Unorthodox King

Norodom Sihanouk, the King of Cambodia, is an unorthodox young (30) monarch who plays the saxophone and composes jazz, has a personal troupe of 30 dancing girls and an air-conditioned throne room, and refuses to wear the $15,000 diamond-studded derby inherited from his kingly grandfather. But nothing in King Norodom's career was quite so unorthodox as the way he went to war last year against the Communist enemies of his small kingdom in southern Indo-China.

Tired of Red infiltrators, he fired his cabinet. Leaping into his black Jeepster, supported by a bodyguard of 150 Cambodian stalwarts, he joined his six Cambodian battalions in an attack on a secret Communist stronghold at Angkor Wat. Wearing the uniform of a two-star general, he took personal command of the battle, sent his war elephants crashing through the flooded forest and his soldiers gliding in sampans among forgotten temples. In three days of fighting, he and his men routed the Communists and captured their headquarters. With a new cabinet composed almost entirely of his own relatives, King Norodom felt free to engage what he regards as his country's second enemy: France. He went about it differently, but in quite as unorthodox a manner.

Tied Hands & Feet. He took a trip around the world, telling anyone who would listen of the injustices suffered by Cambodia under the French colonial system. Said he in Manhattan: "In economic matters they have our hands and feet tied; we cannot import and export freely and we have no freedom of taxation. Our police cannot touch them." The French insist on taking Cambodian troops under their command, said Norodom, and he warned: "If we have an invasion of the sort that Laos has suffered recently, I am not at all certain that I can call for a general mobilization as did Laos. If there is a menace, the people will say that the French are encircled and their end has come." Embarrassed France made concessions to ward Cambodia's full independence within the French Union. Gratified but impatient of French delay, King Norodom Sihanouk last week took the most unorthodox step of his career: he went into voluntary exile in neighboring Siam.

Breaking Off. Before driving off in his dark green Cadillac, Norodom wrote a message to his "French friends." Said he: "I am anguished at having to break off relations with France.' All the nations of Asia have obtained full independence except for the three Associated States [of Indo-China]. I am convinced that Cambodia can become a great nation only if it attains total independence. France, by her behavior and her equivocation, gives us the impresson that she does not want to give Cambodia real independence, the only basis for agreement." In a long memorandum to the French High Commissioner, he set out his demands.

Next morning in Bangkok, Norodom confidently predicted that the French would agree and he would be able to return to his capital in Cambodia. The French, who do not relish such unorthodox political behavior by others, were in a state of raised eyebrows.

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