The old society which possessed this Wild Tiger spiri said also had the advantage of not being divided into civi an and King groups, men served their country in war; only after such and after they had established families v men considered Siam then wa and surrounded by enemies, he learn the arts of war Principal ministers of government walk." functioned leaders in both peace and war. It was only after pro- onged peace that the country became soft, that government officials began using the labor of soldiers for their own personal ends in the departments under their control that enterprising men sought ways o avoid service, that military service became unpopular and even regarded as shameful. This theoretical sketch, which had some bas in history, set the scene for the King's essential arguments in favor of the Wild Tigers. In support of the purely military advantages of the Wild Tigers he King stressed the military danger Siam faced How many countries close to us have already fallen to European power? Do you know? Burma, which was once our competitor, is a possession of the British, Cambodia, which was once a brilliant nation and was once the master of us Thai, is now a possession of the French, Vietnam s a possession of the French. More than half of Malaya is a possession of the British Java, once ry magnificent, is a possession of the Dutch 10 And on he went with India and Korea. Only four countries were still independent, but two of these, Persia and China, were in chaos. Only Japan and Siam were still free and orderly. "of those two countries, hich is the more respected in the world I'm sorry to have to answer that it is Japan. Why? Because Japan has clearly demonstrated to the world that it still has able soldiers Siam in contrast, said the King was weak. Its people were asleep, And it would be too late to awaken when the enemy was at the door. Siam had to learn to be prepared even in peacetime, for when other countries see we are prepared to fight, they are likely to give up the attack, for an attack on a country that is prepared toresist to the fullest becomes too costly to pursue The military services, of course, had to bear the chief burden of defense, but civilians with proper military training, that is, the wild could support the military in time of need. The wild Tiger Corps would enhance the country's military strength by giving ans the opportunity to harden their bodies and commit minds and spirits the nation, as soldiers do. Once again, as in the proud past, all men of Siam would share in the task of defending the country The value of the military strength of the Wild Tiger Corps w however, far outweighed in the King's mind by its spiritual strength, by the contribution it would make toward national unity by an and military, by uniting the various civil sections ment, and, finally, by uniting the entire people that is, nationalism The corps, by blurring the lines between would ally these two social elements in a common cause we should understand that although we have two separate names for soldier and civilian, the truth is that we have one name that applies to both, and that is the word Thai. Soldiers are one part of the Thai people. civilians are one part of the Thai people: how can they then be separate groups? Every soldier is also a civilian. Every civilian like- wise ought to be a soldier.ly The overriding fact was that civilian and soldier must both see them selves as part of the Thai nation, equally willing to do their jobs ng to make sacrifices of personal comfort, personal ad equally wi self, for the good of the nation. It was not vantage, even life soldiers to sacrifice and c ians to be comfortable. All must sacrifice civilians must learn to be something in the way of soldiers themselves A real problem that had bedeviled Vajiravudh's father, King Chulalongkorn, in his program of reforming government administra tion was that of interministerial, interdepartmental, and interpersonal rivalry. The problem stemmed from traditional administrative prac- tices that made it difficult to remove high officials from office and that produced an extraordinary bond of loyalty and continued service between a high official and his staff. Vajiravudh saw the problem officials often seem to believe that their first clearly. He stated and only debt of loyalty is due to the particular Ministry or Depart ment in which they serve; they must do all they can to advance the interests and prestige of that Ministry or Department even at the cost of another branch of the service." Chulalongkorn, said was well aware" of the problem and sought remedies in education. which requires much time and in conscription. which was not popular with certain classes (that is, the official classes). What was to be done, he asked, to break down parochial interests, to bring all civil servants into one discipline