Show t 1 regards phil as gateway to the orient and an aid in main tain ng the open door pol cy washington admiral dewey strong ly resents the proposition that has been discussed in a more or less demic way to surrender the philip pines a of all men he was a lead tag factor in bringing under the amer lean flag in an interview the admiral sets out the reasons which impel him to insist upon the retention of the islands the strong point of his ar aument is not based upon the military or naval importance of the islands but the great value present and prospective of the philippines to america in the extension of our trade with the orient the admiral sas abandon the Philippines 7 I 1 don t believe our coun try aall eier do that certainly it should not because it has altogether oo 00 much at stake it Is only our con rol over the philippines that makes it for us to insist upon the open ioor in the east toward which our has been directed for years we want our share of the enormous of the east and we can t beep the door open for it unless we sold the islands why did spain for 00 OO years dominate the commerce of the orienta just because she had the and harbor of manila as a great and naval base that aase can be just as useful to us corn lally as it was to spain for ten fears every strong nation las been trying to get a foot Wild for and naval purposes in the ar east through the fortunes of war the states obtained the best position possible giving us superior advantages over the na ions what sort of a common sense would it be for us to give up such a position 7 suppose we should dispose of the philippines and japan should acquire them see how the islands stretch along the coast here are the philip pines and formosa it japan had them she could command every gateway to he orient and the united states would be completely shut out every one concedes that the orient Is the future great field for the principal commer cial operations of the world we ought to be the leaders but we must at least have a share in the enterprise and in order to do so we must maintain the position we have occupied I 1 think it Is plain that we must have a commercial base such as and then in order to protect our commerce we must have a naval base and at su big bay such a base Is being devel aped |