RESUME OF RKG RESEARCH ON CAMBODIAN FRONTIERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08C01297R000100230020-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: March 27, 1964
• Content Type: CABLE

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TO : DEPARTMENT OF STATE
INFO:
FROM :
SUBJECT:
REF
BANGKOK
LONDON
PART.5
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SAIGON
VIENTIANE _
glINCPAC POLAD
Amembassy,PHNOM PENH-
Re time of RKG Research on Gambol
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HANDLING INDICATOR
41
?DATE:
Froritiers
"(
Th_!_off_isia.1...Saragictfm weekly Neak Cheat Niyum
issue of. March 14 a Asume by Cambodian diplomat SAR
a 100 a e ublished on
in its
CHHAK of
ambodia's eastern frontier
to the
which he researc ed and wrote w i e temporari.
Cambodian Embassy in Paris for this purpose.
The essence of Sarin Chhak's report is that Cambodia lost a
considerable amount of territory to Laos and Viet-Nam because of
French intervention at a time when France had sovereignty in Cochin
China and exercised a protectorate over the Kingdom of Cambodia.
-1
. For the moment it appears that the publication of this report may
not serve a specif purpose other than showing how Cambodia has been
iiiiv...r...2.11ged in the pas However, the history of border disputes being
what it is, tTel--e-is a possibility that Cambodia might seek to activate
claims based on this research. It might be noted, in particular, that
Prince SIHANOUK has proposed that, in the context of a Geneva
Conference, France and the states of the former French Indochina
meet to discuss and settle definitively their common boundaries.
Enclosure:
1. Informal translation of R?m?, in form of letter
from Sarim Chhak to Prince Sihanouk dated 2/29/64
FORM
4.62 DS- 323
a te :
POL:AEB-e en:PMcC:jpc 3/25/64
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
Clearances:
ontents an asst ication pprove
hargaHDSpivack
FOR DEPT. USE ONLY
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Phnom Penh A- 4 92
The enclosure to this airgram is an informal translation of the r?m?
which is in the form of a letter from Sarin Chhak in Paris to Prince Sihanouk,
dated February 29, 1964.
For the Charg?'Affaires ad interim:
ce
Alf E. Bergesen
First Secretary of Embassy
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
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INFORMAL TRANSLATION OF SARIN CHHAK'S RESUME OF HIS
RESEARCH ON CAMBODIA'S FRONTIERS
Paris, February 29, 1964.
? Samdech Sahachivin (Note: Prince Sihanouk):
I have the honor to bring respectfully to the attention of Your Royal
Highness the following:
In the first days of last January I sent to His Excellency Samdech Wang
(Note: Penn Nouth, Prince Sihanouk's confidential advisor) for submission to
Your Royal Highness a manuscript document containing the result of my research
on the eastern frontier.
The text being rather long (more than a hundred pages), I have taken the
liberty of setting forth below a r?m?
I. Result of Research:
A. The facts.
To facilitate examination of the question, it is presented in order from
north to south, that is to say, from Laos to the sea.
1. Frontier with the Kingdom of Bassac.
Cambodian territory extended beyond the Tonle Repou. The
request for restitution of the whole, or, rather, the claim for its retrocession,
was formulated in 1893 by France in the name of King Norodom. After the
restitution by Siam of this Cambodian territory, the Governor General of Indo-
china, without consulting either His Majesty the King or the Resident Superieur
in Cambodia, arbitrarily fixed the Tonle Repou as the frontier between Cambodia
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and the Kingdom of Bas sac. This act cut off from Cambodia several ' -nuongs"
(Note: tribes) situated on the other side of the Tonle Repou.
2. Frontier on the Stung-Treng Side.
According to a number of written records, the region including
Stung-Trbng, Khong and Attopeu was dependent on the sovereignty of the King
of Cambodia. It was later stolen by the Bangkok Court.
In 1893 France presented the claim on this region in the name of
King Norodom. After its restitution by Siam this territory was first administered
by the Government of Cochin China, then by the Resident Superieur of Lower Laos.
The latter, in 1898, took from the Province of Stung-Treng a portion of its
territory to constitute the Commissariat of Darlac, which Commissariat was re-
attached in 1904 to the Residence Superieure of Annam, and in 1929 to the Kingdom
of Annam.
Therefore, the territory of Darlac, statutorily Cambodian because
it was part of Stung-Trbng, was definitively annexed to Annam because of arbi-
trary and whimsical measures taken by French administrators, even though a
member of the Council of State especially sent out from Paris to investigate this
affair had concluded that neither France nor Annam had rights to this territory.
3. Frontier in the Region of Kratie, Kampong-Cham.
A decree of the Governor of Cochin China explicitly recognized
that the Cambodian cantons of Cuu-Anh and Thanh-Anh (on the other side of Loc
Ninh) and the Stieng (Note - a hill tribe) cantons of Loc Ninh and Phuoc-Lt were
reattached to the huyen (Note - district) of "Can L8 (that is to say, Tonle) in 1893
in order to facilitate the requisitifIning of workers, who were scarce in this
region, for the construction of the Bienhoa-Thudaumot-Kratie road.
Numerous official documents attest that the cantons of Loc-Ninh
and Phuoc-L8, presented as being inhabited by Stiengs, were peopled in large
majority by Cambodians.
The arbitrary annexation by the Governor of Cochin China of these
four Cambodian cantons gave rise to numerous insurrections on the part of the
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inhabitants and to brisk, severe and frequent protests by the R6sident .';uperieur
in Cambodia.
