No. 334.
Reply of the President to Prince Krom Mun
Narès.
Prince: I am pleased to be able to welcome to the United States the diplomatic representative of His Majesty the King of Siam, in the person of one of His Majesty’s royal family.
The intercourse maintained between the United States and Siam for years past has shown the mutual desire of the two countries to draw closer the ties of friendship and commerce which join two nations separated by half the circuit of the globe. Wide apart as they are, and different as are their Governments and the lives of their peoples, I am glad to believe that the two countries are very near together in their aspirations, since both strive to put in practice like ideas of progress, and to conduct Government for the benefit of the governed.
It is pleasant to know that your purpose now is to become acquainted with this country, to visit its length and breadth, to observe its natural resources and its tireless activity in the fields of invention, of industry, of manufacture, and of the useful arts. Probably no country in the world presents better examples for the study of the causes of national development and success than our own, which, young as it is, self-made and self-contained, seeks to work out its own aims with peace and good will toward all its neighbors.
I beg of you to assure your sovereign of the friendship which we of the United States bear to him and to the people over whom he is called to rule.