Luang Wichit wrote a number of popular dramas that glorified the idea of many ethnic groups belonging to a greater "Thai" empire and condemned the evils of European colonial rule. Irredentist and anti-French demonstrations were incessantly held around Bangkok, and in late 1940 border skirmishes erupted along the Mekong frontier. In 1941 the skirmishes turned into the small–scale Franco-Thai War between Vichy France and Thailand. Thai forces dominated the war on the ground and in the air, but the Thai Navy suffered a crushing naval defeat at the battle of Ko Chang. The Japanese then stepped in to mediate the conflict. The final settlement thus returned most of the disputed areas in Laos and Cambodia to Thailand.