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Show PHILIPPINES AS Aii COMMERCIAL BASE "The deam of President Hatdlng to havo ,x first hand report on the I Philippine situation Is taken In quir- J tcra where such nn eventuality Is hoped for ns an augury of granting of Independence," says the Christian Science Monitor, In cominenilonK on tho assignment of General Wood to the hilippliir Islands on general mission, mis-sion, .lust who Is hoping for such an eventuality outolilo of n fexv Filipino Fili-pino malcontents who would Uki- to Introduce an Orientalized Tweed ostein os-tein in those Islands, Is not stated Certatnb as the educated Filipinos xvltnesB the .ivldness of Japan In sweeping the Pacific Islands Into her basket tbeli thoughts must be turn-. ed to the safety which American control con-trol of their territory assures. Tho , Filipinos are not so far from Korea J but what they appreciate what Japanese Jap-anese Imperialism would mean to them. The Democratic administration Included In-cluded in the many promises xvhlch It made in 1012 a promise of Independence Inde-pendence to tho Philippines. That party was In power for eight years aud this promise went by the board as did many others. In fact, It them Is any xirtue In bieultlng a promlso tho Democrats should bo credited with It lu this Instance. In the first place the Filipinos are not pi cpared for self determination In the tulleta sense of the xvord. They have as much of It as they can handle han-dle right now. They have their own legislature, their own courts and their own olllclals. Outside of a governor nnd a lieutenant governor, tho Filipinos occupy practically every ev-ery olllce in their administration Ours Is n guiding hnnd,.not n mallei! fist In our colonies. In the second place the sttuatlot is such In tho far east at the presen moment, and probably will be so for some time to como, as to make It' Imperative Im-perative that we retain a foothold In that quarter of ho globe. The secret sec-ret treaty between Kngland nnd Japan Ja-pan by which tho former acquired all of the Gerinau Insular territories In the Pacific south, nnd the latter all those north of the equator, now threatens us xvlth the loss of even out cable station at Yap Island, xvhtlo the purpose of Japan to attempt to close tho door which John Hay opened op-ened and her all but acknowledged 'policy of securing the control of the Pacific, indicate how Important it la that we havo a listening post in the Orient. Foreslghtcd Filipinos will not overlook ov-erlook tho fact that If Japan should Bucceed in turning the Pacific ocean Into a vast Nipponese lake tho Insular Insul-ar territory stretching from Hotnn tc the Tawl Tawi group would come un der a despotism ruoro efficient that that of liapaburg or Hohenrollern. |