893.24/956: Telegram
The Chargé in France (Matthews) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 12—9:53 a.m.]
931. Department’s 705, November 9, 9 p.m. I discussed the question of re-exports from French Indochina this morning with Chauvel.44 He states that considerable stocks of merchandise which had been shipped through Indochina to places such as Lungchow and even to Nanning were shipped back into Indochina at the time the Japanese went into Kwangsi. With the recent entry of Japanese troops into Indochinese territory in the neighborhood of Langson, the Japanese commander at Hanoi is insisting that such goods taken there constitute war loot and that therefore they should be permitted to seize them. Chauvel had little knowledge of the nature of the goods in question or whether or not any of them were of American origin.
The Japanese had also found out the cargo of one ship some time ago destined for Haiphong contained gas masks. The result is that they are insisting on the establishment of Japanese control commissions at Indochinese frontiers and ports. The French are vigorously objecting to this attitude, he said, and are at present negotiating with the Japanese with a view to a settlement. What that settlement will be and whether it will involve a French promise not to permit the reexportation of certain types of merchandise he could not say. The [Page 205] French are likewise insisting that it is a matter for discussion and decision at Tokyo and not subject to the discretion of the Japanese general at Hanoi.
Pending the outcome of these negotiations and in order to prevent the arrival of such Japanese control commissions, the French have for the time being prohibited the reexportation of merchandise from Indochina.
Chauvel suggested that it might be opportune if I addressed a note to the Foreign Office along the lines of the Department’s telegram 705 and this I am doing. He also suggested that it might be advisable for Ambassador Grew to discuss with Arsene-Henry the advisability of a possible démarche on our part at Tokyo. Chauvel said that frankly he was not sufficiently well informed of the status of our present relations with Tokyo to determine definitely whether such a step at this time would prove helpful or the contrary.
- In telegram No. 943, November 12, 7 p.m., the Chargé in France reported that Chauvel had informed him that French goods were also included in the ban against reexport from Indochina (893.24/960).↩