892.014/7–2946
The French Embassy to the Department of State
The French Embassy in the United States presents its compliments to the Department of State and, with reference to the conversations that have taken place between them on the subject of the Laotian and Cambodian territories annexed by Siam in 1941, has the honor to inform the latter that the petition to be addressed to the Permanent Court of Justice should be drafted as follows:
“Are the convention of May 9, 1941 concluded at Tokyo as a result of Japanese intercession and the annexation by Siam of certain Indo-Chinese territories sanctioned thereunder, valid from the juridical point of view?”
Furthermore, and in conformity with the suggestions of the Department of State, the Court should be invited to determine the sums which the French Government must reimburse to the Siamese Government on account of payments made under the 1941 Convention and for improvements from which the territories in question have benefited by Siamese action under Siamese administration. The Court should [Page 1044] also evaluate the damages caused in these same territories as a result of Siamese occupation.
However, the French Government believes that it is not the Court’s duty to determine the measures of safeguard which should be taken while awaiting the Court’s decision on these different questions. The French Government requests the American Government to be good enough to act as intermediary between it and the Siamese Government for the purpose of bringing about a preliminary understanding on this subject. What is involved, is not only the safeguarding of movable property in these territories, but also the prevention of any administrative or other initiative likely to provoke artificially a modification of their political or economic situation, such as pressure on the inhabitants or the stimulation of movements of population. The French Government will make known in greater detail its views on the subject as soon as the United States Government has informed it that it agrees to act as intermediary on this point also.
As soon as Siam has agreed to the above mentioned formula for the petition to be presented to the Court and the measures of safeguard whose principle has likewise been set forth, the French Government would be prepared to consider that the state of war has ended between Siam and itself and will not oppose the admission of Siam to membership in the United Nations. It goes without saying that in accepting these conditions the Siamese Government will ipso facto give up its appeal to the Security Council.
The French Embassy takes occasion of the present note to renew to the Department of State the assurances of its highest consideration.