Twin Loyalties in Siam

Abstract

HE outside world knows so little about the relations between China and Siam that the tension between the two countries which arose in 1935 appeared to originate suddenly. All that was evident was that the Chinese wanted to boycott Siamese rice, because of the closing of 63 (later increased to 79) out of more than ioo Chinese schools, under the Siamese education law. The Chinese press was full of resentment against the oppressive measures enforced against Chinese in Siam, but the underlying causes of conflict remained relatively obscure. Yet these causes can be very briefly stated. The Chinese form an important racial or national minority in Siam, and the importance of their economic activity and control is even greater than that of their absolute numbers. They have remained markedly loyal to China in cultural and national feeling, and out of their own funds have provided numerous schools in which their children get an education, Chinese in character, superior to that provided by the Siamese national schools. The Siamese are now trying to force cultural assimilation on this Chinese minority as well as political control, thus confronting a progressive and economically powerful community, which hitherto has not been conspicuous for political interests, with a painful choice between compulsory loyalty to the country of their adoption and instinctive loyalty to the language and traditions of their country of origin. Siamese official figures put the number of Chinese in Siam at less than half a million, an estimate which could only include Chinese born outside Siam. If Chinese born of Chinese parentage in Siam and brought up to feel themsleves consciously Chinese be included, the most commonly accepted figure is two and a half millions, which means that the Chinese constitute almost a quarter of the total Siamese population of 11,506,200 (the number given in the official Siamese census of i929). Many racial minorities in Europe which cannot show such a percentage are vociferous in their demands for self-determination. The racial minorities of Lithuania, for instance, are about i6 per cent of the population, in Latvia about i9 per cent, and in Esthonia and Finland about io per