| Show GEN OTIS REFUSES TO T RECOGNIZE THE REBELS Outlook For Peace In the Philippines At This Time Is Not Very Encouraging However American Commander Has Notified His Officers to Refrain From Hostile Action Manila May 20 Major General Otis has declined to recognize the rebels to the extent of agreeing to an armistice but he has notified the American commanders com-manders to refrain temporarily from aggressive action Thus he Is In a position po-sition to resume hostilities at any time This will defeat any subterfuges to gain time which would not be the case if the general agreed to an armistice The Filipinos are so deceptive that the people hesitate to credit with good faith their latest overtures But more attention Is now paid to them than to their previous advances The Filipino committee Is under instructions from I Agulnaldo and the congress but it Is i i possible that if peace Is agreed Generals 1 Gen-erals Luna and Pilar will continue a guerilla warfare I At Iloilo an attack on the Americans is expected The Filipinos leader boasted that he had 1500 riflemen and 1 10000 bolo men and had the impudence to send an ultimatum to the American I commander ordering him to leave the island As a result many of the natives I left the town and for several days the outposts were doubled In addition the Yorktown and the Iris anchored in positions po-sitions commanding the mouth of the I Jara river where the attack was expected ex-pected to take place but it failed to materialize r Cable communication between Iloilo and Bacolor which has been interrupted I interrupt-ed has been resumed WILL ACCOMPLISH NOTHING War Departments Opinion of Aguin aldos Commission Washington May 20Thc following dispatch has been received at the war department Manila May Adjutant General Washington Commissioners of Aguin aldo arrived this morning Wish to consult United States commission which they will do on the 22d Inst Their power limited and apparently armistice a condition precedent to negotiation ne-gotiation Aguinaldo asks cessation of lostllltles to ascertain desires of the Filipino people OTIS The cable from General Otis today indicates In-dicates to the war department that the commission which is now in Manila will accomplish nothing because It has I no authority to negotiate for actual peace The importance of the visit I of the commission Is the evident desire de-sire of the Filipinos to end hostilities I There Is an Impression also that Aguinaldo is playing for time in his request No instructions or suggestions will be sent to General Otis by the department depart-ment The officials are confident that he has the matter well in hand and will be better able to Judge what Is best to do From the manner in which General Gen-eral Otis has handled past negotiations with the Filipinos there is little doubt he will refuse tin request for the armistice ar-mistice asked The position of the American troops in the Philippines is l such as to render it possible to > inllirt great damage to the Filipinos without serious loss to our forces General Otis being aware of the feeling feel-Ing of the people as shown by the press I dispatches no doubt believes the Filipinos pinos rebellion is crumbling and that the object of Aguinnldo and other leaders lead-ers in requesting an armistice is to reorganize re-organize their shattered forces or to impress the Filipino people with evidence evi-dence of importance which they do not possess ATTEMPT ON WHEATONS LIFE Native Servant Tries to Murder the American General Washington May 20A Manila newspaper the American of date of April 16 received at the war department depart-ment today contains a story of an attempt at-tempt to assassinate General Wheaton who seems to have either escaped the attention of the American newspaper correspondents at Manila or to have attracted the blue pencil of the censor This item reads Last Friday morning Brigadier General Gen-eral Wheaton while away from headquarters head-quarters was attacked by one of his native servants who made an attempt upon his life After attacking him stones and other missiles were thrown at him The general was brought to the city hall last night for medical attention at-tention and then it was discovered that he had three broken ribs However How-ever he refused to g to the hospital and returned to his command an hour later |
