No. 436.
Mr. Sickels to Mr. Payson.
Bangkok, Siam, July 10, 1879.
Sir: I have the honor to refer to paragraph 3 of my No. 103, under date of 19th February of the current year. As therein set forth, the embassy from this kingdom to the United States was determined on, the details arranged, and the personnel selected. But when it seemed that everything was prepared some of my foreign colleagues (I have reason [Page 929] to believe), who were jealous of the increase of American influence in Siam, were good enough to suggest to His Majesty that it was not in conformity with European customs for states to send embassies uninvited that it lowered them in the eyes of the powers to whom they were sent, if it was done; and that the representative of no power in Siam had the right to pledge the hospitality of his country unauthorized, especially by its head.
The Siamese, in common with most Asiastic natives, are very punctilious in matters of etiquette, and His Majesty informed me, in a recent audience, that he had concluded to defer the dispatch of the embassy to the United States until officially informed from Washington that it would be welcome.
I have, &c.,
United States Consul.