The following is a preliminary comment on "Anna and the King" and was sent out by the Thai government as a guidance for Diplomatic and Consular representatives.

1. The claim that such film is based upon historical events with some adaption is almost groundless. Except for certain names such as King Mongkut, Prince Chulalongkorn, the Kalahorne, Chao Chorn Manda Thieng, Anna Leonowens, Louis Leonowens and Captain Orton, the rest is made up by Fox to suit its production purposes.

2. The film was shot in Malaysia with post production in the United States and elsewhere. Not a single frame was shot on Thai soil.

3. The most offending aspects of such film for the Thai public are as follows:

3.1 Portraying His Majesty King Mongkut as a youngish temperamental, despotic and irrational ruler but whom Anna could easily influence. In real life, King Mongkut was already approaching 60 at the time that Anna Leonowens arrived and was a truly respected and sensible monarch while Anna was merely an English teacher to some of his children and female members of the court. The impact of Anna Leonowens during her five years service was so insignificant that her name was mentioned in King Mongkut's correspondences only once when he described her as rather "nosy".

3.2 Portraying His Majesty King Chulalongkorn as an arrogant and spoilt heir to the throne who had the courage to disobey his father even at that age and that his subsequent success was due to the teaching of Anna Leonowens. In real life, His Majesty King Chulalongkorn was a responsible son of his father and the universally respected member of his family since an early age. He inherited the skill of public administration and vision from his father rather than any one else. The impact of Anna Leonowens on his education was not significant since he had to further his study on the English language with Francis George Patterson during the first few years of his reign.

3.3 Portraying the court of King Mongkut as barbaric, archiac and senseless. In real life the court at that time was the centre of administration and training ground for younger members of the Royal Family and officials. The so-called "harem" did not exist and in actual fact King Mongkut had 2 queens and 23 wives among whom 82 children were produced. Between 1862-7 only approximately 10 of his children studied English with Anna Leonowens and not as many as 58 that appeared in the film.

3.4 Portraying a very distorted culture, tradition and scenery of the country. True that it is oriental but not Thai. The attempt to reconstruct royal ceremonies and practices of the court simply failed since the so called "specialists" that Fox engaged knew so little on the subject while those who had the knowledge were aware of their responsibility and refused to cooperate.

3.5 Attempting to inject or revive the idea that the present dynasty challenged the throne from King Taksin of Thonburi and that ranking officials at that time did not object on the ground that "Chakri" could be influenced easily. In real life, King Taksin was disposed by Phya San who seized power but could not control the situation. To restore law and order His Majesty King Rama I was therefore invited by the people to the throne.

3.6 Attempting to suggest to the innocent that the teaching of Anna Leonowens was a factor that enabled His Majesty King Chulalongkorn to preserve the independence of his country, abolish slavery and introduce religious freedom and reform the justice system. In real life, His Majesty King Chulalongkorn was well known for his honesty and integrity. In the event that Anna Leonowens was actually or even partly responsible for his successful initiatives or conduct, he would certainly have given her the credit in the same way that he honoured Gustav Rolin Jacqueman the General Adviser who ably assisted him throughout the 1893 conflict with France. It is suspected that the inclusion of such suggestion is motivated by the jealously of certain western races that could not tolerate the success of an oriental nation which managed to preserve its independence and introducing far reaching reforms. Thus, it must attribute part of such success to Anna Leonowens whom they thought belonged to the superior race but who was in fact an individual with doubtful origin and could even be half Indian.

4. The film cannot be viewed as fiction since it is based upon historical events and citing real names. Fox clearly is not aware of the sensitivity of the Thai people on the issue of monarchy.

5. The Film Board earlier rejected request by Fox to shoot this film on Thai soil. The censorship board has just rejected a request by a local distributor to show this film in cinemas throughout the country.

6. The Thai people are not prohibited to watch this movie elsewhere and through other means. But approval by the Government for this film to be shown legally is tantamount to recognising this Hollywood version of history and departing from the provisions of relevant law and order.