740.0011 Pacific War/60: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Grant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:05 p.m.]
219. The British Minister who spent last week in Singapore in conference with British civil and military leaders has returned and has informed me that the British defense forces there and throughout southern Malaya are being materially strengthened against the threatened Japanese attack. He said he believes the Thai are being more and more drawn into the Japanese orbit and he has received [Page 248] information that 25 additional Japanese airplanes have been delivered to the Thai. He said he also has heard a report, unconfirmed, that a total of 125 Japanese airplanes have been contracted for by the Thai, the purchase price being deliveries of raw tin and rubber, some of which it is believed is destined for Germany.