u Library •! dttrft B. MoFarland 0^-4-»«, CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OS 572.T87"*" """"""V Library ■* ' ^iliKiiateLJS!? Mekong 3 1924 023 189 313 DATE DUE N-HU 1 7 'in ''f) n u I\!IJV 1 I \ J 1 [j r m «tiy\ GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. a Cornell University J Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924023189313 TRUTH ABOUT THE " Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy ^ A BANGKOK (SIAM) 1891. ]^m(5B'-OJSlE-T*€AlLu_ A Publiehed at the " BANexo£ Times " Office, / 7/ y MEKONG. The trade of the political agitator can only flourish wher^ eitherllie ignorance or the prejudice of the general public affords him ample scope for mis- representation and sophistry. It is thus that the wise- acres who have lately been prosing about Luang Phrabang and its neighbourhood have been able to erect upon a substratum of exTor and ilasehood a whole edifice of sensational palaver which threatens to attract to Siam the unfavourable criticisms even of impartial people. Of the wiiters who have been enlightening the world in the colonial papers as to the state of affairs in the Mekong Valley how many have ever been there ? How many even havcever seen a single eye-witness or read a single report which was in any degree credible? That distant and unattractive region is only visited at rare intervals by any person who can be called in any way impartial and still more rarely by any person who will be content to relate his experiences without exaggeration or bom- .bast. The disappointed speculator, the unsuccessful frader, the monomania«al naturalist — —these are the best specimens usually procurable of men who have ventured into this pestilential distiict. And what sort of object can such persons have in pourtraying in any true colours the political and social aspect of the'places visited ? No : it is left to the sham explorers, the soi-distant commercial travellers, the make-believe geographers, and, in fine, all the herd of mischief-making wolves in soiled sheeps* clothing who proAvl about in strange places, to serve up to a gullible public pictures of North-eastern Siam which — 4 — are not only tinted but daubed all over with the false hues of national prejudice. Hence it is that in England, and still more in France, a certain vague opinion has been gaining ground that the outlying borders of Siam on the East either have already been or are destined soon to be, attacked 5n>;!^wallo\ved up by France. And such ideas the more they are talked about without proper consideration become the more misleading and prejudicial, and are aj)t in the long run to end in deej)ly rooted convictions capable of leading to serious disputes and even obstinate hostilities. To dissipate •them at the outset nothing more is required than a full and fair statement of the case by a competent and reasonably disinterested witness. Light once thrown upon the true situation of affairs di-spels such illusions like smoke, and leaves the coi^tructors of tKe whole illusory fabric only to mourn over its well-merited downfall. The difficulty, of course, is hoAv to exhibit this Hght, and how to induce peoiDle to listen to plain facts instead of craftily composed rhodomontade. We have made at least one very long step, towards overcoming this difficulty. AVe have found the requiredo witness, and obtained the ^necessary information. It remains now only for each reader of this short brochure in the first place to judge for himself as to the value of the testimony we reproduce, and secondly to do what he can, if he is an honest man, to persuade others as to the true condition of affairs. lie will see in these pages what is the worth of the French "tall-talk" about the Mekong and its districts, what is the Avorth of the com- plaints, propagated by certain interested agents, as to " disorders " in Eastern Laos, how for the Siamese are incapable of governing people who have never been pro- perly governed except by them, and how many " grievous injustices" the Laotians now grumble at. We leave the evidence to speak for itself, and will only add that if ST\ch a report could be made about some other people far nfore ad^*(*ttigeously situated, it would be a very great feather in the cap of their highly civilized and most Christian rulers. ] SIAM IN PAELIAMBNT. Loiidon, 18th Jtily. — In reply to a suggestion,^i|^e by Lord Lamington in thie Hotise of Commons, that the Great Powers should be invited to guarantee the autonomy of Siam so as to check France from making encroachments on the Kingdom, Lord _ Salisbury said that the relations between France and Siam only interested England; he did not believe France seriously threatened the autonomy of Siam ; that the independence of Siam was very important to England and he hoped it was