, on the international plane, by an intolerable campaign of defamation.
The French Government deems, therefore, that the time has come to put an end to such actions, to confront the Siamese Government with its responsibilities, and to compel it, if need be, to take all measures to bring about order on the frontier. This disarmament, removal, and dispersion of the aggressive elements which are on Siamese territory are, in this connection, among the first precautions that must be demanded of Siam. Likewise, it appears desirable that the Siamese Government be firmly invited to restore, purely and simply, to Laos and Cambodia the provinces seized in 1941.
By order of its Government, the Embassy of France has the honor to request the Government of the United States to be good enough to intervene in this sense, with all its authority, with the Bangkok Government.
The Embassy avails itself of the occasion of the present note to renew to the Department of State the assurances of its very high consideration.