Krabi Province.
The treaty between East Africa and the Siam government had presented the indigenous people of the Kra Isthmus Territory with a difficult choice: remain here, or flee north with their families. For a time, they found it hard to decide.
Delagong's family was troubled by the same issue. They were merely tenant farmers in Krabi Province, working year-round for local plantation owners to make a living.
"Delagong, who knows whether those rumors are true? What should we do now? Should we flee north?" Delagong's wife asked.
Krabi Province was not far from Siam. Nakhon Si Thammarat was only a few dozen li away, and it lay outside the core Tapi River Plains region of Siam that East Africa was seeking.
Thus, for Krabi Province, Phang Nga Province, and several other areas bordering Siam's Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, it was not particularly difficult for the local people to flee into Siamese territory.
Delagong frowned deeply. "Let me think it over. Moving is no small matter. We have no land, and not much property either. Even if we flee to Nakhon Si Thammarat, making a living will be a huge problem."
Since Siam was a feudal monarchy, its land was naturally concentrated in the hands of the Siamese landlord class. Ordinary people like Delagong's family, for the most part, had no land of their own.
Of course, conditions in several of Siam's former southern provinces were somewhat better. Siam's conquest and development of this region had come only recently, so land annexation was relatively less severe. There were still quite a few independent farmers, after all, since there was plenty of land that could be reclaimed.
Yet as a tropical rainforest region, developing this place in the early twentieth century was no ordinary challenge. It required technology, manpower, organizational capacity,