Wilas Osathanond?

[Pkv]

Could someone shed light on this particular gentleman's wartime activities? What became of him after his dismissal from Phibun's cabinet?

I know that Mom Seni included him as a "reliable" in a list (composed for the US State Department) of patriotic Thais bound to resist the Japanese, and that his sister-in-law organised a clandestine KMT network in Bangkok while his two brothers-in-law fled to Yunnan to serve the Chinese cause in '42.

Despite the above though, I don't recall him ever being a member of the Seri Thai. IIRC wasn't he regarded as something of a war profiteer?

[GWR]

http://thailand.prd.go.th/about_prd/img_about/06214165611abp.jpg

http://thailand.prd.go.th/about_prd/content_part.php?id=2

http://thailand.prd.go.th/about_prd/content_part.php?id=1

This picture shows him inaugurating foreign public service broadcasts in 1938, during his stint in the PRD.

Not much about WW2.

Baker & Phongpaichit's 'A History of Thailand' says only that he was a son-in-law of the late KMT leader Siew Hut Seng, and that with Julin Lamsam (a member of a big rice trading family), he helped to run the govt's rice trading company. Sounds like he would have been well-positioned to supply rice to an often hungry IJA. [I believe Lamsam is still a big rice company.]

Osathanonds still seem big in diplomacy and the medical profession. A recent Miss Thailand Universe had this surname.

[Wisarut]

In 1946-1947, Wilas Osathanone was the House Speaker though.

The Lumsam family were the founders of Kasikornthai Bank in 1945 ... usign the Bank to support theri rice trading business ....

Oh, never forget about Loxley Group - a trading company with stong connection with Lumsam family and Kasikornthai Bank

[Pkv]

Judith A. Stowe's excellent Siam Becomes Thailand mentions that one cabinet meeting saw a fist fight break out between Luang Sinthu and Wilas who, as a leading director of the national shipping line, was held responsible for the sequestration of all its freighters which happened to be in British-controlled waters at the outbreak of the war.

Apparently, Wilas was an arch-rival of Wanit Pananond. I'd love to hear more about this though.

If my memory serves me right, Wilas also stood for election in Bangkok, but was defeated by Khuang in '46. He nevertheless was a nominated member of the Assembly.

The rice company connection makes a lot of sense - hmm, I see that Baker & Phongpaichit's book is not as vapid as I initially thought.

That's one amazing site! The Burmese and Hindi services - to support Ba Maw's and Bose's respective movements, no doubt - are a revelation to me.

[Pkv]

I'm going slightly off on a tangent I know, but, Khun Wisarut, would you happen to know what position Lt. Gen. Phraya Aphaisongkhram held in the national security bureaucracy during the war?

All I really know about the man is that he was a member of the Thai diplomatic mission (headed by Prince Wiwatthanachai Chaiyant with Puey Ungphakorn serving as interpreter) to Kandy in 1945, and that he was the army's chief of staff at some point during the '30s.