SIAM: The Dancers Mourn

"The nation," cabled TIME'S censor-shy Bangkok correspondent last week, "was profoundly shocked by the doctor's verdict, proving the untrustworthiness of official statements regarding a most important matter."

The important matter was the mysterious death-by-gunshot of Siam's young King Ananda (TIME, June 17). Siamese officialdom has insisted that the death was purely accidental. Police Chief Phra Ram Indra even shot a pig before the whole Parliament to prove that the absence of powder burns on Ananda's face meant nothing.

But the pig was sacrificed in vain, and rumors of assassination were still whispered in Bangkok's dance halls, where the girls did their turns...

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