The Thai authorities made Alor Setar the centre for the administration of the territory. Thailand administered the states as Syburi (ไทรบุรี), Palit (ปะลิส), Kalantan (กลันตัน) and Trangkanu (ตรังกานู) provinces[2] from 18 October 1943 until the surrender of the Japanese at the end of the war.
On 14 December 1941 General Plaek Phibunsongkhram, then Prime Minister of Thailand, signed a secret agreement with the Japanese Empire and committed the Thai armed forces to participate in the planned Burma Campaign. An alliance between Thailand and Japan was formally signed on 21 December 1941.
After occupation on 20 August 1943, an agreement on the surrender of the four states was signed in Bangkok, between Phibunsongkhram and the Japanese ambassador, Teiji Tonbukami. Among the conditions found in the agreement it was stated that Japan would hand over the administration of the four Malay states to Thailand within 60 days after the signature of the document.[3]
On 18 October 1943, the four Malay states were transferred to Thailand. On the occasion Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram declared that the citizens of the annexed states were to be granted equal treatment to the inhabitants of other parts of Thailand.[4] The Japanese authorities, however, retained a great degree of control. Japanese troops and Kempeitai continued to be stationed in the four states. Rail services would be run by Thai officers only in Kelantan, while the rail links in Kedah and Perlis would remain in Japanese hands. The Japanese also had the full control of the telegraph, post and telephone services over the nominally Thai territories.[5]
Thailand was still allied with Japan when the war ended, but the United States proposed a solution. In September 1945 British control of the four states was reinstated, under the BMA.[6] On 1 April 1946 the former Thai-occupied states joined the Malayan Union.
The Thai administrative service in the northern Malay states was relatively small and the officers were more concentrated in carrying out military and police duties, and foreign relations.
The administrative service was carried out by civil servants who were under military supervision.