Office of the Historian

740.0011 PW/8–1445: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Caffrey)13

Washington, August 14, 1945—8 p.m.

3852. Please inform Bidault14 that under the plan which Japanese have been ordered to follow they are to surrender in northern [Page 500] part of Indo-China to Chiang Kai Shek and in the southern part to Mountbatten.15 You should emphasize that this division is a purely operational matter based on the available forces in the area and has no political significance whatever.

You should add that we are suggesting to the British and Chinese Governments that they invite French representatives to be present on the occasion of the acceptance of the Japanese surrender in Indo-China. The French may wish to take the question up directly with those Governments.

Ambassadors Winant16 and Hurley are being instructed to support any representations which their French colleagues may make to this end.

Byrnes
  1. Repeated to the Ambassador in China (Hurley) on the same date as telegram No. 1257, with the following opening paragraph: “Please be guided by instructions contained in final paragraph of the following telegram which has been sent to Paris.”↩
  2. Georges Bidault, French Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
  3. Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia.↩
  4. John G. Winant, Ambassador in the United Kingdom.↩