Mighty Monarch

(See front cover)

The only monarch absolute both in theory and in fact is the King of Siam. Last week this potent small man (98 Ib.) was en route to clasp hands in Washington with President Hoover. When he does so the King of Siam will be the first Oriental ever to enter the White House with the rank and dignity of Reigning Sovereign.

The name of His Majesty is Prajadhipok, easily pronounced with accent on the second syllable pra-chat'-ti-pok. Like nearly all Siamese the King is a Buddhist, officially Defender of the Faith.

No other monarch has a Cabinet predominantly composed of princes, his relatives. The Crown Prince of Siam is now Minister of Interior, has been Minister of Marine. No other Crown Prince holds Cabinet office, no other king is in effect his own Prime Minister.

The famed sacred white elephants of Siam were never white, are rapidly losing in popular Siamese opinion their sacred character, and have disappeared entirely from the national flag which today is red, white, blue, white and red (five horizontal stripes).

A prominent member of the Hoover cabinet recently asked a representative of Siam, "How far is it from the coast?" But Siam is not in fact an island, quite the reverse. Shaped like a plump spider, Siam squats between French Indo-China and British Burma on the mainland of Asia, faces the Gulf of Siam, darts a narrow tongue of Siamese territory 600 miles down the Malay Peninsula. Population: 11,506,200. Area: more than four times that of the State of New York.

Royal Progress. Steaming away last month from sunny Bangkok, King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambai (115 Ib.) were imperially feted fortnight ago in Japan, the only other independent oriental monarchy.

In Tokyo in the Phoenix Hall of the Imperial Palace, the Son of Heaven collared King Prajadhipok with the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum with Collar. Queen Rambai received from His Imperial Majesty the Order of the Sacred Crown First Class, and from Her Imperial Majesty a symbolic Japanese doll richly bedight. Neither Queen nor Empress has ever had a son. Sorrow unites them.

Emperor Hirohito addressed King Prajadhipok in Japanese. He replied in English. An interpreter did the rest.

According to cables from Japan, His Majesty highly praised the cherry tree grove of His Imperial Majesty, then gracefully introduced a less weighty topic, saying: "Have you a golf course?"

"Yes we have," replied the Son of Heaven, "six holes--and you?"

"Nine holes," admitted King Prajadhipok who plays both golf and midget golf but prefers: as an exercise, rowing & punting; as a hobby, color photography* (still & cinema); and as a penchant, collecting canes (the unrivaled Royal Siamese Cane Collection is publicly exhibited once a year).

Statue of Liberty Puzzle. Conspicuous in the Royal Party as they sailed from Japan for Vancouver in the S. S. Empress of Japan was handsome, majestic old Prince Svasti, father of Queen Rambai.

For the last time a few favored U. S. passengers were regaled by His Royal Highness with his favorite humorous puzzle, which would be killed the moment he stepped on U. S. soil. Puzzle:

"I have been inside your Statue of Liberty, and yet I have never been in America. Can you explain that?"

While the statue was being built in Paris (1876-84), Prince Svasti by going inside it laid the firm foundation of a goodwill-puzzle that has made Americans smile half a century./- Another Siamese good one is this:

"Who was Prince George Washington?"

"George Washington was not a prince," answer the unwary, "he was the first President of the United States."

"Wrong my American friend! You must know that in Siam we had at one time an official called the 'Second King' or as you would say the 'Vice President.' The last Siamese who held this office, which has now been abolished, was Prince George Washington. That was his real name but people called him 'Prince George' for short.

"I suppose you know, my American friend, that the first treaty your country ever made with an oriental power was signed in Bangkok on March 20, 1833? That was ten years before your first treaty with China, twenty years before your first treaty with Japan!

"Our friendship, you see, is very old. Of their own free will our kings have hired American advisers." For the past five years King Prajadhipok has employed the former Vice-Chairman of your Shipping Board, Mr. Raymond B. Stevens, as adviser to the Royal Foreign Office.

Golden Umbrellas, After landing at Vancouver, after greetings from Canadian officials, Siam's King & Queen will board the Canadian Pacific private car Van Home, their suite will board two compartment Pullmans, detectives and guards will board two ordinary Pullmans, and, with diner, club car and baggage car attached the Royal special will speed Eastward, crossing the U. S. frontier at Portal, N. Dak. about midnight April 19. Drowsy officials despatched 1,700 miles by the State Department will extend greetings to H. R. H. the Prince of Sukhodaya (King Prajadhipok's incognito).

