principles, i.e. the Privy Council should meet and choose from the Royal Princes freely and without restriction whoever seems to them best fitted and most competent to carry out the duties of the King.
The foregoing suggestions, it would seem to me, are those best calculated to secure the most competent and ablest man for the Kingship. It would probably also lessen the likelihood, of regencies which are apt to be exceedingly dangerous in a country like Siam, where absolute power is vested in the King.
Therefore, for all these reasons, my answer to the 1st. and 2nd. questions which Your Majesty proposed are as follows:
The King should have the right to choose any Royal Princes whatever as his heir, but not without the advice and consent of the Privy Council. This suggestion, as Your Majesty intimated, would be more consistent with the idea of an elected King; and it would very greatly strengthen the position and influence of the new King.
If these ideas are sound, the present law of succession should be dropped and a new fundamental law in accordance with these ideas should be framed and promulgated.
