Siam and the League of Nations : modernization, sovereignty, and multilateral diplomacy, 1920-1940 Hell, S.M. Citation Hell, S. M. (2007, October 31). Siam and the League of Nations : modernization, sovereignty, and multilateral diplomacy, 1920-1940. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/12395 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) Licence agreement concerning inclusion of License: doctoral thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/12395 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). SIAM AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS SIAM AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS MODERNIZATION, SOVEREIGNTY AND MULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY, 1920-1940 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof.mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 31 oktober 2007, klokke 13.45 uur door STEFAN MATTHIAS HELL geboren te Sindelfingen, Duitsland in 1968 Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof.dr. B.J. Terwiel Co-promotor: Dr. J.Th. Lindblad Referent: Dr. H. ten Brummelhuis (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Overige leden: Prof.dr. J.L. Blussé van Oud-Alblas Prof.dr. P. Boomgaard (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Contents Acronyms ........................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements .......................................................................................vii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 Structure of this study.............................................................................................................7 Sources and literature ............................................................................................................9 Notes on spelling, names, titles and calendars ....................................................................11 2 Siam becomes a Member of the League of Nations .............................. 13 Siam: sketch of domestic developments and foreign relations, c.1850 to 1940 ..................13 The League of Nations: a revolution in international relations ..........................................20 From Bangkok via Paris to Geneva: Siam declares war, signs the Paris Peace Treaties and joins the League of Nations.....................................................................24 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................33 3 Siam at Geneva: Attitudes, Aims, Individuals and Contributions ......... 35 Attitudes and aims of Siam’s League membership...............................................................35 The wide spectrum of contacts and cooperation between the League and Siam.................43 Siam’s representatives at the League of Nations.................................................................49 Siam and the League Secretariat..........................................................................................64 The question of League Council membership ......................................................................68 Siam’s financial contribution to the League of Nations ......................................................72 The final Assembly of the League and Siam’s admission to the United Nations.................78 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................81 4 Opium Control....................................................................................... 85 Opium in Siam and Southeast Asia ......................................................................................86 Opium as an issue of international law................................................................................90 Siam and international opium control, 1920 to 1940 ..........................................................93 The two Geneva Opium Conferences of 1924-25 ..............................................................102 The League of Nations commission of enquiry on opium smoking....................................106 The Bangkok Opium Conference of 1931 ..........................................................................110 Opium smuggling................................................................................................................117 The financial development of the Siam’s opium monopoly................................................124 Siam abandons international opium control before the Second World War.....................125 Conclusions.........................................................................................................................128 5 Public Health ....................................................................................... 133 Public health becomes an international issue and a task of the League of Nations .........134 Public health in Siam: issues, management and early international cooperation............136 Public health in Siam from 1920: national and international developments....................138 Administrative and legal reform of public health management.........................................141 League of Nations commissions of enquiry in Siam ..........................................................146 iii Commission of enquiry 1: epidemic diseases and port health, 1922.................................146 Commission of enquiry 2: leprosy and the meeting of the League of Nations leprosy commission in Bangkok, 1930 ....................................................................................148 Commission of enquiry 3: malaria, 1931 ...........................................................................151 Commission of enquiry 4: rural hygiene, 1936..................................................................153 Commission of enquiry 5: cholera, 1937............................................................................155 The ‘epidemiological intelligence service’ and the League’s Far Eastern Bureau in Singapore ................................................................................................................156 Further tasks of the Singapore Bureau: public health training and biological standardization............................................................................................................162 The Bandung Conference on Rural Hygiene of 1937.........................................................165 Conclusions.........................................................................................................................168 6 Human Trafficking ..............................................................................175 Human trafficking becomes a task of the League of Nations.............................................175 Prostitution and human trafficking in Siam in the early twentieth century .......................176 Cooperation between Siam and the League of Nations .....................................................180 The League of Nations commission of enquiry on trafficking in women and children, 1930.............................................................................................................................191 The Bandung Conference on Trafficking in Women and Children, 1937..........................196 Conclusions.........................................................................................................................203 7 Collective Security...............................................................................207 Siam’s foreign relations......................................................................................................207 The League’s collective security system.............................................................................209 Conflicts before the League of Nations in the 1920s..........................................................211 Conflicts before the League of Nations in the 1930s..........................................................212 Siam’s abstention from voting to condemn Japan in 1933 ................................................215 Siam’s sanctions against Italy for invading Ethiopia in 1935 ...........................................230 Siam’s second abstention from voting to condemn Japan’s actions in China in 1937......240 Expulsion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations in 1939 ..................................249 Conclusions.........................................................................................................................252 8 Conclusions..........................................................................................257 Appendices ..................................................................................................269 1 Chronology of Events..................................................................................................271 2 Permanent Delegates of Siam to the League of Nations, 1920-1939.........................274 3 Thai Delegations to the General Assemblies of the League of Nations.....................274 4 Siam’s Financial Contribution to the League of Nations...........................................278 5 Conventions and Agreements within the League of Nations’ Framework, signed by, acceded to and ratified by Siam ................................................................279 6 Thai Kings