792.94/133: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Grant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:30 p.m.]
367. The British Minister has informed me of the substance of a conversation which he had yesterday afternoon with the Prime Minister as follows:
The Prime Minister said that the Japanese Minister, accompanied by Secretary of Legation, the Japanese visiting financial expert Ono [Page 234] and by the Director of the Thai Commerce Department who incidentally was a member of the Thai Delegation at the recent Tokyo “mediation” conference, called to see him Friday. The Prime Minister indicated the Japanese were bringing pressure to bear which is designed to place Thailand in the same category as Indochina in its relationship with Japan economically. The Japanese voiced objection to the Thai Government’s negotiations with Great Britain on oil stating that this matter should have been negotiated with the private oil companies involved. The Japanese also again promised to supply Thailand with oil and they insisted upon the allocation of 35,000 tons of rubber in lieu of the 30,000 already promised to Japan by Thailand. The Prime Minister promised the Japanese he would do what he could in the matter. In this connection he indicated to the British Minister that he may decide to [throw] rubber in addition to tin on the open market.
The British Minister informed me that he would file with the Thailand Government the British counter proposals regarding oil, tin and rubber, Monday July 28.
The British Minister quoted the Prime Minister as having stated that the only way to stop further Japanese aggression is for Great Britain and the United States to establish a limit beyond which Japan shall not go, the alternative being the use of military force.
The British Minister pursuant to the agreement of his government informed the Prime Minister both orally and in a written memorandum that the British would regard the acquiescence of Thailand in a Japanese request for military or other bases in Thailand as an infraction of the British-Thai pact of [June, 1940]19 and would take suitable steps.
The Prime Minister inquired of the British Minister as to the possibility of his government following the Japanese lead in establishing an Embassy in Bangkok. The British Minister replied that it was not the policy of London to establish new Embassies.
The Prime Minister said the new German Military Attaché, Lt. Col. Scholl, formerly attaché in Tokyo, had called to see him and had warned the Prime Minister against going too far with Japan who he said could not be trusted and Scholl said further that Germany had recognized the Nanking government under pressure and that Germany would settle with Japan after the war. In this connection the British Minister informed me he had heard that Scholl was sent here primarily to supplement the work of the German Minister who was regarded in Berlin as not forceful in his dealings with the Soviet-Russian situation.
Repeated to Tokyo.
- Treaty of non-aggression between the United Kingdom and Thailand, signed at Bangkok, June 12, 1940; ratifications exchanged August 31, 1940; League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cciii, p. 422.↩