893.00/12–1349: Telegram
The Consul General at Saigon (Abbott) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 13—6:34 a. m.]
441. Pignon states communiqué re Chinese refugee troops in Indochina (Contel 437, December 12) issued on instructions Paris and identical message delivered same day to Chinese Communist authorities by French Consul General [at] Peking as reply to Chou En-lai note of end November.
Said actual situation on frontier much improved by disintegration General Pai’s army. Confident French troops can easily disarm such small bands as may now cross frontier. He admitted French had been [Page 627] extremely worried till last few days since it would have been impossible stop any organized withdrawal into Tonkin and even if troops submitted to disarmament, facilities for feeding, housing and guarding a hundred thousand or more men did not exist.
Pass Paris, Hong Kong. Pouched Hanoi.