Connecticut western news., 1899-10-19
GENERAL FUNSTON HOME.
What He Says About the PhiIippins
 Situation.

 Situation.
 The Twentieth Kansas and General | Funston arrived at San Francisco on Wednesday on the transport Tartar. General Funston in an interview after | he had landed said: .-. i "This is America, you know, and l am
 an American. That tells the story best I of our delight in reaching home again. There is nothing like the great joy of | being back among you all here again among people whom we know are our ] eountrymen and kin. as T have only this to say of the cam | paign in the Philippines. Everything is being done that could be to carry the war | to an early and successful conclusion. i The report that I am an antiexpansionist | Is ridiculous and not worthy of serious consideration. l never intimated such thing and have been wrongly quoted. 'The people must stop to consider when they are passing judgment that ] there are countless conditions to be con | stantly combated and overcome before headway can be made. I fear that the exact difficulties of the situation are not | fully understood. - Some mistakes may have been made, but the campaign has been conducted in most able and conscientious manner, and every man has done his best. No grave errors have occurred, but 1t is al- ways easy to look back and comment up- on what has been done, even though that might have been accomplished under try ing circumstances"
 As to the Filipinos, General Funston said. ~ .. 'The best among them are ignorant. Occasionally I found a smattering of ed- ucation, but they are absolutely an igno- rant race and quite incapable of self gov ernment. It is true that they possess much shrewdness and are cunning, but in reality the chief trait in their character is treachery.
 Tt Is this which has enabled them to make as good showing as they have made, but this is no argument, nor can 1t be made so, that they are capable of gov erning themselves.
 "Supposing that they were to be left alone, the islands would be a scene of in- surrection without any possibility of re- storing peace. Only a strong power can take hold of those islands, subdue the various factions and place them on a solid footing. r...s
 "I am convinced that the best way to govern the islands is to give them a firm. stiff necked colonial government, nodded Ou the same ines us tne government or colonies of Great Britain. There should be aSgovernor general, who should have absolute power over the civil govern ment and also the command of the Unit ed States troops and any native troops that 1t may be considered judicious to organize.
 "This may seem strange, but I am con vinced that as soon as the rebellion is crushed there will be an entire change of heart among a large percentage of na- tives, and they will be quite willing to carry arms under American officers. With the 35, 900 men now down there and tine additional 25,0O0 that will be on the ground when the November campaign opens there will be ample soldiery to walk through the islands.
 Sixty thousand troops will teach these Filipinos the lesson they deserve. But it must not be campaign of temporizing. It must be aggressive and persistent from the start. There must be no let up, and no opportunity must be given the rebels, once routed, to recover.
 "The seat of all the trouble at this time is the Filipino junta at Hongkong. This pernicious little body is keeping the war alive. It is in communication with the insurgents, and it supplies Aguinaldo's army with the hope upon which it lives. It sends out reports of fearful disasters to our troops that never occurred. It ina zines all manner of friendly feeling the world over toward the Filipinos; it assures them of all kinds of outside SUD- port without foundation, and in this man. ner keeps their spirits alive.
 "They are the busiest just now circu- lating reports that the trend of public opinion in this country Is against the American procedure in the islands.
 'They are informed by this junta that a majority of all the states have pro- nounced against the policy of the admin istration and that they have only to wait until the next general election, when the United States will grant them their inde- pendence.
 "Aguinaldo himself is shrewd, but not clever. To use slang, he Is a great con worker. I know of no better term. He circulates and corroborates all that the junta sends out and adds to it all that his cunning imagination can devise. With him the campaign is a great confidence game.
 If his people could be induced to ac- cept the truth of the situation they would desert him tomorrow.
 "So long as those fellows think they have a ghost of a show of holding up their end they will maintain the rebellion, but if the American army fights them at every hand I believe they will turn as a whole and come focking into our camp and will have no further use for that prince of confidence operators, Agui- naldo"