The nineteenth century materials on Thailand in the Toyo Bunko, Tokyo

Abstract

What I want to explain here is on a correspondent of The Times, London, in the late nineteenth century, called George Ernest Morrison and his collection of western language books, pamphlets, periodicals and manuscripts on Thailand which is now shelved in the Toyo Bunko, Tokyo, Japan. In the following sections of this paper, I will comment on the following six questions which seem to me to be significant: 1. Why did Dr. Morrison concentrate his collection of materials mainly on the mountain border districts of continental Southeast Asia? 2. How did he acquire confidential documents and inside information on many problems? 3. To what extent can we learn regarding the Thailand government's attitudes toward foreign countries from studying his newspaper clippings and other materials? 4. What influence did the English adviser's reports to the Thailand ministers have on the Thailand Government policy? 5. From his sources, what can we learn about the overseas Chinese society in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries?