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

106 Benjamin A. Batson
on Siam's gold mines, the "thousands of human lives sacrificed, to the
greed of the nobles in their endeavor to obtain the precious metai."2S4
The elder Boyd held that "no Government on the face of the Earth, is
so tardy in attending to Government affairs as Siam." 255 In a despatch
dealing specifically with railroads be wrote :2 5 6
If what is published is true, the Rail Road Department is
more corrupt, and filthy, than the fabulous Stable of Augeas,
and no Hercules, to clean it out. This is a Kingdom of
Holidays, Festivals, luxuries, and extravagance for the better
class, and I regret to say penury, want, slavery, ignorance,
and punishment for the great masses of the people.
The younger Boyd concurred that Siam's "present mode of administration
could not be much worse."2s7
Minister Barrett often had praise for Siam and its people, but be
too could take a darker view, especially when negotiations in the Cheek
case seemed stalled. He was particularly vexed that the Belgian adviser
to the Thai Government, Rolin-Jacquemyns "treats the Siamese in all
his letters and remarks as if they were a people like and equal to the
chief races of Europe and America."258 On the contrary, "there appears
to be little sense of honor, as we interpret the word, in either high or
low classes." The government, Barrett wrote, was a collection of
"European functionaries and loafing proteges." The problem was a
"simple lack of administration. Reforms are constantly announced but
not enforced."259 On the people be reported :260
254) SiamDespatches, September 30, 1887, and March 13, 1888.
255) SiamDespatches, November 20, 1891.
256) SiamDespatches 1
November 12, 1891.
257) Siam Despatches, September 5, 1893.
258) Siam Despatches, May 10, 189 5. Barrett did, with reluctance, restrain himself
from making this argument to the Thai Government. See also his similar
remark in a despatch of January 17, 1895, in which hesaidthatRolin­
Jacquemyns had forgotten that he was "not defending the acts and deeds of
men of a thoroughly civilized nation. He makes a foreign defense of native
errors."
259) Siam Despatches, June 11, 1895; July 28, 1895; and August 19, 1896.
260) Siam Despatches, August 10, 1896. In a margin note Adee instructed tb~t thi§
despatch be acknowled~ed "as read with attentioq,"