SIAM. 



587 





party. The Radical Minister of Finance WAS 

 compelled to put an end to tlie>e illr;:;;! prac- 

 tuv.s and not only retain the tobacco monopoly, 

 but impose duties as heavy as those on tobacco 

 ami .silt on spirits, petroleum, cigarette paper, 

 ami matches, and also to issue a loan of 44,04X),- 

 000 francs. New commercial treaties with 

 Austria- Hungary and Germany and with Great 

 Britain reduced the income from import duties. 

 The now loan was required to pay on the float- 

 ing debt and for strengthening trie military es- 

 tablishment, an object, not favored by the Radi- 

 cals, who have formerly demanded the abolition 

 of the regular army. The Extreme Radicals, 

 though not admitted in the Cabinet, were pre- 

 dominant in the Skupshtina. They gave their 

 chief attention to drawing up articles of im- 

 peachment against the ex-ministers, overriding 

 in this the wishes of the Government. Among 

 the instances in which they were charged with 

 invading personal and property rights were the 

 suppression of a communal council and the in- 

 carceration of all the members, and the shooting 

 down of 16 peasants in Gorachitza by regular 

 soldiers. The new Government took steps to 

 settle a troublesome boundary question that has 

 been pending since 1884 by appointing commis- 

 sioners to meet Austrian commissioners and de- 

 limit the frontier between Servia and Bosnia 

 near the river Drina. 



SIAM, an absolute monarchy in southeastern 

 Asia. Khulalongkorn, born Sept. 20, 1853, the 

 fifth sovereign of the dynasty founded by Chakh- 

 ri in 1782. succeeded his father, Malia Mongkut, 

 in 1868. The area is about 250,000 square miles, 

 including the Laos territory now annexed to 

 French Indo-China, and the estimated popula- 

 tion 6,000,000, of whom 2.000,000 are Siamese, 

 2.000,000 Laotians, 1,000,000 Malays, and 1,000,- 

 000 Chinese. Bangkok, the capital, has 350,000 

 inhabitants, of whom half are Chinese. The 

 King's revenue is about $10,000,000, obtained 

 from invested funds, monopolies of spirits and 

 opium, customs, royalties of tin mines and fish- 

 eries, a tax on gambling, etc. The standing army 

 numbers 12.000 men, but all able-bodied men 

 may be called into the service. The Govern- 

 ment had 60,000 stands of improved arms, and 

 procured more during the dispute with France 

 in 1893. The naval force consists of 1 protected 

 cruiser, 2 wooden corvettes, 6 gunboats, and 3 

 vachts. The navy is officered by Danes and 

 Englishmen, and the King's guard of 4,000 men. 

 armed with Mannlicher rifles and Knipp field 

 guns, has been instructed by German officers. 



The imports in 1892 were valued at $9,425,000. 

 The value of the exports was $10,084,000, con- 

 sisting principally of the following articles; Kiee, 

 $6,897,000; teak" wood, $457,000; pepper, $389,- 

 000; dried and salted fish, $353,000; cattle, 

 $199,000. The external trade is mainly in the 

 hands of the English, the Germans coming next 

 and the French third. Formerly the French 

 share was much larger than it is now. The 

 main part of the commerce is with Singapore 

 and Hong-Kong, carried in Knglish bottoms. 

 The internal commerce is in the hands of the 

 Chinese. There is a postal service directed by 

 (iermans which forwarded 208,872 domestic and 

 234,537 foreign letters in 1891. Bangkok has 

 electric lighting and various other modern im- 



provements, including an electric street railroad 

 built liy Americans. A steam railroad between 

 Bangkok and Paknam was opened for truffle on 

 April 11. l*!i::. 



Conflict with France. The Mekong river, 

 north of Cambodia, runs through the country of 

 the Laos tribes. They ore of the same race as 

 the Siamese, and those bordering on Siam have 

 long paid tribute to the court at. Bangkok, while 

 those dwelling between the river and the moun- 

 tains that divide them from A imam were former- 

 ly unwilling vassals of the Emperor of A imam. 

 During the hostilities that ended with the es- 

 tablishment of a French protectorate over An- 

 nam the Annatnite garrisons were withdrawn 

 from the positions which they held in the Laos 

 States, whereupon the Siamese established posts 

 on the upper nver and in the north checked the 

 ravages of the Chinese marauders. North of 

 the Laos States, on both sides of the Mekong, 

 are Shan tribes over whom the British Indian 

 Government claimed some suzerain rights as the 

 successor to the empire of the Kings of Burmah, 

 which were disputed in respect to the provinces 

 between the eighteenth and twenty-first parallels 

 by Siam and in respect to the country north of 

 the twenty-first degree of latitude by China, 

 and which it abandoned to those powers in re- 

 turn for compensation in other quarters. M. 

 Ribot, in 1892, first asserted the historical 

 claim of Annam to the whole left bank of 

 the upper Mekong and of Cambodia to the 

 valuable district east of the river in the 

 vicinity of the cataracts which was actually 

 occupied and administered by Siam. After 

 his announcement the Siamese Government took 

 steps to render more effective their occupation 

 of the disputed territory, while the French did 

 nothing to give effect to their claims until the 

 beginning of 1893, when they transported gun- 

 boats in sections to the river north of the cata- 

 racts and sent Annamite troops under the com- 

 mand of French officers over the mountains. 

 The Laotians resisted the advance of their old 

 enemies, and the Siamese Government raised a 

 large army by conscription, stripping the rice 

 fields of laborers in order to defend the eastern 

 frontier. In the southeast of Siam the rich dis- 

 tricts of Battambong and Angkor belong histor- 

 ically and ethnological!)' to Cambodia by a better 

 title than any part of the Laos country does to 

 Annam, for they are conquered provinces of the 

 ancient kingdom whose inhabitants bear un- 

 easily the yoke of the Siamese and desire to be 

 reunited with their brothers. But the French 

 Government was precluded from claiming these 

 provinces by the treaty of 1856. which acknowl- 

 edged them to l)e a part of Siam. Between An- 

 nam and Siam the boundary had never been de- 

 limited, and grounds for trie French claim for a 

 rectification of the frontier were furnished by 

 the Laotian tril>es, of whose incursions into 

 Annam the French minister at Bangkok began 

 to complain in 1889. The English railroad 

 enterprises in Siam. one of which contemplated 

 a line to Luang Prabang. the chief mart on the 

 upper Mekong, near the border of the Shan 

 States, caused the French to take active meas- 

 ures to adjust the frontier according to their 

 idea. The arrangement to delimit the frontier 

 between Siara and the northern Shan States by 



