The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-05-31
Last Ruler of Land of 5aGed Elephants Passes Away on English Estate

LONDON, May 3l-rOTIicT hHiS Prajadhipok AT, oi Siam, died of an attack of the heart today. He was the last ruler of the land of the Sacred Elepnanls of Siam, now Thailand.
 Prajadhipok, king of Siam for nine years and three months, was progressive in thought and action and fostered reforms in his gov ernment, only to lose his throne when a two-year-old parliament, dominated by politically minded military commanders, took advan-
 tage of his absence from the coun-
 try to enact laws taking away the last of his royal prerogatives, the right to affirm or set aside death
 sentences.
 Threatened with blindness from
 cataracts of both eyes and frail
 in health from dental troubles and
 recurrent attacks of malaria and
 bronchitis, the king, then sojourn-
 ing in London after second opti-
 cal operation, on March 2, 1885
 stepped down from a throne which
 he had occupied since November
 26, 1925. He retired to an estate 1T
 Surrey.
 His physical i.is, rather than hi' political troubles, made the dimin-
 utive potentate widely known tc America. He and his queen spen' five months in the Cnited States
 and Canada in 1881. coming fol an operation which cleared up h!' left eye. They were planning an 0thsr visit, following his second op' eration in London, but his abdica. ton caused cancellation of thi' journey.
 The thousands who saw him ol his 1891 tour remembered him as z slight, brown-skinned man, barely five feet tall, whose silk hat il formal attide accentuated the con- trast with the American official: who lowered beside him. But they recalled too his precise and fluen English, ready smile and keen in terest in things western. Americs liked his devotion to golf, tennis baseball and polo, and his prefer
 ence for bacon and eggs for break fast!
 In 1918 the king married his IA. year-old cousin, Princess Rambai' barni. The union was childless From 1921 to 1924 he and his wift were in Paris where he studied tao.
 tics at the Ecole Militaire Super ieure, the staff college of France Enroute home he made his frs
 visit to America, landing in New York from the Leviathan on Sep
 tember 2l, 1924, and staying si,
 weeks before proceeding to thu Orient via the west coast.
 On this visit he first consulted Dr. John M. Wheeler, noted cyl surgeon, who found incipient cat aracts in both eyes and prescribed a course of treatment. Seven year
 later pr. Wheeler discovered tha the left eye had not responded In November, 1880, it was an nounced that the king and queer would journey to the United State
 the following spring for treatmen of the monarch's eyes. They lei Bangkok March 20. 1881, sailed vi; China and Japan and debarked a Vancouver, B. o., April 16, after
 record crossing in which thet steamer, the Empress of Japan
 covered at 4,28O miles from Yoko hama in seven days, l9 hours. The Washington stay was inter rupted on April 30 for a trip t'
 Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
 There it was found that an opera tion on the kings left eye was in,
 perative. The operation was per formed by pr. Wheeler May 10 d
 Ophir Hall and after a quick re.
 covery and round of sightseeing the royal couple left for home Jull 28. For six weeks they toured Can
 ada They sailed from Victoria or
 September F and retraced thci tContinued on Page SevenD