THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1909. BRITISH EXPANSION IN SIAM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3146, 25 March 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1909. BRITISH EXPANSION IN SIAM.

According to a recent notification by cable, the Anglo-Siamese treaty, which has been in contemplation for some months, has now been signed, the gist of the arrangement being that in return for the modification by Great Britain of certain extra-terri-torial rights in Siam proper, Siam ■renounces in favour of Great Britain her-suzerainty over the native States Of Kedah, Kelanton, and Tringano. 'lhese now become incorporated with the Federated Malay States, which I are a dependency of the British Crown colony known as the Straits Settlements. The net gain is an accession of 15,000 square miles of territory to the British Empire, while a long, stride is - taken towards the southernmost point of Burma, the nearest part of Britain's Indian Empire, the most northern of the new British-protected States lies well up over the centre of the Malay Peninsula, and it is obviously the destiny of native States which still lie between the British protectorate and Lower Burma, to be dropped by Siam like ripe apples, and to fall into the British hat. Enclosed as it is between British Burma and French Indo-China, the nominally independent kingdom of Siam is dependent largely on the goodwill of its powerful neighbours. "Further British concessions in Siam proper will doubtless in due course be ; the price at which the cession of -Slam's suzerainty over the three remaining States of Ligor, Sengora, i-.and Patani will be eventually pur--chased. The territory in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, which is still subject to the suzerainty of Japan, amounts to about 20,000 square miles. Apart from the richness of all this country in minerals, especially tin—the Malay Peninsula 'is the richest tin producing country in the world—the lofty mountain ranges are clad with valuable timber, the trees including ebony, camphor, teak, and sandalwood. Thus the new territory added to the Empire has a substantial money value, I while its geographical situation i indicates that the frontier of the j British-protected States cannot rest indefinitely where this latest treaty places it, but it is bound to be advanced northwards until it reaches Tenasser'im, in Lower Burma. It is ■dear that Britain's strategical position with regard to her Indian Empire will be profoundly modified when the changes now in progress in the political the native Malay States are .(complete. And there iis collateral evidence that this latest acquisition of territory is no mere haphazard move, but that it forms part of a well-considered and comprehensive scheme relating to Imperial defence. For some years past the British Government has been heavily engaged in railway construction in the Malay Peninsula, and the railhead has already been advanced several hundred miles northwards from Singapore through the adjoining protected States. The line that is being steadily driven northward through the giant forests of the steaming peninsula can have but one purpose. It cannot have been undertaken as a commercial venture. It must be purely strategical. At any rate, with whatever object it may have been begun, the result when it is completed will be plain. It will connect Singapore by rail ,wi'th the railways of Burma, and 10 with the whole system of Indian railways, thus enabling troops landed from transports at "the gateway of the East" to be despatched into Burma, and t'.ience into Bengal, with the utmost

rapidity. It can hardly be by accident that Brlubn policy in the Malay Peninsula dovetails in so accurately with the promulgation of the new ideas of Imperial defence—ideas based on the uniform training of the troops in every part of the Empire, so that an overwhelming force could be directed quickly upon any threatened point.