THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Saturday, December 22, 1945. REPARATIONS FROM SIAM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26033, 22 December 1945, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Saturday, December 22, 1945. REPARATIONS FROM SIAM

In the absence of a fuller statement of the official attitude of the United States towards Siam, it is easier to appreciate Great Britain’s intentions than to understand the American protest against what it considers to be drastic demands. The policy of Siam during the war was spineless, not to put any more sinister interpretation upon it. After a nominal resistance lasting only five hours, she surrendered to Japan and almost immediately concluded a pact pledging military, political and economic assistance to that country. Later, under Japanese sponsorship, Siam accepted certain territories in Malaya and the Shan States which had been annexed from Great Britain. Since British influence was traditionally strong in Bangkok, this action came as a disagreeable shock and undoubtedly caused serious harm to the Allied cause. On the collapse of Japan, Siam lost no time in abandoning her new ally and on August 16 a proclamation was made in the King’s name withdrawing the declaration of war on Great Britain and the United States and handing back the annexed territories. The British and American judgment upon the coolness of this facile extrusion of national responsibility differed. The United States decided to treat Siam as a nation to be liberated rather than as an enemy. American interventions in foreign affairs sometimes appear peculiar in British eyes and create an impression that they are guided by no constant inspiration. A rather unusual note, it is to be observed, is struck in the statement of the Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, that the United States had played a part in the Pacific war “ which might modestly be described as prominent” and that it was entitled to have its views. patiently considered. The United States did not suffer such injury as Great Britain did through the subservience of Siam to Japan. In his initial speech on foreign affairs in the House of Commons, Mr Ernest Bevin, Foreign Secretary, acknowledged the -help rendered during the last year of the war from the growing resistance movement in Siam and also noted the new friendliness of the Siamese Government, but he made it clear that future relationships depended upon proofs of the genuineness of this repentance and upon Siam’s willingness to undo past wrongs and to make good injury and loss to British and Allied interests. The latest announcement of British policy in this matter expresses the desire to see Siam restored to her former position as a sovereign independent State but insists that restitution bp made. The request that reparations should be in the form of free rice exports may be admitted to be singular but it is essentially a practical suggestion and one that will not bear heavily upon Siam for hers is one of the greatest rice producing areas in South-east Asia and she possesses large stocks accumulated duringf the Japanese occupation. The people of Malaya and of Burma are in serious need of this vital staple food, and it has already been reported that there is the threat of a food famine in Java. Moreover, the British view has been accepted as a reasonable one, even by the Siamese Government itself, which has already made an offer,,, of rice to assist neighbouring territories.