The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST" Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1945. TREATMENT OF SIAM

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1945, Page 4

The Northern Advocate "NORTHLAND FIRST" Registered for transmission through the Post as a Newspaper. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1945. TREATMENT OF SIAM

UNWARRANTED interference by the United States Department of State apparently is holding up the peace treaty between Siam and the Allies and the distribution of a large quantity of rice to Asiatic peoples who either helped Britain in the war against Japan or whose economy has been upset by the invader. America is leaving no stone unturned to create a “sphere of influence” in the Far East, partly, -no doubt, with an eye to future trading possibilities and partly, to strengthen her outer defence ring in the event of possible future aggression. But it is hard to understand the action of a country which has remained aloof from assisting the common cause in Java, intervening in Britain’s negotiations with a former foe which bounds Burma and British Malaya. . United Kingdom-Siam relations were put in their proper setting by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, in a speech in the House of Commons on August 20, when he said we acknowledged the help received during the last year of the war from the growing resistance movement in Siam. Mr Bevin made it clear, however, that the declaration of war by Siam upon the British in 11942, coming as it did from a country whose relations with Great Britain had been particularly cordial, before the war, came as a disagreeable shock, and that when Siam was invaded by Japan she immediately entered into an alliance with Japan and later accepted British territory at the hands of Japan. Our attitude, Mr Bevin declared, Would depend on the way in which Siam made amends Soon after Japan’s collapse, a Siam military mission, came from Bangkok to the Supreme Allied Commander’s headquarters at Kandy and arranged for Siam’s formal surrender. It was received as if it were a group of “visiting The reason became apparent a week later with the announcement by the United States Office of Strategic Services that Siamese notables, among them the Prime Minister and the Regent, had helped the Allies to establish an intelligence service in the country, and had built up an underground resistance movement with which the British and American Governments were in. regular contact. Shortly thereafter the terms on which the United Kingdom was prepared to terminate a state of war with Siam were handed to a Siamese mission. These negotiations, interrupted because the British

plenipotentiary was called away to Java, have recently been resumed. 1 . The'terms outlined today ai:e not harsh, but. are only designed to ensure Siamese co-operation in dealing with the Japanese still remaining in the country, restitution for injuries,, loss and damage caused to British and Allied interests and. a contribution to security, good order and the economic rehabilitation of SouthEast Asia. As regards rumours that have circulated concerning the supply by Siam of free rice, official quarters in London confirm that the Siamese Government has made an offer of rice for assisting territories which are in grievous need of that staple food, large stocks of which Siam was able to build up during the Japanese occupation. , According to the “New York Times” correspondent in Washington, Britain has. “demanded” between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 tons of rice as reparations and the United States, after strongly protesting against the principle of exacting such reparations at all, is now attempting to scale down the quantity. Britain’s view is that Siam should be treated as an enemy country; the United States, however, regards her as a nation to be liberated. The United States has shown itself disposed to forgiveness, never having considered herself at war with Siam. But it may well be that the terms Britain is offering are less generous than those America would favour. . n i Until 1982 Siam was ruled by absolute monarchs. In that year a bloodless revolution gave her a constitution, which promised democracy, but, in fact, power passed to an alliance of one group of genuine liberals, led by the present Regent, Luang Pradit, and another group of army officers led by Luang Pibul. The alliance was always precarious and by 1939, Luang Pibul was master and it was he who accepted Japanese overlordship and encouraged the people to accept it. Siam now has. as Prime Minister Seni Pramoj, its former Minister to the United States and the leader of the Free Thai movement which sprang up there in December 1941. The Free Thai movement is pledged “to restore constitutional Government and democracy.” But Sir Josiah Crosby, Britain's! Minister in Bangkok during the period of Siam s constitutional experiment, believes that one of the essentials of the peace settlement with Siam is to break the power of the military, “which has had sp harmful an influence on her infant struggles towards democratic government.” Whether Seni Pramoj can be relied on to fulfil his pledge without Allied supervision is questionable. For, with the change of Government that m July last year brought Allied sympathisers to Cabinet office there emerged as Commander-in-Chief of the Siamese army Phya Bahol, who led Siam in 1932 on her course of democracy and steered her along it until a commercial scandal forced his resignation in 1938.