SECRET AID TO ALLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 61, 10 September 1945, Page 5

SECRET AID TO ALLIES

SIAMESE CO-OPERATION

WASHINGTON, September 8.

The Office of Strategic Services has revealed the exploits of Allied undercover agents in Siam which became one of our few sources of direct intelligence regarding the Japanese and Siamese. Americans infiltrated the country by submarine, in Catalinas, and by night parachute jumps in isolated terrain, and also by secret airfields and long overland treks from China.

Several American officers for many months before the end of the war lived in Bangkok, which 7000 Japanese garrisoned. The Americans communicated by radio with the Office of Strategic Services base in Ceylon. The office established 12 jungle camps for training guerrillas for general revolt against the Japanese, for which purpose planes dropped 175 tons of arms and material. As many as five planes a night parachuted men hi. one guerrilla area. The Regent, Luang Pradit, who led the Government, which was ostensibly a satellite of Japan, also led the resistance against Japan, and constantly communicated through the office and its British counterpart with the British and American Governments and the South-east Asia Command. Pradit repeatedly offered to bring the movement into the open against the Japanese, but for military reasons the Allied command urged him to remain underground. The Regent's code name was "Ruth," which became so established that it was used by the British and American Governments in regular communications. Pradit, working under the very noses of the Japanese, was aided by other Government leaders, including the Premier, Thawi Bunyaket. who led the guerrillas, and the police chief, Luang Aduldeckarat, who aided the agents of the Office of Strategic Services in infiltration and departure.

The dangers multiplied towards the end, as the Japanese, being increasingly suspicious, began searching for dropping points and guerrilla camps. Through agents of the Office of Strategic Services, the Siamese informed the South-east Asia Command of Japanese movements almost as soon as they occurred. High Siamese officers often conversed with their Japanese equivalents and then repeated the conversations to Allied agents in Bangkok.

Planning for the clandestine alliance began in 1942, and actual contact was achieved early in 1943. when two Siamese were sent to the United States. Meanwhile, the Free Siamese movement had sprung up. The Office of Strategic Services trained Free Siamese in infiltration and then sent, them to their homeland, after which the (low of intelligence began.