Evening star., 1932-06-24
SLAMS REVOLUTION
REPORTED TO i. S.
Movement Attributed to Army
and Navy Officers and
Students.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

The State Department received this
morning an official report from Ken
nett Potter, American charge d'affaires
at Bangkok, stating that a revolution
led by the officers of the army and
navy had broken out last night ir
Siam.
The revolutionaries arrested the CHIEF
of police, then invaded the royal palace
arresting all the members Of the royal
family. This being done, delegation
of officers of the army and navy pro-
ceeded to Tachin, the Summer resi-
dence of King Prajadhipok to arrest
the King and bring him back to Bang
kok. the capital
The movement, which is likely to en-
danger the dynasty, was organized by
officers and students who want the
King to abandon absolutism and give
the country a democratic constitution.
According to reports from Bangkok
the population, which is in favor of the
movement, has no particular grievance
against the young King and merely
wants him to surrender into the hands
of the people his medieval prerogatives.
Siam is the only civilized country
where the monarch is the supreme pow
er of the land. He appoints ministers
of state and all high dignitaries, who
hold Office at his pleasure.
All the cabinet officers and the high
dignitaries are at present Royal High
nesses," that is to say, members of the
royal family. The Supreme Advisory
Council, established by the King at the
beginning Of his reign in 1925, is also
composed only OF members of the royal
family. The whole country is run as a
family affair.
Lately. the word depression has hit
Siam, too. The price Of rice. in the
production of which 80 per cent of the
population Of the country is engaged.
has slumped considerably and no relief
was in sight. The government, run by
the royal family, with liberal-minded.
but young and inexperienced king at
the head was doing little to alleviate
the depression.
In spite of this situation, no serious
movement of discomfort was noticeable
on the surface. Everybody in Bangkok,
including the foreign representatives
and the royal family were consequently
greatly surprised when yesterday a
group of army and navy officers backed
by the troops in garrison in Bangkok,
quietly arrested the kings officials and
issued a manifesto threatening to
punish with death anybody opposing
their movements
Visited Washington.
The King, it is said, will not be
harmed If he agrees to grant the re-
quest of the Siamese revolutionaries
and give the country a democratic con-
stitutional government on the pattern
of the Western democracies.
King Prajadhipok and his wife Wis
tied this country in April, 1881. He
was the guest of President Hoover in
Washington between April % and May
/. Then he went to Baltimore, to un-
dergo an operation for a cataract on the
eye at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
From Baltimore he went to New York
and finally returned to his country,
much impressed with what he had seen
in the United States
Though himself of a liberal mind,
he was never able to introduce lib
eral government in his country because
OF the opposition Of his many relatives
who preferred to rule the country rs
their private property. rather than to
give the people the right to participate
in the government.
The SiameSe seem deeply impressed
now that the revolution has broken
out with a prediction made many years
ago.
At that time a famous Buddhist
priest predicted the dynasty would last
$50 years and no longer. The King
celebrated between May and May 8
this year the 150th anniversary of the
reign Of his family. That so shortly
after that celebration a revolutionary
movement should break out in the
country Is considered by the population
as an Ill omen for the royal family.