751G.92/54: Telegram
The Minister in Thailand (Grant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:05 p.m.]
107. The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs informed me this morning confidentially that his Government received last night the reply from Vichy to the second Thai request for the return of the two small sections of frontier territory on the west bank of the river Mekong. The reply was a refusal to recognize the Thai claim on the basis of the treaty of 1907 between Thailand, France and Indochina14 in which the boundary between Thailand and Indochina was definitely established and agreed upon, according to Vichy. The French indicated they were ready to proceed with the negotiations with Thailand with the object of correcting the boundary lines within the river Mekong involving some islands. The Thai cabinet will consider the Vichy reply at a special meeting tomorrow morning. In reply to my inquiry as to the probable action of his Government, the Deputy Minister said he favored continuing the negotiations with Vichy but he could not say what the Cabinet would do. Foregoing repeated to Saigon, Tokyo, Chungking.
[Here follows description of government-inspired demonstration by 2,000 students in support of Thai claims on Indochina.]
- Treaty between France and Siam regulating questions connected with the Frontiers of Indochina and Siam, jurisdiction, and the position of French Asiatic subjects, signed at Bangkok, March 23, 1907; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. c, p. 1028.↩