THRONE GIVEN UP

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1935, Page 5

THRONE GIVEN UP

LIFE IN COUNTRY HOUSE. KING AND LIBERTY OF PEOPLE. In a quiet country house in Surrey King Prajadhipok has of his own free will abdicated from the throne of Siam, says the Children’s' Newspaper. < He has taken this step because his view of what constitutes political freedom is entirely opposed to that of his Government. In consequence he has addressed his letter of abdication to the ■people of Siam instead of io his ministers. His reasons are of great interest, as they .show how’the principles of government which he learned as a student in England differ 'from those prevailing more and mote in other countries in these years of stress. Briefly King Prajadhipok has . abdicated because he refused to become the representative of a party instead of the State as a whole; he has abjured the modem 7sscist State, He was willing, he raid, to surrender his former power to the people, but refused to surrender it to any individual or party so that it could be used 1 In ah; autocratic way. •. King Prajadhipok . succeeded to the throne in 1925 and until 1932 reigtied as an absolute monarch- Then the Army and Navy formed ? People’s Party, and a peaceful revolution led to a Constitutional Monarchy with a constitution under which supreme power was invested in th®'nation. The King was to rule through a Council selected from an elected Assembly of the People’s Representatives. For a few months things ran smoothly, but the Commander-in-Chief quar-. relied with the moderate Prime Minister, carried out another revolution, and dismissed many capable ministers , in order to pack the Assembly _ with nominees from his own party. This the king refused to do and has given up his throne. ' • The heir to the throne is. Prince Ananda, a little boy who is at a preparatory school in Lausanne.