851G.014/8–2245
The French Embassy to the Department of State
The French Embassy presents its compliments to the Department of State and has the honor to inform it, on instructions of its Government, that the position of the latter concerning the territories belonging to the Indo-Chinese Union which were seized by Siam on the basis of the Franco-Thai Peace Treaty of May 9, 1941, is as follows:
The status of these territories must not be submitted to arbitration. France considers herself as completely justified in law to resume the administration of the Cambodian and Laotian territories which were wrested from her by violence. These territories were annexed by Siam in violation of the treaty which it had concluded with the French Government on June 12, 1940. This annexation, which was entirely unjustified, could be effected only with the support of Japan. The letters exchanged on March 11, 1941, in Tokyo between the French Ambassador to Japan and the Japanese Foreign Minister stipulate that the Imperial Government recommends “the unconditional acceptance by the French Government” of its plan for settling the Franco-Thai dispute. It specifies that “the French Government, in spite of the fact that neither the local situation nor the fortune of arms [Page 1293] oblige it to renounce the benefits of the treaty which was freely negotiated and concluded between it and the Bangkok Government, is disposed under present circumstances to accede to the requests of the Japanese Government.” The violence dealt the French Government by Japan is thus expressly brought out in the terms of the letters exchanged between their representatives. Under these conditions the Franco-Thai Peace Treaty of May 9, 1941, has no juridical value, even if France should be considered as responsible for the actions of the Government of M. Arséne Henry.24 Neither the French National Committee of London nor the Provisional Government of the French Republic has ever recognized the validity of this treaty, and the statements of the French National Committee of December 8, 1941,25 as well as those of the French Committee of National Liberation of December 8, 1943,26 formally laid claim to the territories of the Indo-Chinese Union occupied by Siam. The French Embassy begs the Department of State to take cognizance of this declaration of the French Government’s position concerning the territories in question and takes this occasion to renew the assurances of its highest consideration.
- Charles Arsené-Henry, French Ambassador in Japan, was one of the signers of the treaty on behalf of France.↩
- French Press and Information Service, Free France, vol. vi, Nos. 5–6, September 1944, p. 194, footnote 1; for partial text, see telegram 5946, December 8, 1941, Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. v, p. 380.↩
- Free France, vol. v, No. 1, January 1944, p. 9.↩