SUICIDE RULED OUT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26176, 12 June 1946, Page 5

SUICIDE RULED OUT

KING OF SIAM’S DEATH WOUND IN THE FOREHEAD LONDON, June 10. The death of the King of Siam was caused by a pistol shot through the forehead above the left eye. The director-general of the palace, after an investigation lasting six hours, stated that it was not a case of suicide, reports the Bangkok correspondent of the Daily Mail. The director-general emphasised the King’s well-known enthusiasm for playing with revolvers and pistols. “There were three in his bedroom which were always loaded, with the safety catches released,” he said. The King apparently had a small armoury in his bedroom. In addition to the pistols, he had a Bren gun, a tommy-gun, a carbine and special light weapons which the clandestine forces in Siam used during the war. The death of the King brings the climax to a series of palace bickerings and intrigues, says the Bangkok correspondent of the Associated Press. Siam is already involved in a territorial dispute with France, and is now faced with the possibility of having to cope with an anti-monarchist movement.

Ananda’s body is lying in state in the magnificent Dusit Hall of Kings in Bangkok while all Siam mourns his death. The Government has decreed national mourning for one year. After the Buddhist funeral ceremony the body will be kept in a golden urn for 100 days before cremation.