SIAM
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The kingdom of Siam, of which Bangkok is the capital, extends from the latitude of about 20 deg. north to the Gulf called after itself. It is bounded on the west by Burmah and the Bay of Bengal, and on the east by the Mekong and the French protectorates of Luang Prabang and Cambodia. Formerly the Lai Mountains were claimed as the eastern boundary, but in 1893 the French pressed the claims of Annam to the territory between the mountains and the river, and the Siamese were compelled to retire. The most important part of the kingdom lies in the valley of the Menam, the country of the true Siamese. The boundaries of Siam on the Bay of Bengal reach from Burmah in a southerly line to the northern frontier of Kelantan and Kedah in the Malayan Peninsula in the latitude of about 7 deg. north. The island of Junck Salong, containing enormous deposits of tin ore, is included in the territories of Siam. The boundary line runs south-east from the mouth of the Perlis River across the Peninsula slightly to the north of Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan. Under the Treaty of 1909 Siam ceded to Great Britain her Malay dependencies of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Tringganu, and the boundary was delimitated in the cold weather of 1909-10. The kingdom also comprises a great part of the ancient domain of Lao, but the rich and valuable possession of Battainbang, once a part of the king- dom of Cambodia, was ceded to France in 1907. A Treaty concluded between France and Siam in 1904 settled some disputed points with regard to the frontier between Siam and Cambodia and Siam and French Indo-China. By a further treaty in 1907 the territories of Battambang, Sien-reap and Ankor were ceded by Siam to France, in exchange for the district of Krat and some slight concessions in Dansai (Laos). France at the same time agreed to the gradual abandonment of the extra-territorial privileges hitherto enjoyed by French Asiatic subjects and protegés in Siam. The various depend- encies and outskirts are peopled by a variety of races, some sui generis, others illustrating every form and shade of the transition between the original race and the Annamites on the east, and the Malays and Burmese on the south and west. The former capital of Siam was Ayuthia, situated on the Menam river (literally the "Mother of Waters"), about 90 miles from its mouth. In 1767 a series of bloody and desperate combats between the Siamese and the Burmese culminated in the capture and destruction of that city by the victorious Burmese general and the consequent exodus of the conquered. They moved down the river about 60 miles, and there founded the present populous and flourishing city of Bangkok. The chief of the Siamese Army rallied the scattered troops, and, building a walled city at Toutaboree, declared himself King under the title P'ya Tak. In 1782 P'ya Tak became insane, and the kingdom passed to his most distinguished general, named Chao P'ya Chakkri, who founded the present dynasty, of which His Majesty the present King (the 42nd reigning monarch in Siam of whom we have any record) is the sixth in regular descent. The revenue of Siam is about £5,000,000 a year. The finances of the country have undergone reorganisation, for which purpose a European financial adviser was engaged in 1896. At that time the revenue accounted for was little more than Ticals. 18,000,000, but the amount has since steadily increased. A proposal to adopt the gold standard was mooted in 1899, but did not come to anything till November, 1902, when the Mint was closed to the free coinage of silver. A triennial poll tax used to be imposed upon Chinese, but this has now been changed to the same annual capitation tax as is paid by Siamese. Siam entered the Universal Postal Union on the 1st July, 1885. The first railway line, from Bangkok to Paknam, was opened by the King on the 11th April, 1893. It is a purely passenger line, having been unable to get any goods traffic worth mentioning, but the dividend averages about seven per cent. Another railway, a Government line vid Ayuthia to Korat, was the first important line completed. The first section, from Bangkok to Ayuthia, a distance of about fifty miles, was opened on the 26th March, 1897. Another section, to Gengkoi, was opened on November 1st, 1897, a third, to Hinlap, on April 1st, 1898, and the whole line was opened to traffic in November, 1900. The construction of a line branching off the Korat line near Ayuthia and intended to open up the country to Chiengmai was commenced in June, 1898,