702 



SIAM. 



mob carrying Servian, Russian, and French flags 

 made a demonstration in front of the King's palace, 

 and was only prevented by a strong force of gen- 

 darmes from attacking the Hungarian industrial 

 museum. This alarmed the Servian Government, 

 which made many arrests, and afterward dismissed 

 the prefect of Belgrade and the commandant of the 

 gendarmerie. Explanations were made to the 

 Austrian legation that were accepted as satis- 

 factory. The experiment of granting large remis- 

 sions of taxes and other privileges and bounties to 

 a company that undertook to slaughter from 10,000 

 to 30,000 Servian hogs for export to other countries 

 besides Austria-Hungary was not successful. A 

 solution of the difference respecting the admission 

 of Servian hogs into Hungary was agreed to in 

 principle at Vienna on July 15. 



SIAM, an absolute monarchy in southeastern 

 Asia. The reigning King is Khulalongkorn, born 

 Sept. 21, 1853, who succeeded his father, Maha 

 Mongkut, on Oct. 1, 1868. The boundaries of the 

 kingdom never have been well defined, as the bor- 

 der lands are occupied by tribes more or less inde- 

 pendent, which have at times acknowledged alle- 

 giance to the King of Siam and at other times to 

 Burmah, China, Cambodia, or Annam. The states 

 of Kedali, Patani, Kelantan, and Tringganu, in the 

 Malay peninsula, and Chiengmai, Lakon, Lampoon- 

 chi, Nan, Free, and other Laos states acknowledge 

 the sovereignty of Siam and send tribute to Bang- 

 kok. The Shan States, in the north, were claimed 

 and conquered by Great Britain after the annexa- 

 tion of upper Burmah to British India, and in 1891 

 the frontier between Burmah and Siam was de- 

 limited by a commission, which gave these territo- 

 ries to Burmah as far as the Mekong river. Other 

 territories on the east bank of the Mekong were also 

 claimed as Burmese by historical right, and of these 

 Great Britain conceded Kiang-Kheng to Siam and 

 ceded Kiang-Hung in the north to China in 1894. 

 The object was to create a buffer territory between 

 the French and British possessions. To all these 

 territories east of the Mekong the French republic 

 asserted a claim as successor to the rights of the 

 King of Annam. Between the Mekong and the An- 

 nam hills Siam formerly claimed a large territory 

 that is now acknowledged to belong to France. On 

 Oct. 3, 1893, at the conclusion of hostilities between 

 France and Siam, a treaty was made constituting the 

 river Mekong the boundary between Siam and the 

 French possessions, but granting to France a sphere 

 of interest, within which the French have the right 

 to erect stations, comprising a strip 25 kilometres 

 broad on the west bank of Mekong river through 

 the whole length of the Kingdom of Siam. The 

 territory formerly claimed by Siam over which the 

 French established claims of sovereignty between 

 1893 and 1896 has an area of 110,000 square miles. 

 The territory remaining to Siam after the appro- 

 priations of France and Great Britain has an ex- 

 tent of about 300,000 square miles. The population 

 was formerly estimated at 8,000,000, comprising 

 2,500,000 Siamese, 2,000,000 Laotians, 1,000,000 

 Chinese, 1,000,000 Malays, and 1,500,000 Burmese, 

 Indian, and Cambodian immigrants. The people 

 are mostly Buddhists. Their economical condition 

 is very low, owing to the state of serfdom in which 

 they are kept by the official class, who exact forced 

 labor from one to four months in the year, taking 

 the laborers from the rice fields often when they need 

 the most attention. Domestic slavery is disappear- 

 ing, but slavery for debt is common. The main 

 part of the work in the mines and mills of the south 

 is done by Chinese coolies. In the teak forests of 

 the north Burmese and Karens are employed. 



Besides rice, of which 485,255 tons were exported 

 from the short crop of 1894, the chief products for 



export are pepper, salt and dried fish, and sesame. 

