The Khmer navy had been watching the major powers losing hundreds of thousands of tons of merchant shipping to submarines because of a lack of escort vessels. One of the biggest holes in the escort ranks seemed to be small aircraft carriers. What would come to be called Escort Carriers (CVE). All of a sudden half a dozen Escort carriers hit the North Atlantic, and convoy losses halved then became better again, as more resources were thrown at the anti-submarine war. The Khmer Empire made a lot of money from the sale of oil from Sumatra to Japan. Guarding those tanker convoys would be a priority in time of war and the Khmer Navy converted three small cargo liners to Escort carriers. The first was taken in hand in August 1940 with conversion to be completed by June 1941. The other two would follow at about three monthly intervals. (A bit of 20/20 hindsight here.)
The Chlam, once completed, joined the Chaisen in the training role. But Chlam had a slightly different role. Its training was with escort groups on how best to escort the tanker convoys, which included joint Anti-submarine operations between its aircraft and surface warships. These training runs would pay dividends within months.
December 1st, 1941, the Chlam, a light cruiser, and four destroyers were tasked with escorting six tankers from Palembang to Nagasaki. The trip should take 14-15 days at an average 10 knot speed. Tensions in the area are high. The US sanctions against Japan are hurting the Japanese economy. The US has even told Khmer to stop supplying Japan with oil. Khmer cannot afford to do that and ignores the US demand. December 7th, and the Convoy Commodore onboard the Chlam receives a coded message advising of Japans attack on Pearl Harbour and who is now at war with whom. The convoy is just north of the US dominated Philippines and still days away from Japanese waters.
It was felt that the US forces at Cavite Bay were too weak to interfere with the convoy and that the US would leave a non-combatant force alone. It was the destroyers and submarines that would be the main threat. The US had no capital ships in Asia and only a couple of cruisers. On the US side, the Americans knew about the tanker convoy and would dearly like to stop it reaching Japan. To do so would mean attacking Khmer and bringing that nation into the war against the US. Was a short term gain enough to outweigh the long term pain of having another sizeable fleet against them after taking the huge losses at Pearl Harbour?
There was one other way the US could stop the oil delivery to Japan. Pay more for the oil than the Japanese and have it delivered to ports of US choice.
The Chlam and its convoy are ground zero for Khmer. Whatever decision is made will bring Khmer into the war. Delivering aid to an enemy of the US is not recommended. But neither is angering the Japanese by not delivering the oil. At this stage the Japanese have a tremendous advantage in men and material in Asia. To go against Japan would lead to Khmer having to fight a war against Japan that it could not win. To join the Allied nations would not help much. Australis and India were the nearest parts of the Commonwealth and they had committed the main part of their forces to the European War, in this case in the deserts of North Africa. It would take time for those troops to be extracted from Africa to assist in a new Asian theatre of war.
The High Command had literally just a few hours to make up their minds, and choose.