Maps prior to 1909 show all of Loc-Ninh and Phuoc-L8 as being
Cambodian territory.
It was not until 1914 that a decree of the Governor General was
issued to include definitively these two cantons in Cochin China.
4. Frontier of Tay-Ninh.
This portion was delimited first, in 1869-70. Before the delimita-
tion all of the region situated to the north of the post of Tay-Ninh was inhabited
almost exclusively by Cambodians. Numerous reports on the revolt of Poucombo
confirm this.
Much official correspondence confirms the amputation by the
Governor of Cochin China, to the detriment of Cambodia, of numerous sroks
(Note - districts): Chong Baden, Beng-Chrum, Srok-Tranh and the territories
included in the enclave formed by the two Val'co (Note - two canals.).
5. Frontier Alongside Hatien
Two communes, those of Koh Chan.loh and of Saky, which the
delimitation of 1876 had included in Cambodian territory, were stolen from us,
in fact, in 1893 by the Administrator of Hatien who, to justify his act, contrived
an alleged shifting of the telegraph line serving the frontier during the insurrection
of 1884. This maneuver was revealed by numerous letters of A. Leclerc, then
French Resident at Kampot.
Even though the argument of the frontier's displacement was
opposed by a verification made jointly by the authorities of Hatien and those of
Kampot, the Governor General of Indochina in 1914 issued a decree annexing
to Cochin China the two communes previously mentioned, after having made
the most of the existence of the rights of the Annamites to these Khums (note -
small territorial division, county) which were attested in Annamite documents.
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6. The Islands.
The ownership of these islands was claimed reciprocally by the
French authorities of Cochin China and those of Cambodia.
The Cochin Chinese authorities based their claim on the existence
of Annamite fishermen on these islands and on their exercise of administration
(of the islands).
The French authorities in Cambodia replied that the Annamites
were not the only inhabitants of these islands and that there wefe also many
Chams and Chinese coming from Cambodia to work there in agriculture.
As to the argument based on the exercise of administration, we can
respond that this administration consisted simply of the existence of a customs
post at Samit. Since 1884 the Government of Cochin China, and later the Govern-
merit General of Indochina, were charged with all powers in customs matters,
not only over the islands of the Gulf of Siam, but over all the countries of the former
French Indochina. If it were necessary to admit that wherever customs posts
existed the territory ought to be considered as administered by Cochin China,
the conclusion would be that all the countries of the former French Indochina
were administered by Cochin China.
B. Juridical Points.
Two juridical arguments seem capable of being used to raise questions
about the eastern frontier.
1. Administrative Frontier.
The delimitation was made, either unilaterally by the Government
General of Indochina or between the protected and the protector who played the
double role of judge and litigant.
The tN:vo parties were not placed on an equal level, a requisite
condition in order that the accords could have the character of international
agreements.
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Because this was a matter of an administrative frontier, it
was important, for it to become an international frontier, that the two
countries involved approve it after their achievement of independence.
2. Violation of the Rights of Peoples to Self-Determination.
The insurrections which took place after the annexation of
the four cantons on the Loc Ninh side the protests by the Snang M8, who
had administered Beng-Chrum (on the Tay-Ninh side), showed the refusal
of the populations in question to accept the annexations which had been
brought about. The Governor of Cochin China and, later, the Governor
General of Indochina, therefore violated the principle of self-determination,
a principle promoted by Napoleon III and which was universal in the second
half of the 19th Century.
II. Opinions of French Professors
I have the honor respectfully to report to Your Royal Highness the
opinion of Professor Reuter:
Last February 5, at the time when I was defending my thesis for the
Superior Studies diploma, Professor Reuter separated me from the group
of candidates and asked me to come into a room where I talked privately
with him. He said in particular these words: "Your work on the eastern
frontier has impressed us profoundly. It must be admitted that one has the
impression that if France sought to regain Cambodian territories on the west,
in its own interests, naturally, on the other hand it nibbled Cambodia away by
little bits on the eastern side for the benefit of Cochin China". I thanked him
for his sinaerity.
I had the impression that Professor Reuter cpmmunicated his opinion
to several of his colleagues, in particular to Mr. Pinto and Mr. Imbert who
are quite familiar with our problems, and even to certain personalities at
the Quai d'Or say for which he is the assistant legal consultant.
During a dinner given last February 10 by His Excellency Pho Proeung
in honor of His Excellency M. Argold (Note - presumably misprint for M.
Argod, new French Ambassador to Cambodia), speaking of our relations with
South Viet-Nam, Mr. Manac'h said in front of Pho Proeung and Truong Gang
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that "the South Vietnamese will renounce (their claim to) the returr of these
islands."
I very respectfully ask Your Royal Highness to deign to excuse me
for the length of this letter, which will cause Him to lose a little of His
time, which is so precious for the country, but I would consider myself at
fault if I did not render account to Your Royal Highness of the details of my
mission* which constitutes for me a mark of the very high confidence which
Your Royal Highness has condescended to accord to one of His humble com-
rades, and (is) the best recompense.
I have the honor to be, Your Royal Highness, the very humble and
very devoted servant of Your Royal Highness.
Source: Neak Cheat Niyum
Phnom Penh
March 14, 1964.
INFORMAL TRANSLATION
American Embassy
Phnom Penh
UNCLASSIFIED
Sarin Chhak"
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