AWED REBEL MAJOR

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1936, Page 2

AWED REBEL MAJOR

NOW FILIPINO PRESIDENT. Manuel L. Quezon, who as President, of the Philippine Commonwealth, occupies Malacanan Palace, historic home of Philippine' Governor-Generals for over 360 years, first entered the portals of the palace 37 years ago “with a feeling of awe" to be ushered into the presence of General Arthur MacArthur, then military governor and commander of the American forces in the Philippines. His visit to Malacanan was to young Quezon the culmination of years of' wondering about the place and its occupants and of imagining the palace as a place from which the presence of common mortals like him was for ever forbidden. The details of this first visit were revealed by President Quezon at a banquet given at the palace in honour of General Douglas MacArthur,

son of General Arthur MacArthur, on the occasion of the delivery to General MacArthur of his commission as field marshal of the Philippine army. Quezon, a youthful major in the insurgent army of General Emilio Aguinaldo, has just surrendered to the Americans in the town of Mariveles, Bataan. and had been sent to Manila for treatment for malaria. He had instructions from his immediate insurgent commander to verify the reports that General Aguinaldo had been captured, and. if the reports were true, to try to see Aguinaldo. In Manila Querzon learned that Aguinaldo was being held a prisoner at Malcanan, so there he went. “Before that day,” President Quezon said, “1 had no opportunity to see Malacanan, even from the street. I knew, of course, of the palace us the oflical resdence of the Spanish captain general, and my idea of the grandeur of the place was in harmony with my conception of the power and authority of the personage occupying it. ‘EI Capitan General,’ as his Excellency was called, was to my youthful mind a demigod.” Describing his meeting with the elder General MacArthur, President Quezon said; — “As I entered the door I saw an imposing military figure dressed in the uniform of a general of the United States Army. Upon seeing me he rose

to his full six feet. At his side there stood a young officer and a man in civilian clothes, who acted as interpreter. The general was General Arthur MacArthur, the young officer was his aide,, and I understand brother of our guest of honour, and the interpreter was Fred Fischer, later to become associate justice of our Supreme Court. “After my introduction to the general I told him that I had come to find out if it was true that General Aguinaldo had been captured, and if so to see the general and talk to him. General MacArthur pointed to a door across the hall and said a few words in English which were translated to me as meaning that General Aguinaldo was in the room, and I could go and talk to him. “I withdrew and walked towards the room pointed out to me, at the door of which were two American soldiers with white gloves on, each soldier holding a gun with a fixed bayonet. As I entered the room and saw General Aguinaldo I felt that the world had come to an end. The last time I had seen General Aguinaldo he had been jn his general headquarters in Tarlac, still the supreme head of the Philippine Republic, the commander in chief of our forces, the man whose every order no Filipino dare to question,”