sentences:  This first era of Cambodian Scouting spread over several provinces and numbered more than 1,000 members.One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to create the first modern Cambodian army.Having won the consent of the French, who had just returned to power in Cambodia after the defeat of the Japanese in World War II, Prince Monireth succeeded in forming out of former colonial NCOs the basis for an indigenous army whose mission, according to the Franco-Khmer Military Convention of November 20, 1946, was to uphold the sovereignty of the king, to preserve internal security, and to defend the frontiers of the country.