sovereignty was, however, to be exercised by the king, who issued laws with the suggestion and acceptance of parliament. The people were called on to help the king who had "gracefully conferred the constitution'.71 In an announcement in October 1933 on the election of the House of Representatives, voters were cautioned about the need to elect good representatives because Siam at this moment is your responsibility 72 As Sombat Chanthonwong's study of the political discourse of the time shows, the meanings of most political terms which had emerged in the previous generation to name new political phenomena were very fluid and contextual. 3 These problems reflected the difficulty of linguistically capturing the compromise that had been effected in the 1932 constitution. From its initial denunciation of the parasitic monarchy, the People's Party had retreated significantly, initially allowing the palace to retain significant control. The constitution therefore substituted the revolutionary rhetoric of the People's Party with royal piety. The preamble states that the king graciously granted the constitution after considering the people's request. A condition of the grant was the preparatory work undertaken during 150 years of just rule by the Chakri dynasty. It had educated, through the expansion of the civil service, the people such that they were now in a position to have some say in government. 4