DANGER POINT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 84, 5 October 1940, Page 11

DANGER POINT

THAI RELATIONS WITH INDO-CHINA

TROOPS ON BORDER

AREAS EVACUATED

(Received October 5, 9 a.m.)

NEW YORK. October 4,

The Bangkok correspondent of the Domei news agency says that relations between Thailand and IndoChina are at a "dangerous point" regarding the demarcation of the frontier. It is said both sides are steadily concentrating troops in the border areas. A Tokio message says that antiaircraft batteries in Indo-China fired on Thai planes reconnoitring on the border. It is also reported that Thailand has sent 50 planes to the border, while the French are concentrating war material. Both countries are evacuating civilians from the border. The French community in Bangkok has sent a message to the Vichy Government appealing to it to yield to "Thailand's request for territorial readjustments with Indo-China, which were .under consideration long before France became involved in her present difficulties." Messages from Hong Kong say that Thailand is massing planes and troops on the north-eastern frontier of Indo-China.

Reports have been received in Canton that a party of Japanese troops from Haiphong entered the suburbs of Hanoi yesterday afternoon. It is reported that they were welcomed by French officials as well as by natives. A message from Bangkok published on September 17 stated: —Thailand has demanded from Indo-China, first, delimitation of the Thai-Indo-China border with the deepest channel of the Mekong River forming the boundary, and also immediate transfer of forty riparian islands to Thailand; second, the cession of the Luang Praband area along the northern border to Thailand; third, a guarantee of the safety of Siamese inhabiting the Laos steppes in north-west Indo-China, or cession of this area. It is understood that Thailand will denounce her non-aggres-sion treaty with Indo-China unless her demands are met. Later, representatives of the Thai Government called on the French Legation at Bangkok and presented a new series of demands.