Copy.
(F 7343/287/10).
SECRET SINO-FRENCH DEFENCE PACT?
NEGOTIATIONS FOR HAINAN PROTECTORATE RUMOURED.
PLAN FOR CONSTRUCTION OF STRATEGIC RAILWAYS.
Special to The Straits Times.
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FRANCO-Chinese negotiations regarding military measures
for the defence of the strategically important
South China island of Hainan are going on at the
present moment, according to a Japanese news agency.
It is asserted in Tokio that representatives of the
Chinese Central Government have gone to Hanoi, Indo-China,
to negotiate with the Governor-General of French Indo-
China, M. Brevie.
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It is declared that, in spite of repeated French denials,
a secret agreement does exist between France and China,
according to which France has pledged herself to provide
China with military advisers and war material
G
deliveries
to be made via Haiphong railway to the South China province
of Yunnan.
In return for this assistance, the Japanese agency
declares that the Chinese Government has promised France certain
mining and transportation concessions in China.
Emphasis is placed upon the fact that such a military
pact would constitute extreme peril to Japan and the Japanese
agency intimates that Hainan will in all probability become
the objective of Japanese bombers should such an agreement be
concluded.
The Japanese Government had obtained unofficial
information that a contract had been signed by the brother
of the Chinese Finance Minister, Mr. T.V. Soong and a French
Company