Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-04-06
Many Refugees From MalOlOs Are Re-
turning TO Their Deserted
Homes.
END OF WAR THOUGHT NEAR.
Rumors That the Best Filipino Military
Leader is About TO Desert to Amer
lean Side.

Manila, April S-The American troops
under General Macarthur are still resting
at Maloios, where everything has been
quiet today. Hostilities elsewhere-so
far as officially reported-have been limit
el during the last twenty -four hours to an
occasional exchange of shots between the
insurgents and the troops forming the
lires of Gen. Lawton and Gen. Hall, ex-
tending from the water works to Lalonia.
But this shooting has been just active
enough to make the lives of the soldiers a
burden, and to compel the officers to
sleep in trenches, clothed and in readiness
to repel possible attacks.
Most of the Americans are becoming
convinced that the backbone Of the insur-
gent opposition is broken. There are
numerous rumors pointing to an early COL
lapse of the insurrection. One OF these is
that Gen. Pho del Pillar, the best fighter
among the Filipino officers will desert
Aguinaldo and give his support to the
Americans.
The Spaniards, reasoning from their ex-
perience of the natives, refuse to believe
that the rebellion is anywhere near put
down. = They declare that the Flipinos
will not take their defeat at Malolos, with
the loss of the city and the removal OF
their so-called government, seriously to
heart
On the contrary, the Spaniards predict
that the insurgents will hover near the
American lines, bothering them as much
as possible, and when attacked in force
dissolve, only to reappear at other points.
This sort of tactics, the Spaniards say, will
be followed until the wet season compels
the Americans to be housed in barracks,
and then the Filipinos will return and re-
occupy such towns as the United States
troops do not garrison With the next
dry season a repetition of the present op-
erations will begin.
Time alone will show now much there
is in this theory; but as against it, 1t must
be borne in mind that the Spanards, In
all their domination of the Philippines,
never gave the inhabitants a demonstra-
ton of power comparable in effectiveness
to that given them by the United States.
A priest and two members of the So
called Filipino Congress, who hid them
selves in the woods during the fighting
Which preceded the capture Of Malolos,
returned there this morning and declared
that 1000 of the Filipino soldiers were
anxious to give up fighting and would do
90 but for their officers who keep them
under arms.
The whole country between Malolos and
Caloocan is now full of friendless women,
children, and old people, who are return
ing to their homes carrying white flags.
The Americans are trying to gain the con-
fdence of the inhabitants by proving to
them that if they will return and attend to
their ordinary work peacefully, no harm
will befall them. Two hundred and fifty
civilians came back to their homes In
Malolos last evening, Two thousand
women and children, with sprinkling OF
unarmed men, supposed to be warriors,
came to the outskirts of Malolos on the sea
side of the city, and afterward sneaked
away. carving all the goods they could.