The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-25
THE TAGALS
HANGING ON
A Doubtful Outlook in
the Philippines.
USE GUERRILLA METHODS
Aguinaldo's Men Scatter in Small
Bands and Will Have to be
Hunted PiecemeaI.

NEW YORK, May IA Manila letter
to the Herald. dated February 10, says:
About January it was said that the
al med ana organized instruction was
practically at an end and that therefore
che troops would have to deal ONLY with
guerrilla bands and outlaws Yet in the
last forty days the American forces here
nave lost more men, more arms and more
supplies in the so-called pacified districts
han during any previous period of like
length since the instruction began. If
this is what guerilla warfare means we
VIII need more troops some day for the
new method of fighting is proving more
effective than any style that the insur-
gents have employed previously. Almost
every day brings report of some fresh
ambuscade wherein small forces of our
troops are attacked by a hundred or more
flllplnos. Usually one or more of orr
men are killed and the rest are driven
away by sheer force of numbers Then
follows a punitive expedition hut these
soTues seldom ind trace of the enemy
Invariably the insurgents know the ex-
act strength of the force they are am
"usnlng, FOR they usually lie in wait for
small groups of ten or fifteen men which
tney permit to approach so close that
thelr hrst volley kills or wounds most of
them ana leaves the rest utterly democrat
lied.
Insurgents who live within our lines
VINO are amigos in the daytime and enc
mics at night, have been particularly per-
hIelous. 1t Is now unsafe, more than
ever before, TO move in small numbers
even in the districts which are presIma.
risons.
The rank and, file of the people in the
towns are in full sympathy with these
marauding raids, for they never render
help by word or deed which will aid our
troops in locating and whipping the guer-
lila bands, although il is certain that they
are always aware of the plans and pros
pcctive movements of these bands
r.Ven today there is not native in Ma
ana, friendly though he may profess him
self to be, who will breathe word as to
ASulnaldos Whereabouts, yet there are
Tubtless thousands who know exactly
"here he Is and many who doubtless are
III constant communication with him
The list of our losses by bolomen and
ambushes in the occupied districts since
January l is rather startling
A list which i have selected from the
from complete shows that about forty
men have been captured by the insur-
gents in the last forty days and as many
more have been killed and wounded, al
most a hundred rifles and a great deal of
ammunition has been lost and a big guam
uty OF rations has fallen into the enc
mys hands.
Most of these depredations have occur
red in the territory which we now are
supposed to hold and all the engagements
would come under the head of ambushes
and assassinations.
There is certainly a new condition of
warfare confronting the troops. The
time is evidently gone for big imposing
columns to march sedately through the
country, columns so big that the insur-
gents deem it imprudent to offer opposi-
ton. When the column has passed they
come out of the woods and fall upon the
little bands of stragglers and outposts
ana signal corps men.
From now on the guerilla methods must
be met by smaller and more mobile forces
General l.awton, with his great expert
ence in this method of waging war would
have been quick to adjust himself % the
new conditions. General Bell is pre-emi-
nently qualified for the kind of work that
VIII nave to be done, and General Fun
stem, whose Cuban experience has fitted
him well to meet the new conditions, will
undoubtedly adjust his tactics to meet
those of the insurgents.
Down in Negroes General Smith has for
some months been engaged in the gueril-
la kind of fighting and he has been able
to crush it out. When a depreciation was
committed near or in a town on the ISL
and he promptly imposed a heavy fine on
the place. After doing this several times
the citizens resolved themselves into a
sort of vigilance committee as u matter
OF financial preservation, and the depre-
dattons ceased with startling suddenness.
The Tagalos. however, are more tena-
cious and vindictive in their fighting than
the Nisayans of Negroes, and II Will
quire the most stringent measures and
vigorous pursuit to put them down. With
Aguinaldo loose in the islands the work
Will be harder and more dangerous and
much more lasting.
In the next to the final issue of their pa
per, La Independents, is an impassioned
valedictory, which gives an idea of the
avowed tenacity OF their struggle and
shows how decidedly they had already
decided upon desperate guerilla war
fare. 1t reads: our enemies Will be
"a le-why MOTTO wheel their heavy
carts of war over our fields They will
ieaVe the imprints of their vandal heels
in our villages, but at every turning of
the land. behind every bush, at every
corner, they will encounter resistance
a handful of men, ii may be only one
man, ~ho will check their course, who
will disturb their triumphant passage,
who will be the little rock which Will
cause the wheel of their carriage to jump
from its axle