ABSTRACT
Consensus remained all the more tenuous as the young King, brought up abroad, had no experiment of his country where he stayed only briefly in 1938 and where (like his brother) he had an imperfect command of the Siamese language. The subsequent elections proved victorious for Khuang Aphaivong’s Democrat Party. Khuang Aphaivong immediately transformed the Crown Property Bureau into a legal entity administered by a council, chaired ex officio by the minister of finance, although its other members were appointed by the sovereign. Meanwhile, the sovereign kept a low profile, agreeing to play (briefly) the role of judge of first instance in 1952, while occasionally distancing himself from the government by performing the kathin in royal monasteries. In 1954, however, he was forced to promulgate a land law limiting rural property to eight hectares and urban and peri-urban property to four which directly penalised his relatives.
