The herald., 1917-09-27

View Of Bsngko'
OLiNI> entry into 'hr great war
ou tine side of Tie entente .-
LIS has rrawakcncd interest 10
That fai-"H country. Il is "n'
such au insignificant dot lcWju- iuu~"
somewhere near the equator. WHOM CA"
stops minute to thrI, j, o.rr. writes
.hdarhi kiuno>ulc, in III" New York
Tribuuc.
Siam i bigger Than Japan proper
! mean The country j. SO has l15uuD
Sgn"r" miles of territory. And lh"
inNnIar Japan proper is not quite
liS,pn square miles in area. Siam j.
only 1880 square miles smaller than
Germany herself
~ to tn" number Of the people in
SIAM. she herself WAS not any too clear
until 1910. In November Of that year
fairly accurate figures were obtained -
- census figures g0-aad published.
The uumhor given WAS :. IiGIN1. II in
riudrd Wom"n. For years The serious
urcS had been startling facj--morr
or less ira" in political United States
and political Japan-that to thcm
women were no people at all.
Globe tr"'tcrS who grace Siam with
their unwcirumc presence are apt 10
g"t away with the impression that the
City of EanGINk Is somcthin. more
than all Siam. They have claimed i'll
their printed books that One-ninth of
the entire population Of the Kingdom
lived in III" capital city: that there is
no other capital of the worl,l--savp.
perhaps. Lnudon-which had such IN
exaggerated proportion of n cOunlry'S
population centercd in one city
For once there is something back ~
this impression. Onc-ninth Of the total
population nf Siam? Well, not quite.
But not far from the mark, for Bang
kOk had in 1914 more than 62S. 600 in
iian onc-thirtccnlh Of the entire pOpu-
lation of the kingdom.
How is Slaves Were Freed.
When King ChuIalOngkorn I ascend
cd the thronc of Siam he was n young
man. and Tie institution OF slavery in
the country was hOary thing. Re
ligion had sanctiiicd it; tradition bad
oSSitied it. Slavery in Siam was in the
utter depth Of dcpravity. That WAS bad
enough.
But there was another thin= which
WAS in Huch moro Impossible depth
Of degradation than slavery .t,cif. Ii
WAS the Incredibly aelfsh ana bcnight-
ed attitud" Of the wealthy and the
privileged class which owned the
slaves. Apparently The yUunS king WAS
powcrlcsS; ne could not do Il single.
solitary hing save through the coop
GRAFTON AMI assistance of this SclfSame
privileged class, which surrounded
him on all sides. Compared To the
SiameSC king. President Lincoln had
the freedom of action of Il Rocky Noun
iGin eagle.
And yct-and yet the SamcSc king
did the work. The year 1905 saw both
the Siamc>c born To slavery and those
who had sold themselves into bondage
walk out into The world and life as
free AZ any other mortalS. And that
Is not the most remarkable chapter OF
the remarkable story. either.
For under the SiampSe king there
was not :" much as Il hint of Il civil
war. Another thing still more remark
able even than this. is that all this
work was done hy an Oriental potcn-
tatc-buru and bred out yOndCr in the
atmoSphcrc. amid traditions, Ideals
and cultu;" which the Christian mis-
Sionarie> 'ravel thousands of miles to
destroy and 70 reform.
Resources Are Considerable.
People who laugh over the news OF
Slams entry into the world war
and cunjure up the visions OF humble
huts stuck up on piles or on pontoons
along the muddy banks Of the Menam
of the Households weaving their ways
up and down her innumerable canals, !
or of the stately towers OF BaEgkok's |
pdhlic buildings. palaces and temples !
rivaling Il sunset sky with their many |