THE ORDERS AND MEDALS OF THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

I

ORDER OF CAMBODIA
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 PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. — Cambodia, once powerful and prosperous in the time when the kings were building the magnificent palaces of Angkor, was then partly conquered by its neighbors Annam and Siam, and was reduced in 1863 to a very small tributary state of Annam, disorganized and threatened to be occupied by the King of Siam, who had imposed a resident Siamese. The French government then concluded, on August 11, 1863, with the King of Cambodia Norodom I, a secret treaty that turned into a protectorate of Annam, suzerainty over Cambodia that France had acquired, the King of Annam as a dependency of Cochinchina, which became French by the Treaty of Saigon on 5 June 1862. But the King of Siam, informed of this agreement, imposed, in turn, to Norodom I, who believed the French about to abandon Indochina, another secret treaty which was concluded on 1 December 1863 and reduced the sovereign to the title of "viceroy" required him to pay tribute and recognize the right of Siamese troops and to appoint the King of Cambodia, the King of Siam retaining possession of the royal crown Cambodia essential for the ceremony. On the intervention of France, the King of Siam had yet to return the crown of

Kingdom of Cambodia and concluded with France, on July 15, 1867, a treaty recognizing the French Protectorate in Cambodia, governing relations between Cambodia and Siam and abolishing the tribute. The regime that emerged from these various treaties functioned until June 17, 1884, when the French government imposed to the King of Cambodia, who had refused the customs union which had been proposed by the Governor of Cochinchina, a new treaty strengthening French domination.
 At the time when the domination of Siam over Cambodia disappeared, King Norodom I founded, on February 8, 1864, to reward his subjects and foreigners who contributed to the liberation and restoration of the kingdom (1), The Royal Order of Cambodia, the first of the colonial orders that has been recognized in France.

 HISTORY. - The Royal Order of Cambodia was therefore founded by Norodom I, King of Cambodia, on February 8, 1864. A few months later, the sovereign "in wanting to gather a "single organic decree of the statutes" of the Order, promulgated the decree, obviously modeled on the organic decree of the Legion of Honour on 16 March 1852, at Houdon on 1 January 1865 (2): Here is the analysis of the main articles of the statutes: the Order is established to reward civil and military service, and the king of Cambodia is the sovereign Head and grand Master. This Order is composed of Knights, Officers, Commanders, Grand Officers and the Grand - Cross. Members of the Order are to be living.

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 (1) H. GOURDON OF GENOUILLAC, New Dictionary of the Orders of Chivalry, New. ed., Paris, 1892, in-16, p. 52, and Royal Order of Cambodia, ap. Great Encyclopedia, Paris, vol. VIII, 4to, p. 1048.
 (2) Archives of the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor.

The number of Knights is not limited, that of the Officers is fixed at three thousand five hundred, that of the Commanders at five hundred, that of the Grand Officers at one hundred, and that of the Grand Cross at fifty. Foreigners are only allowed admission, they do not give any oath and are not included in the fixed cadre These statutes after having then determined the shape of the decoration and how to wear it, enact in peacetime that it is necessary for admission into the Order, having exercised with distinction for twenty years of civilian or military services and that no person may be appointed other than with the first grade of Knight. To be promoted to the grade of officer, one must have spent four years in that of Knight ; to be promoted to that of Commander , one must have spent two years in that of Officer; to be promoted to that of Grand Officer, one must have spent three years in that of Commander ; and to be promoted to Grand Cross, one must have spent five years in that of Grand Officer ; the time spent in war being counted double in the computation of the time required for the passage from one grade to another, and in time of war, deeds of valor and serious injury may exempt the conditions required in the ordinary course for admission or advancement in the Order. In times of peace as in time of war, extraordinary service in civilian or military services, science and the arts can also exempt these conditions, but subject to the express condition of not passing a grade. Proposals are sent every year, a month before the festival of the king, the ministers in the Grand Chancellor of the Order submit them to the King. Members take an oath and are received by a member of the Order of a grade at least equal to that of the recipient designated by the Lord Chancellor, "the soldiers of all ranks and

