Some Britons have axe to grind over Siam's WWII role

David Brown charges me with “fallacious rattling” over something he didn’t actually say about the fall of Singapore. Yet what he did not say related to what he said. The Japanese onslaught in Siam was the beginning of Britain’s downhill slide and loss of pride. The humiliation, the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse and the subsequent loss of British Empire territory caused some self-centred Britons to blame Siam for not putting up a fight before the fall of Singapore. In my humble opinion, David’s letter, “Thailand’s WWII neutrality is a fiction”, showed a similar lack of empathy. 

Categorising Siam as neutral during WWII is not exactly correct, but the Americans did so because Siam was under duress, just like France under Nazi Germany. Britain disagreed with that categorisation. Had it not been for America and the overseas Seri Thai (Free Thai movement), we would have become a British colony in 1946. 

I would add that I am just as soppy in my love for Britain as David is in his love for Thailand. During the decade and more I lived in the UK I never met with any prejudice – though I have met with plenty in Thailand. 

Songdej Praditsmanont