File No. 892.001/7.

The Siamese Minister to the Secretary of State.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of the 25th instant, transmitted by the honorable Alvey A. Adee, in which you are so good as to inform me that the sad intelligence of the death of my late sovereign has been conveyed to the President, [Page 844] who has cabled his condolence to King Maha Vajiravudh, and to express the sympathy of the Government and people of the United States, as well as your own regret, at the national loss sustained by my country.

I now hasten to offer to you my sincere gratitude for your most kind expressions of condolence, and to assure you that His Majesty the King, the Government, and the people of Siam will duly and warmly appreciate the friendly sympathy so generously extended to them by the President, the Government, and the people of the United States in their great bereavement.

Permit me to thank you also for your inquiry as to the date of the funeral.

In this connection I beg to explain that owing to the custom that the body of a Siamese monarch is not cremated until a year after death, and to the obstacles in the way of arranging a memorial service in Washington according to the rites of the Buddhist religion, I am constrained to forego the idea of a public service as impracticable under the circumstances.

I have, etc.,

Akharaj Varadhara.