SIAM. 



689 



While these events were happening the Sia- 

 me-e made extraordinary eir<irt> in the .Mekong 

 valley ID check the French occupation and jin-- 

 vent the passage of gunboats. They ina-<l 

 troops on hulh sides of t lie Mekong near Kong, 

 i-rccicd forts, es|Kicially on the left Lank, and re- 

 sumed the siege of the French forts on tin; 

 island. Capt. do Villers, on July 14, to prevent 

 t lie blockade, assaulted and captured the forts 

 of Donthano and Taphan with a force of ma- 

 rines, losing 6 men and inflicting heavy IO-M-; 

 on tlio Siamese. Subsequently he expelled the 

 Siamese from their 4 forts on the islands of the 

 Kong group by a series of assaults, in which they 

 lust :{(>() killed. In the vicinity of Gammon the 

 Siamese renewed their attacks on the French 

 posts and were repelled. When the French 

 ships had forced the passage of the Menam and 

 menaced Bangkok the peace party at the court 

 prevailed on the King to propose an armistice, 

 which the French accepted. The Siamese agreed 

 to withdraw their forces from Mekong valley. 



On July 20 M. Pavie presented to the Siamese 

 Government the ultimatum of France, in which 

 she demanded the acceptance within forty-eight 

 hours of the following terms : (1) The recogni- 

 tion of the rights of Annam and Cambodia to 

 the left bank south of 23 of north latitude, 

 and to the islands of the Mekong; (2) the 

 evacuation within a month of the Siamese posts 

 on the left bank of the Mekong; (3) satisfaction 

 for the incident of Keng Chek and for the aggres- 

 sion upon the French gunboats in the Menam ; 

 (4) punishment of the guilty and reparation to 

 the families of the victims ; (5) an indemnity of 

 2,000,000 francs for damages caused to French 

 subjects at various times; (6) the deposit of 

 3,000,000 francs to cover all claims or an assign- 

 ment of the revenues of the provinces of Battam- 

 bong and Siemriep or Angkor. 



The Chinese charge d'affaires in Paris in- 

 formed M. Develle that Siam possessed no terri- 

 tory east of the Mekong as far north as latitude 

 23. The Siamese Government signified its par- 

 tial acceptance of the French terms, agreeing to 

 deposit the sum demanded to cover indemnifica- 

 tions ; to punish persons found guilty of acts of 

 aggression against French citizens contrary to 

 national or international law ; and to regard as 

 Annamite and Cambodian territory the left bank 

 of the Mekong south of the northernmost point 

 occupied by the Franco-Annamite troops, in lati- 

 'tude 18, while the use of the islands should be 

 common to Siam, Annam, and Cambodia. This 

 reply was considered unsatisfactory, and M. 

 Pavie left Bangkok with the three gunboats on 

 July 26. The French Government notified the 

 powers of its intention to blockade the coast of 

 Siam without prejudice to other measures that 

 might be taken to secure the rights of France. 

 The British Government asked if there was a 

 state of war, and announced that if a pacific 

 blockade was intended British merchant vessels 

 would not be required to observe it. The French 

 minister explained that a pacific blockade was 

 meant, and acknowledged, after some discussion, 

 that the trade of neutral powers could not le- 

 gally be interfered with. The blockade was noti- 

 fied by the French authorities on July 27 as 

 beginning on the following day, three days being 

 given to vessels to load and leave Bangkok. On 

 VOL. xxxin. 14 A 



July 29 the Siamese minister in Paris. Prince 

 Vadhana, informed M. J)cvclle that Siam ac- 

 cepted all the tcrm> of tin; ultimatum without 

 . This gave entire satisfaction to France. 



As soon as France formulated her territorial 

 demands the British Government intervened to 

 claim a direct British interest in the districts on 

 the Mekong north of Luang Prabang. The 

 Burmese frontier touched the Mekong in its 

 upper course. The Shan State of Kiang-IIung 

 was considered a part of the former Bunm >e 

 Empire, but it was claimed by China; the In- 

 dian Government had permitted the Chinese to 

 occupy it, and would probably recognize their 

 claim in order that the expense and danger and 

 difficulty of preserving a conterminous frontier 

 between the Indian Empire and the BVench pos- 

 sessions in Tonquin. With the same object in 

 view, the Indian authorities had ceded to Siam 

 the southern Shan State of Kiang-Chang, which 

 lies on both sides of the Mekong, on the condi- 

 tion that it should never be alienated. The 

 French Cabinet agreed to the British proposal, 

 that buffer states should be preserved or created, 

 and left it to be decided by future negotiation 

 as to what territories should be marked off and 

 treated as a neutral zone, inviolable by both 

 powers. The principle of a buffer territory had 

 been already recognized in 1889, in an inter- 

 change of views regarding Indo-China. 



In answer to the acceptance of the conditions 

 offered, M. Develle, in a note dated July 31, de- 

 manded certain supplementary guarantees. In- 

 stead of undertaking to farm the revenues of the 

 provinces of Angkor and Battambong, France 

 would content herself with occupying the port 

 and river of Chantabun until the complete evac- 

 uation of the left bank of the Mekong, but she 

 demanded, for the purpose of continuing the 

 good relations re-established with Siam and pre- 

 venting a conflict in the neighborhood of Lake 

 Tonlesap, that Siam should undertake to main- 

 tain no military forces in Battambong and Siem- 

 riep, nor within 25 kilometres of the Mekong 

 river, and should also abstain from keeping 

 armed vessels on the lake or on the Mekong. 

 The French Government furthermore reserved 

 the right of establishing consulates at Korat and 

 Mungnan. On Aug. 1 Prince Vadhana accepted 

 for his Government the new ultimatum. 



Orders were immediately sent to raise the 

 blockade, which had already disturbed the rice 

 trade with Singapore and Hong-Kong. The 

 blockade came to an end on Aug. 5. as soon as 

 the preliminary treaty was signed at Bangkok, 

 whitner M. Pavie had returned. Le Myre de 

 Vilers had already departed from France as a 

 special envoy to arrange the details of the final 

 settlement. 



The treaty finally arranged bv M. Le Myre de 

 Vilers, in October, embodied the conditions of 

 the ultimatum and supplementary demands and 

 certain explanatory or additional stipulations. 

 The French Government obtained the right to 

 otablish consulates not only in Korat and 

 Mungnan, but wherever it may think proper. 

 The Siamese Government is hound to open nego- 

 tiations within six months for the revision of the 

 commercial treaty of 1856, and for the special 

 regulation of the customs and commerci.i 

 tern in the zone of 25 kilometres on the right 



