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

110 Benjamin A. Batson
long remained a "thorn" in the side of Washington. Some shift in the
direction of a more capable and professional diplomacy is evident in the
last decade of the century, but for the period as a whole America's
relations with Siam would seem to have remained satisfactory more in
spite of than because of the activities of American representatives in
Bangkok.273
his arrival. His successor was Robert H. Schomburgk, reportedly a Prussian
protege of Prince Albert who had difficulty with the English language
CBangkokDesj>atches, August 25, 18 59, and December 20, I 861). Schomburgk
was followed by Thomas Knox, "a penniless adventurer" who had reportedly
left India "under a cloud'' to take a minor position in Siam. His meteoric
rise to British Consul-General and his long tenure in the post were apparently
due to political influence at home; he was constantly on bad terms with the
Thai Government, and with much of the Western community in Siam as well.
After a particularly bitter dispute with the Thai Government his actions were
disavowed by London and he was recalled. (On Knox see Bangkok Despatches,
April tO, 1871; May 30, 1879; October 3, 1879; and March 19, 1880; and
note 130.) In the 1880's another British Consul was sent off to'a post in ''a
cut-throat South American republic," and the Bangkof~ Times noted with
satisfaction that so many British consular officials who had formerly served
in Bangkok had been sent to virtual exile il). minor Latin American posts that
the continent was becoming a diplomatic "penal colony." (Bangkok Times,
December 1, 1888. See also the issues of February 4, 1888, and February 8,
1888,)
For a detailed account of British-That relations in the nineteenth century
see Manich Jumsai, History of Anglo-Thai Relations (Bangkok, 1970), esp. pp.
32-256.
It would appear that France was better served by her official representatives
in the nineteenth century. French Consuls and Ministers in Bangkok,
because they were agents of their country's forward policy, were not popular
with the Thai Government, but the group included a number of able men,
among them Pavie,
273). Perhaps the three main factors contributing to the relatively good over-all
relations that existed between Siam and the United States in the nineteenth
century were a common interest in the maintenance of Siam as an independent
state, Thai recognition of the useful works of American missionaries, and the
relative unimportance of American economic and political interests in Siam
compared to tbo.se pf the major European powers.