 The teak-cutting industry is in British hands. 

 Mining for sapphires and rubies is carried on in 

 some of the eastern districts. In the Malay penin- 

 sula are valuable tin mines. French and English 

 companies are engaged in gold mining. The trade 

 with other countries is in the hands of foreigners, 

 and Chinese are acquiring an increasing share of it. 

 The trade is mainly with Singapore and Hong- 

 Kong. The total value of the imports in 1894 \v,-i^ 

 1,708,345, and of the exports 2,466,895. The 

 chief imports are cotton cloth, opium, silks, sugar, 

 kerosene, hardware, and jewelry. The values of the 

 leading exports in 1894 were : Rice, 1.689.52? ; 

 fish, 180,969 ; teak, 140,020 ; other woods, 35,- 

 681 ; birds' nests, 44.340 ; cattle, 46,539 ; pepper, 

 31,552 ; hides, 18,974 ; lac, 14,890. Telegraphs 

 have been built for a length of 1,780 miles, but 

 since the dismissal of foreign employees the wires 

 are seldom in working order. A railroad from 

 Bangkok to Paknam, a distance of 14 miles, was 

 opened in April, 1893. The survey of a line to 

 Chiengmai and the northern and eastern parts of 

 Siam was begun in 1888, and one has been sanc- 

 tioned from Bangkok to Banmai, on the Petriou 

 river. A concession has been granted for a line 

 across the Malay peninsula, from Singora to Kota 

 Star, and thence to Kulim, a total distance of 135 

 miles. These enterprises have been proposed by 

 Englishmen, a company of whom has undertaken 

 and begun the construction of a line, 165 miles in 

 length, from Bangkok to the rice-growing district 

 of Korat. In July, 1896. the Siamese Government 

 proceeded to take possession of the works because 

 the contract was not being executed with the stipu- 

 lated celerity. The King of Siam has a revenue of 

 about 2,000,000 a year, derived from land taxes, a 

 tax on fruit trees, customs, tin mines, edible birds' 

 nests, fisheries, and licenses for gambling-houses 

 and the sale of opium. He maintains an army of 

 the nominal strength of 12,000 men, of whom 5,000 

 are kept under arms and are partly instructed by 

 European officers. There are 80,000 modern rifles 

 and numerous cannon in the royal arsenals. The 

 naval force consists of 11 armed vessels of over 500 

 tons and 11 smaller ones. During the warlike opera- 

 tions of 1893 France took possession of the port of 

 Chantabun, which the French have since occupied. 

 In 1895 the Chinese Government made a treaty 

 conceding the French right to the territories on the 

 upper Mekong that Great Britain had transferred 

 to China. Subsequently the English Government 

 abandoned the idea of preserving buffer states be- 

 tween the French and British possessions, over 

 which question the relations between the two gov- 

 ernments had been strained and came to an amica- 

 ble agreement conceding these territories to France. 

 On Jan. 15, 1896, the English Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, Lord Salisbury, and the French ambassa- 

 dor to England, Baron de Courcel. signed a declara- 

 tion mutually guaranteeing the neutrality and in- 

 violability of 'the basin of the Menam and the coast 

 streams and recognizing the French claims to the 

 Mongsin district of Keng-Cheng, on the east bank 

 of the upper Mekong. The district into which 

 France and Great Britain agreed not to advance 

 their armed forces without the consent of the other 

 party, and within which they engaged not to acquire 

 any special privilege or advantage that shall not be 

 enjoyed in common and be equally open to both 

 Great Britain and France and their nationals and 

 dependents, was defined as comprised in the basins 

 of the Pechaburi, Mekong, Menam, and Bangpa- 

 kong, or Petriou, rivers and their tributaries, to- 

 gether with the extent of coast from Muong-Bang- 

 Tapan to Muong-Pase, the basins of the rivers on 

 which those two places are situated, and the basins 



