Sire

INDOCHINA

Austere Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu, Vice Admiral of France and Father Provincial (on leave) of French Carmelites, sat stiffly under nine royal umbrellas of silver and white silk. Beside him lolled young (23), plump-cheeked Norodom Sianouk, king of sleepy Cambodia. As colored searchlights played over the Pnom-Penh palace grounds, monarch and monk watched ornately dressed, slant-eyed dancing girls glide through the supple, serpentine movements of the Cambodian ballet.

It was a command performance honoring Admiral d'Argenlieu, French High Commissioner for Indo-China, who with a single word had brought joy to Cambodia. Resplendent in purple wrap-around sam-pots, beribboned white tunics and black silk stockings, the bun-haired mandarins of Cambodia's court had smiled when they heard d'Argenlieu address their monarch as "Sire." The courtiers knew this meant that France no longer considered Sianouk as a native chieftain but a real king, and Cambodia not as a protectorate but as an almost-autonomous state within the framework of a projected French union. In return the French would expect continued Cambodian loyalty in an otherwise disaffected colony. France would still control Cambodian foreign affairs, and her prewar administrators would remain as "royal advisers." But Cambodia's new status, formalized by treaty, was France's way of rewarding Cambodia's good behavior.

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