The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

102 Benjamin A. Batson
education. King had been a professional educator in the United States,
and he wrote "An Outline of An Educational System for Siam" which
be forwarded to King Chulalongkorn through Prince Vajirayan, a
leading monk and later Prince Patriarch of the Buddhist religion in Siam.
But it is unlikely that King's ideas significantly influenced the development
of education in Siam; he started with the false premise that "there
is as yet absolutely no Educational system in this country," and reached
the dubious conclusion (in a letter to Prince Vajirayan) that it "is but a
simple endeavor to accommodate the general principles of a system that
has done so much for Japan to the circumstances that at present exist in
Siam."235
Several important developments also took place at the American
Legation in Bangkok. Late in 1898 King sent the first typed despatch
to originate at the Bangkok Legation, a landmark for historians if not for
diplomats, 23 6 and King requested and received a salary increase,23 7 Also,
in 1899 Lawrence E. Bennett arrived to fill the office of United States
Vice-Consul General, apparently the first time that any consular official
in Bangkok other than the bead of mission was sent from the United
States rather than being recruited Iocally.238
VI. Conclusions
America's representatives in Siam in the nineteenth century had a
number of common charactertics, ranging from minor points like bad
23 5) Siam Desp,ztches, June 14, 1900, and September 25, 1900. King's "Outline"
was enclosed in the latter despatch, but was forwarded to the Department of
the Interior and is not in the Department of State file.
236} Siam Despatches, November 8, 1898. The message concerned the claims to
American citizenship of Chinese who said, but were unable to prove, that they
had been born in the United States.
237) Siam Despatches, December 7, 1898, and June 14, 1900. In the first despatch
King asked for an increase but said that he was not complaining, since he had
taken the job "with my eyes wide open." (See also note 1 76.)
238) Siam Despatches, October 10, 1899. The meager, underpaid staff of the
American mission, compared with the large contingents sent to Bangkok by
.the Europeanpowers, ·was a frequent cause of complaint by American representatives
throughout the nineteenth century.