751G.92/194: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Leahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 23—5 a.m.]
91. Foreign Minister Flandin asked me to call this afternoon and after outlining earlier developments in the Far East with which the Department is familiar from the Embassy’s previous telegrams and after emphasizing the growing aggravation of the military situation [Page 33] between Thailand and Indo-China and the inevitable delays in the receipt by the French of the adequate means to defend themselves against a Thailand well supplied with Japanese arms left with me for transmission to my Government the following note:
“In presenting its compliments to the Embassy of the United States of America, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the honor to inform the Embassy that it has just been approached again by the Japanese Government with an offer of mediation in the conflict between Indo-China and Thailand.
This proposal is made because of a similar offer which is said to have been presented by the British Government to the Bangkok Government (Flandin said the French have no information of any such demands [démarche?] on the part of the British). The Japanese Government, which had accepted without any special reaction the refusal which the French Government made on December 2, states that it cannot today remain inactive before what it considers an unwarranted interference on the part of British authorities in the affairs of Thailand.
The Japanese offer is made simultaneously to the French and Thai Governments. It is presented under conditions of particular solemnity, after having been submitted to the approval of the Emperor.
In spite of the desire it has constantly shown to settle the Franco-Thai dispute by direct negotiations, the French Government believes today, given the manner and the conditions under which it has been approached by the Japanese Government, that it is no longer in a position to refuse the proposal which has been made to it.
The French Government moreover knowing the interest shown by the Government of the United States in affairs of Indo-China set forth to the Department of State through the French Embassy at the beginning of last October47 the realities of the state of Indo-China as well as the conditions indispensable to the defense of Indo-Chinese territory against any foreign undertaking.
Approached the first time on December 2 last unofficially with an offer of Japanese mediation it instructed Mr. Henry-Haye to inform the Department of State of the refusal of this offer as well as the need of urgency in filling the gaps in the means of defense of Indo-China.
Since then while conversations were taking place in Washington relative to possible supplies of material, the Minister of the United States at Bangkok exercised on the Thai Government a moderating influence to which the French Chargé d’Affaires has paid tribute.
Nevertheless frontier incidents multiplied and increased. The Japanese Government, while proclaiming its desire to see peace maintained in the Far East, allowed certain of its agents to uphold the Thai claims and itself gave to Thailand an important assistance by delivering war material among which were quite a number of airplanes. It appears furthermore that certain British agents had as regards the Franco-Thailand dispute certain views which the Singapore press echoed and which were of a nature to encourage Thailand.
The tension between France and Thailand has thus become very acute. Frontier incidents have assumed importance and the Government [Page 34] General of Indo-China expressed these recent days serious apprehensions with regard to the impossibility in which it found itself to make good the loss in men and material which the continuance of operations would necessitate for our forces, even if these operations were favorable to our troops.
The French Government considers that to refuse today a mediation, which may be accepted by Thailand, would expose it to seeing Japan bring to the latter an immediate aid against which the resistance of Indo-China, at present deprived of any reinforcements, would be in danger of rapid collapse. Indo-Chinese territory would thus find itself given up to both Thailand and Japan which would seize this occasion to establish in Cochin-China solid bases for any future needs.
In accepting the Japanese offer, the disadvantages of which it does not fail to recognize the French Government hopes to avoid these extreme consequences and to confine the action of Japan to the diplomatic field where it presents the lesser dangers.”
Flandin added that in presenting this note he wished to supplement it by the following two requests which he asked me to transmit to my Government: (first) that the United States Government exercise such influence as may be possible on the Japanese authorities to the end that there be no territorial changes in Indo-China as a result of Japanese mediation; and (second) that the United States Government expedite as much as possible the delivery of the arms and munitions so urgently required for the defense of Indo-China. He said in this latter connection that experience had often shown in the Far East that a phase such as that involved in the present “mediation” was the beginning rather than the end of [aggression?]. Consequently adequate means of defense of Indo-China, he hoped, should be provided at the earliest practicable date. He mentioned specifically, in addition to airplanes, anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns. He said that no reply has yet been received from Wiesbaden with respect to the airplanes on the Bearn.
The Foreign Office has requested that the Japanese offer of mediation and the French acceptance thereof be kept strictly confidential for the moment.
- See memorandum by the Under Secretary of State, October 9, 1940, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. iv, p. 172.↩