STREET FIGHTING IN BANGKOK

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25741, 1 March 1949, Page 5

STREET FIGHTING IN BANGKOK

Navy Elements Glash With Army RADIO REPORTS CONFLICT

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright) BANGKOK, February 27. Fighting between naval and army elements of the Siamese services broke out in the main streets of Bangkok last night. The fighting began soon after unknown persons had seized temporary control of the Bangkok Government rad’o at 9.30 p.m. and announced that the Prime Minister (Marshal Pibul Songgram) and the ‘Cabinet had resigned. The announcement added that the new Prime Minister was Mr Nai Jayanama, a former Siamese Ambassador to London and a member of the wartime Free Thai underground movement. The radio went off the air during the announcement, and when it resumed broadcasting later it said that Marshal Pibul Songgram was still Prime Minister and that the interruption had not been authorised. Heavy sporadic artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire ensued at the arsenal, the Grand Palace, and near Marshal Pibul Songgram’s residence between midnight and daylight. The casualties include an unknown number of dead and wounded. An informant said that he saw bodies being loaded into trucks. Army-controlled armoured vehicles fought a dawn street battle with Marine-manned anti-tyik guns near the Prime Minister’s residence. Vehicles and guns suffered direct hits. By noon the opposing army and navy units had ceased fighting. Meanwhile the army-controlled and navy-controlled radios broadcast conflicting bulletins simultaneously to the Bangkok population. The army claimed to have quelled a revolt of dissident elements, while the navy-control-led radio claimed that there had been “brutal fighting” after the army had opposed naval elements who were trying “to do their duty to the nation. The police seized and guarded the post office, and both radio and air communications out of Bangkok were suspended. *