Irredentism :Thai Nationalist Feelings(03)
Claims to recover these states had never been taken seriously except by the more extreme among Thai nationalists. On the one hand, these States had never formed an integral part of the Thai Kingdom, but were merely vassals paying a nominal annual tribute to Bangkok, whilst, on the other hand, they were inhabited by Muslim Malays who differed fundamentally from the Buddhist Thai in race, language and religion.
Moreover, the transfer of suzerainty in 1909 was effected quite willingly by the Thai government, in return for the surrender by Britain of most of the extra-territorial privileges which British subjects had previously enjoyed by Treaty in Thailand.
There was no hint of compulsion about the transaction. The Thais obtained what they required, that is, jurisdiction over British subjects in Thailand proper and a loan, which eventually came to 4,000,000 pounds to build a southern railway.
They obtained this loan from the Federated Malay States. Given these factors, the Malayan side of the Thai irredentist agitation wore in consequence the appearance of having been put forward in order to cover the bitter founded demand for the retrocession of Thailand’s lost provinces in French Indo-China.
The difference in Thai attitudes may, however, be explained also by economic factors. In the first place, Britain was Thailand’s neighbor on two frontiers which then possessed the most formidable power in South-East Asia. Thirdly, until the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, British shipping came second in the list of tonnage cleared in Bangkok’s port. Fourthly, in 1939 the British empire accounted for nearly 41 per cent of Thailand’s foreign trade.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น