all arms, land and sea, members of the Administration that depend on" being received in the parade. The brevets, with the stamp of the King and countersigned by his first secretary, are issued to all members of the Order appointed or promoted. It bears the arms of Officers and Knights, and it present them to the Grand Cross, Grand Officers and Commanders. Membership of the Order is lost through the death penalty or degradation of one title or a grade. Any ignominious punishment can not be enforced against a member of the Order before he has been degraded.
 Official recognition of the Order of Cambodia is indicated for the first time in the Imperial Almanac for M.D.CCC.LXIX (1869), citing the award for the dignity of Grand Officer to Vice-Admiral Roze and that the grade of Commander to Brigadier General Reboul (1), but the archives of the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of honor provide no evidence in this regard, the only records restored after the fire of 23 May 1871 are two authorization decrees rendered December 8, 1869 the first in favor of M. Troplong (Jean-Marie Adrien Casimir) for grade Commander, and the other in favor of Mr. Lefol (Aristide) for that of knight. Not only brevets of the Royal Order of Cambodia were thus duly registered in France, as will be later than the other four Colonial orders recognized in the suite (Orders of the Dragon of Annam, Nichan al-Anwar, Black Star and Star of Anjouan), but over time the central government was increasingly interested in colonial Orders to such an extent that it even came to transmit its list of proposals to the Governors who thus found themselves having to submit to the sovereign

 (1) Op cit., Paris, 1869, 8vo, p. 384.

protection not only their own lists but those made in the form of reports from the Minister of the Colonies.
 While not affecting the rights of sovereign protection, appointments and promotions made under this system by the sovereign therefore derived from three sources : the sovereign himself, the Minister of Colonies and the Governors. This then was an approach towards measuring dispossession relative to the Colonial Orders which will recognize the sovereign protection by the decree of 10 May 1896 stipulating that, firstly, that "appointments in the Colonial Orders will be granted henceforth by a presidential decision on the report of the Minister of Colonies" and, secondly, that "the governor general, residents generals, governors and residents send their lists of proposals to the Minister and that they should be consulted on proposals presented in the metropolis for officers, officials or others having served or resided in the colonies or of a protectorate land under their authority, or in neighboring regions."
 This decree, emphasizing the Colonial Orders obedience of sovereigns protection, therefore creating new French Orders in which the only links connecting them to the elders of the same name were, firstly, maintaining their status in that they were not contrary to the said decree and, secondly, maintaining also within them members previously admitted and accepted by the French government. It was somehow imitating, as we see, what had happened to the Order of Réunion on 18 October 18 1811 ; and the Decree of 10 May 1896, while maintaining each of its designation of the Colonial Orders origin, became mere historical memory, merged in the

depriving them of their local character and left to the discretion of the Head of State to aggregate people indiscriminately regardless of where the services were rendered.
 Also, from the decree of 10 maí 1896, the Royal Order of Cambodia, the Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam and the Royal Order of the Star of Anjouan they respectively renamed them the Order of Cambodia , the Order of the Dragon of Annam and the Order of the Star of Anjouan, as evidenced by the decree of 5 December 1899 amending ribbon colors of certain Colonial Orders and brevets granted henceforth by the Grand Chancellor of the Legion honor, and the deletion of the word Royal on the insignia of the Order of the Star of Anjouan.
 Since then, the President of the Republic, a true leader and Grand Master of the Colonial Orders, in the words of Mr. Beau, Governor-General of Indochina, in a letter addressed by him from Hanoi, 31 March 1905, to the Minister of Colonies (1), is holder of the grand Cross with rights of all French Colonial Orders and retaining this dignity when leaving his office.
 A few days after the decree of 10 May 1896, on 23 May, decided that a new decree "Appointments in the Colonial Orders" should "be submitted for opinion to the Council of the Order of the Legion of Honor before being offered to the signature of the President of the Republic" and that "service letters" would be "then recorded at the Grand Chancellery and delivered upon payment of a fee of Chancery ..., military non-officers and staff in service in the colonies who do not have rank of officers" are exempt from this law. The same decree applied in addition Colonial Orders disciplinary provisions under Article 13 of the Decree of

 (1) Archives of the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor.

10 June 1853 and by the decree of 9 May 1874, and decided that the holders of Colonial Orders which have not yet been authorized to wear the insignia would be allowed to submit to the Minister of Colonies brevets that had been given in order that he might regularize their process in accordance with the requirements of the Decree of 10 May 1896 and those of the Decree of 23 May 1896.
 December 15 of the same year the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour wrote to the President of the Republic a letter saying that "the decrees of 10 and 23 May 1896, deciding that the appointments to the Colonial Orders would be granted henceforth by a presidential decision on the report of the Minister of Colonies and after consulting the Council of the Order of the Legion of Honor', had not "established the rules that would govern the entry and advancement in these various orders', and seemed "however all the more necessary to determine the placing in the Head of State the responsibilities of the Colonial Orders, the decrees recalled above" had "clearly had the intent to make French Orders and to raise the prestige”. He added that the Council of the Order, having received a number of proposals, was concerned about the issue and issued the "wish that regulations intervene", and he felt obliged to indicate in a note to the points which had drawn the attention of this Council and the opinion of the latter on the solutions that may be proposed (1). The President immediately invited the chancellor to give communication of the wish expressed by the Council of the Order of the Minister

 (1) Archives of the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor.