ARE THEY READY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 260, 2 November 1935, Page 14

ARE THEY READY?

FILIPINO PATRIOTS. THE INDEPENDENCE URGE. MAY FAIX INTO LAP OF JAPAN

(By JUNIUS B. WOOD.)

Before our ship had tied to the pier, nimble Filipino reporters from the Manila newspapers were aboard, asking the perennial question: "What is your : opinion of Philippine independence ?"

"Every person, or people, has the moral right to independence, though few agree what independence is," I replied. "You can govern your country and maintain its institutions. That is comparatively easy. But a country of 13,000,000 inhabitants is a small nation compared to those of America, or Europe, or your approaching neighbour, Japan. International relations may not be as easy for the future and their economic aspects already are a pressing problem which it may bo impossible to solve as you wish." ¥

That is not repeated to prove any uncommon political acumen, but, on the contrary, to show that the consequences of Philippine independence are so selfevident that anybody who gives two minutes' thought to the subject would say the same. Also, the question shows that the Filipinos are not too sure of the answer themselves. The surprising thing, unprecedented, in national affairs, is that all I saw hero agreed on the answer.

Their phraseology and facts varied, but all summed up to the same thing. Many were pessimistic, a few were optimistic, hut none expected' that independence would work out without trials and hardships to the Philippines. The Filipinos must overcome them. Other nations aro more interested in the coming changes in the world map which independence will bring.

Filipino on a Limb. Sometimes smiling, but more often calling names at the United States, the Filipino has climbed out farther and farther on the end of a limb. It was a good stout limb, firmly rooted in tho front j'ard of the big nation on the other side of the Pacific, and lie was quite safe. Then, suddenly, the United States, in a year of general pruning and grafting at home, handed him a saw with the order to get busy. Ho docs not know whether, when he finishes his sawing at tho end of ten years, or even earlier, if tho limb breaks, he will Jand with his feet on tho ground or over his head in tho frog pond. It is quite possible, as things now shape up, that he will find himself on tho other side of the pond and in the backyard of his neighbour, Japan. This disturbing feature is not entirely of the Filipino's making, as many in the United States, familiar only with his constant demands for independence, are inclined to think. Ever since the United States acquired the Philippines in 1898 it has insisted that it was not staying as a permanent policy. As soon as law and order, two fetishes- which are so difficult of accomplishment in the United States, were established in the Philippines and the Filipinos set up a stable Government, Washington promised they would be free. '

A new generation has come since law and order, according to the standards of any country, were established. It did not bring the promised freedom. A stable Government by Filipinos could not come until they were given a free hand to run one. "That is what they now have under the Tydlings-McDiiffie Act, of March, 1935 and the constitution adopted in the Philippine plebiscite on May 14, 1935, which was approved later by President Roosevelt. Elections will Ibe held on September 17, and Governor-General Murphy has proclaimed November 15, as the date when the new Philippine Commonwealth is to come into existence.

"Succeed or Fail?" It will be hardly a try-out, or a test of .whether the Filipinos can run a stable Government, for, succeed or fail, 10 .years from November 15 they will be independent. The United States has kept its promises. The Filipinos will have the independence they have been clamouring for. So far, they are neither appalled, nor drawing back from its possibilities. If they change their minds later, the United States may not. The situation to-day is—now you have it. Do your best, but, if you fail, it is all yours anyhow. Opinion in the United States in these days is inclined to wonder why we ever kept the Philippines after Spain ceded them in the Treaty of Paris, on December 10, 1898.

' The Filipinos had heen fighting for independence for several years ibefore Spain and the United States got into a war. Jose Eizal, the national hero, had been executed, and Aguinaldo was a voluntary exile, in Hqnjrkong, but the inevitable freedom was only temporarily halted. If the United States had left them alone, they.would have had independence, or a sort satisfactory to them, 47 years earlier than the date now fixed.

. Getting colonies still was the style in those years, and the Orient was the only place where there was much to get. The United States never went into Lt very j seriously, just a passing fad like mail , jongg, walrus moustaches and bicycles, j but she had. the Philippines on her hands . as a result. j The United States was thrown open i to the free entry of Philippine people ] and products. The Filipino-was encouraged to produce, and buy more American goods in return. He did. ' Factories, payed roads,, sanitation, education — which may be a blessing or a handicap —and countless other things came to the Philippines. ... ~ New Living Standards. . I Whether the Filipinos can produce enough to satisfy' these standards of living is the problem worrying Filipino leaders to-day, If they fail to, they will not be any more to blame than the United States will <be for overlooking the something practical and essential for success in its idealistic building of a new nation in the tropics. One evening, about 15 years ago, after Walking across the mountain provinces, with their awe-inspiring rice terraces, I was sitting.in the porch of the Government rest-house in Bontoc I had heard about the education, of the Igorotes though the Sunday market of edible dogs still flourished in Baguio; of the head-hunter's :son who had been taken to the United .States by an American Army captain and returned to be a leading physician in the Isiands and to work among his own people, ami of the better living standards of other cribes. Reports told only of success. Inspectors, responsible for making a mountaineer clear his hut. told of failure.

A village girl, wearing only the skirt which is a complete costume for the mountains, came up silently and sat in •the shadows on the edge of the verandah- She spoke English as good as that spoken by any child of herbage-1

in an American school, proof of her diligence, for she. also spoke her tribal tongue. "Are you going iback to the United States?" she asked. "And can you take me with you?" she continued when I told her that I was. "What for?" I inquired. <- T want to work there." "Why don't you work here?" "What can I do?" she wanted to know. "I went to school, learned all I could and graduated at tha head of my class. But here there is no work where I can use what I have Jearned. All I can do is to marry a native boy, go out to live in the mountains in a hut and in a couple of years be dirty, old and hopeless. I've seen so many— always the same. Why was I taught to hate the life which I must live?" Possibly book learning, fluency in English, rules of sanitation and other essentials of our civilisation do not sufiice to make life useful and contented for people who must live under other conditions.—N.A.N.A.