CAUSED BY GUN EXPLOSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26175, 11 June 1946, Page 5

CAUSED BY GUN EXPLOSION

DEATH OF THE KING

BANGKOK, June 9. Ananda Mahidol, the 20-year-old King of Siam, was found dead in his palace shortly before noon to-day. The royal household spokesman said “ a gun explosion ” caused the death. A servant found the King dead in his bedroom at Baronpinan Palace with a bullet wound in the head. The Siamese police director-general and the director of Chulalong Korn hospital were called, and after examining the body announced that death was accidental. Palace officials said the King had been indisposed for the past two days. This morning he rose early and took medicine.

The House of Assembly has been called to an emergency session to appoint his successor, who is expected to be his 19-year-old brother. Prince Phumiphon Aduldet.

Ananda . expected to leave Bangkok next week before going to Switzerland to resume the studies which were interrupted upon his return to Siam last December. The young King ascended the throne 11 years ago under a regency, after the abdication of his uncle, King Prajadhipok, who died on May 30, 1941. Ananda was a shy, bespectacled youth. He was an autocratic monarch, but was regarded with the same extreme veneration which 18.000,000 subjects always have accorded Siam’s ruler. The nation was stunned by the news of King Ananda’s death, and the King’s young and attractive mother, Phraratanani Sri Sangwan, is prostrated with grief. The King had won wide popularity after his return from Switzerland in December, although his personal life was confined to the palace, and he was allowed none of the informal social expeditions allowed to Western royalty. He was never allowed to receive the press. The King was an enthusiastic collector of firearms. and always kept a weapon near him, often practising firing in the palace grounds. Several weeks ago a thief stole his favourite Lugar pistol. Ananda was often described as a reluctant monarch, who found the greatest pleasure in playing the saxophone and driving a jeep in the palace grounds. His projected return to Switzerland was opposed by his advisers, who wished to import tutors for him, arguing that his presence heightened Siamese morale. Ananda won his point, however, and was to have left Bangkok on June 13.