Letter from Siam

E. v. KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN

I hesitated for a moment to use the word Siamese because all of a sudden there is an insistence in this old independent monarchy, which I have just left, on clinging to the words Thai, Thailand and Thailandic instead of Siam and Siamese. The word Thai is by no means an innovation, but an historic expression. Only its official use in Western languages is new.