892.014/8–1646
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, referring to its note No. 480 of July 29, 1946, has the honor to communicate to it below the plan for provisional administrative control to which the French Government deems that the Indochinese provinces annexed in 1941 by Siam should be subject during the action possibly to be instituted before the Hague Court.
From the political standpoint, the organization to be established should comprise, at the governmental level, a neutral commissioner who would be assisted, in the administration of the Cambodian territory, by a neutral, and an advisory commission composed of a Frenchman, a Cambodian and a Siamese; and, in the administration of the Laotian territories, by another neutral and an advisory commission composed of a Frenchman, a Laotian, and a Siamese.
The Siamese provincial chiefs of services who, to the knowledge of the French Goverment, are five or six in number per province, should be replaced by natives recruited locally or among persons born in the territories concerned, who belonged to the previous administration, but who have taken refuge in Cambodia or in Laos since the Siamese invasion. However, it would likewise be possible, and preferable, as far as the police service is concerned, for such provincial chiefs of services to be replaced by neutrals.
No change would take place in the cantonal administration, except in the event that the chief of police were Siamese; a native should then be put in his place. No change would be made with regard to the administration of the communes.
In the economic order, the Siamese currency, the fiscal system and the present organization of supplies would be maintained. The territories claimed by Cambodia and Laos would be set up as free zones, [Page 1066] and ad valorem duties exit and entry would be collected. The neutral commissioner, upon recommendation of the advisory commission, would divide the receipts so obtained among the provincial budgets.
A Committee having the neutral commissioner as chairman, and composed of a Frenchman, of the Chief of the province concerned and of a Siamese, would, moreover, control the distribution of rice exports (coming almost exclusively from the province of Battambang), which should be equally divided between Indochina and Siam. The decisions which it would be necessary to make for the exportation of other products would likewise be incumbent on this Committee.
As the Embassy has already indicated to the Department of State in its communication No. 512 of August 14, the French Government feels impelled, until the conclusion of the investigation which it has ordered, and which is at present in progress, concerning the Siem Reap affair of August 7, to reserve its decision to give to the plan above outlined the character of a definitive proposal. Indeed, the fact that armed bands, whose mission appears to be to provoke the most serious incidents, are formed and organized in the territories annexed by Siam, and are using those territories, which are at present under the authority of the Bangkok Government, as assembly positions for attacks like that which has just been made, is such as possibly to make necessary the demand by the French Government for guarantees of security which the results of the investigation might cause to appear essential. That is the reason why this plan, which had been drawn up before the incident of August 7, and the drafters of which endeavored to reduce to the minimum the changes to be made in the administrative organization now existing is, for the time being, communicated to the Department of State solely for its information. The Embassy will not fail to keep the Department of State informed of the conclusions to be reached by the French Government when it has seen the report which it is awaiting from its High Commissioner in Indochina, and to inform it as soon as possible of the decision adopted as a result thereof.
The Embassy of France avails itself of the occasion of the present note to renew to the Department of State the assurances of its very high consideration.