THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 21, 26 January 1899, Page 4

THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

There seems to be some risk of the United States Senate nbt ratifying the treaty of peace with Spain. Senator Davis, who is in charge of it, is alleged to have intimated his intention of holding it over until next session rather than endanger American sovereignty over the Philippines. The rock of offence is the future of those islands. The Republican Party supports President) M'Kinley in his desire to retain possession of the group, but the Democrats for the most part oppose anything like annexation. According to the terms of the Treaty of Paris, Spain cedes the Philippines to the United States in return for the sum of 20,000,000 dollars, and this article has roused strenuous objections among the anti-expansion-ists. There are fifty - four Republican Senators, as against thirty-six Democrats, but a treaty requires two-thirds of the Senate to vote for its ratification. It would appear from the cablegram published on Tuesday last that the whole of the thirty -six Democratic Senators are expected to vote against the Phil ippine article. • This would prevent the ratification of the treaty in its present form. The recent State and Federal elections indicated that the country was favourable to the Republican policy, but under the Constitution of the United States a minority of over one-third in the Senate can practically veto any foreign treaty. This provision is only one of the many safeguards against democratic excesf to be found in the wonderfully-balanced Constitution of the American Common wealth, but it occasionally prevents the wishes of the people beina carried out, and

materially hampers the Government of the day. It is more than possible, in face of Senatorial opposition and the attitude taken up by the Filipinos, that Mr. M'Kinley will have to abandon all idea of formal annexation and have recourse to a protectorate such as has so frequently served Great Britain's turn. Judging from the extracts, published in another column, from a letter to the Hongkong Telegraph, it would appear that, while annexation would mean a long and difficult struggle with the Filipinos, a protectorate would serve the purposes of the United States without wounding the susceptibilities of the natives. It is somewhat prejudiced on the part of the Filipinos to regard Mr. M'Kinley's Commission of Enquiry as a ruse, for, although he doubtless does wish to gain time, he would be very unwise to act before he was in possession of reliable facts. The reports of the condition and civilisation of the Filipinos are so conflicting that nothing seem? more reasonable than the despatch of a Commission to pave the way for future proceedings.