550 
PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION E. 
enterprising. It is only lately, and for the first time, that they, like 
the majority of the Siamese, have begun to understand and feel the 
want of luxuries before unknown to them, and, therefore, of money to 
buy them with. As this grows upon them they will be more likely to 
be industrious, especially if, as is being done here and there, 
the “ screwing ” of the official class is to some extent lessened or 
removed. 
It is this which has kept down the energies of the Siamese as a 
nation, and has made them so careless of trying to realise comfort or 
affluence. And it is by removal of this, and the modification of the 
rigorous covee system only, that the Siamese can ever compete on 
equal terms with Chinamen and other foreigners, who are compara- 
tively unharassed. Boads are wanted to feed the Bangkok-Korat 
line, with bridges over the many deep streams crossing the main lines 
of communication between Ivorat and Nongkhai, Korat and Nong 
Han, and Korat and TTbon and Bassac. 
As far as the trade goes, any schemes for railways beyond Korat 
are premature, and what are wanted are simply a few facilities for the 
ox-cart traffic, which is quite sufficient for its purpose even now, 
when, owing to the state of the jungle trails in the wet weather, 
travelling is practically suspended for four months in the year. 
What has been wanted badly for the whole plateau has been a way 
of exit, the Hong Phva Yen forest having been a serious obstacle to 
communication with Siam and the outer world, forming, as it does, a 
thick belt of fever-stricken forest all round it on the south and west. 
Such an exit the Bangkok-Korat Bailway will now' afford. 
The clause forced by Prance on Siam, by which the latter shall 
keep no armed men at all within 25 kilometres of the Mekong, is 
likely to he a source of much trial to the latter ; for in such a 
no-man’s-land the bad characters will inevitably gather together, and 
the more important settlements, which are upon the riverside, will be 
defenceless against them. 
Another difficulty the riverside Lao have to face is that in many 
cases they live upon* the right hank, while owning paddy land and 
feeding their elephants in the better feeding-grounds upon the French 
side. If they elect to stay upon the right bank, they find themselves 
with no protection or evidence of government within 25 kilometres; 
while on the left bank is their property, and the visible and tangible 
protection afforded by officials who will certainly not be hid away back 
in the jungle out of touch with the river highway. If the aim of 
Prance had been to depopulate the right bank, and to raise endless 
difficulties and disputes in the future, no better means could have 
beeu found than the insertion of that clause. 
The coinage on the Middle Mekong is usually the Siamese Heal 
and its subdivisions, which has taken the place of older money, such 
as the boat- like bars of Bassac. 
In Nan and the north, on the other hand, the Siamese coinage is 
still rare, the rupee and the anna, with the head of the Empress of 
India, being seen everywhere. 
In many of the hill villages barter was the only method of 
exchange. Now, however, we may expect that French money will 
spread, at least over the Sibsong Para. 
