893.24/666: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:30 p.m.]
2967. Chauvel gave me to read today three telegrams: the first dated November 30 from the French Ambassador in Tokyo; the second dated December 7 to the French Ambassador in Tokyo signed by Daladier;94 the third dated yesterday from the French Ambassador.
[Page 770]He said that he intended to transmit to Saint-Quentin95 these three telegrams and to instruct Saint-Quentin to communicate their contents to you for your information. He added that in future he intended to transmit to the American Government full information with regard to the relations of France with China and Japan. I thanked Chauvel and said that I was certain that my Government would greatly appreciate being fully informed.
The telegram of the French Ambassador to Tokyo, Arsène-Henry, dated November 30 to his Government stated that he had called on the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Admiral Nomura, at the latter’s request. Nomura had then read to him a seven page written document which had been translated rapidly by a Japanese interpreter. An aide-mémoire embodying the contents of this document had been handed to him at the close of his conversation with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs. Since the text was too long to be telegraphed in extenso he was sending it by pouch and was merely transmitting a résumé.
The substance of the résumé was the following:
The Japanese Government accused the French Government of continuing to ship arms and ammunition by way of the railroad through Indo-China to the Government of Chiang Kai Shek. The Japanese Government desired to have most friendly relations with the French Government but the action of the French Government in permitting shipments of arms and ammunition over the French railroad was preventing the establishment of such relations. It was to prevent shipments to China that the Japanese Government had made the recent attack on Nanning. If shipments of military supplies to the Government of Chiang Kai Shek over the railroad through Indo-China should cease and if the French Government should cease to give other support to the Government of Chiang Kai Shek the Japanese Government could assure the French Government that incidents of all sorts in the neighborhood of French Indo-China would cease. The Japanese Government intended to carry on operations against Chiang Kai Shek until his complete defeat. It intended to cut all avenues by which he might be supplied. In order to make certain that military supplies should not reach Chiang Kai Shek by way of the railroad through Indo-China the Japanese Government desired to send to Indo-China as recognized officials a Japanese diplomat and a high ranking officer of the Japanese Army to inspect the shipments going forward to China over the French railroad through Indo-China.
The French Ambassador stated that immediately he had protested against the statement of the Japanese Foreign Minister that military supplies were going forward to the Chinese Government over the railroad through Indo-China. This was not so and no amount of reiteration by the Japanese Government could change the fact that it was not so. He could not comment on the remainder of the Minister’s [Page 771] statement, which had been read to him rapidly, until he had had a chance to examine it with care.
In asking for instructions the French Ambassador in Tokyo stated that it was his belief that the position taken by the Abe96 Government was becoming more insecure daily. Moreover the leaders of the Japanese Army were faced with the necessity of having to admit that they could not terminate the “Chinese”. Moreover, the Japanese Government had been unable to come to terms with Wang Ching Wei and now was pessimistic with regard to the possibility of setting up a so-called Chinese Government under Wang Ching Wei. The Japanese Diet was to meet in 5 or 6 weeks and there would be serious opposition at that time to the Government.
It was the opinion of the French Ambassador in Tokyo that the Japanese Government desired to divert attention from the failure of the army to terminate the war in China by starting a spectacular controversy with France.
On December 7 the Quai d’Orsay over the signature of Daladier instructed the French Ambassador in Tokyo to say to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs that the accusation of the Japanese Government that military supplies were going forward to China over the railroad through Indo-China was entirely untrue; that if the Japanese Government desired to take up complaints against the French Government, the French Government also desired to take up a large number of complaints against the Japanese Government, notably complaints concerning the Island of Hainan, the Spratly Islands, the Yangtze Valley, et cetera, et cetera. The French would be glad to have all the complaints of both the French and Japanese Governments against each other taken up at the same time.
The French Government would not receive in any official capacity in Indo-China a representative of the Japanese diplomatic service or a high ranking officer of the Japanese Army. The Japanese Consul General in Indo-China was the proper representative of the Japanese Government. If on the other hand the Japanese Government should desire to send to Indo-China in an entirely private capacity without authority or rights of any sort members of the government services the French Government would accord them visas.
Yesterday the French Ambassador in Tokyo telegraphed that he had communicated the contents of this instruction to Admiral Nomura and that the conversation had been pleasant and even intimate.
It was his impression that Admiral Nomura was somewhat uncertain about the future. He had derived the impression that Nomura was glad that the Soviet Union had attacked Finland for the simple reason that the irresponsible [war with?] Finland meant that the Soviet Union would be occupied elsewhere than in the Far East.
[Page 772]In commenting Chauvel said that he was still of the opinion that while the Japanese and the Russians might reach an agreement with regard to the fisheries and the oil of Sakhalin in [sic] and even make a more far reaching commercial agreement there was no likelihood at the moment of a Japanese-Russian nonaggression pact. On the other hand the same elements in the Foreign Office which had supported the anti-Comintern Pact were now advocating a pact with the Soviet Union. He believed that the efforts of these elements would be without result so long as conversations should continue between the American Ambassador in Tokyo and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
It was his feeling that it was important for the American Ambassador in Tokyo to maintain constant contact with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs even though the subjects discussed might be of minor importance.
Chauvel said that the Chinese Ambassador in Paris 2 days ago had called at the Quai d’Orsay and made the statement that in the opinion of the Chinese Government the proper riposte to the seizure of Nanning by the Japanese would be a military alliance between France and China and immediate military cooperation between forces of the French Government in Indo-China and the Chinese Government.
He had replied to the Chinese Ambassador that this proposal seemed to him far from reality. The reality was that one of the routes of supply of the Chinese Government had been cut. The question was therefore one of increasing routes of supply. The French Government was prepared to cooperate in the construction of another road from Indo-China to China which would facilitate the shipment of supplies to China. The French Government was not prepared because of the seizure of Nanning to take the action suggested by the Chinese Government.
In discussing the general question of supplies to China, Chauvel said that there were now on the docks at Haiphong 120,000 tons of supplies consigned to the Chinese Government. Since the railway through Indo-China could carry only 12,000 tons a month the full capacity of the railroad for 10 months would be absorbed by supplies already on hand in Indo-China. The American trucks had been going forward over the railroad roadbed to Nanning and they had not gone forward empty. The question of establishing another road therefore was important.
Chauvel concluded by saying, with complete sincerity, that at the present time no military supplies whatsoever were being shipped to the Chinese Government by way of the French Railroad through Indo-China. All military supplies were being shipped over the Burma Road or over the Chinese-Soviet frontier.