Not until he reaches Washington, and then for only 48 hours, will Prajadhipok assume the style of King. Sensible & modern, His Majesty will not use in the U. S. his more poetic titles, inherited from long ago: King of the North and of the South, Descendant of Buddha, Supreme Arbiter of the Ebb and Flow of the Tide, Brother of the Moon, Half-Brother of the Sun, Possessor of the Four & Twenty Golden Umbrellas. (Resembling in theory the Pope's triple-tiered tiara, multiple umbrellas are in many parts of the Orient the symbol of regal power.)

Incognito, and with scarcely more pomp than surrounds the movements of J. P. Morgan for whom a private gangplank, etc. is always provided, Siam's somewhat frail King will spend some three months in the U. S. taking what would be called in Europe "the cure."

First a cataract must be skillfully extracted from one of His Majesty's eyeballs.

All through the Spring convalescence will take place at "Ophir Hall." This stone messuage, owned by rich & widowed Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, castellated like an English royal residence of the time of William the Conqueror, is at Purchase, N. Y.

"Land of the Free." Siamese call their country Muang Thai ("Land of the Free") and are in fact free to drink, to take plural wives, etc. etc.

The last two Kings of Siam have fostered temperance and monogamy by precept & example. After studying conditions throughout the Occident, after pondering the advisability of restrictive regulations, King Prajadhipok and his predecessor decided that the risk of inflicting on Siam bootleg liquor and bootleg immorality was too great.

Matter of fact Siamese polygamy is steadily on the wane, has been for at least two generations, and is expected to die out because increased living costs are making it difficult to support more than one wife.

Just as the last King of Siam lay dying his only child was born. Had the babe been a boy and born a few hours later it would have been "born a king" like Spain's Alfonso XIII. Had the dying monarch been polygamous he might have had a son long before.

The babe turned out to be a girl. The Crown passed to Prajadhipok (brother). Today, since his monogamous Majesty has no son, the heir is his brother, Prince Paribatra of Nagor Svara.

Pride & Piety. Siamese are famed as a gentle people, prone to smile and take life easily; but they are intensely proud of independence won by ceaseless vigilance (both Britain and France have seized Siamese territory by a process called "rectifying the frontier").

Today the Siamese Army is modern, mechanized. Siamese build all their own airplanes, importing only the motors. On the Royal Siamese Air Mail bi-weekly service has been maintained for seven years, 44,000,000 pounds of mail and merchandise have been carried, with two accidents, no deaths.

Siamese are proud that 91% of their paper money is covered by securities readily convertible into gold, almost a world record. They are proud that their budget has balanced for years, grateful that King Prajadhipok has cut the royal civil list 30%, pepped up princely officials by discharging dullards no matter how royal they may be.

Finally Siamese are unaffectedly religious, which is not to say good or goody-goody. Buddhist priests in plain yellow robes go from house to house in the early mornings, stop motionless and silent before each door proffering a bowl. If no food is placed in the bowl the priest moves on. If food is forthcoming, as it nearly everywhere is, he hurries with his bowl to the Buddhist monastery, shares with his fellows, devotes the rest of the morning and the day to religious duties.

Anyone can see that the priests are popular, that Buddhism is popular in Siam. The eighty-odd French and English cars in King Prajadhipok's garage are all the color of a Buddhist's robe, yellow, national color of Siam.

Educated in England (Eton & Woolwich), preferring U. S. advisers, the King of Siam nevertheless transacts the business of his realm at Bangkok in an Italian setting. Like Dictator Benito Mussolini, this mighty little monarch has as his workroom a vast white marble hall, pure Renaissance in style, alien to Siam as an iceberg, but dramatic, breathtaking.

*Films exposed by the King of Siam are developed by experts attached to the Royal State Railways. Ably administered by His Majesty's brother, Prince Purachatra, the Royal State Rail ways develop & print merely as an accommodation, are justly famed for punctual service, punctual profits.

/-To whet U. S. appetites for the statue a fore arm was sent to Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition in 1876, transferred to Madison Square, New York, for the next ten years, was finally joined by the rest of the statue in 1886 when the whole was solemnly unveiled on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

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