Does Japan
Dominate Siam
By Gareth Jones
Bangkok, Siam
April 1935
A new fear has spread throughout the East. I heard it whispered in
Japan, rumoured in the Dutch East Indies and declared openly in
Singapore. It is the fear that Japan has a firm grip over the ten
millions of who live in Siam.
“The Japanese,” I was told in Java, ‘are pushing their Empire ever
further Southwards and Westwards. They want to have a stronghold in
Siam. They want to build a canal which would compare with the
Panama Canal and which would enable them to dominate the markets of
India and the power of the British in Asia. This Canal would be the
Kra Canal and would make Singapore into a bigger "white elephant”
than any owned by the Kings of Bangkok. They want to be masters of
the route from Asia to India and to Africa.”
This fear has spread to India and so great has it become that even a
serious paper like the Times of India wrote on April 11,
1935: “India has this great interest, that the establishment of
Japanese economic hegemony over Siam would bring a new international
influence into an area which is contiguous with the frontier of
Burma. In the past India’s foreign and defense policies have been
dictated by consideration of the risk attaching to her North West
frontier, where first the Russian menace and later the Afghan unrest
were present. Should a new militant power establish itself on the
eastern border of Burma, India’s foreign and defense policies will
need radical revision.
When the military authorities guarding the life and property of over
three hundred million people in India threaten to change their whole
defense on account of fear of Japan, the fear is one worth
examining. Is it justified?
Does Japan really dominate Siam?
To answer this question I travelled to Bangkok, the capitol of
Siam, where huts of bamboo and straw jutting out of the river stand
beneath the shadows of gorgeous palaces and glittering temples. I
spoke to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, to the foreign
representatives, to the merchants, to advisers and professors. I
shall write what I found about Japanese influence in Siam,
There is certainly a growing friendship between Siam and Japan.
Listen to what a leading Japanese authority said to me: “We Siamese
regard Japan as an elder brother. We are an example to Siam of a
country which has freed itself from Western influences and which has
progressed rapidly. The young people here look up to the Japanese
and say: ‘If only we could do what they do’.” But we are not a
leader we are only a teacher of the Siamese and it is right that we
should play a big part among the Asiatic peoples.” This talk
recalled what a young Siamese student said to a friend of mine: “We
want to be the Japan of the South.
Religion is another link between the Siamese and the Japanese for
both lands are Buddhist. Race is another. The Siamese are growing
more and more conscious that they are Asiatic and the white powers,
through their depression and decline and through their mass murder
of millions during the War have lost prestige. There were Siamese
soldiers fighting in Europe against Germans and they returned with
the tale of a bloody impoverished white race with its members at
each others’ throats. “We of the yellow race are as good as you of
the white race, is the thought that flashes through the minds of the
young Siamese. The result is that many European advisers have left
the country. That the Siamese State railways, which formerly had
many British experts and foremen has today only one British worker
and that Japanese experts are coming to take the place of whites.
Recently cotton experts came from Japan and there are two Japanese
officers of high rank in the Siamese in the Siamese Army.
There are many signs of the growing friendship between the two
Buddhist and Asiatic countries. Many Siamese students now go to
Japan. Recently a number of Siamese naval cadets, abandoning the
tradition that the British Navy shall teach the future admirals of
Siam, went to receive their training in the Japanese fleet. The
Siamese Boy Scouts sent as a token of friendship two elephants,
which were received with rejoicing in Japan. A Siamese
parliamentary commission has just paid a visit to Nippon while
prison experts have been peeping behind the scenes in Japanese
prisons to learn from their new teachers how to run penitentiaries.
In 1933 at Geneva Siam was the only country in the League of’
Nations which refrained, from voting against Japan in the
condemnation of Japanese policy in conquering Manchuria. The
Siamese newspapers are greatly influenced by Japan, because their
news comes mainly through the official Japanese news agency, Rengo,
and the editors lay great stress upon the importance of Japan in the
Far East.
