DESIRE TO ABDICATE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1934, Page 7

DESIRE TO ABDICATE

DECISION OF KING OF SIAM. STRICT SECRECY OBSERVED. London, Nov/ 1. ’ In a telephone conversation with Bangkok, a representative of the Daily Mail learned that no word of the threat of the King of. Siam to abdicate had been allowed to leak out there, the Siam newspapers being rigidly censored. Editors knew that their papers would have been suppressed if they had mentioned the rumours of the possibility of the King abdicating which have been circulating in Bangkok for about a month. The people generally, it was learned, hope that the King will consent to remain on the throne. They respect him and want him to continue to rule. The manager of the Oriental Hotel at Bangkok said that everything is quiet in Siam, and there is nothing to suggest that a dissolution is imminent. An official at the Siamese Legation King’s abdication the first person to be in London says that in the event of the considered t ould be the 11-year-old Prince Songkla, the King’s nephew, who at present is studying in Europe. Having pointed out that the King told the Regent ten days ago of his intention to abdicate, the secretary to His Majesty said: "It is an ultimatum, because the Government can avoid it by dropping its measures and submitting them to a plebiscite or an election.”