Dr. Thomas Marks | The book tells the story of the political maneuvering by Bangkok and London for possession of key semi-independent states on the Malay Peninsula. The book starts with the Anglo-Siamese Secret Convention of 1897, with which the British hoped to neutralize possible influences of other colonial powers, and it deals with the Siamese drive to exclude foreign influences from the Siamese territories. In the end, Siam would have to let go and the British acquired some of the Malay provinces on the Peninsula thus establishing the present borders of southern Siam and Malaysia.