The old rumour has revived that France contemplates the annexation
of the whole of Siam, and the policy of Great Britain resisting such an aggression is openly discussed in Bangkok. That the French Colonial Office has thought of such a conquest from time to time, is, we fancy, true, for France has sounded the British Government as to its opinion in certain contingencies about partition ; but thinking and acting are two different things. Nobody quite knows what the defensive strength of Siam would prove to be ; China would have a word to say in the matter which might prove an influential word ; and then there are the peasant voters of France. Are they prepared to send twenty thousand of their children to possess themselves of another Tonquin P When France has beaten Germany, when Italy has ceased to murmur about Tunis, and when the projected Colonial Army is fully organised, the scheme of an Indo- Chinese Empire for France will become very formidable indeed ; but till then we may, we think, possess our souls in patience. If, however, a few artillerymen from Burmah should happen to visit Bangkok on sick-leave, and should take service with the two Kings, and should drill some of the fishing population into decent artillerymen, that might, under all the circumstances, be a happy accident. The Kings could also, we imagine, engage a good many Malays in the dependent States of the peninsula, and Malays, under decent manage- ment, have a prejudice, as they have recently shown in Acheen, against running away.
