During the conflict, most of the Catholics residing in the country turned Buddhist, as a memorandum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described, “ with their own will, and in order to comply with their desire, Buddhist priests were requested to use the vacant houses for religious services.”
The drive against Catholicism was very relevant to the irredentist struggle. The Bishop of Thailand was French as were most of the priests whereas most Roman Catholics were Indo-Chinese.
For Phibunsonggram and other Thai extreme nationalists, this was a problem as it belied their claim that the Thais and the people of Ind0-China especially in Laos and Cambodia were brethren and shared the same religion—Buddhism.
This was evident from Phibunsonggram’s radio broadcast on October 20, 1940. He declared that the French would no longer be able to control Indo-China and when that moment arrived the T’ai people in Laos and Cambodia would come to join Thailand
The Thai Premier made a particular point that Buddhism should be upheld in Indo-China as the French then upheld Catholicism.
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