formed a part of Annam, should be restored to that Kingdom, now a French protectorate. There is no historical basis for this claim, which was at first unsupported even in Paris, but when the colonial party added the argument that the unnavigable Me Khong, as one of the future trade routes of Southwest China, must at all costs be acquired by France, the French Government formally demanded of Bangkok the provinces in question. The Siamese replied by suggesting that the disputed territory be regarded as neutral until such time as the frontier could be properly demarcated and this was agreed upon but merely led to further trouble, each side accusing the other of violating the compact. Siam asked for arbitration, which was declined by the French. When, in 1893, bloody collisions occurred along the border, French gunboats, dispatched from Saigon, ascended the Chao Phraya, despite efforts of the Siamese naval forces to bar the way. In consequence of Siamese resistance, the French greatly increased their demands, now insisting that Siam give up all territory east of the Me Khong (including about half of the rich province of Luang Phrabang, to which no French claim had ever previously been laid). After 10 days of blockade, the Siamese had no choice but to accept a humiliating treaty which, among other concessions, required immediate evacuation of her eastern outposts and the payment of an indemnity; as a guarantee, France established a military occupation of the southeastern province, of Chanthabun, which was to continue long after all the terms had been fulfilled.

Relations between the two countries were far from improved by this episode and, during the following years, abuses in the exercise of French extraterritorial rights were a fertile source of provocation. In fact, despite every effort to avoid unfortunate incidents, the Government of Siam found itself spending all its energies in replying to diplomatic representations and to demands for inquiries, explanations, and reparations.

As the French demands increased in numbers and severity, there was no longer any question that Siam's national survival was at stake. But, in 1896, Great Britain, at last alarmed by France's growing strength in southern Asia and unwilling to have her approach too near the eastern confines of India, intervened. High feelings were aroused in both countries but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was concluded in the same year, by which Siam's autonomy was guaranteed that she might serve as a buffer between the rival empires.

Thereafter, relations between France and Siam tended to improve. It was not, however, until 1907, that, in return for yet another "rectification of the boundary," the French agreed to revise their extraterritorial rights and to remove the garrison from Chanthabun. A second convention of the same year resulted in Siam's restoring to Cambodia the province of Phratabong, which she had held since 1809, and receiving in exchange a part of the territory yielded in 1904 and obtaining a recognition of Siamese jurisdiction over Asiatic French subjects. Altogether, in warding off the European neighbor, Siam had been compelled to sacrifice no less than 90,000 square miles of her eastern lands.

THAILAND

Whether the modern traveler enters Siam by steamer from Hongkong or Singapore or by comfortable Diesel-engined train from the Malay States, his destination is certain to be Bangkok. Here, in bewildering juxtaposition, the old Siam and the new Thailand confront him together on every side. The former is represented in the complicated network of canals, upon which thousands of boat-dwellers pass their lives; in the narrow streets hung with the vertical signboards of the inevitable multitude of Chinese traders; in the throngs of yellow-robed monks that appear at daybreak from hundreds of gaily colored shrines whose spires arise in every direction. The new is seen in the modern boulevards lined with spacious wooden houses set among gardens and orchards; in the motorcars competing for space with bicycle-drawn jinrikishas; in the air-conditioned cinema theaters, where, before World War II, were shown the new pictures shipped by air from California; in the cement and match factories; in the great airport of Don Muang, north of the city, where transports arrived daily from Britain and Australia, from Java and The Netherlands.

Until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting, growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the monotony of living. Poverty, as understood in the industrial Occident, was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of bamboo in a day or two; fruit trees bore around the year; clothing was woven at home and shoes were little worn; virtually everyone owned productive land or was at liberty to clear a tract from the forest which covers much of the thinly populated country; taxes were light and could be paid by a few days' labor on some project of public works.

During the decade just passed the Government has initiated a positive program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority. Among the means adopted have been the development of such new sources of gain as the raising of tobacco and cotton on a large scale; the construction of great irrigation projects and the development of sources of electric power; the education of the farmer in livestock breeding and scientific agriculture; the establishment of agencies to enable him to obtain a fair market for his produce; the spread of public-health and medical services in far corners of the provinces. The results of this experiment had not yet become clear when the war interfered to hinder its fulfillment.

The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. If the means to these laudable ends were perverted, by the paid agents of Japanese propaganda and a handful of powerful men within the Thai Government, to serve the cause of "co-prosperity," it must not therefore be assumed that the misfortunes which have recently befallen them are traceable to any activities and desires on the part of the Thai people themselves.

A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai, with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free men."

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