Tokyo, May 9.
EPRESENTATIVES of France and Thailand this morning signed a peace treaty officially ending the Thai-French Indo-China border dispute, it was officially announced here.
Signing took place in the Foreign Office.
The treaty becomes effective after ratification by both Thailand and France, and probably will take two months, since the documents must be transmitted to Vichy.
The Cabinet Information Board announced that the only change in the treaty from the mediation terms initialled on March 11 is that the Island of Khong, in the Mekong River, remains in possession of Indo-
China, Documents signed included the Franco-Thai peace treaty, protocols concerning the withdrawal and exchange of prisoners, a guarantee by ihe Japanese Government for the maintenance of the treaty, the creation of a demarcation commission and enforcement of the demilitarize ed zone.
The Japanese-French and Japanese-Thai protocols confirmed an understanding reached on March 11 whereby Japan guaranteed settlement or the dispute and France and Thailand declared they had no intention of entering any agreement with Third Powers envisaging political, economic or military cooperation of any character which would oppose Japan's interests.
Significantly, the Japanese language was the oficial language used in the treaty, although all documents were translated into Thai and French.
The treaty was initialled on March 11 after lengthy negotiations in Tokyo, which were marked by unconfirmed reports of Japanese ultimatums hi delivered to speed agreement, inal signature was de-according to reports fron by Thai refusal to indemnities for French utilities and other improvements in ceded areas of Indo-China, Thailand fi agreed to pay indemnity, Article six of the peace significantly, provides that Thai in demilitarized zones, may maintain only a police force and may not maintain fortifications or military aviation fields, Article nine settles financial claims between the countries arising from cession of territories, through Thailand's payment to France of 6,000,000 piastres in six annual instalments.—United Press Shipping Pool in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.