| Show OH ISLANDS philippine commissioner ON archipelago stacha N Y sept 13 president schurman returned today to his offida in cornell university he aavo out the following statement on affairs to the associated press it Is very important that the public should know the actual acts ot the situation things are what they are and the american public should une them whether they agree with or run counter to the publics wishes t first it requires some effort to realize the vastness ot the archipelago which extends in triangular form from formosa to borneo and celebes through sixteen degrees of latitude never going out into the pacific ocean on the east or the china sea on tb west I 1 made a circuit of 2000 miles all south of manila this gives some idea ot the difficulty of maintaining an effective blockade as the coast alno 0 the islands embraced in the archipelago is many more thousands of miles second the multiplicity aar heterogeneous rogene ous nature of the tribes Is some thing astonishing over sixty different languages are spoken in the go and though the majority ot the tribes are small there are halt a ao en each having a quarter of a all lion members the languages of these people are as distinct of each other a b french and spanish or italian so that the speech of any one tribe Is unan to its neighbors these are all civilized and christianized zed but mall uncivilized tribes among whom the Igo rotes seem best known in america inhabit the mountains in luzon and form a large part of the population et in this island also there Is a large population which is independent of the madans in the neighborhood of sula archipelago third it Is the inhabiting some of tho provinces about manila who are resisting the authorities of the united states other civilized are neutral except they are coerced by armed bands 0 whose seized upon kneir governments ern ments during the making and catl Il catlon of our treaty of peace with spain it would bo incorrect however to assume that these tribes are allies ot ours they are noc indeed they are not without suspicion of the white race of which they have bad experience only through spain but othere arc men of intelligence and proper nd the masses when not stirred up by abe recognize the advantage to them of american sovereignty and so many remain neutral fourth th insurrection though earlous enough as experience has brov en Is not a national uprising indeed there la no philippine nation |
