THE FRENCH IN SIAM.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11279, 21 May 1902, Page 6

THE FRENCH IN SIAM.

The latest phase of the ever-present Eastern question ceutree _n Siam, the -'buffer State" between Britain _x_d:Fra_ce ia Further India. Recent, events point to a very unsettled state of affairs .in that quaster, with France as the disturbing el_tfc__jt. According to a cable nwswag. publis_ed tfci_- morning, ;twenty thousand French subjects in the Laos territory, eastward of the Me-—ong, are.in' revolt, doubtless as" a protest against the steps taken recently by France to increase her' influence in Siam. The Laos territory, w__ch contains- about 91,000 square miles, and 1,500,000 inhabitanta, has been under a French ptrotectiirate since 1893, in accordance with the terms of the Franco-Siamese Convention signed in that year. .The French territory Iks eastward of the Me-kong river, and across) the' river is Siam," bounded on the' west by British Burmah. By the treaty [oi 1896 Britain and France bound themselves not to obtain any exclusive privileges for themselves in the intervening. Siamese territory, and so far as Britain is concerned the terms of the agreement have been strictly adhered to. The attitude of France, however, has been, to say the least of it, open ,to question. Half of the) fertile. Luang Prabang lie. east of the Me-kong, in French territory, and half to the westward, in Siam. The latter portion was specifically described as Siamese territory in the" agreements of both 1893 and 1896, yet in March last it transpired that France, with the support of Russia, demanded that Sim should surrender to her the whole of Luang Prabang. Such an action would appear to be a direct violation of treaty rights, and as every Siamese question has a British question behind it, the present position is one to whioh the British- <_overn__e_t cannot afi'ord to remain indifferent France appears to be not a tittle jealous of British influence in -Further India. A French journal the other day- drew attention to the fact that of the hundred and ninety foreigner, in the employment of Siam, ninety-five are English.

.u__rfw.y-t^ and only two Fre_._hi -wOiile the police force at Bangkok is .o__po_ed of fifteen hundred " * Sikhs, sent, by _h_ Indian _Jov_r___ent, and command«.l by English officers. Britain '-*'. meanwhile ias held aloof from the negotktions *w___ch have been going on between IVance tod Siam. Th_ latest d_yelop__M_t_, bow-ver, appear to Indicate that if British prestige in that quarter is to be main, tamed, and British trade interests protected, a more active policy will have to be adopted to counteract the aggressivene_3 of the Power' on tha eastern side of the little "buffer State."