THE PHILIPPINES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1933, Page 4

THE PHILIPPINES

HEAD-HUNTING TO CIVILISATION. Thirty-five years ago Commodore George Dewey’s Heel destroyed Hie Spanish Admiral Moiiiojo’s gunboats in Manila Bay. Three months later Major-General Wesley Merritt s so'-; diers, assisted by sailors from th', fleet, took (he city ot jMiinilla. Evel since those, historic exploits the Anterican Hag has waved officially over flic Philippine. Islands. Bor 35 years the! Hille brown men of the Philippines have been Hie adopted brothers m the) big whit-.' men of America. Bui, now Hie period of brotherhood icenis destined to pass. Both Houses oi' the United States Congress passed the bill granting independence to the Philippines, am! repassed it over .Prefddeiil Hoover’s veto. In substance. Hie measure provides for a. constitution drawn by a, Philippine convention and ratified by Hie people of the islands, Hu' ratification to serve as ;■ plebis-<-iie on the question of freedom. Preliminaries art 1 expected to require two years, and in the event of a favourable popular vote a ten-year period of proha- - i.ion then is to follow. On ( 'h<> Eonr'h ot Inly following lite mid. of i|ie p;-.,- < l at;oi) period ths island:; are to be t reclaimed free and American sovereignty is to be withdrawn, except oicrli military and naval stations agreed t upon. The native politicians of the 3

Philippines do not like Hie independence plan. They think the period o! probation too long. The American I’rcsidcn l who vetoed Hie measure ■ thought the period of probation too brief. It is dillicult to please everyone, even in the matter of liberty. I WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? Those who have favoured independence in the l'h;lipi',i.n<’s Hie islands under their own inle continuing the 1 roeress sei in motion Ihere by the I’nited Stales. Those who have opI posed independence predict that Hie I Philippines will be in the throes of triI b;il wars [is soon as the Americans withdraw. Anyone ill all familiar with the recon' history of the islands knows that it was only yesterday thin bead-hunting was stamped out among the wild Irides of the mountains in northern. Luzon. The native population has been a problem for the Americans ever since they took command in the. Philippines. On the 7083 islands that make up the Philippine group there are scattered | nearlv 1 fl.tmti.utlt) inhubitani s. all but al few thousand of whom are natives. 'l'lie main pari of the population dwells on the eleven largest islands. Th're are more than Hi differ m! < i(iuoai'ii phi'- groups in the Philippines. Tilt:. FiHi'inos proper, descendants of 1 Malayr, Christianized by (be Spai’-i iards, arc divided into eight groups—' ■ the Bisaya, Tagalog, Iloko, Bikol, Pan- i gasianan, Pampangan, Ibanag, and -

1- Samba!. They remain Christians toil' day. The classified pagan peoples of a Hie islands are divided into 18 groups, e and the unclassified pagans into 12 o groups. The. Moros, who are largely Mohammedan, are divided into seven groups. Non-ChristJan inhabitants o! the Philippines consist, of Hie pygmies. Indoesians, and Malays. The pygmies ? are Negritos, thus called by the Spaniards because they are black* and email. Indoesians wery, immigrants . wiio appear to have mixed with the . i ygmies and others. Non-Christian . Malays are pagan or Mohammedan. The. pagan Malays, including the Ifu- . gao. or Igorot, the Bontok Igorot. and tin. Tingian, with a number of lesser tribes, such as the llongot and the Ka-; linga, dwell in the mountainous inter-' for of northern Luzon. They [ire believed to have settled in those mouii-j tains al least 1500 years ago. The. iiugao, by far the most numerous, f practise irrigation on a large scale, the' 'immutain sides of (heir territory forming the most extensive terrace system i;> the world. These terraces are built upon walls of solid rock construeHon. I ,\ QUEER ASSORTMENT. j All of the wild tribes of the moiin-' inine, including the Negritos practised Imad-huntiiig until American o.Tieiu l :.' Uo U'd by soldiers, finally stamped : cut that evil. Men who campaigned < in the Philippines in the early days of f American occupation had a song one a

i- line of which ran, “We'll civilise ’em f with the Krag.” Perhaps their me- ;, thods of civilising were a bit heroic, 2 but the fact remains that when Amc- / rica took possesion of the islands a i large proportion of their population f was steeped in savagery. There were . only :i. few missionary schools along 1 the coast and none in the highlands, ■ while to-day there are 8000 public schools and more than 700 private ’ schools in the Philippines, with nearly 2,000.000 children attending classes. In addition tlu're now are 31. Government hospitals and 9 13 Government dispen.varies there. 11, is contended by some that a with- ; drawal of American control will be a. 1 : ignal for the wild tribes to return to h*. ad-hunting. The Bontok Igorots, the l most courageous warriors of the mown- ; tains, still cherish the preserved skulls lof their fees, their head-axes, and lances, and not one of the older members of that tribe has forgotten the ■(.mao,” the drinking, feasting, and dancing festival which always followed the taking of a head. A good “canao” I insured the people against the veu--1 gcance oi. the “anito,,” or spirit, of the person who had lost, his head.