SIAM UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 214, 10 September 1945, Page 5

SIAM UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT

DARING ALLIED VENTURE AID FROM REGENT MEN SENT IN BY SUBMARINE, PARACHUTE AND PLANE Recd. 7.30 p.m. Washington, Sept. 8. The Office of Strategic Services has revealed the exploits of Allied under-1 cover agents in Thailand, which became one of our few sources of direct intelligence regarding lhe Japanese. | Thais and Americans infiltrated the country by submarine and Catalinas. Night parachute jumps were made in isolated terrain and also by planes landed on secret air fields. There were long over-land treks from China. Several American officers for many | months before the end of the war, lived in Bangkok, which had a Jap- 1 anese garrison ot 7000. Americans communicated by radio with an Office of Strategic Services oase in Ceylon. The office established twelve jungle camps lor training guerrillas for a general revolt against the Japanese, lor which purpose planes dropped 175 tons of arms and material. As many as five planes nightly parachuted men into one guerrilla area. The Regent, Luang Pradit, who led a Government which ostensibly was a satellite ot Japan, also led resistance against Japan. He constantly communicated through the office and a British counterpart with the British and American Governments and the South-east Asia Command. Pradit repeatedly ottered to bring the movement into the open against the Japanese, but, for military reasons, the Allied Command urged him to remain underground. The Regent’s code name was' "Ruth," wh-ch became so established that it was used by the British ana American Governments in regular communications. Pradit, working under tne very noses of the Japanese, was aided by other Government leaders, including the Premier, Thawi Bunyaket, wno led the guerrillas, anj th police chief Luang Aduldeckarai, who aided the oilice oi Strategic Services agents in their infiltration ana departure. The dangers multiplied toward the end, as the Japanese became increasingly suspicious and began searching for dropping points and guerrilla camps. Tnrough the Office of Strategic Services agents, the Thais informed the south-east Asia Command of Japanese movements almost as soon as they occurred. High Thai ollicers often conversed with their Japanese equivalent and then repeated the conversation to Allied agents at Bangkok. The planning for the clandestine alliance began in 1942 and actual contact was achieved early in 1943, when two Thais were sent to the United States. Meanwhile the Free Thai Movement had sprung up. The office of Strategic Services trained the free Thais in infiltration and then sent them to their homeland, after which the flow of intelligence began.