DEATH OF KING OF SIAM

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24903, 17 June 1946, Page 4

DEATH OF KING OF SIAM

EMBASSY STATEMENT ON CAUSE (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, June 15. The disclosure that King Ananda Mahidol of Siam was lying down when he met his death, and experiments with pistols by Allied officers and police have given rise to new rumours of fatal court Intrigues, says the correspondent in Bangkok of the Associated Press. The experiments showed that the pistol might have been fired close to the flesh without leaving powder burns. The Siamese have been deeply concerned about the strange events surrounding the King’s death throughout the seven days of preparations for the funeral to-day. The police general, Phra Ramindra, told the Siamese Parliament that the bullet pierced the King’s head and his pillow and buried itself deep in ths mattress. A statement from the Siamese Embassy in London reaffirms that the King’s death was accidental. The statement gives the substance of a police communique issued after a conference of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, and other Ministers, a firearms expert, and a medical expert. It examines the possibilities, first, of assassination, second of suicide, and third, of accident. Assassination is ruled out, because the King was closely guarded. There is no evidence of any penetration of the sentry lines. Suicide was rejected, because of the King’s constantly serene and happy disposition, and the nature of his wounds. The accident theory is supported. The statement explains that the King was seen previously examining the automatic from which ' the fatal shot was fired. It would seem that he once more inspected the automatic, without checking whether it Was loaded. While doing so he must have touched the trigger and shot himself. Openly challenging the official assertion that King Ananda Mahidol died in a revolver accident, the Siamese weekly “Thiengthem” printed a banner headline, “We suspect our King was assassinated.’’ The newspaper asserted that the evidence indicated that King Ananda had been shot from behind and that the position of the revolver seemed to preclude suicide or accident. Unrest is spreading throughout Siam with growing rumours that King Ananda was a victim of a palace murder.