not less so to France. EVIDENCE OF A BEITISH EXPLOEEE. The Banglwh Times published the followhag . report of an interview with Mr. W. J. Archer, of H. B. M. Consular Service, on the 15th July, 1891. THE TEUTH "about THE MEKONa VALLEY. During the past two years the Press of the Par East has, from time to time, contained brief reports of the Upper Mekong Valley reg^.on, otherwise the Eastern* frontier of Siam. Most of the stories, especially those appearing in Tonquin papers, contained somewhat graphic descriptions of the "magnificent valley," " the richest and most fertile regions of the Par East, whose riches untold and resources inexhaustible would have remained a terra incognita^ even to neighbouring nations, but for the energy, enterprise, and determi- nation of the French ; and, what is worse, its " myriad inhabitants would," we are told in the Siam Mercantile Gazette 2iXi.Si L'Avenirchi Tonldn, " be steeped in ignorance, savagery, lawlessness, rapacity, and the evils of slave- Kuntingbut for the determination ofthe French to deliver the down-trodden inhabitants from the grasp of unprin- cipled, squeezing ofl&cials." All this looks well enough from an outsider's point of view, and it constitutes, more of l^mf interesting, sensational matter for the columns of public journals.,.* When, however, it is viewed in the light of recent official utterances, and l;he committal of himself to a " forward policy," by M. de Lanessan, the new Governor-General of French Indo-Ohina, there is a plain duty before us and that is the task of publicly setting forth the truth about this alleged " land flowing with milk and honey," this so called." El Dorado" of the Far East. With this object in view a representative of this journal called upon a gentleman (Mr. W- J. Archer of H. B. M. Consular Service) wj^o has recently returned to Bangkok after a four months' journey in the Mekong Valley, and round the eastern, northern, north- western and western frontiers of Siam. What this gentleman has to say about the Mekong Valley region, its people, the resources of the Luang Phrabang region, the government of the country etc., etc., may, we think, be taken as the latest authentic information respecting a portion of the Kingdom of Siam which appears destined, whether deservedly so or not, to make its, mark in history, or rather form a conspicuous chapter in the records of 19th century episodes. Before relating the evidence adduced at the inter- view 'so kindly accorded us, it. may assist ' the reader to grasp the situation readily if we publish herewith a brief historical sketch of Siam, ancient and modern, gathered from the highest and most reliable sources of information, thus : — — 8 — It was in the year 1767 that the old capital of Siam, Ayuthia, was destroyed, the king and his family taken prisoners, and his dynasty extinguished ; the Shan and Laos States then became independent, and even Korat set up a separate kingdom, un^er a prince of the late dynasty; and TeTtlhwerim •was annexed by the Burmese invaders, to become, in 1824, a British province. The Siamese armies . were dispersed and the Government thoroughly shattered. A gcnera,l, Phya Tak, of Chinese descent, nevertheless gathered together the remnants of the troops and drove the Burmese out of Ayuthia in 1767. He assumed the throne in 1768, re-conquering southern Siam, Korat, northern Siam, and the Malay States, successively. He made Bangkok the capital in 1768, and founded modern Siam. The first king of the present dynasty began to reign in 1782. A Chinese invasion of Burma, as stated in Mr. Eobert Gordon's paper on Siam, relieved Siam frona the Burmese for a time, and the occupation of Martaban by the British, in 1824, effectually prevented further Biirmese invasion of Siam. Peace thus secured from outside warsAvas utilised to reconstruct the kingdom. Chiengmai, and all . the Lao States to the confines of Yumian, Tonquin, and Annam, were conquered and attached to the kingdom. Winchang was the last State to make a desperate ' resistance, but was finally destroyed in 1828 ; and Luang Phrabang and Bassac were brought under direct Siamese rule, although the old chiefs are allowed to 'retain their titles and positions. The Laos had driven the Oamho- dians out of their northern provinces, tohich ivere annexed io Siam, and what remained of the old empire of Kam — 9 — was oompelJed to acknowledge the protectorate of Siaiij . The first treaty concluded between Siam and a foreign Power was uu' fait accompli in 1826 and is knojAai as the " Bnrney " treaty. That treaty became a dead l»fe^, and the treaty under which British subjects conduct trade here is the one negotiated by Sir John Bowring with the present King's father in 1855. In reply to numerous questions Mr. Archer court- eously vouchsafed the