The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1899. HOSTILITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1899. HOSTILITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES.

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The news that there has been a serious engagement between the American troops and the Filipinos in the neighbourhood of Manila does not come as a surprise. It was not to be expected that the insurgents would abandon their hostile attitude until they had made some attempt to assert their independence in actual fight. Even the most highly disciplined troops find inaction irksome when they are under arms in close proximity to the enemy, and are apt to become reckless of the risks they may incur by provoking an encounter. In the case of the Filipinos, who have not in any severe school of discipline, the feeling of impatience under restraint is bound to be much more, intense, and they are infinitely less likely to reckon the danger that lies in action. The knowledge of the power of the United States, which they can scarcely fail to hare acquired, should have taught them, one would naturally have supposed, the uselessness of resistance, but apparently it. has not done so,

oi at all e»ents the Filipinos are under tiie impression that some advantage is to be gained by maintaining a bos tile front as long as possible. Probably they hope to strengthen the sentiment against the annexation of the islands which has all along been and still is strong in the United States. The problem of restoring law and order to the group, and of maintaining it. must present a more difficult complexion so long as the natives are stubbornly resistant. A great many Americans view with alarm the drain which they anticipate the retention of the Philippines will be on the Republic, not merely in money, but in men. Apart from the international complications in which such a step may involve the country, they object to the maintenance of a standing army in the islands, which means the expatriation for a time of a considerable number of the flower of the nation. Under these- circumstances, the insurgents would seem to have some ground for hoping that thenbest policy was to resist to the utmost even although they did so in the facof such odds as must eventually prove too much for them.

If such was indeed their hope, th:recent engagement will probably be disastrous to it. So long as the resistance offered by the insurgents was more or less of a passive character, it constituted in the eyes of many Americans an argument against the retention of the Philippines; but immediately it leads to the. shedding of American blood in quantitj a change comes over the national temper. The thought uppermost in the public mind is no longer the somewhat, intricate question of policy, but Lie fixed determination to punish the insurgents. According to our cabie messages to hand to-day-the attack has strengthened tie chance of the ratification of the peace treaty in America. A two-

thirds majority of the Senate is necessary to give legal endorsement \o any treaty entered into by the President with a foreign nation, and according to recent advices the Senators favourable to ratification were still three short of the required number. The outbreak of ' hostilities while the question is still pending will convince even opponents of annexation that order must be restored before the creation of, any form of

local autonomy can be seriously con-

sidered

That the subjection of the insurgents is the plain duty of the Americans admits of no question, it is not a case of a foreign Power wresting their independence from the inhabitants of the country. It is the general wish of the people of the islands that they should be under American rule, and they would be quite as unwilling tobe under the dominion of the present insurgents, who represent but a section of the population, as they would be to resume once more the yoke of Spain. To leave the islands to themselves would be the very worst thing that America could possibly do at this juncture. If she should ever relinquish her authority over the group it must not be until that authority has been established beyond any chance of dispute; and f\en then she will have to be persuaded that the inhabitants are able to govern themselves, which they certainly are not now. Obviously the first step towards this state of things is the complete subjection of the insurgent section. Spain never succeeded in doing that effectually. The Tagalos have to be made subservient to the paramount authority before there can be any question of selfgovernment for the Philippines.

The United States is well able to cope with the problem before it in so far as the effectual conquest of the islands is concerned, but the task is likely to be one of some difficulty and will require some time. The engagement reported in our columns, although it ended in the crushing defeat of the rebels, was evidently a determined struggle. The fact that it lasted fourteen hours, and that the American land force was greatly aided by the fire from the cruisers Charleston, Concord, and Monadnock, shows that the insurgents offered no mean resistance. Of course they could not survive many such defeats in the open field, and they will certainly not court them.- But the force they have been able to muster and the determination and military skill they have, displayed indicate the possibility of their resisting the Americans for a long time under more favourable circumstances. In the recesses of the country they might continue to maintain an aggressive independence for months, and that besides hindering to some extent what practical measures the Americans might inaugurate for the better government of the country would certainly be very detrimental to the prestige of the United States in the islands. Tbe speedy and absolute conquest of the rebels is the first essential of American occupation in the Philippines if that occupation is to be productive of the benefits expected of it.