893.24/668: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:45 p.m.]
2981. I communicated the contents of your 1520, December 14, 6 p.m., to Chauvel this afternoon. Chauvel said that there were no new developments of importance in the relations between France and Japan. The spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office had stated to journalists that the French Ambassador in Tokyo, Arsène-Henry, had given an explanation of the transit of August 14 over the French railroad through Indo-China which had not been satisfactory to the Japanese Government.
The French Government had instructed the French Ambassador in Tokyo to protest in the strongest terms to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs against this distortion of the truth.
The truth was that the French Ambassador had protested warmly against the allegation that arms and munitions were going forward to the Chinese Government over the railroad (see my 2967, December 13, 4 p.m.).