following interesting informa- tion : — K As to the boundaries of Siam I cannot answer you precisely, for as you yourself state, there are unsettled disputes about the Eastern and Northern frontiers. In addition to that the British Government has not yet settled the question of tiie Shan-Siam frontier although there are, it may be said, no elements connected with it that present possible or probable insuperable difficulties. , It is preposterous to state that the Luang Phrabang region is magnificent ! Certainly it is not, as M. Pavie, •the Chief of the Sjam Bkontier Commission, must know very well. Probably, however, M. Macey, a Frenchman who^has travelled all over that region with goods that he can find no market for and is never likely to be able to barter or sell at a profit, can speak more authoritatively on the subject than anyone else, for his experience has been anything but pleasant, from a business-man's point of view at all events. I have been up the Mekong as far as the French post at Montong, where I was received most hospitably, and I am bound to admit that Luang Phrabang and — 10 — the Laos country seem to be the best governed parts of Siam. There is, however, not much to be done in the way oi government, for the town of Luang Phrabang contains but 10,000 people at the outside, and tlae country for upwards of 100 miles around«i^^nd aw,iy down the Mekong to Nong Kai, is extremely moun- tainous and very sparsely populated. As to the alleged ' squeezing ' propensities of the officials and the maladministration of justice, all I can say is that the oflBcial who could squeeze a ten- cent piece out of the half-starved peasantry would be almost getting blood out of a stone ! The fact is that the whole region is extremely mountainous, sparsely populated, very poor, and extremely unhealthy. All the peasants produce is " hill-rice," cultivated in patches here and there along the slopes of huge n^ountain ranges. They produce barely enough for their waiits, and what with the ravages of malarial fever of a virulent type and the time occupied in the cultivation of cotton on the hill-side, for use in winter, (of which, too, there, is a little exported to Yunnan) added to the time mono- polised in cultivating enourfi rice for bare subsistence, by the time winter sets iif, the olirifty highlanders of Luang Phrabang have a pretty hard fight for life — their lot is, in fine, by no means cast in a bed of roses, on the verge of rich gold-fields, or in a modern El Dorado. Then as to the importance attached to Luang Phrabang as " an important trade centre." It doesn't begin to be one. The town consists of something over 1,000 bamboo huts of the most miserable des- cription. The only substantial edifice is one building for the Chief, a very pleasant old gentleman, who — 11 — seems to. have nofchiag else to do bat chat with the Coininissioiier, diiiik whiskies-and-sodas with French travellers, traders, and others and, generally speaking, keep his pecker up as well as circumstances permit. The Siam(^ar«Gommissioner, Pra Palat Banuraks, is the real ruler, and he is a most intelligent and able man. With reference to the townships in the interior and dotted about the mountain ranges on the disputed Franco-Siam territory : they scarcely have any exis- tence at all, except in the elastic machinations of some few obscure journalists. Thirty bamboo huts of the most miserable description constitute a village, in fact I have known as few as five huts clustei*ed together ^ sj)oken of as the muang of so-and-so. The French posts are said to be established all along the Eastern frontiers of Siam, while the Siamese, on the other hand, have quite an army at Luang Phrabang. M. Macey is a Frenchman sent out by a Paris syndi- cate to push trade with the inhabitants of the Mekong valley. He carries with him all sorts of bright coloured ornaments, silk thread, wools and nic-nacs for which he has vainly endeavoured to find buyers. The poor peo- ple have no use for stich arwcles, and even if they had it is doubtful Avhether they would care to part with their rice (and that is the only commodity they could barter with — buying for cash down being almost out of the question) for what, to them, would be luxuries. But even should JM. Macy succeed in getting together a few piculs of rice, and a few ounces of raw cotton, and a pound or two of cardamons, by the time he has ^ent it to Bangkok or over terrible mountain passes into Ton- quin, its value, let alone, all consideration of profit, would be swallowed up in transit expenses. Without a — 12 — railway the Laos country can become nothing more than the home of a poor rural population; and as capitalists, of a sufficiently philanthrophic turn of mind, cannot be found to plunge into a costly and unprofitable enterprise, it