KING IN EXILE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1939, Page 6

KING IN EXILE

HOME IN ENGLISH VILLAGE. NO DIRECT NEWS FROM SIAM. The ex-King of Siam talked to a reporter about the report that his allowance had been stopped; and told of his life in his quiet English village. In their home on the outskirts of the village, the ex-King and Queen are cut off from all direct news of the country over which they once ruled. Strict censorship is being exercised in Bangkok over all communications to the little spectacled ex-King Prajadhipok. “I have had no news from my agent in Siam since December,” he said. “My allowance lias, you may have read in the newspapers, been withheld. “But it was only small —with the allowance for the Queen it was between £5OO and £6OO a year. It was also part of my agent’s salary. I have, of course, private means.” The couple, who, until four years ago ruled over 14,000,000 people, are happy in the peace of English village life. They said so as they showed the reporter round their 16th century black and white-cross timbered house.

The villagers see “the little King and Queen,” as they call them, riding bicycles along the narrow lanes of Kent. Ex-Queen Rambai usually wears a leather golf jacket and blue slacks. It had been said that attempts may be made to restore the ex-King to the throne which he abdicated and which is now occupied by his nephew, the 13-year-old Ananda Mahidol. “Please,” said the King, “there are no attempts as far as I am concerned. It would be against the interests of my country and the dynasty to change kings again. There is complete unity in the royal family and I have heard several times from the King’s mother: Besides I am happy in my English home. Come and look as some of my treasures.”

Under the scraped and restored beams of the 400-year-old house he showed porcelain bowls from Siam, Ming vases and Italian and French paintings side by side with rare English pieces he has collected.

“Some of these,” he said, pointing to old English prints, “come from the Caledonian Market (London). I go there once a week. I love my searches there.”

In the garden, beyond the welltrimmed lawn, is a great ornamental pond with crocus borders. “My wife and I have great fun here, sailing our four model yachts and lazing about in our rowing boat. lam waiting for the goldfish to come up in the warm weather and for my ducks to have ducklings.

“Flying used to be one of my hobbies, but I gave up my ’plane after my medical advisers warned me about my heart. But there is plenty, to do pottering about the garden, cycling slowly round the beautiful loneliness of your English lanes, or walking with our dog Sam. “The people of Kent have been very friendly, and I have opened several village events, including a flower show.” On the top of a bookcase in his study was the ex-King’s favourite quotation. “Give me a nook and a book and let the proud world spin around.” “That,” he said, “fits in with my life. Wo are very happy here.” Vane Court is the name of the house. There is a staff of six —four Siamese and two English —in the household. Biddcnden is 13 miles south of Maidstone, and famous for the Biddenden Maids, who were known as the “Siamese Twins” 800 years ago. , King Prajadhipok abdicated in 1935 after a long quarrel with his Government. In his letter of abdication he wrote: “I am of the opinion that the Government has employed methods of administration incompatible with the personal liberty of the subject . . . ”