While in the performance of this duty, Mr. Kellet was attacked and beaten by Siamese soldiers.
One of our gunboats, the Raleigh, was sent out to Bangkok to investigate the matter, and to protect the interests of our citizens there.
At the time the trouble occurred, the then Secretary of State, Mr. Olney, thought that perhaps Mr. Kellet had been over-hasty, and the soldiers were not to blame.
The message from Bangkok which now reaches us shows that Mr. Olney was wrong.
The Siamese Government has decided that the soldiers were in the wrong, and a lieutenant and four privates who took part in the affair have been severely reprimanded, and suspended from their regiments without pay for several months.
The Siamese Government has offered to make the fullest amends for the outrage, and Consul-General Barret, in his despatches, says that Mr. Kellet's conduct throughout was all that could be desired.
The commission sent up to inquire into the matter declared that the viceroy of the district should have been able to check the ill-feeling of the soldiers, and he, too, has been reprimanded.
The story of the affair, as it now reaches us, is that Mr. Kellet's servant was arrested by the native troops who act as police in the town of Chang Mai, where the Vice-Consul had gone to look into the Cheek claim. Mr. Kellet's interference on behalf of his servant enraged the soldiers, who set upon him and beat him severely.
The Siamese Government has taken such a determined stand, and has offered such complete apologies for the offence, that there is now no ill-feeling about the matter, and the relations that exist between the two countries are more friendly than ever.
The king of Siam, Chulalongkorn, who has been travelling through Europe since the jubilee celebrations, and of whose visit to Italy we told you in a former number, has made many friends for himself and his country by his intelligence and his charming manners.