can never pay to carry the produce of those distant regions to the markets of Europe, ev^si^SiUpposiiig, for the sake of argument, that there is marketable pro- duce to be had there in large quantities, which is not the case, though. So much, then, for " the richest and most fertile I'egion of the Far East." Then, again, there is the question of " the vast mineral wealth of the whole region." Up to the present time neither gold, coal, or iron have been found there in paying quantities; but even were the endless mountain ranges crammed full of sapphires, rubies, emeralds, tons of gold, blocks of silver, chunks of copper, and thousands of miles of the best steam coal, the cost of transit ip and from the mines would take the gilt off the ginger-bread, to say nothing of the deadly malarial fever which, seizing upon every white man that sets foot iii those poisonous valleys and jungles would be certain to kill European engineers and miners wholesale. The j^eople of the Mekong valley and Luang Phrabang regions are a fairly hardy, peaceable, race. ^ Yes, M. Pavie is the Chief of the French- Boundary' commission. He has done a lot of hard Avork; has left a good impression on the minds of the Siamese officials (who speak well of him), and will probably turn up in Bangkok before very long to effect a settlement of the question of the Eastern boundaries of this kingdom. Slave-hunting! Marauding! Oh, dear no! Nothing of the kind. I neither heard nor saw anything of the sort. Had such evil practices either been prevalent, or — 13 — liiid ail}- cxisiteuce in I'uct I could not have failed to know it. 'I'lie ]x'oplf appeared liappy and contented with their lot, they never having known of a better condition. As to discourtesy, I may say that during the inaiiy years that I have travelled in the interior of fSiafti 1 nw#^ heard an angry or harsh or insulting word- used towards myself, and have found perfect sccurit}' e\'ery where. Of course one has to exercise tact and discretion when tra\'clliii,i;-, that is all. The fore.iioiug was supi)leiuented with the attached addendum ;— ^ ADDENDUM. A\'c are indebted to an old and distinguished resident for the following additional authentic historical facts respecting the foundation of the modern Kingdom of Siain l)y Ph\-a Tak in 1TG8 :— I'h}'a Tak was sucessfid only through the iustvu- mentality of two great generals known as Phya Chak- ]-aksi (('.'-'. the founder of the j^resent dynasty, the present King's great grandfathei') and the other his •brothel- I'hya Sureysri {i.e. the A^'anglla or, as st}-led by Europeans, the seco'nd KiSg of the iii'st reign of the ])rescnt dynasty). I'hya Tak founded the city on the west l^ank of 'he river oiHy, opj^osite Bangkok, as his capital. The subjugation of the Shan States, Malay Peninsula, Cambocha, and the whole valley of the Mekong was carried on personally by the said two gieat generals, especially the valley of the Mekong which, for the first time in the history of Siam, was sucessfully brought under Siamese rule in A.D. 1779. Phya Cliakraksi, who was then in Cambodia suppress- ing the revolt there, was compelled to succeed Phyu Tak owing to a revolution that broke out in the capital of Siam, through Ph}'a Tak becoming insane and cruelly oppressing the people, and b}' Pliya San, another cw'hccr of Fhya Tak's, who dethroned his master* iftul usifl-ped the sovereignty. The people then found no more suitable successor of Phya Tak than Phya, Chakrakri, and so elected him Kuler. The good qualities of this great general, Phya Chak- rakri, are fully and correct!}' recorded in Burmese annals and in Sir Arthur P. Phayi-e's " History of the Burmese," in the following Avords {ride page 217) : — "Phya Tak had been succeeded on the throne of Siam " by Phya Chakrakri, the ancestor of the pi'esent King " of that country. For greater securit\' against Bur- " mese attacks, he removed tlfe inhabitants of Bangkok " from the west to the east bank of the ri^■cr. Being a " man of ability and couj'age be led the Siamese armies " in many actions since the fall of Ayuthia in A. 1). 1767, " and had reA'ised the spirit of the people, which, after "the conquest by Bureng Xaung, (A. 1). lo6-i) had " been cowed under the sMperior, force of the Burmes(». " The confidence thus infused into the Siamese Avas " manifested by the \igorous attacks made on the " invading arm}." The foregoing Avil], we think, suffice to prove to our readers, from the evidence of an eminent e\e-A\'itness, that the resources, magnificence, productions, and brilliant prospects of the Mekong Vallc}' and Luang l^hrabang regions exist only in the fickle minds of those who indulge in the mischievous ]mstime of telling and Avriting stories Avhich are " with falsehood scason'd." I j^ii)f i^ry oi **•«"«• B. Mo Garland ««r»— ^