1917

SIAM
The kingdom of Siam, of which Bangkok is the capital, extends from the latitude of
, about 20 deg. north to the Gulf called after itself. It is bounded on the west by
Burmah and the Bay of Bengal, and on the east by the Mekong and the French
protectorates of Luang Prabang and Cambodia. Formerly the Lai Mountains were
claimed as the eastern boundary, but in 1893 the French pressed the claims of
Arm am to the territory between the mountains and the river, and the Siamese
were compelled to retire. The most important part of the kingdom lies in the
valley of the Menam, the country of the true Siamese. The boundaries of Siam
on the Bay of Bengal reach from Burmah in a southerly line to the northern frontier
of Kelantan and Kedah in the Malayan Peninsula in the latitude of about 7 deg. north.
The island of Junck Salong, containing enormous deposits of tin ore, is included in
■ the territories of Siam. The boundary line runs south-east from the mouth of the Perlis
River across the Peninsula slightly to the north of Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan,
Under the Treaty of 1909 Siam ceded to Great Britain her Malay dependencies of Perlis,
Kedah, Kelantan and Tringganu, and the boundary was delimitated in the cold
weather of 1909-10. The kingdom also comprises a great part of the ancient domain
of Lao, but the rich and valuable possession of Battambang, once a part of the king-
. dom of Cambodia, was ceded to France in 1907. A Treaty concluded between
France and Siam in 1904 settled some disputed points with regard to the frontier between
Siam and Cambodia and Siam and French Indo-China. By a further treaty in 1907 the
territories of Battambang, Sien-reap and Ankor were_ ceded by Siam to France, in
exchange for the district of Krat and some slight concessions in Dansai (Laos). Franee
. at the same time agreed to the gradual abandonment of the extra-territorial privileges
hitherto enjoyed by French Asiatic subjects and proteges in Siam. The various depend¬
encies and outskirts are peopled by a variety of races, some mi generis, others illustrating
every form and shade of the transition between the original race and the Annamites on
the east, and the Malays and Burmese on the south and west. The former capital of Siam
was Ayuthia, situated on the Menam river (literally the “Mother of Waters”), about 90
miles from its mouth. In 1767 a series of bloody and desperate combats between the
Siamese and the Burmese culminated in the capture and destruction of that city by
the victorious Burmese general and the consequent exodus of the conquered. They
moved down the river about . 60 miles, and there founded the present populous and
-flourishing city of Bangkok. The chief of the Siamese Army rallied the scattered
troops, and, building a walled city at Toutaboree, declared himself King under the title
P’ya Tak. In 1782 P’ya Tak became insane, and the kingdom passed to his most
■distinguished general, named Chao P’ya Chakkri, who founded the present dynasty, of
which His Majesty the present King (the 42nd reigning monarch in Siarn of whom we
have any record) is the sixth in regular descent. The revenue of Siam is about
£5,000,000 a year. The finances of the country have undergone reorganisation,
for which purpose a European financial adviser was engaged in 1896. At that
time the revenue accounted for was little more than Ticals. 18,000,000, but the
amount has since steadily increased. A proposal to adopt the gold standard
was mooted in 1899, but did not come to anything till November, 1902, when the
Mint was closed to the free coinage of silver. A triennial poll tax used to be imposed upon
* Chinese, but this has now been changed to the same annual capitation tax as is paid by
Siamese. Siam entered the Universal Postal Union on the 1st July, 1885. The first railway
’ line, from Bangkok to Paknam, was opened by the King on the 11th April, 1893. It is a
purely passenger line, having been unable to get any goods traffic worth mentioning, but
■ the dividend averages about seven per cent. Another railway, a Government line vid
Ayuthia to Korat, was the first important line completed. The first section, from
Bangkok to Ayuthia, a distance of about fifty miles, was opened on the
26th March, 1897. Another section, to Gengkoi, was opened on November 1st, 1897,
. a third, to Hinlap, on April 1st, 1898, and the whole line was opened to traffic in
November, 1900. The construction of a line branching off the Korat line near
Ayuthia and intended toopen up the country to Chiengmai was commenced in June, 1898,