SIAM.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.".] SIR,—Every one will agree with your correspondent "Far East" (Spectator, June 6th) that it is of great importance that we should come speedily to some definite and permanent understanding with France about Siam, which, owing to the inflammability of the French colonials at Saigon, is a greater source of danger than is commonly supposed. Nor would any reasonable Englishman, I think, be unwilling to see some of the posts under the Siamese Government assigned to French- men, provided they were not allowed to usurp too great a position of influence. It is our interest to have a genuine, and, if possible, independent, buffer-State in Siam. But the diffi- culty is that the Siamese, as most competent critics will admit, are quite incapable of self-government. They must seek help from outside, and the natural consequence is that, in spite of their traditional policy of playing one Power off against another, they naturally tend to rely upon some one foreign country in particular, to the exclusion of others. For many years, especially since the events of 1893, they have regarded Great Britain as their best friend ; but owing to the pressure put upon them lately by us in regard to the Malay States, British popularity and influence have distinctly waned during the last year. Now it is not generally known that they have quite recently appointed an American as their "General Adviser." It would be a happy solution, perhaps, of a difficult problem if Siam were to assign the chief place in
her counsels to the United States, who would then hold the balance between Great Britain and France. We, at any rate, to whom the preservation of the status quo is so important, should have no cause to complain.—I am, Sir, &c., K.
[We certainly think that the Siamese Government would be wise to employ a certain number of American officials in the work of developing the country. They should, in fact, call in the New World to hold the balance between two parts of the Old.—En. Spectator.]
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