36
distributed throughout the country, and by the Asiatic Petroleum Co., Ltd., for the distribution of kerosone and liquid fuel. Messrs. Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co., Ltd., have a departmental store in Bangkok.
The total number of British subjects in Siam has been estimated at not less than 10,000, of which the great majority are Straits Chinese. The number of British- born subjects is approximately 1,000, including the official and business communities and the missionaries.
German Activity and Influence.-German activity and influence in Siam is of comparatively recent growth, but has become increasingly felt of late years, and before the war was second only to the British, German enterprise and initiative is manifested in three distinct spheres, in each of which the efforts of her agents have been directed towards the national aim of extending Germany's political and economic interest in the country. The three main German spheres of activity are:-
(a) The Official Sphere, where, in the capacity of advisers and administrators of the Goverment railways and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, German officials have been able to wield considerable influence.
(b) The Mercantile Sphere. The German firms in Bangkok entered the field
10 many years after their British rivals, but during the past
years their competition has been increasingly felt, particularly in the import trade. (c) The Shipping Sphere. German activity under this head has already been referred to. Their shipping policy has been a deliberately selfish one, with the sole aim of securing for their nationals the greater portion of the import business, even at the expense of shipping dividends.
The German control of the Siamese State Railways dates from the award of the contract for the Bangkok-Korat liue to an English engineer in 1892, and the appoint- ment of an unsuccessful German tenderer as Director of Siamese State Railways to supervise the carrying out of the contract, The natural result of this anomalous position was constant friction, until, in 1896, the Government cancelled the contract, stopped the work, and took over the construction in addition to the direction of the line. The financial management of the railways was for some years a cause of friction between the Financial and the Public Works Departments of the Government, the German railway director advancing the theory that money allotted to railways in the annual financial budget of the kingdom must be under his absolute control, to be accounted for only to H.M. the King, and not to H.M. Ministry of Finance whence the budget issued. Furthermore, after the cancellation of the British contract, the director insisted that the purchase of all material must be left to himself alone, to be conducted by private tender, or without tender at all, as seemed to him best. The efforts of the Finance Ministry and its British adviser to ascertain how the large sums of money annually voted for railways was being spent were met by violent protests from the director, and indignant objection from the German Minister in Bangkok. It was not until the failure of a Leipzig bank, involving the loss of a sum of Siamese money which should have been in the Bangkok Treasury, effectively demonstrated the unsoundness of the system, that a better system of control was introduced. The management of the railways has suffered considerably from an excess of ullicialism. During the early period of construction almost all the material was bought in Germany, but since the insistence of the Finance Department upon an open and equitable system of tendering, most of the rails and bridge girders have been imported from the United Kingdom, the locomotives from Germany, and the carriages and waggons from the United Kingdom and Belgium.
It should be noted here that in the spring of 1909 the Siamese Railway Depart- ment signed an agreement with the Government of the British Federated Malay States, by which it secured a loan of 1,000,0007. for the purpose of extending the Siamese lines southwards from Petchaburi through Southern Siam, to link up with the Federated Malay States railway system. By this agreement, the British Govern- meut secures considerable influence throughout the length of the Siamo-Malay Peninsula to the exclusion of other foreign Powers. This railway will bring Bangkok appreciably nearer to Penang and Singapore and the great mail and traffic route through the Straits of Malacca, and will at the same time develop the fertile regions of Southern Siam which are at present unexploited.
The construction of this line is now well in hand, and the junction of the Malay States railways with the Siamese lines is expected to be effected towards the end of 1017. The port of Prai, opposite to Penang, is being developed, and it is expected
37
that the development of Northern Malaya and Southern Siam will bring greatly increased trade to Penang, which will then become the nearest port of call to Bangkok for the through mail steamers. In addition, the construction of a line to the eastwards through the States of Pahang and Kelantan, which will develop the eastern states of the peninsula, is being accelerated. The inauguration of through rail connections will do more than anything else to cement the bonds of mutual interest between the colony and its great economic dependency, and to stimulate the growing trade between Singapore and Bangkok.
The German control of the Siamese Posts and Telegraphs is vested in a Director- General and two deputies. These officials are employees of the German l'ostal Administration, and their services are lent to Siam by the German Government.
In the mercantile sphere, German activity is centred in the hands of her mer- chants in Bangkok. The German houses are few in number and, with two exceptions, are of recent establishment. The principal German merchants are:-
A. Markwald & Co., Ltd.-Established in 1850 as rice millers, importers and exporters, this house has the distinction of being the second oldest. European firm of its kind in Siam. The company's head office is that of the well-known shipping firm of Rickmers, of Bremen, and Messrs. Markwald & Co. provide the Rickmers steamers with the bulk of their cargoes of rice. They operate one of the most modern rice mills in Bangkok, and were the pioneers of the bulk petroleum business in Siam, for which they constructed large tanks on behalf of the Shell Transport Co., Ltd. The firm are agents for the Austrian Lloyd and the Osaka Shosen Kaislia, and have a large fire and marine insurance business, holding, before the war, inter alia, the agencies of the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Co. and the North British and Mercantile Insurance Co.
Windsor & Co., Ltd., of Bangkok and Hamburg, were founded, in 1873, under the style of Windsor, Redlich & Co. This house is the principal German shipping and import firm in the trade, and bolds the agency for the Norddeutscher Lloyd lines both to Singapore and to Hong Kong. The great bulk of the transhipment cargo from Europe vid Singapore has therefore passed through its hands, and it should be noted that most unscrupulous use has been made of the trade information thereby acquired. Messrs. Windsor & Co. conducted the largest shipping and insurance business in Bangkok, and held, before the war, the agencies of many important British companies, including
The Canadian Pacific Railway Royal Mail S.S. Line.
Archibald Currie & Co.'s Australian and Indian S.S. Line.
The Shan Line.
British and Foreign Marine Insurance Co., Ltd.
China Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.
China Traders Insurance Co., Ltd.
Law, Union and Rock Insurance Co., Ltd.
London and Provincial Marine and General Insurance Co., Ltd. Manufacturers' Life Insurance Co.
New Zealand Insurance Co., Ltd.
Scottish Union and National Insurance Co.
South British Insurance Co., Ltd.
State Assurance Co., Ltd.
Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. Union Assurance Society, Ltil.
Union Insurance Society of Canton, Ltd.
The Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd.
It cannot be too strongly urged that after the war these companies should be urged to place their agencies in British hands.
Behn, Meyer & Co., Ltd. This well-known German house, with headquarters at Singapore and Hamburg, and branches throughout the Straits, Netherlands Indies and the Philippines, opened its Bangkok office in 1907, and the following year took over the business of Schmidt, Fertsch & Co. The firm has conducted a general shipping and agency business, and its competition has been most keenly felt in piece goods and general imports. The British agencies held by it include--
The North Western Insurance Co., Manchester. The Western Assurance Co.
£ 3
615
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