INDEPENDENCE OF PHILIPPINES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 November 1935, Page 7

INDEPENDENCE OF PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION SIGNED : i " ■ rv * PIRST PRESIDENT APPOINTED ' (United Pres? Association- By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) WASHINGTON, 14th November. While the fact that Filipino independence has been a .matter of record for months, considerable interest and comment was aroused by its official promulgation to-day, when tho.vPresident (Mi 1 F.-.--D. Roosevelt) ;si gnedf'a proclamation establishing- the- new Philippine Commonwealth, and extended the official blessing of the Unired Slates tc the Philipino people. To-morrow Manuel Quenzon becomes first President of the Philippines and the former American Governor, Mr Frank Murphy, becomes the first High Commissioner. Despite the thanksgiving in some quarters over the severance of American sovereignty, njws from Tokio was received with something of a. shock that the Japanese Patriotic Society had attempted to memorialise the American Embassy with a demand that the United States grant “complete freedom” to the Philippines The Embassy declined to accept the memorial, but it is impossible to fail to note that the President’s proclamation concludes with a statement that the new Philippine Government is the successor to “all rights and obligation” of the old Government. The newspapers throughout the country prominently display the news of the change of status of the Philippines.