AMERICA AND THE PHILIPPINES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 260, 1 August 1939, Page 8

AMERICA AND THE PHILIPPINES

Some significance attaches to the nomination by President Roosevelt of a high official—Mr. Sayre, one of the Assistant-Secretaries of State—for the post of United States High Commissioner in the Philippine Islands. In a speech made recently in New York the pi esent High Commissioner, Mr. McNutt, advocated the retention of United States sovereignty over the islands in order “to preserve peace in the Orient,” and in doing so said that many Filipino leaders who had campaigned for independence had changed their minds in. the last two years. In view of the recent trend of political opinion in the Philippines, the proposal does not come as a surprise. More than a year ago it was made known that the sentiment for national independence was declining, partly because of the growing conviction that the economic interests of the islands could best lie served by accepting the complete sovereignty of the United States, but principally because of the disquiet caused by Japan’s expansionist programme. Geographically and strategically, the Philippines lie in the shadow of the Far East. Now that Japan holds the China coast, and is likely to retain at least a strong interest on the continental mainland, the future for Philippine independence is far less attractive than was the case three tears ago. The Philippines entered upon their new order of Commonwealth government at the end of 1935, when President Roosevelt issued a proclamation terminating the existing administration and establishing a Commonwealth constitutional government. It was provided that the Commonwealth should be autonomous under the American Hag, with full independence after a 10-year period For two years this prospect appeared to content the politically-minded section of the Filipino people, but in February, 1938, the American High Commissioner in Manila wrote: As a result of tile domination of Japan in the Far East, ami the possible repercussions of the Sino-Japanese conflict, the Philippines are conscious that, as a nation, they are too small and weak to stand alone. There is a growing movement for permanent Commonwealth status; meanwhile the Commonwealth Government Is developing defences particularly ’suited to the geography of the Islands. There is, too, a particular domestic cause for anxiety. The total population of the group exceeds 9,000,000, but the total of foreignbotfn residents is only 115,000, of whom more than 100,000 are Chinese and Japanese. Actually there are 21,000 Japanese living in the islands, as compared with 6000 Americans and 4000 Spaniards. It is this position which has led to the Philippines being described af a possible Pacific Sudetenland, the suggestion being that a time may come when Japan will interest herself actively in Filipino affairs on the score that she is acting in protection of her national minority. Some United States strategists are of opinion that the Philippines are so insecure an outpost as to become an embarrassment in the event of war in the Pacific. On the other hand, just as Hong Kong remains a valuable commercial asset to Britain, so the Ameri-can-controlled islands are an economic unit worth preserving by the United States, in spite of the strategic difficulties involved. If it is to be preserved and adequately defended, the Commonwealth status is likely to become a permanency, and the dream of independence, cherished by the islanders of an older generation, discreetly forgotten.