793.94/3991
The French Embassy to the Department of State27
On January 28th, the British Ambassador in Paris called upon M. Laval, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, to inform him that the Japanese Ambassador in London had let the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs know that very likely the Japanese would have to [Page 174] suppress anti-Japanese movement by the Chinese in the International Settlement. Sir William Tyrrell informed M. Laval that his Government was sending representations to Tokyo and requested that instructions be sent to the French Ambassador in Japan to join in his British colleague’s protest.
M. Laval replied that the French Government thought that it was most important to maintain in the International Settlement the solidarity of the interested powers, solidarity which finds its expression and its organism of execution in the consular body and that it was equally important to maintain order by the normal action of the police completed by military forces of defense acting according to the decisions adopted in common by the commanding officers of the various international troops.
Although the Japanese Ambassador in Paris had not taken, up to that date, the same step as the one taken by his colleague in London, instructions were sent by the French Government to the French Ambassador in Tokyo for the purpose of advising the Japanese Government to proceed with moderation and of pointing out the importance that the French Government attached to the international character of the International Settlement of Shanghai and of its means of defense.
On January 31st, the British Ambassador in Paris called again upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs to inform him that his Government, having learned that the Japanese were continuing to use the international concession for their offensive and defensive organization, new instructions had been sent to the British Ambassador in Tokyo to formulate a very energetic protest. The British Government was asking the French Government to send similar instructions to the French Ambassador. The latter was instructed immediately to the effect that if necessary the point of view of the French Government, as outlined before, should be clearly repeated to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The attention of the French Government having been called upon rumours circulated in some American newspapers and according to which the French Government was backing the Japanese Government in exchange of the latter’s support at the Disarmament Conference, the French Foreign Office sent a strong denial to the French Embassy in Washington, saying that such rumours are absolutely without the slightest foundation. It is equally false that the French Government has ever given to the Japanese permission to enter the French concession. The French authorities, with the aid of the usual police forces reinforced by French troops are maintaining order in the French concession and protecting the inhabitants without any distinction of nationality. Such defense of the French concession constitutes the main participation of the French Government to the defense of the [Page 175] International Settlement. Furthermore French authorities are giving their intimate cooperation in the consular body of Shanghai and by means of the deliberations of the international body of commanding officers as to the decisions in view of the protection of the International Settlement.
Besides, the French Ambassador was informed this morning that M. Laval had requested the Minister of the Navy to send the cruiser Waldeck Rousseau from Saigon to Shanghai, thus showing the interest that the French Government attaches to the international character of the International Settlement.
- Transmitted to the Secretary of State by the French Ambassador, apparently on February 1, 1932.↩