Japan’s greatest advance is, however, in trade. As I walked down
Bangkok’s main street I saw a great advertisement for the “Datsun”
automobile made in Japan. I was angered for I had learned that last
year Japan had only exported one single automobile to Siam, and now
a store in the centre of the City had been opened for Japanese
automobiles. Entering the store I spoke to the salesman. “We are
pushing Japanese automobile which we sell than any other he
declared. Although there was only one Japanese auto bought last
year we hope this year to sell more and more. When we can sell in
large quantities we will, of course, reduce the price.”
Japanese automobiles in Siam! This is a sign of the growing
Japanese grip over many branches of trade. Japanese manufacturers
lead the way in Siam in radio accessories, silk, artificial silk,
wire, paper, bicycles, cement, rubber goods and blankets and Great
Britain is the greatest sufferer. It is in textiles, however, that
Japan is going ahead most rapidly. In 1932-3 Japan sold 15,725 dozen
singlets to Siam. Within one year that figure had increased
seven-fold and 105,049 dozen were sold. Imports of plain rayon
leapt up three-fold in that year. In 1932-3 the Japanese imported
947 bicycles into Siam. By one year later they had imported 5,246
bicycles.
Until recently railway contracts in most countries in the Far East
were always given to European or American firms. This year however,
a large contract for the construction of railway bridges was given
to Japan although there were eleven foreign firms bidding.
Do these signs of friendship really mean, however, that Japan
dominates Siam? I do not think so. The Siamese have been affected
so much by the wave of nationalism which has swept the world that
their cry is first and foremost: “Siam for the Siamese!” In their
new burst of nationalism they are not willing to bow down before
any nation. While the cry “Asia for the Asiatics” affects some of
them, it is above all for themselves, the Siamese, that they fight
and not for the sake of Asia. They are afraid of being dominated by
the Japanese and they are too wise to place their fate in the hands
of Nippon, when they have the French on one side of them and the
British on the other.
The Siamese know that they have a vast population of Chinese who are
the businessmen of their country. The Chinese hate the Japanese and
would fight any policy of placing Siam beneath Japanese protection.
So much do the Chinese loathe the Japanese that when the Japanese
troops marched through Manchuria the Chinese servant boys four
thousand miles away, in some families in Bangkok smashed joyfully
all the Japanese crockery in the houses, while the store keepers
refused to buy or sell Japanese goods.
The Kra Canal is one of the biggest myths of the century and must be
debunked. For the Japanese to build a canal in Siamese territory
across the Isthmus of Kra would cost a vast amount of capital.
London would never lend the money for an anti-British scheme. Wall
Street would not be so foolish as to put its finger in the pie.
Tokyo is too impoverished to finance the Canal. Even if by some
financial miracle the money were forthcoming, the Canal would be a
failure, because no vessel would pay vast dues to save
only two day’s voyage and many ships round South Africa in order to
save the dues on the Suez Canal. Nor would captains avoid such a
rich free-trade port as Singapore, where they can pick up valuable
freight. No, Singapore can rest calm as a symbol that Britain
dominates the North from the Pacific to India.
“Britain” is the final barrier to Japan in trying to gain domination
over Siam. British advisers still quietly control the finances of
Siam and the Siamese money, which has the comic name of “ticul”
(about 50c) is linked with sterling. “Does Japan dominate Siam?” I
asked a leading Englishman in Bangkok. He laughed quietly: “Have
you any Siamese money? he asked. I drew out a five-ticul note
(about 2 dollars 50 c). “Read what is printed at the foot of the
note,” he commanded. I read, “Thomas de la Rue and Co., London”.
With calm confidence he said: “As long as the word ‘London’ stands
on that Siamese bill, it is not Japan but another little island
which will have the larger say in the Kingdom of Siam.”
I think he was right in spite of growing Japanese Siamese friendship
the rumour that Japan dominates Siam is one of the scares with which
Asia is swarming.