The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-25
CILL0.
Full Text OF
Protest to
PEACE COMMISSION.
Long Document Giving
Claims of Filipinos.
Correspondence of the Associated

| Correspondence of the Associated
Press.)
Paris, Dec. 24.-Following is the full
text Of the protest lodged with the
American and Spanish peace commits
sion by Agoncillo, the agent of Aguin-
aldo, the insurgent leader in the Philip
pines, an outline of which was cabled
to the Associated Press under this date
Paris, Dec. 10.
Their excellencies, the president and
delegates of the Spanish-American
peace commission, Paris, your ex-
cellencies:
THE very noble and gallant Gen.
Aguinaldo, president of the Philippine
republic, and his government have hon
ored me with the post of official repre-
sentative to the very honorable presi-
| dent and government of the United
| States of America, devolving on me, at
| the same time, the duty of protesting
| against any resolutions contrary to the
independence of that country which
might be passed by the peace commits
sions in Paris.
This has already terminated it's ses-
| SionS, and the resolutions passed can
not be accepted as obligatory by my
government, since the commission has
neither heard or in any wise admitted
| to it's deliberations the Philippine ma
| ton, who held an unquestionable right
| to intervene in them in relation to
what might affect their future.
II fulfil therefore, my duty when
protest, as 1 do in the most solemn
/ mn IN ha Of flon dor r
and the national government of the
Philippines, against any resolution
agreed upon at the peace conference in
| Paris, as long as the juridicial, political,
| Independent personality of the Filipino
people is entirely unrecognized and at
| tempts are made in any form to impose
on these inhabitants resolutions which
have not been sanctioned by their pub
/ lie powers, the only ones who can le-
1 gally decide as to their future in his
tory.
Spain is absolutely devoid Of a status
and power to decide in any shape Oh
form the before mentioned matter.
THE union of Spain and the Philip
| pines was founded solely on two his
4 torical facts, in which the exclusive
4 right of the Filipinos to decide their
! own destiny was implicitly recognized.
"First-The blood treaty (Pacto de
Sangre) of the 18th of March, 1865, en-
tered into between the general, Don
Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and the Fill
Pine sovereign, Sikatuma, a compact
which was ratified and confirmed on
the one side by the king of Spain, Philip
1 II, and on the other side by the mon
archs of Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon
and by the supreme chief of that con-
federator, the sultan of Lacandola; pro-
claiming, as a consequence. the autono-
nous nationality of the kingdom of
New Castillo formed by the Philippine
! islands, under the sceptre of the king of
Spain.
"Second-The so-called constitution
of Cadiz' in the discussion vote promul-
cation and execution of which the dep
uties and Filipino people took an active
part, and by which constitution the ma
| tionality of the Spain was made effec-
tive.
But, from the very first moment in
which the peninsula's powers attempt
| ed to impose their absolute sovereignty
on the islands, the Filipinos protested
energetically by force of arms, and
from the first attempt in 1914, the
struggle in defense of their political
| personality was implanted.
When in 1887 the violent deprivation
of their rights was eonsummated, TIC
Filipinos again protested, sustaining
against them fratricidal and inhuman
struggle, which has lasted from that
time onward up to the present day.
"Falsehood, which always character
lied the actions of the peninsula au-
thorities constantly kid from the world
| the fact of the real situation of force
which has lasted almost a century
cat length, at the end of the present
century, the Spanish forces have been
completely routed by those of the ma
tiyes and Spain cannot now even al
I t-Ia
because the permanency of a. handful of
peninsula soldiers Approximately 400)
existing besieged in one or two fort
resses in the south of the archipelago,
cannot constitute such a right.
The Spanish government has ceased
| to hold any dominion by deed and by
right, and the only authority which ex-
lists there and preserves order is that
constituted by the Filipinos with the
solemn sanction of their votes, the only
legal fount of positive modern power.
"Under such conditions the Spanish
commissioners in Paris have not been
able, within the principles of the law
| of nations, to give up or to transfer
what, if they ever had, they have total
/ ly lost before the signing of the proto-
col of Washington and the arranging
of the terms of the peace treaty in
Paris
THE Filipino people who consented to
! the blood treaty and the constitution
/ of 1872 annulled those conventions by
reason of Spain not complying with her
undertakings, and renewed their sover-
eighty by the solemn proclamation of
the Philippine republic on the first of
| August, 1885, and by the establishment
of a government and a regular ana well
ordered administration created by the
decisive votes of the natives.
II any Juridical effect can be attri-
buted to the Spanish action in the peace
treaty, within the principles of inter-
national law it is the explicit renun-
citation of all future pretensions over
4 the land, the dominion and the possess
sion of which she had lost, and there
fore is only of use to make the recogni-
ton of the corporate body of the Fill
| Pine nation and that of their rights to
rule effectively in respect of their flu
ture.
1.-THE United States of America on
their part cannot allege a better right
to constitute themselves as arbitrator
as to the future of the Philippines
''On the contrary, the demands of
honor and good faith impose on them
the explicit recognition of the political
status of the people who, loyal to their
conventions, were a devoted ally of