The Siamese Government appears to be seriously alarmed by the
pressure put upon it by the French Governor-General at Hue. Mr. Verney, English Secretary to the Legation here, has allowed himself to be interviewed by Reuter, and evidently believes that the French want to push their frontier into Siamese territory, despite the fact that they themselves drew up the delimiting map. There is a rumour, too, that the French fleet in Asia is to concentrate in Siamese waters ; the French journals are roundly accusing the English of intrigue, and altogether there is uneasiness at Bangkok. It is difficult to avoid suspecting that the French Foreign Office is once more engaged in its old game of worry, and that it is raising diffi- culties in Siam in order to make us feel what hostility our occupation of Egypt involves. It can hardly intend seriously to conquer Siam, which would occupy a whole corps d'armee, and involve, besides, a deadly quarrel with this country. Siam is now, as Mr. Verney says, a buffer State between India and France ; and if it disappeared, we should have to fortify our Burmese frontier, take all the Shan States into pay, and keep an army of observation in Barmali, which would in peace-time be away from India and have nothing to do. If this agitation increases, Lord Rosebery will have to speak very decided words to the next French Ambassador, whose non-appearance, by. the-way, is becoming a little unusual.
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