I. The Treaty of Peace between France and Thailand
The Peace Treaty is the one arranged in the form of a treaty of the mediation terms initialled on March 11 of this year. Its contents, excepting a few points, are almost the same as the mediation terms. It has twelve Articles, besides the Preamble and the concluding paragraph.
The Preamble makes clear that France and Thailand, having accepted the Japanese offer of mediation and deeming it essential for the purpose of preventing a recurrence of border dispute between Thailand and French Indo-China, to readjust the frontiers and reach an agreement concerning the method of maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border regions, and desiring to restore completely the traditionally friendly relations between France and Thailand, have decided to conclude this treaty.
Article I states that the friendly relations between France and Thailand are restored, and therefore, direct diplomatic negotiations shall soon be opened for the purpose of solving the pending questions between them.
Article II provides for the readjustment of the frontiers ceding thereby the districts of Paklay and Bassac as well as the greater part of Cambodia to Thailand.
Article IV provides for the establishment of a commission which will undertake the task of delimiting the boundaries.
Article V provides for the conditions for the incorporation of the ceded territories into Thailand. It also provides for the demilitarization of that part of the ceded territory which has hitherto belonged to Cambodia, for an absolutely equal treatment of French and Thai nationals in all of the ceded territories, and for respect to be paid to the royal mausolea of Luang Prabang.
Article VI provides that Thailand may maintain only the police
force and may not maintain fortifications, military aviation fields, etc., in the demilitarized zones.
Article VIII provides for the principles governing the change of nationality and the transfer of domicile and property of the inhabitants of the ceded territories.
Article IX settles the financial claims between the countries arising from the cession of territories through payment by Thailand to France of six million piastres in six annual instalments.
Article X provides that, if any dispute arises in the future concerning this treaty, it shall be submittted [sic] to Japan's mediation.
Exchange of ratifications is due to take place in Tokyo within two months after the signing of this treaty.
The boundary between Thailand and French Indo-China as adjusted under Article XI is as follows :
Beginning from the north, the boundary line runs from the converging point of the frontiers of French Indo-China, Thailand and Burma down along the Mekong River to the point where the line crosses the 15th degree of the Latitude (the island of Khong on the Mekong continues to belong to France, and the island of Khone reverts to Thailand). The line then runs westward along the 15° Latitude, and turns southward along the line of Longitude which passes through the point where the present boundary between the Provinces of Siem Reap and Battambang ends in Grand Lac (the mouth of the river Stung Kombot). The boundary on Grand Lac is drawn by a circular arc, whose radius is twenty kilometres, which joins the point where the present provincial boundary line of Siem Reap and Battambang ends in that lake (the mouth of the river Stung Kombot) and the point where the present boundary line between the Provinces of Battambang and Pursat ends in Grand Lac (the mouth of Stung Dontri). The boundary line then runs from the mouth of the Stung Dontri toward the southwest along the present provincial boundary between Battambang and Pursat to the point where the latter boundary line meets the present boundary line between French Indo-China and Thailand (Khao Koup), and then runs along the present national boundary, without change to the sea.
Annexed to this Treaty of Peace are three Protocols: the first, concerning the evacuation and delivery of the territories affected ; the second, concerning the composition and operation of the Commission for the Delimitation of Boundary ; and the third, concerning the fulfilment of the terms stipulated with respect to the demilitarized zones. As regards the latter two Protocols, the Japanese Government have signed them as one of the Parties concerned.
II. The Japanese-French and Japanese-Thai Protocols concerning the Guaranty and Political Understanding
These two Protocols have been made in conformity with the purpose of the documents exchanged between the Japanese and French delegations and between the Japanese and Thai delegations at the time of the signature of the mediation terms on March 11 of this year.
The Japanese-French Protocol clearly states in its Preamble that the two countries, in accordance with the spirit of the documents exchanged between the Foreign Minister, Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka, and the French Ambassador, M. Charles Arsène-Henry, on the 30th of August, last year, and desiring to preserve the stability of the friendly relations between France and Thailand, have concluded this Protocol. In the text proper, Japan guarantees that the settlement of the dispute as embodied in the Treaty of Peace between France and Thailand and its annexed documents is definitive and unalterable ; and France, accepting the said Japanese guaranty and pledging herself to the establishment of amicable and good neighbourly relations between Japan and French Indo-China, declares that she has no intention of entering into any agreement or understanding with the third Power or Powers envisaging political, economic or military cooperation of such character as is opposed either directly or indirectly against Japan. This Protocol, also, stipulates that exchange of its ratifications shall take place in Tokyo within two months after its signature.
With the exception of the reference, in its Preamble, to the Japanese-Thai Treaty of Amity of June 12, 1940, and the absence of regional limitation concerning the agreement or understanding with the third Power or Powers in the text proper, the Japanese-Thai Protocol has exactly the same contents as the Japanese-French Protocol.