Tension Rises In Siam, Menaced Inside And Out

Northern Advocate, 19 December 1949, Page 5

Tension Rises In Siam, Menaced Inside And Out

BANGKOK, Sun. (10 a.m.). —Police and military forces armed with machine-guns and rifles threw l'oadblocks across Bangkok’s main thoroughfares linking the city with the airport and the principal military zone last night ,as rumours spread of tension over the Communist threat and of unrest among the Siamese armed forces.

Security patrols arc making day and night tours of potential trouble spots, mostly in Bangkok’s Chinatown, whei-e 300.000 Chinese live. Wild rumours that a Chinese coup d'etat is imminent are taking ready hold on the populace. Tension in the city has been prompted by the fact that the nation faces the externa] threat of the Chinese Communist armies and internal threats from armed services plot groups, rereported to be under political inspiration and financial encouragement from Siam’s 4,000,000 Chinese minority. it was learned officially today that the Siamese Government intends to carry on the policy of resisting Communism, but, according to reliable

sources, both the political and defence chiefs have the gravest doubts of the nation's ability to withstand prolonged Chinese underground fifth-column pressure. Members ot die Siamese Government and opposition .parties have privately commented this week that the arrangement of the “best possible deal under the circumstances” with Communist China couM not be r.uled out as a prospect which could materialise under -the pressure of the next three months. Several leaders have expressed open cynicism and 'distrust at the prospect of the United Kingdom and the United States providing military aid sufficient to bolster Siam's ii!-e<.nipped and unmechanised border protection forces.