Wednesday, 1 October

At 3.00 p.m., the French Chargé d’affaires, P. H. Baudet, came to see me. He read the reply of the French Government as follows (the main content):

1) The French government felt sorry that the Japanese army had searched our Embassy in Hanoi and that the servants of the Embassy had been captured.

2) It deeply understood our stance that we did not evacuate our Embassy, and said it further proved that we still trusted the French Vietnamese Government.

3) It had ordered the Vietnam Government to lodge a serious protest to the representatives of the Japanese army.

4) At the same time, it demanded the French Ambassador to Japan to lodge a protest against the Japanese Government.

5) It had ordered the Vietnam Government to try its best to protect our Embassy in Vietnam. It would do so at whatever price, even at the risk of trouble.

Therefore, I thanked him and said: a) There are still servants and expatriates not yet released, and I asked France to try its best to rescue them. b) I asked him to relay to the French Government that in my personal opinion, now the attitude of the United States and Britain had hardened, and I reckoned that Japan would not dare to take one step forward. In this sense, France should not give further concessions so that Japan could push for more. He was moved by what I said, and he agreed to relay my thoughts to his government.