A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 81, 30 December 1940, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Thai Assertiveness DEMANDS ON FRENCH IN DO-CHIN A While bigger wars go on elsewhere, lhe French authorities in Indo-Chimi and the Thais, or Siamese, are conducting what seems to be a 'desultory kind of warfare along the frontier between their territories. Thailand has been demanding the cession of the two provinces of Cambodia anti Laos, which together form hi substantial part of French IndoChimi, on tlie ground that they originally belonged to Thailand, but were forcibly taken by France at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The Thai demands, a writer in the •'Christian Science Monitor” points out, acquire significance in the light of the increasing Japanese influence in Thailand, a process which has been going on for several years. Of recent years Thai naval cadets have been sent to Japan and not to training. Thailand was the only country which refused to condemn the Japanese action ill Manchuria at the session of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1933. Japanese export trade with Thailand has been growing substantially, and an air line lias been established between Bangkok ami Tokio. Possible Role The writer quoted says it would bo premature to say that Thailand has become a satellite of Japan. Its Government would doubtless claim to be acting purely iu its own national interests. Yet the demands on French Indo-Chimi for territorial concessions could hardly have been made without the knowledge or encouragement of Japan. It is. conceivable, he considers, that Thailand may filially play in relation to Japan the role that Hungary plays in relation to Germany—that of a minor nation which will endeavour to gain what it can under the auspices of a more powerful neighbour. Up to 1935 Thailand was one of the most tranquil places in. the Far East. Bangkok, with the bizarre colouring an'd architecture of its innumerable temples and its network of canals, was one of the tourist curiosities of tlie Orient. The Siamese countryside looked like a scene from Kipling’s Jungle Book, with little brown boys seated astride water buffaloes and the general atmosphere, so familiar in the Orient, of a peasantry that made its living toiling in the watery rice fields. Thailand had preserved its independence by manoeuvring lietween the two neighbouring imperial possessions, Malaya and ludo-China. It had obtained the abolition of extra-territoriality by being very polite to foreigners, specially the British interests, which played a leading part in the development of such natural resources as tin, rubber, and teak wood. King Deposed

By 1936 a change had come over the country. The King had been deposed and power was in the hands of a group of young civilian officials and army officers, who were intent on making their country more indeiwndent of foreign economic control and stronger in the military Held. A new sound could be heard over Bangkok, the roar of aeroplane motors. Thailand is believed to possess a trained army of about 60,000 and a considerable number of reserves, also about 200 aeroplanes. This is negligible by European standards but counts for something in tlie Orient, where armaments are on a less massive scale. The Thai has the reputation of being a better natural flyer than either the Chinese or the Japanese. “Thailand For Thais”

The new Government has been pushing ahead vigorously with a "Thailand for the Thais” programme. There is a .large Chinese minority iu Thailand and formerly the Chinese possessed almost, a monopoly of retail trades and certain kinds of manual and industrial labour. The Thai, us a general rule, was a peasant, if poor and a Government official, army officer or professional man if well-to-do. Since the change of Government a whole series of measures hits been enacted to curb what is regarded as excessive Chinese predominance in economic life and immigration restrictions on the Chinese have been lightened. Japan may also have encouraged this anti-Chinese attitude on the part ol the. Thai Government. Pact Plan Fails

Naturally, both sides blame the other for the incidents which have occurred along the frontiers. Deterioration of relations began when Japan started io exercise pressure on Indo-China late in June. Before then a proposed nonaggression pact between Thailand .and ludo-China bad been drafted. France promptly ratified it but Thailand withheld ratification and instead launched a campaign for union of all people of the Thai race under Thailand.

On September 6 Thailand demanded immediate French cession of parts of western Laos and assurances that if the French were forced to witlidraw from Indo-Chimi, the eiitire states of Cambodia and Luos be ceded to Ihailaml. Twice the Vichy Government rejected these demands, while declaring its willingness to carry out a nonaggression pact with clauses giving Thailand a number of islands and granting equal navigation rights along a 50-mile stretch of the Mekong River, which forms the boundary between Thailand and Laos. French Charges

By early November the situation had become more strained am! the I reiicii were busy on defence preparations along tlie’ frontier, though tlie forces were strictly inslYueted not to act unless tlie Thais moved first. Tlie French said that Thai pianos frequently tlew over the French border, also that they had been forced to a.bandon regular passenger and mail services from Cambodia to a railhead in Thailand after Thais ami scrawled anti-Frencli slogans ou the buses and covered, the French emblem with the Thai Hag. French sources maintain that talk in Bangkok about uniting all Thais under Thailand rule is based on fallacious ideas as it would mean the absorption of millions of Chinese ano would include portions of Burma and northern Indo-China. where pcoji.* racially akin to tlie Siamese are found.

Scoffing at charges that "great, numbers of Siamese” have been ill-treated in Cambodia, the French say there are only 5000 real Thais in Cambodia and that there were none in the two areas which Thailand is demanding till several thousand voluntarily entered Cambodia from Thailand recently. As a matter of fact, say the French, the boot is on the other foot, tor , maintain that there are nearly oOO.OOU Cambodians living in Thailand.