OCR Text |
Show Mil DEWEY OPPOSES SURREHOER OF ISLANDS Regards Philippines as Gateway to the Orient, and an Aid In Maintaining Main-taining the Open Door Policy. Washington Admlinl Dewey strongly strong-ly resents the pi (munition that has been discussed In a more or lotw nca-lemlc nca-lemlc way to suriender the Philip, pines, which, of all men, ho was a leading lead-ing factor In bringing iin(or tho American Amer-ican flag. In an interview, tho adinlial nets out the reasons which Impel him to Insist upon the retention of t' Islands. The sttong point oj his argument ar-gument Is not based upon tho military or naval Importance of the islnuih, but upon tho gioat value, piusent and prospective, of the Philippine to Anfilcn In the elusion of our trad i with the orient The admiral Bay: "Abandon the Philippines? I don't believe out country coun-try will ever do that. Certainly it should not, because It has altogcier too much at stake It is only our control con-trol over the Philippines that makes it possible for us to Insist upon the open door In tho oast, toward which our diplomacy hai, been directed for yezrs We want oiir i-hare of tho enormous commerce of tho east and wo can'., keep the door open for It unless i 3 hold the Islands Why did Spiln 'or 200 years dominate the commerce cf the orient? Just because she had the bay and 'hathor of Manlli aa a ffr9 commercial and naval base lint ba3e can be Just at, useful to us con-moi con-moi dally as it was to Spain. For tan cais mery strong European uitlq.i has been ttlng to got a foothold for commercial and naval purposes In the far east. Through tho fortunes of war the United States obtained the best position possible, giving us superior conimeielnl adiantages over tho nations na-tions What tort of a common sens would It bo for us to glvo up such a position? "Suppose we should dlppo?" of tin Philippines and Japan should acquire them See how t le Mand3 stretch ilong tho coast Hero are the Philippines Philip-pines end Formosa If Japin had them she could command eery ga'.a a;- i the orient and the United States would be completely shut out Every ono concedes that the orient is the future great field for the principal commer clal operation 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 think It Is plain that we must have a commercial base such as Manila, and then In order to prdtect our commerce we must have a naval bae, and at 8u-big 8u-big bay such a base is being devel oped." |